Fergie in fine form
Manchester United look to have risen to the challenge of the richest club in the world and a season of injury, illness and transition.
IT is not an easy thing to keep count of Sir Alex Ferguson’s trophies over the last quarter of a century at Manchester United but once they have all been carefully added up – 37, if we are going to include the Community Shield – it is difficult to think there have been many more gratifying than the one we can say, with gathering certainty, likely to come his way at some point over the next month or so.
Not the most dramatic, perhaps, and not the most glorious. His team have won more devastatingly in the past, with a faster tempo and a more obvious sprinkling of stardust. There have been times when they have provided up to half a dozen contenders for the Footballer-of-the-year awards and made the art of winning football matches look considerably easier, whereas this season they have frequently left the sense of a team playing with something to spare.
It has felt like a churn at times, though maybe only because a club that has made such a rare form of excellence their norm is always surrounded by the greatest expectations. The fact is Ferguson’s team are on course to set one of their highest points totals, as well as establishing a club record for the number they have accrued away from Old Trafford. They are 18 points clear of an old enemy, Arsenal, and 23 from another, Chelsea. Liverpool have all but disappeared in their wing-mirrors, 34 behind with fewer than half the goals scored. Manchester City, more relevantly, have been on the wrong end of a 10-point swing in the space of a month.
Through the fog of despair, the most financially endowed club on the planet can have only grudging respect for what United are threatening to show them about the powers of endurance and strength of mind that come a lot more naturally for serial champions.
What we have now is a United side playing with such purpose and drive, and a City team that suddenly appear so broken, one bookmaker announced on Tuesday they were paying out on the reigning champions. If there is a consolation for City, it is that the same happened in 1998 when United led Arsenal by 12 points only to go into a tailspin that saw them caught and overhauled.
This time, however, there is no sense of a team on the point of capitulating. If anything, United are simply gathering momentum, with seven wins on the trot and a fixture list so weighted in their favour the coming weeks threaten to be traumatic for the team five points behind in second place.
On current form, it is not beyond the realms of possibility United could actually win the league, or receive the guard of honour, when they visit the Etihad Stadium on April 30. Ferguson was noticeably reluctant after Monday’s 2-0 win at Blackburn to talk too much about these kind of possibilities, determined not to say anything that could be construed as overly presumptuous.
There was something telling, though, about his victory salute at Ewood Park. It evoked memories of the time, in 2003, he walked on to the Highbury pitch to pump his fists towards the away end in the midst of one of those epic title battles with Arsenal.
Another side might have wilted after October’s 6-1 mauling against City, the club’s worst home defeat for 56 years. Nemanja Vidic has not played since rupturing knee ligaments in December. The announcement about Darren Fletcher’s ulcerative colitis came the following week. In total, 15 players were missing through injury or illness at one point. Michael Carrick lined up in United’s defence when Blackburn, then bottom of the table, won 3-2 at Old Trafford on New Year’s Eve.
December was also the month United paid the price for a series of anaemic displays in the Champions League and January did not begin too brilliantly either, crashing to a 3-0 defeat at Newcastle. That night, at St James’s Park, it scarcely seemed credible that United would be threatening to confirm another championship before we even reached May.
This is why, to return to the original point, it is shaping up to stand among Ferguson’s finer moments, certainly in terms of perseverance when City have been exceptional for the most part and this, to recap, is meant to be a transitional year for United, with a large changeover in personnel.
In football, transition can be used as an excuse at some clubs. At United, however, they prefer the alternative, which is to roll up their sleeves and get on with it.
What we have seen since those back-toback defeats against Blackburn and Newcastle is a victory for all the mental toughness, resolve and competitive spirit that runs through the club. United have won 10 of their last 11 league fixtures, including trips to Arsenal and Spurs. They now have 12 wins and 39 points from 16 away games, with three left to beat their Premier League best of 42.
David de Gea, dropped after his mistakes in the home game against Blackburn, is rapidly becoming one of the season’s good-news stories. Jonny Evans has played with an assurance and presence that had not always been apparent until Vidic’s misfortune offered him an extended run.
In fact, some of United’s better performers since the turn of the year had been subjected to fierce scrutiny in the first half of the season. Carrick has won back the trust of many United supporters, whereas Ashley Young’s recent form has significantly improved after a lean spell in mid-season. Rafael da Silva is, once again, showing rich promise, Patrice Evra’s form picked up after the Luis Suarez affair ended and Rio Ferdinand has reminded us what a supreme defender he can be when free of injury.
At the same time, Wayne Rooney has taken his scoring total to 28 while Paul Scholes has shown since coming out of retirement that he, like Ryan Giggs, can play another season. Antonio Valencia has gradually become the key player in this season’s title race, now alongside City’s David Silva with 12 assists each. Valencia, however, has played 750 minutes fewer and it is his form that encapsulates United’s increased confidence just at the point of the season when City have started to lose their way.
Thirty-eight passes went into the move that culminated in Young scoring from just outside the penalty area against Blackburn on Monday. No other goal in the Premier League has had such a build-up all season, and yet the outstanding memory was still the power and audacity of Valencia’s shot to open the scoring.
This may not be a great United side, as demonstrated in Europe this season, but they are great champions and, from here, with three games coming up against Queen Park Rangers, Wigan and Aston Villa, all from the bottom six of the league, the 38th trophy of Ferguson’s 25 years in Manchester does not feel far away. – Guardian News & Media