Title Race
With 10 games of the season to go, the title race took another twist last weekend, as Manchester United beat West Brom 2-0 to retake first position from Manchester City, who could only stutter to a 1-0 loss at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium. I thought this would be an opportune time, then, to look at this season’s title race.
Pre-season, most of the talk was on who might join the Premier League’s top table and compete for the title. Manchester United were assumed to be part of the reckoning, but there was speculation about how well they had replaced their retired stars, with David De Gea brought in for the retired Edwin van der Sar, Tom Cleverley returning from loan at Wigan to fill the void left by Paul Scholes, and Ashley Young arriving to ease the creative workload on the ageing Ryan Giggs. They had also replaced experience with youth, as Chris Smalling and new arrival Phil Jones were tipped to step up in place of Sunderland-bound duo Wes Brown and John O’Shea, as well as Danny Welbeck returning from a successful loan spell at the Stadium of Light. Chelsea were also meant to be involved all season. They were going through a bigger period of change to United, so were not as dead-on to go down to the wire. Their double-winning manager of two seasons ago, Carlo Ancelotti, was replaced by the much-younger Andre Villas-Boas, and new stars like Juan Mata (brought in from Valencia), Daniel Sturridge (returning from a successful loan spell at Bolton), and the Ancelotti signings Fernando Torres and David Luiz were expected to bed in, or, in the case of Torres and Luiz, forget shaky starts to their Chelsea careers and push on.
The new twist to the pre-season title speculation was on the newcomers to the Premier League’s big boys. Tottenham and Manchester City had fought long and hard for last season’s fourth position, with City pipping Spurs towards the end of the campaign. Tottenham had waited to add to their squad, but had invested well in proven Premier League players; the experienced Brad Friedel from Aston Villa, Scott Parker from relegated West Ham United, Kyle Walker returning from a loan at Aston Villa, and Emmanuel Adebayor on loan from City themselves. The Eastlands club, meanwhile, had invested heavily, using their Arab-fuelled millions to push on from Champions League qualification towards the title. They brought in Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri from Arsenal, Montenegrin centre-back Stefan Savic from Partizan Belgrade and the immensely-talented and highly-rated Sergio Aguero from Athletico Madrid.
There was also speculation that two clubs that had contested the title of old might challenge once more, these of course being Liverpool and Arsenal. Liverpool had invested heavily over the summer, building on the January purchases of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez by adding Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam in midfield, Luis Enrique in defence and Craig Bellamy upfront, as well as adding bit-part players Doni and Sebastian Coates. This outlay of allegedly over £100 million, as well as the permanent appointment of club legend Kenny Dalglish as manager, was meant to allow Liverpool to join the title race once more. Arsenal, inversely, lost more players than they gained, at least during pre-season. Clichy and Nasri, as stated, joined City, whilst club captain Cesc Fabregas ended years of speculation by rejoining Barcelona, whom he had represented at academy level. The only notable addition before the season started was Gervinho, who joined from Ligue Une champions Lille for £10.5million.
As the season started, however, many challengers fell immediately to the wayside. The North London clubs, most obviously, were shown to be lax. Spurs lost their first two games of the season to the Manchester clubs, conceding 8 goals, and were 9 points off the pace by the end of August. Arsenal, similarly, lost twice in the first three games. The most effective of these, seemingly, was the 8-2 loss at Old Trafford, leading Arsene Wenger to sign four first team players over the next three days; Park Chu-Young from Monaco, Andre Santos from Fenerbache, Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen and Mikel Arteta from Everton. However, these players took time to bed in, and although Arsenal managed to save their challenge for a Champions League place, they could not recover their title charge. Tottenham, similarly, got back into contention for the Champions League due, in part, to their midfield five of Aaron Lennon, Parker, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart, but couldn’t make up the ground the Manchester clubs had covered by the end of September.
Liverpool, too, dropped points unexpectedly early on. Their opening day draw against Sunderland set the tone for their now-trademark combination of poor performances and disappointing draws at home. Although keeping up somewhat with Manchesters City and United as Autumn descended, being six points off at the end of September, they fell away, finding themselves 10 points off top spot a month later. Chelsea kept up their challenge for longer, but highly-publicised problems between the manager and his squad, as well as injuries and poor form of key players, stopped their title challenge, as well as costing Villas-Boas his job. They, similarly to Liverpool, were two points behind after the first weekend, and were 9 points off top spot as October ended.
Thus, it seemed, the title race would go to Manchester, but to which side? Both teams started the season in fine form, having scored 41 goals between them in the first six games. Thus, it became clear that the title would be decided by their slip-ups, that is to say, the games in which they did not win. Each team, so far, has made seven slip-ups in the league.
