Bit of a ridiculous point. You an drop points at any of the 7 fixtures. The fact is this: we're better than all of them. We, as a fanbase, get so worried about what other teams can do to us and neglect to think about what we can, and will, do to them. We've got these.
I'm never one to say what we
will do, but I'm with you on what we
can do. I'm the cautious type, and hate to tempt fate.
But yes, I agree that we can worry far too much about what other sides might do to us rather than concentrating on what we can do to them.
I fully understand it, of course. We've seen far too many false dawns over the years, haven't we?
Call it youthful arrogance if you like, but when I was younger I never worried about what other teams could do to us. I don't think our club had that mentality at all back then, and neither, to my knowledge, did the fanbase. We always just seemed to let others worry about us instead. Maybe we could afford to, though, because we really were that good then. Looking back, though, some of the sides we played, particularly in Europe, would scare the pants off you if you did give it too much thought. Big names came here but I don't think we were intimidated by them at all. I suppose that came down to the self-belief instilled into the players, the club and the fans by Bill shankly and Bob Paisley. They made players believe they could run through walls. Hopefully, we are getting back to a mindset at the club where we start to let the rest worry about us once more, no matter who they are or where they come from.
Maybe us fans may never quite get back that unshakable belief, but as I said, we've seen so many false dawns over the years, and competitors for this league have never come up against such a heavily financially-doped opponent before. The playing field is far from level in the current era, so there will always be doubts in the minds of many fans. City are the steroid freak of our sport, but those types don't always win. Hopefully we can prove that this season. All we can do is concentrate on ourselves and take each game one at a time and give it everything. If we do so, we won't be far away.