Flops battle to go fourth
FOUR years ago the two Manchester clubs took the Premier League title race to the last seconds of the season.
The fact they will be embroiled in a fight to the wire for fourth place on Sunday indicates how far City and United have fallen short of expectations this season. Back in August, neither of them anticipated being involved in such an unseemly scramble for the final Champions League place. They had far loftier ambitions.
City started the season as title favourites while United expected third place at the very least, which would have been an improvement of one position on the previous campaign.
But their respective shortcomings have already cost Manuel Pellegrini his job – although we will never know what he could have achieved without the announcement in February that Pep Guardiola would replace him this summer – and left Louis van Gaal on the brink.
And there is an even bigger nightmare scenario for United than finishing out of the Champions League places. An extreme set of circumstances could mean they miss out on the Europa League if they lose to Bournemouth tomorrow, West Ham and Southampton both win, and Crystal Palace lift the FA Cup next Saturday.
You do not have to look far to see where United have come up short.
Their defensive record is second only to that of Tottenham, the heroics of goalkeeper David de Gea – voted Player of the Year for the third season running by the fans – going a long way to keeping the figure down. It is at the other end of the pitch where they have struggled
They have managed only 46 goals in 37 league matches and will finish comfortably short of their lowest previous tally in the Premier League era – 58, in 2004-05. Wayne Rooney has scored 14 goals in all competitions, well short of the 25 to 30 he and Van Gaal had hoped for at the start of the season, although he was injured for two months just as he was finally hitting his straps.
Anthony Martial has justified his huge fee in his debut season in English football and is the only United player to reach double figures in the Premier League – 11, with six more coming in other competitions.
Marcus Rashford has shown exciting potential but Van Gaal’s decision not to replace Robin van Persie, Javier Hernandez and Radamel Falcao with an experienced goalscorer to back up Rooney has proved costly. Van Gaal said yesterday: “I don’t think we have to improve defensive organisation too much, now we have to score more in our attacking way.
“We need to kill teams off quicker. How do we do that? By training, and that is what we are doing. You don’t always have to make goals, you have to keep the ball in possession. We shall do that better when we train more.”
A seemingly never-ending injury list did not help United’s cause, with the absence of left-back Luke Shaw, who had started the season so well, a huge loss.
City suffered injuries to key players as well. Skipper Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne were all out for lengthy periods, and Samir Nasri virtually all season, while Yaya Toure was on a downward slide. But more than anything they lacked consistency and, unforgivably, motivation on occasions.
The announcement of Guardiola’s arrival in February sent them spiralling to three consecutive league defeats – to Leicester, Tottenham and Liverpool – that effectively ended their title challenge. Pellegrini has finally admitted the news was bound to have a negative effect on his players, even if it was a subconscious one.
“Of course when you have that kind of news, it’s impossible not to affect the team – you will see that we lost three games.
“But I don’t think it was the only reason. There were a lot of other things. Leicester, for example, played 16 games less than us in the season, which is a lot. By continuing to the Champions League semi-final we were at a disadvantage against Tottenham, United and Arsenal too.”
City need only a point at Swansea to clinch fourth but, in this most unpredictable of seasons, there could still be one final twist.
Aguero’s late, late goal denied their neighbours the title in that unforgettable climax in 2012. This time around United will be praying a Swansea player can make himself a hero for the day.