With Manchester United suddenly finding themselves five points from top, were pundits premature in dismissing their title chances?
The hyper-criticism of
Manchester United has led to an incredible amount of football pundits to
write their season off. It is understandable that the departure of Sir
Alex Ferguson was going to bring the microscope over his successor David
Moyes, but the reaction from some parts of the media has sounded as if
they are hoping he fails just so they have a good story to fill their
columns with.
United have started the season badly and, until yesterday's game against Arsenal, hadn't managed to perform in both halves of a match. So far this season United have relied upon Rooney and van Persie to win games; between them they have scored 12 league goals out of United's 18. The poor run of form came when one of them was missing. When they play together United are deadly, without one of them they struggle to score. This was a huge problem earlier in the season because as a unit the team were fragile and teams ran through them and easily created chances.
This has led to many statements about United's season being over already and that Chelsea or Man City are the only teams possessing the squad to win the league. Yet, if we simply look at the table we can see the folly in such claims. It is hard to imagine City, rightly praised for their fabulous home form, playing better than they currently are. Yet a shocking away record sees them sitting a point behind Man United in the league.
Chelsea, under the marvelous Mourinho, are only one point above United and that is down to shear luck. Without Joe Hart gifting them a goal by charging erratically out of his area in the last minute, or referee Andre Marriner awarding them the most dubious penalty I've seen for some time, they too would be behind or level with Manchester United in the league.
Now we can't keep going back and saying 'What if this happened or that hadn't?', in the end the only thing that does matter is what did actually happen. If Hart had stayed on his line and cleared Nastasic's header then City would be level on points with United. However, what looking back does allow us to do is see the shape a season may take.
Manchester City, playing well and scoring for fun at home, are eighth. Chelsea, playing solidly and with the Mourinho factor, fourth. Manchester United, playing poorly and written off, have a nine match unbeaten run and sit in fifth. United were like this last season, for many seasons under Fergie. Play badly but stay in contention, then find form and (quite often) they win the league.
For all these new managers maybe nothing has really changed for the teams at all.
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