Manchester United, truly good for the title ?

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Manchester United have started the season in blistering form. A lot of pundits and football enthusiasts actually expected this because of the summer acquisitions made by the club. Jose Mourinho, the club’s tactician didn’t get all the players he actually wanted, but he got 3 of them, and that is a 75% success rate. Two of those arrivals have been very key, both quickly becoming arguably the most important players for the club, key to the good performances the club has had this season.

Nemanja Matic was an acquisition not too many pundits and fans were particularly keen on, a lot of fans preferred Monaco’s Fabinho. Perhaps it was a case of too much familiarity breeding contempt, because I never understood why anyone would think Fabinho was better than a major mainstay in two Premier League title winning squads. Perhaps it was the age, but Matic, a twenty-nine-year old defensive midfielder still has at least four good years left in him. All in all, he has been a fantastic buy, one of the best United player so far, consistently putting in good performances.

The club started their season with a four-goal demolition of West Ham, followed by a four-nil win over Swansea, and since then, they have won four of their last five Premier League games and drawn one, scoring thirteen goals and conceding just twice, both at the Britannia. That means they have scored twenty-one goals already in just seven games this season, an average of three goals per game, but are they really good for the title?

The team has played some fantastic football so far; they also played good football last season, but they didn’t get the results they wanted for the most part due to the team’s profligacy in front of goal. However, the addition of Romelu lukaku this season has improved their attacking potency; the Belgian target-man has found the net in all but one of his games so far. Compared to their results last season, one would say this current Manchester United team is staking a good claim for the title, but is that enough?

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City has been blowing teams away too, in an even more devastating fashion than the red half of the city. Watching United play, one could get the impression that they were struggling at certain points, City on the other hand just dispatches opponents seemingly without any hassles, their display against Chelsea, the defending champions is bigger proof of this.

Manchester United’s performance against Stoke City may be called a one-off by analysts, but it could be more than that, for me, that was the game to test Manchester United’s overall resolve this season, and they failed. They lacked the necessary cutting edge and compactness needed at that point. If they are going to win the league, they need to realise that they are up against a ruthless Manchester City side with an embarrassment of attacking talents to break any defence in the Premier League. Jose Mourinho’s team may be doing well at the moment, but they need to up their game if they are to take the league title home in May.