Sure, but you have to account for City's title-winning 92 pt average across 10 years. So the original point of 91 points being almost unheard of before City is pretty true. Chelsea was the first to break the 90pt mark, but City have done it 3 times since (+1 being 89), and they'll likely do it again this year. If you average the points total of the teams that came in 2nd the years City won the title, the league winners would've won the title with 85 points, well off City's average.
The average tally needed for Liverpool to win the league in the 2000-2009 period was to get above 88.3 points, so 89 was chosen was the target for the APLT. My point was that City over the last couple of years have come back to catchable levels not that they haven’t raised the bar at all. They’re no longer getting mid to high 90s, but high 80s to low 90s, which gives other sides more of a chance. Basically it’s easier to beat this City than the one we lost out to previously.
To move this back to debate relevant to this thread though, it is also a point to say that for those fearing that an Arsenal win would somehow put Arteta on a level pegging with Klopp, that wouldn’t bear out in the numbers when comparing their title wins or the competition they faced during the seasons they didn’t win the title. Arsenal lost out to a City side that didn’t achieve an extraordinary total last season, despite being 2nd most of the way, (meaning they were pushed to get a high total in reality) and this year, for Arsenal to win, City would have to have regressed from where they were last year again. Unfortunately the ridiculous media wouldn’t bring this up and you’d hear the stupid comparisons, but it’s worth stating to make it clear. The only side to get 90+ points and not win the league is us, twice.
Arteta is showing himself to be a top manager, people don’t like it, but he is. But to preempt any of the predictable nonsense, he is nowhere near Klopp. He may come to be over time as he is still young, but for now at least, he is behind by a distance. Not only has he won far more in other competitions, when he’s achieved points totals in the league that no other legitimate side has ever achieved in a 38 game season in England, a record I don’t think will ever be beaten, that also includes having a record points total achieved for a Champions League winner, even if we didn’t do the double. He’s achieved more seasons above 90 points than any other Premier League manager too. All of this is missed when evaluating him and dismissing points totals as almost insignificant compared to titles, but it shows he was able to create teams greater than almost anything else we’d seen before.
Anyway, let’s just hope we get to see City wiped off the face of the Earth when the charges are dealt with, at which point I will thoroughly enjoy our future title contests with Arsenal, and can simply say fair play to them if they pip us to the post.
Recent Posts