The first of these was in gameweek five. Fresh from their first Champions League group fixture, a 1-1 draw at home against Napoli, City let a two-goal lead slip as they drew 2-2 with Fulham at Craven Cottage, having been 2-0 up early in the second half. United took full advantage, winning 3-1 at home to Chelsea, Villas-Boas’ first league loss as Chelsea manager. This allowed United to open up a two-point gap in the title race. However, this was not to last. One week later, City bounced back with a 2-0 win at home to Everton, whilst United allowed Stoke back into a game they had dominated in the first half, and drew 1-1 at the Britannia. The gap had gone back to zero, although United led, with a goal difference of +17 to City’s +14, a precarious lead. Then, three weeks later, in gameweek 8, United faltered again. Admittedly a hard fixture, they drew 1-1 at Anfield, only saving themselves from a defeat as Hernandez equalised in the last 10 minutes. City, meanwhile, were winning 4-1 against Aston Villa, their 4-2-3-1 formation allowing them to have players bomb forward, both on the counterattack and otherwise, in order to get goals.
The following week could still be seen as momentous in the title race, not to mention the history of the two clubs. After European matchday number five came the Manchester derby. City had a fairly routine win over Villareal at home, whilst United stumbled to a 2-0 win at Romanian minnows Otelul Galati. At Old Trafford, City humbled United 6-1, their worst home defeat in 56 years, and forced Ferguson into a rethink of his tactics. The domineering and swashbuckling early-season tactics were seen as too dangerous. The midfield duo, who had been Cleverley and Anderson, but now had the Brazilian paired with Fletcher in Cleverley’s absence, became less give-and-go and more sit-and-play. The fullbacks were less attacking, the front four less rotary and free-moving, and Wayne Rooney dropped deeper, all to make United more difficult to break down, and much more dangerous on the break. As for City, their approach had been vindicated. Mancini’s departure from last season’s Italian tactics towards the 4-2-3-1 that made the most of flair players David Silva and Sergio Aguero, as well as Mario ‘mad as a box of frogs’ Balotelli. The gap became five points, and City would stay on top until March, five months later.
City did draw on the thirteenth gameweek. After a 2-1 loss at Napoli they, as United had, drew 1-1 away at Liverpool. United, however, could not make the most of this slipup, they themselves drawing against Newcastle at home because of a penalty Sir Alex Ferguson called a ‘travesty’.
United did make up ground after gameweek fifteen. They took advantage of City’s now-customary disappointing performance after a midweek European game. City followed a 2-0 win against Bayern Munich, which led to their elimination despite the win, with a 2-1 loss at Stamford Bridge. United, meanwhile, put their own demotion to the Europa League behind them with a 4-1 win at Wolves. They had returned to their attacking style after a series of games in which they scored only one goal, moving swashbuckling centreback Phil Jones into midfield to drive the team forward in the place of the out-for-the-season Darren Fletcher.
This brought about the start of the festive period, which meant games were coming thick and fast in the league, as well as the acceleration of the League Cup, which United had been eliminated from in November, and the commencement of the FA Cup Third Round, in which the Manchester clubs were drawn against each other. Manchester United backed themselves to push on in the festive period to the end of the season, as they had done characteristically over the last five seasons, in four of which they won the title, whilst City were hoping the depth and breadth of their squad, and the break from the European action that had affected their league form so much, would allow them to continue their form and consolidate their first position.
United were having problems. Despite bolstering their defence over the summer, they were in the middle of an injury crisis, not having captain and defensive lynchpin Nemanja Vidic for the rest of the season, as well as short-term injuries for both Da Silva twins, Chris Smalling, Johnny Evans and Rio Ferdinand, leaving the young Phil Jones and vice-captain Patrice Evra as their only recognised senior defenders. However, things didn’t start well for City, as they first drew their game at West Brom, then lost at Sunderland either side of New Year, not scoring a goal in either game. United had got level before January, thumping Wigan 5-0 as City drew, but could only stutter to a 3-2 loss at home to Blackburn in their first fixture of 2012, despite coming back from 2-0 down to equalise at 2-2. They followed this up with a disappointing 3-0 loss at St James’ Park, in which Phil Jones scored an own goal. This meant the Tyneside club had taken 4 points off United that season. City regained their lead, successfully navigating at dangerous home game against Liverpool 3-0 and retaking a three-point lead.
