Why you should consider Manchester City champions in waiting

The Citizens score for fun but need to defend well. Champions defend well and beat fellow contenders. Maybe not as crisp as Barcelona, City can excite you. Their biggest weakness is consistency. One moment they send chills down the small teams by beating bigger clubs, the next, they faulter in their travels.

They have shown some acceptable maturity of their unit over time this season. They suffered the loss of Samir Nasri and never shown their lack. Sergio Aguerro was also missing for a while and they never lost shape. The same goes for the absence of David Silva. It is a manager’s dream to have such a complete side.

Edin Dzeko always acted an impact player’s role, but he has stepped up to the plate to be as key as the main man, Negredo. So far, they are satisfying flowing forward and Vincent Kompany is a defender we saw in the championship winning side a few seasons back. As solid as they are, their leakage against set pieces may be a concern but my opinion is the absence of Lescott, whom I think either Arsenal or Liverpool should sign before a shine comes off his paint.

Otherwise, City have this championship wrapped up already and it is theirs to throw away.

Is it a Mata United should bank on?

The record Mata move to United brings with it some sense of relief to a desperate Manchester side’s quest to implement damage control measures that may be beyond repair by now. All hope is not lost given that the brand , despite the vertical downward spiral, is massive domestically and internationally. Furthermore, David Moyes is threatening more purchases.

The best part of the Juan Mata move is the hunger of the player to proof one of the best coaches wrong. He fell out with Jose Mourinho for his mediocre interest to play without the ball and the two have been the worst best friends.

Manchester United’s ship sank fast and their desperation got them to buy Mata from the team highly interested in United’s best player, Wayne Rooney. The fact that they can do business with matter underlines the extent of United’s concerns. The price tag was one thing and to me, the louder message is that Rooney is going nowhere very fast. If ever he moves and does so to Stamford Bridge, Roman Abrahimovic will have to break a bank, if he still banks his cash.

Regardless, how much impact can Mata make, as an individual and who else would complement the Spaniard in the resuscitation efforts of the ailing champions. I got neither belief nor answer in the process or its success. A complete overhaul is needed, not the five Matas muted by the English press. The wish-list DM has, does not impress me to make United potential champions.

Besides, the cost will not be worth the while. These players will naturally cost more and worth less at this point in time. United needs just to play enough just to avoid relegation and build a proper team in the new campaign.

The good intention of Sir Alex Ferguson of building a team and believing the inheritance was going to help DM failed as a natural turn of events followed the script. Great managers build their own teams and success is never inherited. Once in a while we ride the crest and get the accolades after all has been forgotten about the predecessors, but that happens once in a blue moon.

Some managers I admired built teams and destroyed them several times. Brian Clough of Nottingham Forest relegated that team and promoted them again and again. It is that level of understanding and ability that a Manchester United needed. This is not to say that DM cannot or will not build United again. He can and he will.

All he needed was to do this building himself right from the start. The shortcut could have worked, had Wayne Rooney and Robin van Piersie been well and at their level best. That was not the case and the domino effect’s impact is causing the present pressing of panic buttons. Is this a Mata United can bank on? Time will tell.

Arsenal are a good limping horse.

Fa Cup fever is down after the weekend fest. Arsenal’ Arsene Wenger is a true realist. Do not confuse that with his known modesty. Despite the Gunners’ greatest start in the league for ages, he never openly said they have the league championship in the bag and this is because he does not think so, as much as you should not

This is why. Despite the arrival of Lukas Podolski, Santi Karzola and Mesuit Ozil – some real serious talent, at the Emirates, Arsenal have remained just an ordinary Gunners’ side which plays the way they think is Barcelona football. The thing is, they huff and puff to grind results, as any other team aspiring to be crowned. They have not blown any mind by the way they play or score.  

What has been a difference or a revelation, to the surprise of all and sundry, has been the early tearing form of one Aaron Ramsy, to many for many years, an outcast that Wenger dangerously trusted. Ramsy has been injured for a while and the momentum of his performances carried Arsenal thus now. The ascendance of Ramsy rubbed off to the Englishman in Theo Walcott in both form and now unfortunately, injury.

Their recovery will be vital to how Arsenal finish in the Barclays Premier League. How much more they will be grinding off points before the duo comes back remains to be seen but putting your money on Arsenal as champions is betting on, literally, a limping horse.

The English Premier League is coming home

 One of the hardest things in my football is dealing with the undeniable ascendance of Arsenal as real. The greatest thing in the English Premier League right now is the undoubted Luiz Suarez performance. Do not crucify him for his antics, but the professionals that he fools, should be the ones ashamed. Let us remember that Liverpool already have passed their cloud number nine, and seem to have hit the ceiling. It could be the resurgent Tottenham Hotspur that dwarfs their good run, but their scoring habits have shaken the league greatly. They could have been above the Gunners and duly claimed the ‘title contender’ tag, had their defending been sounder.

It sounds unrealistic to write so much positivity of the game without mentioning Manchester United. Since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, or is it the arrival of David Moyes, the wheels have come off the wagon. Depending therefore, it could be that SAF went with the wheels or DM is not skilled enough to fit them on. All is not gloom and doom as Manchester has City to fly the flag of town.

Manchester City are a safer bet by far to land the title, despite their questionable away performances, especially their defending. I am not a Manuel Pellegrini and I believe it is more of the quality of Aguero, Silva, Toure, Negredo, Navas, Nasri and the rest of the gang than the class of the manager. I am not saying he is bad, but his material is a universe more superior to any other in the league.

Spurs had the material before Gareth Bale left, and they added what I could have never bought, with all due respect to their purchases. AVB failed to formulate a system of any kind and he tried to play a game that I could recognize. It does not surprise me Tim Sherwood is reaping the results this easy. Jermaine Defoe is nowhere close to being finished and he never used him, Aaron Lennon was fading – injuries aside, Dembele was being sidelined. I will not mention Adebayor.

What interests me as much as it should interest you is the Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea. I was as sceptic about The Special One’s return Stamford Bridge as I was about both AVB’s pedigree and expenditure, as well as David Moyes’s suitability to Manchester United’s quest. Mourinho has proven me wrong. It is normal for him to cut, chop and change with amazing success. He has kept and used most of what he found there and the same players work differently.

There will be a lot to discuss but the obvious stories are ever the rise and rise of Roberto Martinez, the shrewdness of Brendan Rogers, the perennial troubles of Sam Alladyce of West Ham United and Paul Lambert of Aston Villa. As stingy as Arsene Wenger is, it would be a given to win the 2013/2014 title is Cristian Benteke arrived at the Emirates. As it is, the Gunners are pretenders. We will only call them zebras after we see the stripes.