It would appear that Manchester City are now the team looking most likely to lift the Premier League title in May. Put another way, anyone finishing above them will almost certainly win it!
The major difference between City and United, if we overlook the fact that one is managed by a serial winner and the other by a relative novice, is in their players.
Manchester City can look excellent even without their best player which is what they will have to do for probably around 4 more weeks whilst Kevin De Bruyne recovers from a hamstring injury. In their recent game at West Bromwich Albion it was difficult to believe that he wasn’t on the pitch as City took a 4-0 lead into the half-time break.
Manchester United, on the other hand, played very well against Liverpool in the FA Cup but their game only went up a notch and became a win when Bruno Fernandes came off the bench. He was immediately involved in everything and scored the winning goal. He was then largely irrelevant in United’s next game, a 1-2 defeat by bottom club Sheffield United at Old Trafford.
So, although De Bruyne is almost certainly City’s most important and influential player his presence is not absolutely vital for the team to be successful.
Alternatively, Fernandes has almost single-handedly turned United into title contenders and, were he to get injured, the team’s fortunes may very well suffer a downturn meaning a struggle for top four rather than champions or runners-up.
If the two, (when De Bruyne is fit again), can remain injury-free until the end of the season then there could be a two-way battle for the title. If either, or both, suffer injury then the title will go to the Etihad because City are the more consistent of the two when their best player suffers a dip in form or is injured.
Poor Frank…..
As he sat at home on Wednesday evening counting his compensation money, Frank Lampard would have been casting an eye to the TV and, no doubt, wishing his successor well.
Thomas Tuchel, who has already counted his compensation money, was so desperate to take over that, after one training session and rather than sit in the stand as many others do, took control of the team immediately. He also immediately reverted to experience and dumped the vast majority of Lampard’s academy onto the bench for later use, maybe.
This resulted in a boring 0-0 draw against a Wolves team who have been struggling for form recently. Still, it wasn’t a loss and as long as Tuchel doesn’t fall out with the board or his players, something which appears to be quite a frequent occurrence at Chelsea and is the main reason he was sacked from PSG, then he should be OK for at least 12 of the 18 months of his contract.
Big Sam, big problem…..
We normally wouldn’t devote any space on these precious pages to a club from the midlands, especially a struggling club from the midlands but the fact that Sam Allardyce has been chosen to do his ‘Red Adair’ act at the Hawthorns makes it quite interesting.
This is particularly the case as the odds are stacked firmly against him, yet again, but this time even more so as he doesn’t seem to have a solution to his masssive defensive problems this time around.
Here’s how things stood after three games in charge and, since then, a draw at Liverpool and the aforementioned 0-5 defeat by Manchester City have not improved the situation.
This looks like Big Sam’s first taste of relegation….ever!
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 