#also books level boring is a term of endearment... the games just have lots of words

[raven]

i think general consensus was that 2023 was really good for games but there werent any new books level boring indie games that i played and changed my life. so maybe we should all die...?

[sportsleague365]

Manchester City have scored at least 10 more goals than any of their Premier League rivals and conceded the joint-fewest. In all competitions, they are on a club-record winning streak of 12 matches (if a penalty-shootout win counts as a "win"), with an aggregate scoreline of 39-5. No side has enjoyed as much possession (65.5 percent), or been as careful with it (89.2 percent pass completion). No sidesinceEvertonin 1894 has scored as many as the 32 City have bagged in their first nine league matches. Forget the furore over the Mitre Delta EFL ball being responsible for City's failure to batter Wolverhampton Wanderers in midweek; Pep Guardiola's men are breaking records from when balls were made from inflated pig bladders. At their current scoring rate, they are on course for 135 league goals. The current Premier League record is 103, set by Chelsea in 2009/10. Guardiola is probably weighing up whether it's worth the hassle to break a record set by a Jose Mourinho team. Sergio Aguero's seventh goal of the season last weekend saw him draw level with Tony Book as the club's joint all-time leading scorer. Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane are also among the Premier League's top 10 goalscorers. Player of the Season-elect Kevin De Bruyne shares equal billing with David Silva as the league's best architect. Both have six assists each. Leroy Sane and Kyle Walker join them in the top 10. It's a measure of how committed City are to playing it out from the back that Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones are first and eighth in the whole of the Premier League in terms of passes. Stones is the most accurate passer in the division with a ridiculously high 96.7 percent completion, with Otamendi not far behind on 92.1 percent. That's just the boring stuff. Guardiola has City playing a brand of football that is easy on the eye. It's less intricate than the stuff he played at Barcelona but as thrilling as has been seen in England for a long, long time. Yet despite all the numerical fawning above, football's unique capacity to surprise means it is far too soon to be crowning City champions just yet. Here are five reasons why... The Harry Kane team There's not much to add to the already-weighty tomes dedicated to what Guardiola might have meant when at the back end of September he referred to Tottenham Hotspur as, "the Harry Kane team." It was the type of pithy comment Mourinho almost certainly practises in the mirror, like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino wasn't amused. He described it as being "sad" and "unnecessary", before bridling at how Guardiola, "struggles to be a gentleman" when excited, per theGuardian. Pistols at dawn seems the only right and proper way to settle it. Whatever Guardiola meant, and there's a long-standing bit of needle between him and Pochettino that lingers from when they managed Barcelona and Espanyol respectively, if he were made to choose just one club he would want to finish above this season there's a fair chance he'd pick Tottenham. History, geography, and the grandstanding rivalry between Guardiola and Mourinho means it will continue to be pitched as a Premier League title race made in Manchester, at least while both clubs keep on winning. However, in the outside lane, it can't be long before Spurs have to shed the happy-just-to-be-here face they are somehow managing to get away with at present. Since the start of the 2015/16 campaign Spurs have won 176 points. That's seven more than City (169), 14 more than Arsenal (162), 17 more than Chelsea (159), 21 more than Manchester United (155) and 27 more than Liverpool (149). Last season they conceded the least (26) and scored the most (86). The one before that, 2015/17, they had the joint-best defence with Manchester United (35 conceded) and the most rampant attack (69 scored). Accumulatively, no side has been better over the past three seasons. Though one accepts that's like getting excited over a Skoda's mileage when compared to a Ferrari's. City's exhilarating UEFA Champions win over Napoli at the Etihad probably just about topped Tottenham's defeat of Borussia Dortmund to end any talk of a Wembley hoodoo. Spurs' draw with Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, with a scratch side, usurps the lot, though. From Hugo Lloris through to Kane, there is no obvious weakest link. Since the turn of the year, Tottenham have lost just three of 29 Premier League matches, winning 22 and drawing four. For all the talk of them being this season's