Premier League Shorts

Fresh from a spectacular thriller at the Camp Nou where Manchester United for a breathless ninety odd minutes went toe to toe with an in-form Barcelona, Manager Ten Hag was queried about his team’s chances of winning the Premier League this season. The Dutchman as expected was quite diplomatic in hinting that the title race wasn’t quite in the thoughts of the club and players at the moment but that focus was getting three points in their next game this Sunday against a rapidly improving Leicester City.

Ten Hag’s response understandably is the standard cliché that managers spew to underplay ambitions of their clubs in public but there is no doubt that behind closed doors, United will fancy their chances of winning the title this season even if does look a bit of a stretch considering that they are still five points behind Manchester City and Arsenal and involved in four competitions that already seems to have taken a toll on the team.

The matches over the next few weeks are coming in thick and fast and over the next three weeks there will be games against Leicester City and Barcelona before they head to Wembley to take on Newcastle United in the EFL Cup Final and prepare to face West Ham and Liverpool. The injuries are mounting already with players like Scott McTominay, Anthony Martial, Antony Santos, Donny van de Beek and Christian Eriksen consigned to an already bulging treatment room and you suspect that there’ll be more added to that list of injured players in the coming weeks.

It’s been a brilliant job that Ten Hag has done especially to turn the club’s fortunes around after what was a disastrous start to the season and there’s no denying the fact that United already look a far more composed team than they have been in recent times with previous managers but there is still a feeling that despite all of that progress, they are still well short of the numbers and quality required to overhaul their city rivals who in the last two games against Aston Villa and Arsenal are beginning to look like a side ready to shift gears and leave everyone else in their dusty wake.

The counterargument I suppose will be that there is a resilience about this United side that has been missing since the heady days of Sir Alex Ferguson and stranger things have happened in football. Marcus Rashford who has undergone an astonishing transformation this season looks like he simply can’t stop scoring and if United can keep the England striker fit, they’ll certainly be in with a chance. They’ve also shown in the last few weeks especially against Leeds United at Old Trafford and consequently against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, that they are quite capable of clawing their way back after conceding goals. The United of a few seasons ago would have let their heads down after going a goal or two down.

There are still about fifteen odd games to go before the season comes to a close in May and there will be lots of twists and turns but will Manchester United be in the mix or would it be wishful thinking to expect them to win the Premier League title so soon in the Ten Hag project?

Abiye Opuamah

Abiye Opuamah is an editor and a massive football enthusiast who also dabbles now and again in writing flash fiction pieces, playing chess against the machine and almost always roots for the underdog. He lives in Johannesburg.