Three gameweeks later, however, United got back level. As they were completing a routine win against Stoke at Old Trafford, City were losing at Goodison Park due to a goal from a player United had sold to Everton earlier in the month, Ireland international Darron Gibson. Ferguson, always one for mind games, claimed after the match that it had all been “part of the plan”. Roberto Mancini, meanwhile, claimed the loss had been because of his own lack of preparation, as if he had underestimated Everton. An odd thing to claim, seeing as City had never taken the points from Goodison Park with Mancini as manager. City had, again, succumbed to the midweek hangover, having gone out of the League Cup to Liverpool during the week. The following weekend, however, City opened up a two-point lead. They avenged their 2-2 draw earlier in the season to win 3-0 against Fulham, whilst United drew at Chelsea, although to their credit, they had come back from three goals down away from home with only 40 minutes remaining to draw 3-3.
From then on, the clubs won all their fixtures, until last weekend. The Europa League knockout rounds had started, and both clubs got through their first fixtures. However, both lost the first leg of their Second knockout rounds, United losing 3-2 at home to Athletic Bilbao. This brought about City’s classic weakness - the European hangover. They had lost 1-0 away at Sporting, and followed this up with the same scoreline away at Swansea. United, meanwhile, were dominating but underwhelming West Brom 2-0 at Old Trafford to open up a one point lead at the top, the first time they’ve had top spot since drawing at Anfield back in October.
Now, with ten games of the Premier League season to go, how to tell which way the title race might go? City, for their part, are very affected by midweek fixtures, specifically European ones. Four of their slipups occurred after European games, and one after a midweek League Cup game, whilst the other two were during the hectic Christmas schedule. They have, however, yet to draw or lose at home and, considering they still have to play United at the Etihad, are in a strong position in that sense. They also have a squad bolstered by Yaya Toure’s return from the African Cup of Nations, as well as David Pizarro from Roma on loan.
United, as well, will have a strong finish to the season. Most of their slipups seem to be when their team has been weakened, especially in defence. With Evans and the Da Silva twins returned to the side, and Ferdinand in form at the moment, as well as Scholes coming out of retirement and an easier run of fixtures than their city rivals, United should surely finish the season strongly. The experience of Giggs, Scholes, Carrick, Ferdinand, Rooney and Evra will be invaluable to the younger members of their squad.
All in all, it seems Mancini’s assertion that the title will be decided at Eastlands at the end of April will be proven correct. For my part, I’m hoping it goes down to the wire.
With 10 games of the season to go, the title race took another twist last weekend, as Manchester United beat West Brom 2-0 to retake first position from Manchester City, who could only stutter to a 1-0 loss at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium. I thought this would be an opportune time, then, to look at this season’s title race.
Pre-season, most of the talk was on who might join the Premier League’s top table and compete for the title. Manchester United were assumed to be part of the reckoning, but there was speculation about how well they had replaced their retired stars, with David De Gea brought in for the retired Edwin van der Sar, Tom Cleverley returning from loan at Wigan to fill the void left by Paul Scholes, and Ashley Young arriving to ease the creative workload on the ageing Ryan Giggs. They had also replaced experience with youth, as Chris Smalling and new arrival Phil Jones were tipped to step up in place of Sunderland-bound duo Wes Brown and John O’Shea, as well as Danny Welbeck returning from a successful loan spell at the Stadium of Light. Chelsea were also meant to be involved all season. They were going through a bigger period of change to United, so were not as dead-on to go down to the wire. Their double-winning manager of two seasons ago, Carlo Ancelotti, was replaced by the much-younger Andre Villas-Boas, and new stars like Juan Mata (brought in from Valencia), Daniel Sturridge (returning from a successful loan spell at Bolton), and the Ancelotti signings Fernando Torres and David Luiz were expected to bed in, or, in the case of Torres and Luiz, forget shaky starts to their Chelsea careers and push on.
The new twist to the pre-season title speculation was on the newcomers to the Premier League’s big boys. Tottenham and Manchester City had fought long and hard for last season’s fourth position, with City pipping Spurs towards the end of the campaign. Tottenham had waited to add to their squad, but had invested well in proven Premier League players; the experienced Brad Friedel from Aston Villa, Scott Parker from relegated West Ham United, Kyle Walker returning from a loan at Aston Villa, and Emmanuel Adebayor on loan from City themselves. The Eastlands club, meanwhile, had invested heavily, using their Arab-fuelled millions to push on from Champions League qualification towards the title. They brought in Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri from Arsenal, Montenegrin centre-back Stefan Savic from Partizan Belgrade and the immensely-talented and highly-rated Sergio Aguero from Athletico Madrid.