bridesmaid after a summer of cutting cloth, amid largely unprecedented spending elsewhere, the early indications are they are going nowhere. Neither is Kane. In itself that should ensure at least one north London title tilt will still have legs in May. If he keeps scoring at his current rate—it's now 13 in his last nine games for Spurs in all competitions—the record for Premier League goals in a season should be eclipsed. Alan Shearer (Blackburn Rovers, 1995/96), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, 2007/08) and Luis Suarez (Liverpool, 2013/14) are all tied on 31. Not that it matters, but it seems remarkable there are still quibbles about Kane's world-class credentials given he has scored 45 goals in the calendar year, in just 40 matches. That's better than either of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Presumably, the number of world-class players permitted at any one time cannot exceed the number that can fit in a bath together. When Kane met Diego Maradona before Tottenham's 4-1 defeat of Liverpool at Wembley last weekend it felt more than a photo opportunity. The Argentinian was never a one-club man, but it was in the south of Italy he found people he would call family. In Naples, he became one of their own before he had unpacked. No team in the Italian Peninsula had ever won a Serie A title. Maradona would change that. Twice he won the league at Napoli; twice he was runner-up. If Kane ever needs further proof that to help make a good team great means so much more than making a great one better, he should visit Naples. Maradona is as revered now as on the day he signed: July 5, 1984. In the most religious of cities, it remains sacrilegious not to talk of him as a deity. Kane can go on to write himself into Tottenham folklore in just the same way. A combination of pidgin English and non-existent Spanish meant conversation never went beyond polite compliments being passed between the man who used to be the best player in the world and one who aspires to be. Regardless, Kane left the meeting inspired. What marries Kane to Pochettino is neither is afraid to aim high. Both openly discuss what they want. Pochettino has effectively dismissed both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup on the grounds Spurs can, and need, to do better. Just as well given what happened on Wednesday. It's a punchy stance to take given he is the only coach of a "top-six" club never to have won a trophy, let alone a title. A magpie manager he is not. Kane regularly manages to slip-in wanting to be the best player in the world and how he plans to score 50 per season. Somehow he makes it sound like the only thing he has said is, "we're taking it one game at a time." It's the rub of looking like you might run an abseiling camp for disadvantaged kids. No one really listens. From anyone else, it would seem conceited. From him, it's oddly endearing because it seems so unlikely despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary. Pochettino is a manager who solves problems. He has shown already this season he is adaptable and less rigid than his contemporaries. Last season in Europe, his team looked green, with only one way to play. This year they are joint-top of a group that houses Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. A dreadful record at Wembley has similarly nowseeminglybeen put to bed. Someone needs to give him an hour with Liverpool's defence. Both domestically and abroad, he has mixed it up. Whether using three, four or five at the back, Spurs always look drilled and cohesive. The addition of Fernando Llorente gives them the option to play with two traditional strikers, with his inclusion at Madrid a masterstroke no one saw coming. It was the same against Liverpool, with Gary Neville not alone when he admitted he was baffled upon seeing the teamsheet. Clearly not as baffled as Liverpool were. Pochettino has a clear philosophy but it is not one he speaks of with the intensity of a religious zealot, a la Guardiola. He's pragmatic, without allowing the fear of losing ever to interfere with a belief his side is a match for anyone. An iron fist in a velvet glove, Pochettino may just over time prove to the perfect hybrid of Manchester's managers. All he needs now is the silverware to rubber-stamp it. Lack of defensive depth Fabian Delph's metamorphosis into the best left-back England never knew it had is quite the feather in the cap to the idea necessity is the mother of invention. As a rule, though, square pegs in round holes tend to lead to leaky defences. Thus far, Delph has proved to be an outstanding deputy for the crocked-but-still-smiling fresh prince of Twitter, Benjamin Mendy. Delph has the athleticism and aggression Guardiola demands from his full-backs; while switched-on performances against both Chelsea and Napoli suggest he