Cherries could still end up in bottom three Jose’s finally got United to click. Conte & Co will be looking over their shoulders
Conte did it in, what, six to eight weeks at Chelsea? So there has to be a little bit of context.
But, all of a sudden, they are appearing and the fact United are still on the coat-tails of the top four means they have a real chance to finish in those Champions League spots.
Look at Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo, as individuals you’d have said both were on their way out of the club.
As a duo, however, they’re doing very nicely indeed. Then you’ve got Ander HULL, Swansea and Sunderland make up the bottom three and I’m convinced two of them will go down.
Hull and Swansea look doomed to me and will pay the price of having owners who once showed a propensity for getting things right – but now are getting things very, very wrong.
I can’t help feel that Sunderland will have enough, but they will still find themselves in a battle against two other sides to avoid that final relegation slot: Burnley Herrera and Michael Carrick. Was Herrera too lightweight on his own in a position United were crying out for a new Roy Keane or Paul Ince? Yes, he was. Was Carrick getting too slow? Same answer. But as a pairing they’re working very well. Then you’ve got Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba. Yes, it’s a bit predictable to pick them out, but Pogba is now getting the ball, lifting his head and dinking it in to Zlatan, and United are reaping the benefits. As an aside, I named Pogba as one of t he t hree biggest disappointments of the first half of the season last week, given his reputation and the fee United paid for him.
But, to give him his due, he has looked much sharper in the past couple of weeks and that bodes well for the rest of the season and beyond, too.
Functioning
and Eddie Howe’s (left) Bournemouth. Burnley because their away record is putting far too much pressure on them to keep winning at home.
And Bournemouth because the number of goals they are conceding worries me, even though they have been winning and are mid-table going into the Christmas period. One club always plummets in the second half of the season and if they don’t address that soon, then it could be the Cherries.
The full-backs and wide men haven’t quite got there yet, and they will need to if United are to be successful.
But Luke Shaw, Matteo Darmian and Tony Valencia are all showing positive signs, and ahead of them Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Anthony Martial too.
Once they get those right then you have four or five partnerships across the pitch functioning well and understanding each other, and results start to follow.
Moyes didn’t get anywhere near that and I’m sure Mourinho, privately, will wonder why it didn’t happen sooner.
But he’ll take where he is now and if I was a United fan I’d be happy to be still in with a shout. Whether or not 13 points is too much for them to make up on leaders Chelsea remains to be seen, but my guess would be yes.
That said, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we had a five or six-team race for second to fourth. And the sort of form United are in at the moment, you would not back against them for any of those positions.