My head is broken.. Into my third week of feeling ill, coupled with a two day hangover.. Too old for 12 hour drinking sessions..
To be fair Chelsea have finished stronger than us the last four seasons, and we've lost a fair few games after the turn of the year in all of those seasons. But what marks us out is that, barring 09/10, we have done enough after the turn of the year to win the league. Chelsea have finished stronger but, 09/10 aside, from a position where they hadn't a chance in hell of overtaking us and topping the table. I expect the same thing this year - they'll be around 4th come January, will go on a great run (probably assisted by another £50m+ of oil money) that gets all their fans thinking they have a chance to catch us and City, but they'll fall short and finish 2nd or 3rd. Again.
How many times can you say we have finished weakly and been passed at the finish line? For me it is once, by Arsenal in '98. Other than that we've tended to take our foot off the gas once the league is won. We have NO tradition of weak finishes so his post is bollocks.
I can see this happening, but I'd like to think they'd still finish outside the top 4. They can't spend their way out of trouble any more, because City can simply out-spend them. If Abramovich pulls out, they're ****ed. And he has a history of rash decisions.
I doubt they'll finish outside the top 4 (I could obviously be wrong), but they need to do some serious spending. The age thing really is becoming a problem for them.
The problem with Chelsea is that their defence has been found out now. How many mistakes has Cech made over the last few season? Loads. Terry has been made to look even more slow and cumbersome than Rio was! And how badly did Nani, Walcott and Henderson...HENDERSON(!) **** Cole over!? I know people will cite City scoring 6 past us but a lot of that was due to us being a man down and chasing the game after we scored. Even more than that, all the teams that have had lots of chances against us (Chelsea, Arsenal, City) had a lot to do with our midfield being a lot more open than it has been for the last few years. Especially with Cleverley and Anderson in the middle, great going forward but did leave lots of space. In fact it was our defence and keeper that kept the opposition out!
Its the same with Phil Jones though, he tends to leave a lot of space there meaning you've got much less players behind the ball if he loses it than you used to with Neville/OShea at RB, and Rio doesn't have much pace to cover people anymore. Have to say though, as much as he is overrated by some ManUtd fans, you wouldn't have conceded those chances with Carrick in the team. The fact with Chelsea is they've been playing one way for so long, its their comfort zone, you can't expect a team to adapt seamlessly to a more attacking line up with a higher defensive line. Look at Man Utd who are struggling with their new midfield who play higher up the pitch. Mancini was a genius to sort City's defence out first then sort the attack out this summer, that's what Andre Villas Boas should've done, and Ferguson.
It's hardly genius, it's fundamental basics. In signing Jones, De Gea and previously Smalling, what aspect do you think Fergie is sorting out if it wasn't defence? There's nothing whatsoever wrong with our defence but plenty with our CM. We don't over rate Carrick though, we just defend him when he is slagged off. I think we rate him about right with other fans saying he is far worse than he actually is. I'm desperate for him to get fully fit and on form to sort our ****ing midfield out. In other news, RedHad. Tesco have a spirits sale on and it ends tomorrow, get your festive Laphroig in sharpish. Talisker and Tanqueray for me, I'm off to get it sorted.
I'm going to take slight exception to that. Apart from when he signed, I don't think I've ever seen a topic on Phil Jones and he hasn't been much of a talking point either positively or negatively. I think he is much more hyped by England fans/the media. Also, if you ask United fans on here who's they think is better, Jones or Smalling, I think most (including myself) would say Smalling. Not to say that I think Jones isn't good, I think he is pretty good but has the ability to get a lot better, especially, as you mention positionally. But it's a great trait, that power and directness he has so I don't think we should look to neuter that side of him. With Carrick, I feel he is vastly underrated by United fans and by England. Not one to blow my own trumpet but I have always extolled the virtues of Carrick and I did say in the matchthread before the Swansea game (or in a thread about Cleverley, one of the two) how much better we'd be defensively if Carrick plays. Also, I think he gets the best out of our best central midfielder, Anderson. Regarding our midfield. In the CS game, when Cleverley came on, we controlled the midfield and had tons of possesion. This combo with Anderson worked fantastic then because we had more or less set up camp high up the pitch. And without wanting to sound like a broken record, I said at the time about our midfield, great, but what's going to happen when we don't have possesion? We are going to concede chances. And it just so happened that against City, they kept it tight at the back and midfield and it just unravelled. And rightly so that we have retreated and looked to be more conservative. I don't think Mancini is a genius for sorting out their defence. Kompany has been getting better all the time. Richards has always been good, so has Hart. Lescott and Kolorov aren't bad either. Not to mention that they almost always play with defensively minded players such as de Jong or Barry. I think all the ingredients were there for someone like Silva, Aguero and Toure to play their natural game knowing that solid base is there. With Chelsea, you look at their attacking options, Drogba, Torres, Sturridge, Mata, Lampard, Malouda, Ramieres. It's not exactly poxy but last night, it just seemed to me that they weren't a team. They looked like individuals out there, no real leadership either which is certainly an odd thing to say about a Chelsea team that contains Terry, Lampard and Drogba.
Carrick is a player who restricts the number of chances at both ends just by the way he plays - if you want end-to-end we'll score more than you football then he's not your man. If you want to grind out a few results, he's ideal which is exactly what we needed after the City game. Now he's back, I'm more confident about keeping clean sheets than when he's not in the side.
Glen Johnson's goal and an 85p bet. http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/21112011/58/premier-league-gambler-scoops-585k-late-winner.html
Lucky is one thing but jammy is a more apt word on a bet like that. But fair play to the lad,you gotta be in it to win it.
Imagine if he'd won that kind of money betting on Man Utd, people would be claiming it was fixed for Man Utd to win.
