Manchester United's Title Challenge Is On
“The fans may dream but we’re not. We have to keep our feet on the ground and then face that our game has a lot to improve.”
One decade ago, the 2012/2013 season, was the last time Manchester United won the Premier League title. The season prior, the title was lost on goal difference to Manchester City but United acted brilliantly that Summer to respond by signing the best forward in world football at the time, Robin van Persie.
Manchester City were on the rise but with Robin van Persie on the books, United were the consensus title favorites until the first match of the season, Everton away.
Everton 1 - 0 Manchester United, I streamed this match on a PC in the business lounge of a hotel in Brussels Belgium, poetic as it was Marouane Fellaini who stole the show.
Ferguson admitted his side failed to cope with the Toffees forward, "Fellaini is a handful. He is a big, tall, gangly lad and they just lumped the ball forward to him. That's all they did. They worked from that base all the time and they got a goal from him, so it's justified."
Robin van Persie came on as a 67th-minute substitute and was unable to make an impact.
"We played around him [RvP] too much. We didn't show enough penetration," said Ferguson."With Robin in your team, you know you want to use his ability against centre-backs in situations he is very good at, but we didn't use him enough."
Manchester United would go on to win the league title this year by 11 points. Sir Alex Ferguson would retire and close his United career on a high note.
A new season, one decade later and after 18 matches played, Manchester United are 9pts away from the top of the league table. It’s starting to look and feel like a title challenge is on, but why is that?
This Team Feels Like A Title Challenger -
Marcus Rashford - the forward is on hot form, having scored 4 goals and made 1 assist during the last 4 matches in the league and scored in seven consecutive appearances in all competitions.
Manchester United have the longest winning streak in the Premier League with 5 consecutive wins.
Home Record - Manchester United are tied with Arsenal & Manchester City this season with 22pts won at their Home stadium. Since beating Arsenal at home 3-1 on September 4th, United have only conceded 1 goal at Old Trafford in game which was against Manchester City that ended with 2-1 victory on January 14th.
When Manchester United have scored the first goal this season they have a 100% win record. Erik Ten Hag is the fastest manager to reach 20 wins (in 27 fixtures), beating Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ten Hag has established a strong core of players who are playing in the form of their careers. Diogo Dalot has emerged as an elite level right-back, benching the sensational João Cancelo at the World Cup. Luke Shaw is playing the best football in his career, now forcing his way into the starting lineup in the center-back position ahead of World Cup winner Licha. Rapha Varane has emerged as an important team leader and is a titan at center-back.
The midfield has been completely transformed by the addition of Casemiro who’s displaying an elite passing range that was previously uncalled upon due to the icon Luka Modrić. The emergence of the 18 year old Alejandro Garnacho as a spark plug off the bench is an option most teams would pay 10s of millions of pounds to have. Bruno Fernandes, the impromptu captain is having to lead on the field in a variety of attacking midfield roles to great team-success.
But behind the spectacular form, and disciplined, high IQ football, it’s important to remember that Manchester United and Erik Ten Hag have faced several challenges that could have broken a comparable team in the past.
The 14 kilometer run, the Cristiano Ronaldo fiasco, the benching of Captain Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho’s bootcamp, Marcus Rashford disciplinary incident, the build up of Alejandro Garnacho etc. Garnacho aside, each of these stories on their own could have been enough to cause a drop in form and reversion back to the underperformance that has plagued United this decade; but it did not.
With only 18 matches played its fair to argue that its too early in the season to label Manchester United a title challenger. The club still have big tests to face, including an overloaded match schedule and the upcoming fixture against the league leaders Arsenal this Sunday January 22nd; a match I plan to attend. Maybe a win against Arsenal is will be required to spark a consensus title challenge, we’ll wait and see.