/o\
I haven’t wrote much about the Premiership so far because I’ve been too busy watching it, and also trying not to get caught up in all the crap being written about Manchester United’s dismal start to the 2007-08 season. But I’m sat watching the Chelsea/Liverpool game at the moment, my phone off to stop the flood of negative texts following United’s defeat at rivals City and I want to get a few things clear.
Sure this, statistically, is United’s worst start in Premiership history. It’s the worst start I’ve seen them make for as long as I’ve been watching football. But having watched every game in its entirety – Man Utd could so easily be looking at maximum points rather than two out of nine. And everybody else who has watched those games will agree. 75% possession throughout the whole game at home to Reading – the chances just wouldn’t come. Complete domination against Portsmouth and Man City, with those two squeezing away a goal from only a couple of chances, and once more United just couldn’t find their shooting boots.
But in every single game the commentators, pundits, fans and even myself have sat there thinking “well it’s only a matter of time before we score”. And with that being said, it is ONLY a matter of time before United start putting the goals in. It’s not the performances – shit, in all three games this season we’ve toyed with the other teams.
I know what you’re thinking. “It’s results that matter”. Yeah, it is. But misfortune doesn’t extend for the whole season. Tevez is still unfit, as are Hargreaves and Anderson, Ronaldo is to return from a suspension, Rooney from injury and Saha/Solskjaer are both training again after their own injuries. All those problems and we’re still playing teams off the park. The goals will come.
Watching the game today (v Man City) I thought the performance was brilliant. Hargreaves was fantastic in the defensive midfield role especially considering he’s still not completely fit. But even more promising was the link up between Scholes, Hargreaves and Carrick who must have had a 90% pass completion rate between the three of them and Man City just couldn’t get the ball off them.
The problem came with the other three.
Nani doesn’t look that good at all. His crossing is mediocre at best, he’s not dancing past people like his reputation promised and he wasted an awful chance unmarked in front of Kasper Schmeichel. Giggs too is suffering from a similar lack of penetration. His deterioration as his pace escapes him is going exactly to script, and it’s making for painful viewing. Tevez was feeding off scraps, suffering from a lack of fitness anyway and being marked by two big, physical defenders. As well as we played – the lack of penetration on the wings coupled with Tevez being marked by Dunne and Richards (who were both contenders for man of the match) meant this was never going to end well.
There’s 35 more games and Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and whoever else still have to get those tricky away games themselves. The results are gonna come. Whether Chelsea or Liverpool go seven points ahead today is irrelevant. The level of teams surrounding the top four (Tottenham, Portsmouth, Newcastle, West Ham, Blackburn and Manchester City) has raised so much that the Chelsea’s and Liverpool’s ARE going to drop more points this season. They’ve all got lots of tricky away ties ahead of them and people are already talking like the other title contenders are going to go the next 35 games without winning. Nonsense. It’s way too early for this kind of panic.
A win against Tottenham next week, and then another against Sunderland the week after and we’ll all be singing a very different tune. So take your negativity elsewhere.
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