Following the whitewash by the two Manchester teams over Arsenal and Spurs this past weekend, it is difficult to see the title leaving the city of Manchester in the near future.There’s an old saying that goes ‘anything you can do, I can do better’, and this is most certainly the case between Manchester United and Manchester City at this moment in time.
Just as little as three years ago, it would have unthinkable to put the blue side of Manchester possessing a team in the same ranks as Barcelona and Real Madrid. It has to be sad that the same team is now easily placed within the top five teams in the world.
In the aftermath of City’s emphatic 5-1 victory away to Spurs, it would have hard to imagine United topping that result, and Sir Alex would have been more than happy with a solid hard fought 1-0 victory. However, the labouring and ageing United team of last season, now appears to be old news.
It is no secret that United were not at their best last season, particularly their away form. While everyone huffed and puffed about replacing Paul Scholes with a similar type player, Sir Alex had different intentions.To the untrained eye, Sir Alex began his rebuilding process last season, when he signed Smalling and Hernandez. This past summer he added De Gea, Young and Jones, and these five players have injected pace and youthfulness that even has Barcelona watching over their shoulders.
This is in contrast to what Manchester City has been up to this past summer, where all the talk was focused on whether or not Carlos Tevez would stay. A few weeks on and now look at the position Manchester City are in. They are top of the league, have two new stars in Aguero and Nasri, are in the Champions League, and Tevez can’t even get a game.
It’s ironic how Sir Alex has always relied on youth and patience over trying to buy success, the resistance in paying over the top for Sneijder highlights this. On the other hand, Manchester City have no problem in buying the title, and the way things are going it may not be long before it happens.
To return to the Sneijder matter, it will be interesting to see if the midfield of United, i.e. Anderson, Cleverley, Fletcher, Carrick and Giggs, will be strong enough to retain the Premiership and over throw Barcelona as European Champions. Sir Alex has signed players in the January transfer window before, and don’t be surprised if he gets out the check book once again come January.
With regards to the rest of the chasing pack, it would not be fair to rule out Chelsea all together from the title race. However, Villas Boas certainly has his hands full in getting the most out of his side, in particular Fernando Torres. The addition of Mata will help Torres as he is a creative attacking player. However, Luka Modric does look like the final piece of the jigsaw, but old timer Harry Redknapp is willing to battle to the death to keep his star man.
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