There was also speculation that two clubs that had contested the title of old might challenge once more, these of course being Liverpool and Arsenal. Liverpool had invested heavily over the summer, building on the January purchases of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez by adding Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam in midfield, Luis Enrique in defence and Craig Bellamy upfront, as well as adding bit-part players Doni and Sebastian Coates. This outlay of allegedly over £100 million, as well as the permanent appointment of club legend Kenny Dalglish as manager, was meant to allow Liverpool to join the title race once more. Arsenal, inversely, lost more players than they gained, at least during pre-season. Clichy and Nasri, as stated, joined City, whilst club captain Cesc Fabregas ended years of speculation by rejoining Barcelona, whom he had represented at academy level. The only notable addition before the season started was Gervinho, who joined from Ligue Une champions Lille for £10.5million.
As the season started, however, many challengers fell immediately to the wayside. The North London clubs, most obviously, were shown to be lax. Spurs lost their first two games of the season to the Manchester clubs, conceding 8 goals, and were 9 points off the pace by the end of August. Arsenal, similarly, lost twice in the first three games. The most effective of these, seemingly, was the 8-2 loss at Old Trafford, leading Arsene Wenger to sign four first team players over the next three days; Park Chu-Young from Monaco, Andre Santos from Fenerbache, Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen and Mikel Arteta from Everton. However, these players took time to bed in, and although Arsenal managed to save their challenge for a Champions League place, they could not recover their title charge. Tottenham, similarly, got back into contention for the Champions League due, in part, to their midfield five of Aaron Lennon, Parker, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart, but couldn’t make up the ground the Manchester clubs had covered by the end of September.
Liverpool, too, dropped points unexpectedly early on. Their opening day draw against Sunderland set the tone for their now-trademark combination of poor performances and disappointing draws at home. Although keeping up somewhat with Manchesters City and United as Autumn descended, being six points off at the end of September, they fell away, finding themselves 10 points off top spot a month later. Chelsea kept up their challenge for longer, but highly-publicised problems between the manager and his squad, as well as injuries and poor form of key players, stopped their title challenge, as well as costing Villas-Boas his job. They, similarly to Liverpool, were two points behind after the first weekend, and were 9 points off top spot as October ended.
Thus, it seemed, the title race would go to Manchester, but to which side? Both teams started the season in fine form, having scored 41 goals between them in the first six games. Thus, it became clear that the title would be decided by their slip-ups, that is to say, the games in which they did not win. Each team, so far, has made seven slip-ups in the league.
The first of these was in gameweek five. Fresh from their first Champions League group fixture, a 1-1 draw at home against Napoli, City let a two-goal lead slip as they drew 2-2 with Fulham at Craven Cottage, having been 2-0 up early in the second half. United took full advantage, winning 3-1 at home to Chelsea, Villas-Boas’ first league loss as Chelsea manager. This allowed United to open up a two-point gap in the title race. However, this was not to last. One week later, City bounced back with a 2-0 win at home to Everton, whilst United allowed Stoke back into a game they had dominated in the first half, and drew 1-1 at the Britannia. The gap had gone back to zero, although United led, with a goal difference of +17 to City’s +14, a precarious lead. Then, three weeks later, in gameweek 8, United faltered again. Admittedly a hard fixture, they drew 1-1 at Anfield, only saving themselves from a defeat as Hernandez equalised in the last 10 minutes. City, meanwhile, were winning 4-1 against Aston Villa, their 4-2-3-1 formation allowing them to have players bomb forward, both on the counterattack and otherwise, in order to get goals.
The following week could still be seen as momentous in the title race, not to mention the history of the two clubs. After European matchday number five came the Manchester derby. City had a fairly routine win over Villareal at home, whilst United stumbled to a 2-0 win at Romanian minnows Otelul Galati. At Old Trafford, City humbled United 6-1, their worst home defeat in 56 years, and forced Ferguson into a rethink of his tactics. The domineering and swashbuckling early-season tactics were seen as too dangerous. The midfield duo, who had been Cleverley and Anderson, but now had the Brazilian paired with Fletcher in Cleverley’s absence, became less give-and-go and more sit-and-play. The fullbacks were less attacking, the front four less rotary and free-moving, and Wayne Rooney dropped deeper, all to make United more difficult to break down, and much more dangerous on the break. As for City, their approach had been vindicated. Mancini’s departure from last season’s Italian tactics towards the 4-2-3-1 that made the most of flair players David Silva and Sergio Aguero, as well as Mario ‘mad as a box of frogs’ Balotelli. The gap became five points, and City would stay on top until March, five months later.
