They’ll definitely be in the mix next year but they have a whole heap of things to combat
Injuries - Incredibly lucky with them this season. I see some of their fans confusing this with ‘they didn’t have any at all’. Injuries are one of the real big tests going up against City, can you lose your difference makers for a while and maintain the pace, they never really had to do this at any point this year. Keepers, Saliba, Gabriel, Odegaard, Rice, Saka were all pretty much ever presents.
Interest - How many times can you fall short before interest ramps up and your big names heads are turned? You go another year without big silverware at the end of it and a side who lifts trophies comes in for your top talents, how do you keep them? One goes and how do you stop the others from looking at their options
Mentality - Fighting against City is one thing but can you bounce back from the heartbreak of losing out. We often get brought up in this conversation but the key difference is we were achieving things during these pushes, CL finals & winning the CL go a long long way when it comes to belief and finding a way.
Signings - They got some right but there are also a few who are raising questions so while it’s all good and well talking up signing reinforcements, what’s to say they’ll be more Rice than Zinchenko, more Odegaard than Jesus? You aren’t afforded a lot of time to settle in and now more than ever you cant afford passengers in your side especially on anything like a regular basis. You lose say Rice for 3-4 weeks and his new understudy doesn’t hit the ground running and where does that leave you?
Maintenance - Can their players maintain this level, footballs seemingly becoming this thing where people ignore dips in form as if they’re a thing if the past as if everyone who had a good season is guaranteed to match or exceed that as long as they aren’t old and you can just add more good players to that and things will all be rosey, in reality dips in form happen and this can occur for a number of reasons.
