Until yesterday evening, nobody was raising any question about the ability of Manchester United in lifting league championship this season. The result made it wide open once again. Chelsea beat United for 2-1 and equalized the points in the top order. Arsenal lost out in the run few weeks back and Liverpool, who is in the fourth place, is no where near to challenge the title. Football is like this, something amazing… till the end, you have to wait for the proper result.
There is something to learn from this match. Which is applicable to the third positioned Arsenal too. From the beginning of the season, most of the pundits suggested that this time it will be a three horse race for the league title and the teams will be Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool. This was based on the strength of the existing teams and the talent and capabilities of new recruitments. But, beginning onwards, it was completely wrong and another team who were not in the picture during the projections, appeared in the first place and hold that position till January end. They achieved more than they expected… that was the common notion among the pundits.
When Arsenal had six points lead over second placed Manchester United in January and Chelsea were struggling in the third position, Sir Alex predicted that the raise is still on and biggest threat will be Chelsea than Arsenal. There are only two more match remaining for the title and his prediction comes true. What were the components forced Alex Ferguson to make such prediction at that time and how it becomes true? This article is looking into such facts.
In January 2008, when Manchester United closed their gap with Arsenal in the top, Ferguson said, they will definitely reach in the top spot and most probably the closest challenge will come not from Arsenal and it will be from Chelsea. But, next week, EPL saw, Arsenal gained few more points and gained a better margin. Ferguson was not shaken and he stood on his same opinion. He was waiting for the blip of Arsenal and in next couple of weeks, it occurred. When the crucial matches piled up on one side and injury list become long on other, Arsenal crumbled and by the end of March, they lost everything and started struggling for third place.
Now, it is the time for Manchester United, and Ferguson perhaps has to eat his own words. Couple of weeks back, United were in a comfortable position with a good margin of 4 points above Chelsea. But the draw against Blackburn Rovers and lose against Chelsea put them equal in point to Chelsea and still enjoying advantage in number of goals scored. Why this happened and how Chelsea got that advantage?
Answer was there in the wall. When Sir Alex predicted that the real fight will be between United and Chelsea, he also clarified why he thinks so. It was purely based on squad strength and experience of players in big matches. Both, United and Chelsea holds the best squads in the league, with most talented players who also have enough experience. They were very particular in strengthening their squad by acquiring the best from market every year. Liverpool did it this time but they lost their momentum in between and lost their sight from League title and started concentrating on Champions League.
Apart from Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Liverpool plays for winning the match and their priority it to get 3 points out of it rather than playing beautifully on pitch. United merged strength, practical approach and technique in their games but Chelsea were more pragmatic and tried to win the match without much flare. All clubs puts their priority in winning the matches, but when market intervenes in the game, they have to entertain their supporters too. United were successful in maintaining both but Chelsea found several times they were in the false end where supporters are not interested in their home matches. Roman Abrahamovich, the owner of Chelsea built the team on his millions but later realized it is difficult to keep the attention of viewers on the game without an attractive and impressive game format. This was one of the key reason forced him to chuck Jose Mourinho out from the club and replace him with Avaram Grant. He tried his best but result was not that promising.
Beyond the attractive passing football, Chelsea had everything which a team requires. They had the best talent from all over the world. Each position, they had back ups and most of them were good enough to play in any best team in any country. Only suspicion was about the experience of Grant in Premier League. He was new and was not known for his managerial capabilities and experience with big clubs. Sir Alex were watching two things, how Grant will recover the success touch of Chelsea and how he will handle the absence of African players who will be away when African Nations cup take place. There was a blip in the transition period but Grant stabilized the team on the path of success. He was not successful to produce the beautiful football but managed to overcome the absence of African players in January.
Meanwhile, Arsenal was flourishing with its young talent and keeping its control on first place from the beginning. Sir Alex was very much sure that Arsenal will do wonders with the team but it is not enough to keep up the fight till the end. Before the beginning of the season, when all pundits wrote off Arsenal from major challenges, Ferguson was adamant that they will come up and give good fight to United and Chelsea. He said, they have a very good young team and they gained enough experience in the last year and of course, they have a good manager to make them successful. Only fault Wenger, the manager of Arsenal did was his adamant position to not strengthening the team with new recruits. He sold off his best player Therry Henry to Barcelona and allowed key player like Lung Berg to leave the team. The fragile defense was a real question mark from the beginning of the season. They possessed a first team which was capable to defeat any best opponent but they failed to find back up in crucial places when injury and disciplinary actions created holes in the team. Defense was over stretched and Midfield replacements become a big issue during February. African cup added more vows to the team when they lost their key defensive players like Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and Alexander Song.
Here comes the advantage of a big squad which Chelsea and United holds. African cup schedule was the time which Sir Alex was waiting as defining movement. He saw how Arsenal crumbled down from the first position and lost out in key matches. Absence of Toure, injuries of key players like Eduardo, Rosisky, Van Persie, Denilson, and Bacary Sagna proved that the squad strength of Arsneal was not enough keep up the fight.
On the other hand, United brought three for four players in the beginning of the season and strengthen its squad. They spend handsome amount to acquire Nani and Anderson from Portugal club along with Over Hargraves and Carlos Tavez, two most trusted and experienced talents. Injury of some players didn’t bother them at all during this season. Replacements performed better than their first team players and extremely brilliant form of Christiano Ronaldo helped them to compete in all big cups. They were never bothered about the injury of players like Gary Nevelle and Silvestor in defense and Louis Saha in attack. African cup didn’t bother them because they didn’t had any African national player in their team. So, Sir Alex was sure, when the time demands more from teams, his team will get advantage.
But, Sir Alex was not wrong in the assessment on Chelsea’s capability and its squad strength. Under the management of Avram Grant, they lost out in Carling cup final against Tottenham Hotspurs but they never lost in the premier league. They kept their team intact and performed well when they lost a good number of African players for Nations Cup. The expected blip didn’t happen and the team gained more experience in the absence of key players like John Obe Mickel, Michel Essien, Salomon Kolou and their key striker Dider Drogba. Instead of making lose in this time, they made advantage by bringing back the most experienced player like Michel Ballack in to form.
I may say, it was Chelsea, not Manchester United made the decisive blow to Arsenal in the league. They defeated them in the most crucial time and kicked them out from league and that forced them to move out from Champions League. Against Chelsea, Arsenal lost its best and most crucial player of the season Bacary Sagna to injury. Depletion of squad was the key reason of failure of Arsenal but advantage of Chelsea against Manchester is not only squad strength, it was experience of big players.
Decisive movement for Chelsea was the return of Michel Ballack from his long injury off. He has never won a Champions League but played in the final which lost to Real Madrid, especially to the wonder goal of Zineden Zidane. It was his heroic performance put Bayer Leverkusen in the finals of Champions League and he become German player of the year for three times. Apart from the experience of big players in big time, other elements were equal to both Chelsea and Manchester United. Both were still fighting in the Champions league to reach final and both team decided to keep their key players from the starting eleven.
English Premier League has two more matches to go to find its champion. If both, Manchester and Chelsea manage to win the remaining two matches, the title will be decided over goal average, where United enjoys a clear upper-hand. Both can’t afford any more blip of form in any circumstances. Champions League victory will be a bonus for both team but Liverpool and Barcelona have equal chance to reach in the final. One thing is sure, strength of squad is must but if it is with experience players, it is an added bonus.
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