may just possess the necessary game intelligence, too. Delph has been faultless so far; stiffer tests surely lie in wait. It is not just Delph who looks a different player this season. Stones and Otamendi have retired their comedy chops with Barcelona the only side across Europe's top five leagues to have conceded fewer goals than City. With City facing an average of just 6.2 shots per game, no longer does the mere mention of Vincent Kompany's name elicit a wistful look into the middle distance among the club's faithful. All of which hardly paints a scenario of an impending defensive apocalypse. However, were injures to strike, it is unquestionably at the back where City have the shallowest depth. For the costliest squad ever assembled to have just three senior centre-halves—with one of them, in reality, being little more than a mirage of a footballer in Kompany's case—is lopsided to the point of negligence. Eliaquim Mangala again showed in midweek against Wolves he is far from the ideal back-up. While understandably ring-rusty, the Frenchman resembled a foal yet to be fully acquainted with his legs at times. Guardiola's pursuit of Jonny Evans over the summer was treated as though Vogue editor Anna Wintour had been spotted perusing the rails of a charity shop. In reality, he would have been perfect. Placid yet steely, Evans is the ideal man to have in and around a title-winning team. It would not be a surprise if a fresh approach were made in January. Danilo, who has struggled for minutes since joining from Real Madrid, is fine in a back three but probably lacks the authority to be employed in a two. He's a cracking odd-job man who would tend to a dripping tap without being asked, but whether the Brazilian would be entrusted with plumbing an entire house is another matter. City spent over £160 million on upgrading their defence over the summer, yet it's arguable whether Guardiola even sees his full-backs as defenders. That they are key to how his side play is in no doubt, and it has worked to a tee in that City are a more fluid unit this season than last, but whether they have improved in only one direction has yet to be tested. No prizes for being top in October It would be folly for Manchester City's rivals to draw too much consolation from how last season Guardiola's team went from being champions-elect to Champions League doubtful from October onwards. This season's version is different to last season's. Still, when a lawyer is facing an uphill battle with a case, the straw often clutched at is precedent. At this stage last year, Manchester City were top of the Premier League having taken 20 points from nine matches, ahead of Arsenal and Liverpool by virtue of a superior goal difference. They finished the campaign in third place, some 15 points shy of champions Chelsea. The season before last, in 2015/16, they were even quicker out of the blocks. Manuel Pellegrini guided City to top spot after taking 21 points from nine matches. They finished the campaign in fourth place, some 15 points shy of champions Leicester City. Indeed, only twice in the past 10 seasons has the side that has led the way after nine matches gone on to win the league. Chelsea managed it in 2014/15 under Mourinho. The other was the Manchester City side that went on to win its first-ever Premier League title in 2011/12, jockeyed by Roberto Mancini. City's record that year after nine matches read: Eight wins; one draw; no losses; goals for 33; goals against 7; goal difference 26. City's record this year after nine matches reads: Eight wins; one draw; no losses; goals for 32; goals against 4; goal difference 28. Maybe precedent isn't the best route to go down after all. Guardiola's perfectionism Self-implosion. That's the reason, in one guise or another, cited as regularly as any other when talk turns to why Manchester City might not win this season's Premier League. It won't be someone else who stops them, only themselves. One only has to observe Guardiola in interviews, or on the touchline, to recognise his mind is fizzing with ideas. Brilliant, but perhaps chaotic ideas. That's to say chaotic to others. To him, they are probably no less straightforward than a shopping list When he manages to tame them, simplify to give coherence and structure, what is often manifest, via his players, somehow manages to look like brilliantly choreographed spontaneity. The purist visions are usually the most beautiful, often the most fallible and fragile, too. The artist Salvador Dali once said, "have no fear of perfection—you'll never reach it." It's a mantra that has served Guardiola well. The Catalan is a visionary in that he sees the game uniquely through his own eyes, rather than his forefathers'. Formations and philosophies are a starting point, not a manual. He talks of Johan Cruyff as a genius, as well he might