City did draw on the thirteenth gameweek. After a 2-1 loss at Napoli they, as United had, drew 1-1 away at Liverpool. United, however, could not make the most of this slipup, they themselves drawing against Newcastle at home because of a penalty Sir Alex Ferguson called a ‘travesty’.
United did make up ground after gameweek fifteen. They took advantage of City’s now-customary disappointing performance after a midweek European game. City followed a 2-0 win against Bayern Munich, which led to their elimination despite the win, with a 2-1 loss at Stamford Bridge. United, meanwhile, put their own demotion to the Europa League behind them with a 4-1 win at Wolves. They had returned to their attacking style after a series of games in which they scored only one goal, moving swashbuckling centreback Phil Jones into midfield to drive the team forward in the place of the out-for-the-season Darren Fletcher.
This brought about the start of the festive period, which meant games were coming thick and fast in the league, as well as the acceleration of the League Cup, which United had been eliminated from in November, and the commencement of the FA Cup Third Round, in which the Manchester clubs were drawn against each other. Manchester United backed themselves to push on in the festive period to the end of the season, as they had done characteristically over the last five seasons, in four of which they won the title, whilst City were hoping the depth and breadth of their squad, and the break from the European action that had affected their league form so much, would allow them to continue their form and consolidate their first position.
United were having problems. Despite bolstering their defence over the summer, they were in the middle of an injury crisis, not having captain and defensive lynchpin Nemanja Vidic for the rest of the season, as well as short-term injuries for both Da Silva twins, Chris Smalling, Johnny Evans and Rio Ferdinand, leaving the young Phil Jones and vice-captain Patrice Evra as their only recognised senior defenders. However, things didn’t start well for City, as they first drew their game at West Brom, then lost at Sunderland either side of New Year, not scoring a goal in either game. United had got level before January, thumping Wigan 5-0 as City drew, but could only stutter to a 3-2 loss at home to Blackburn in their first fixture of 2012, despite coming back from 2-0 down to equalise at 2-2. They followed this up with a disappointing 3-0 loss at St James’ Park, in which Phil Jones scored an own goal. This meant the Tyneside club had taken 4 points off United that season. City regained their lead, successfully navigating at dangerous home game against Liverpool 3-0 and retaking a three-point lead.
Three gameweeks later, however, United got back level. As they were completing a routine win against Stoke at Old Trafford, City were losing at Goodison Park due to a goal from a player United had sold to Everton earlier in the month, Ireland international Darron Gibson. Ferguson, always one for mind games, claimed after the match that it had all been “part of the plan”. Roberto Mancini, meanwhile, claimed the loss had been because of his own lack of preparation, as if he had underestimated Everton. An odd thing to claim, seeing as City had never taken the points from Goodison Park with Mancini as manager. City had, again, succumbed to the midweek hangover, having gone out of the League Cup to Liverpool during the week. The following weekend, however, City opened up a two-point lead. They avenged their 2-2 draw earlier in the season to win 3-0 against Fulham, whilst United drew at Chelsea, although to their credit, they had come back from three goals down away from home with only 40 minutes remaining to draw 3-3.
From then on, the clubs won all their fixtures, until last weekend. The Europa League knockout rounds had started, and both clubs got through their first fixtures. However, both lost the first leg of their Second knockout rounds, United losing 3-2 at home to Athletic Bilbao. This brought about City’s classic weakness - the European hangover. They had lost 1-0 away at Sporting, and followed this up with the same scoreline away at Swansea. United, meanwhile, were dominating but underwhelming West Brom 2-0 at Old Trafford to open up a one point lead at the top, the first time they’ve had top spot since drawing at Anfield back in October.
Now, with ten games of the Premier League season to go, how to tell which way the title race might go? City, for their part, are very affected by midweek fixtures, specifically European ones. Four of their slipups occurred after European games, and one after a midweek League Cup game, whilst the other two were during the hectic Christmas schedule. They have, however, yet to draw or lose at home and, considering they still have to play United at the Etihad, are in a strong position in that sense. They also have a squad bolstered by Yaya Toure’s return from the African Cup of Nations, as well as David Pizarro from Roma on loan.
United, as well, will have a strong finish to the season. Most of their slipups seem to be when their team has been weakened, especially in defence. With Evans and the Da Silva twins returned to the side, and Ferdinand in form at the moment, as well as Scholes coming out of retirement and an easier run of fixtures than their city rivals, United should surely finish the season strongly. The experience of Giggs, Scholes, Carrick, Ferdinand, Rooney and Evra will be invaluable to the younger members of their squad.
All in all, it seems Mancini’s assertion that the title will be decided at Eastlands at the end of April will be proven correct. For my part, I’m hoping it goes down to the wire.
