We nearly did last season to be fair, weren't we like six points clear by September ?
I think ourselves and City are so much better than the rest, when a gap of say five points opens up it could be critical.
5 points isn't critical until about 3 - 5 games from end of the season. I think if we get 9/10 points clear of the pack that's when we could think of it as a critical lead. That's when you start thinking who are we gonna drop points in 4 games more than.
At the moment far too many unknowns to really say what's gonna happen. Looks to me like loads of teams have struggled with the preseason and look unfit and unsettled. That may well change. The Conte/Chelsea season should be a good reminder to us all of how quickly a club can settle on a system and gain in confidence. Only caveat is they didn't have any form of European footy that season and certainly weren't playing every three days from now until January.
That's what I think will make it hard for our challengers. Not much time on the training ground to work on things, loads of intense fixtures that will necessitate rotation. This season favours a strong, settled, developed squad. Right now I don't see any around other than us.