Man U may have won 20 league titles to date, but will they be winning any trophies this season?
During last weekend, Manchester United played Chelsea. While this game usually promises a titanic clash between two strong teams in previous seasons, the fixture was a mismatch this time round, with Chelsea sinking possibly the final nail into the coffin of the Red Devils’ Premier League title hopes. Chelsea walked all over Manchester United and came away with a resounding 3-1 victory.
The Sir Alex Reign is over
Now it is already mid-January and the Christmas festive period is well and truly over. United are definitely experiencing a major crisis – possibly the biggest since Ferguson became their club manager. The defeat in the Chelsea game was merely a confirmation of this.
Is the Sir Alex era of domination over? The Red Devils must pick themselves up and look to the future. They cannot rest on their laurels and keep thinking of the glorious past.
The weekend game against Chelsea, United’s seventh defeat of the season, marks a milestone. During the past ten seasons, United have only lost seven matches twice, in a single Barclays Premier League campaign – and that was over the course of the entire period, not by January.
Where will Man U end up this season?
No longer the team they used to be
The Red Devils are certainly no longer the team that they were during Sir Alex’s reign. If the club is able to get into the Champions League, then they can consider themselves lucky.
In fact, when clubs play Manchester United nowadays, they seem to be fancying their chances against the Red Devils. In the past, smaller clubs used to give up on such fixtures, and normally tend to let the bigger clubs win, but now they believe that they can get something out of such matches.
Title Chances Are Over
Despite what their manager David Moyes might say about their title chances still being alive, the Premier League table says otherwise.
Manchester United are 14 points away from the top of the table. Only a massive collapse by not one, but all of the top three clubs in the league table (Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea) will lead to United having a slim chance to win the trophy.
The Premier League title race this season is shaping up into a competition between three clubs. Even Liverpool, sitting in fourth place and six points behind Chelsea, are already considered as the outsiders to win the league trophy. So what are United’s chances?
No Champions League Football
Manchester United’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season are slowly slipping away. If they continue losing games, the club will see themselves out of Europe altogether, and not even be contenders for the Europa League.
By looking at the league table, the battle for the fourth Champions League spot is probably going to be among three teams this season – Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton.
Moyes may be shown the door
If this decline continues at the club, David Moyes might not even last till the end of the season, with the rate that managers are getting sacked in the football world these days.
But if Moyes is indeed shown the door, I wonder who will take up the now poisoned chalice of the Manchester United manager’s job. Sure, some may say that Jose Mourinho is a good pick to turn United back into a winning club, but he has already pledged his heart to Chelsea for the long term, so the Portuguese is not a possible contender for the job. He is also probably not the right fit for United, anyway.
We shall see what happens and which way United goes, over the course of the next couple of seasons.
Leave a Comment