WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Following a decent start, at home, against an average team, Manchester United players will have gained confidence as well as the three points from their performance. They will have gained little else as the victory over West Ham United was a relative stroll, particularly after the first goal had demolished any “ambition” they may have had of defending for ninety minutes.

Manchester City also experienced an easy day out in Brighton where, despite initially struggling to break down the HOME!!? team, they won quite comfortably in the end. Both clubs, without really being tested, looked quite convincing but were helped by the opposition!

So is the Premier League a realistic target for United? Why not? On present form only City would be serious challengers although there is room for much improvement at all of the three big London clubs and, if they make that improvement, they would have to be included in the mix.

For Liverpool to join in they will also have to improve dramatically, mainly in defence, as they appear to find scoring goals quite easy.

The conclusion is that United can win the Premier League and, with José Mourinho’s “second season” record there really is no reason why they shouldn’t.

Cup competitions present a different challenge and, it has to be said, the luck of the draw can play some part in shaping a team’s destiny in knockout tournaments.

Again though, judging from the start made by United, there is no reason to fear anybody in any of the domestic competitions this season. With a little luck and a few home ties Manchester United can safely be considered among the favourites for both the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup.

Now the interesting one. One of the biggest regrets that Sir Alex Ferguson has is that he didn’t win the Champion’s League more often. Four finals in which he had a win rate of 50% although in the last two he did face the best Barcelona side ever seen. No excuses though, it was his job to come up with a way of beating them and, even as the best manager of his time, he failed to do so.

So what chance in this year’s competition? Well, the best team in Europe on current form is Real Madrid and United have played them twice in the last couple of months. One meaningless friendly ending up 1-1, (forget the penalty shoot-out which was irrelevant). The other game was the Super Cup final which Madrid won 2-1.

In truth there wasn’t THAT much between the teams. Real Madrid just did the basics far better than United. For every pass a Madrid player made to his team mate, United gave the ball away and possession was really the key to this game.

United were so bad at keeping the ball that they resorted to lumping it upfield to Fellaini towards the end in a vain attempt at an equaliser!

Having said all that, if United can work on the possession side of their game, which means improving their passing accuracy by at least 25%, then there is nothing to fear from the Champion’s League this season.

Barcelona look good but are not the world beaters they used to be. Bayern Munich also seem a little lacklustre which may open the door for one of the Italian teams.

The Champion’s League looks more open at present than it has done for a few years and United, along with a few others, will fancy their chances.

So the odds on Manchester United collecting more silverware this season are very good. One of the two domestic cups along with the Premier League title should not be beyond them.

We do think, however, that maybe the Champion’s League will have to wait for another year as will a clean sweep of all trophies. They are not quite ready for that yet!

Roll on the third season and uncharted waters for Mourinho.