as his mentor's most successful graduate, but he is being self-effacing when he claims to be just a disciple at the altar of the Dutchman. All of which is lovely, but perfectionism can be as much a curse as a blessing. That's why most of us don't bother with it. The time to seek perfection in the form of perfect football is not away from home, in the second leg of a Champions League last-16 tie, when going into the game with a healthy two-goal lead. Last season's basketball-like loss to Monaco seemed less visionary than hopelessly naive. City won just two of their next eight games after being knocked out by the Principality. Then there was the 3-1 home defeat to Chelsea in December last year. City led and were the better side for long spells, but played with the backdoor wide-open throughout. Chelsea left with a flat-screen TV and the belief they could win the Premier League title. Similarly, Tottenham looked like a team that had proved a point to itself when they departed the Etihad in January with a draw, having come from two goals down. Given he invariably has the best players to work with, its hardly surprising Guardiola tends to let other teams worry about his rather than the other way around. But when he was pretty much the only manager last season to play a high line against Leicester City and shipped four, it looked to be either foolhardy or ill-informed. Guardiola sneers at pragmatism. It's as though he sees it as cowardice of ideas. Maybe it is when you are coaching Barcelona, or Bayern. But by his own admission, Manchester City are not at that level–yet. It's far from implausible they will be soon, but to get there, they may just have to be ugly away from home on occasion and grind out a result, or render a tight game dead when they have a lead. Don't hold your breath, though. Go back to his Bayern Munich days. The way he set up his side so openly in a 4-0 home loss to Real Madrid, in a Champions League semi-final in 2014, is said to still haunt him. Haunts him, but hasn't changed him. And it would be boring if it did. Manchester United (and others) are still a threat If the chap on Manchester United's club crest reads a newspaper, listens to the radio or watches television, the right and decent thing to do would be to confiscate that fork. A goalless draw at Anfield in which United threw fewer punches than a Buddhist Monk on a spa break, being followed by a 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield Town, has seen caricaturists out in force wielding giant brushstrokes. The arch pragmatist Mourinho will never understand "the United way" has been the cry, with early-season optimism replaced with a mood perhaps best described as a light drizzle. Even withstanding a fixture list Mourinho could have written himself, in six of their 14 matches in all competitions United have scored four. Eleven of those matches ended in victory, with just one defeat last weekend. In the Premier League, only City have scored more, with the two Manchester clubs sharing the joint-stingiest defences having conceded just four apiece. United top their Champions League group. In terms of a crisis, it's not huge. Though it may be deemed even worse if United lose their next two. Tottenham at home and Chelsea away have the look of being if not season-defining, then certainly season-shaping fixtures. That Paul Pogba prior to injury had been the fulcrum of a United side eminently more entertaining than any that have followed post-Sir Alex Ferguson, has barely been mentioned by a whole platoon of critics currently gunning for the Portuguese. When the Frenchman is back in tandem with Nemanja Matic, there's a fair to middling chance United will start to boss games in the manner they did earlier in the campaign. There's no doubt United's slovenliness in recent weeks has been amplified by just how electric City have been in comparison. No Mourinho team will ever play football like a Guardiola one. But that's not to say he can't build one that's bigger and stronger, faster and smarter, and in its own way, ultimately, better. As for rest, Arsenal will always be Arsenal but are quietly picking up a head of steam. Gunners manager Arsene Wenger finally arriving at the conclusion it might be an idea to play his three best players, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette, all at the same time, can only help. Chelsea look to be suffering from second-season syndrome for the third time in as many title defences, but the light-bulb moment last term against Arsenal only arrived eight games in. It's not impossible Blues boss Antonio Conte may have another in the next few weeks before they are cast too far adrift. All stats worked out via WhoScored.com or the official Premier League website. Read more Soccer news on BleacherReport.com #ManchesterCity #MauricioPochettino #PremierLeague