One weekend does not a season make. So much can happen between August and May, but yet some trends do emerge from the first weekend.
While the man who writes off Manchester United does so at his own peril, this could be a tough year for them. By the time they get everyone healthy and playing together it?s possible that Arsenal and Chelsea will have put too much space between them and United. I?m not sure if Man U has the quality of depth right now to fight on multiple fronts. Oh, they?ll still win far more than they lose, but I think they might be looking at third again rather than first, and for Sir Alex and team that is a bad season.
During the late-90s and the early part of this decade it was easy to hate Chelsea. Scum ball fans, lunatic in the boardroom and a bunch of fancy-pants Euro pretty boys on the pitch. But now I find my dislike feels more like what I felt for Man United over the last several years ? a disgust that is mixed with a genuine concern. I think these guys are for real now. Mourinho is not only a good manager; he?s also ruthless and has the swagger of a man who has won something. He knows how to win and knows how to change tactics. While it might see logical with all the talent at Stamford Bridge that he would try to beat teams 3-2, he knows what it takes to win against real quality opponents ? you shut them down. Arsenal are built for speed. Wenger?s got Ferraris, BMWs and Jaguars in his garage. Mourinho knows that the way to beat that is not with a Lamborghini, but with a Hummer.
I think if you look at it, over the last three or four years, when Arsenal have faltered in Europe, or even in England, it wasn?t because they were losing games 4-3, they were losing 1-0 or 2-1, or drawing at home. Wenger has got to figure out how to manufacture those crunch games. That is possibly the one drawback to Arsenal?s style of play ? and personnel. When they can?t control the flow of the game it becomes difficult to get the result. Sure, against Everton, when the Toffees packed it in, deep in their own zone, Arsenal could bombard them with pressure and finally get a goal. You can?t do that against AC Milan or Valencia or Bayern Munich, their defense is too good. They?ll withstand pressure like that all day from Arsenal. Perhaps Reyes will provide a different look for defenses. He seems a bit more straight ahead in his attacking style.
I think the other significant shift this season is that the Premiership will be far more difficult. Six of the 10 games ended in ties this weekend. It?s going to be harder to take points from the middle teams (5-15), and those are the key matches. The top teams will split, roughly, against each other and pound the bottom dwellers. Look to see how Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United do against Aston Villa or Charlton. Those teams will be difficult to get three points from, no matter who you are or where you play them.
14 Responses to “Is The Sun Setting On The Man United Dynasty?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
August 17th, 2004 at 8:02 am
Good post. I genuinely feel the same about Chelsea, I once disliked them for mainly their “off the field” antics (I.e the “headhunters” and Dennis Wise, the biggest tw*t in the history of football), but now it is another kind of dislike. The fact that 14 months or so ago Chelsea were a team who had got themselves into financial crisis of their own doing, had an ageing team and would be happy with a mid table finish and are now, thanks to a bored Russian billonaire, are monopolising the transfer market and are trying to “buy” success. Although we had already seen this to some extent with Blackburn when they won the league, this dwarfs that a billion times over. Chelsea really do have a bottomless pocket. Who cares if a new 24m signing flops, they will just sell him at a cut price and sign the latest “one minute wonder” for 30m- whatever their newest manager at the time says! I never thought I would say it but however much I hate Manure, there is a respect that I have for them, one that for me will never be for Chelski.
United and Ferguson have worked hard for the world famous “Man United” empire, both on and off the field. Until recently, the core of United were players from the youth team, relatively unheard of at the time (Very similar to Wengers method of “breeding” unknown talent) and look at how successful Scholes, Becks and of course Giggs were (Who is i am ashamed to say is a relative of mine!). There was something about this team that had a sense of solidarity to it, they were all best friends there was a real “all for one and one for all” if you like. Becks left and that “solidarity” didn’t seem as firm. Looking at Chelsea it doesn’t even exist. Too many prima donnas, no one knows if they are going to be in the managers plans, and everyone is expendable. The team with the best team spirit last season? Arsenal. Everyone fights for each other in this team, which is exactly how the successful United and Liverpool sides played, there is a team spirit that is unrivaled. From the dressing room to the boardroom- we are lucky to have such a closely knitted squad.
Here’s to the Champions!
August 17th, 2004 at 9:00 am
Nice post, Rick.
I’m not even sure ManU have third sewn up as much as it may previously have been thought. And I think that is because the points made here: solidarity. There are other hungry, together teams out there?the Villas, Addicks, Boro, ‘Pool in time with their new signings, ‘Toon (’cept for Dyer, the fool)?that may outlast them come the end of the season. Sure, ManU has their peroxide nutter in Smith, but it remains to be seen if he can play with Ruud the poacher. The twain have yet to seriously meet. I suppose we’ll have to wait until Ferdinand returns to see if they can muster some belief.
For me, Chelsea/Mourinho/Abromovitch are Public Enemy Number One because they threaten the heart and integrity of the game. This is war. They cannot be allowed to simply purchase a cup. And the only way to fight them is with togetherness and teamwork. I do see them getting it together in the next few months and blowing teams out, though. Perhaps when Jose “My s*it don’t stink” Mourinho decides that they’re good enough to actually play attacking football.
The Arsenal are the antidote to the cancer in English football?Chelsea. May they implode in one, huge, prima donna, hissy fit.
August 17th, 2004 at 10:03 am
Whats that quote about the demise of so and so being greatly exaggerated?!?!
Me thinks it applies here.
I agree that United don’t want to get TOO FAR behind early… but they have enough talent and pride to beat the teams they are supposed to… and stay within hailing distance.
RIO, RVN, SAHA… all outstanding players… all will be back.
Do NOT count this team out… they only lost 1-0 at Chelsea… and probably deserved a draw.
Not sure I see how they are done…
August 17th, 2004 at 10:49 am
I agree that when they get everyone back they could make a furious run. But they no longer walk on to the pitch with a 1-nil lead like they used to.
August 17th, 2004 at 10:56 am
Rick… VERY TRUE…
now The Arsenal now walk onto the pitch with that 1-0 swagger!
August 17th, 2004 at 1:28 pm
I see Man Utd finishing anywhere from 2nd to even 5th. By the time November rolls around they’ll have RVN, Ronaldo and Rio in the line up with Smith and Saha to boot. They lack in the middle of the park and Scholes, Giggs and Keane can no longer be counted on to go 38 league games. However, what’s changed is that they only had to deal with Arsenal to get the title. Now they have Arsenal and Chelsea, and its unlikely that both will slip. Plus a resurgent Liverpool nipping at the heels at anyone who is third. It will take a massive effort and a collapse of two clubs for them to win the title. I don’t see that happening.
The big question is what they will do next summer. If they get a Ronaldinho type player, then its the 2nd coming of Cantona and we start all over again.
I want them to end their era. 2, preferablyr 3 years without a title should be the proof. One thing is for sure though, since December 2001, Arsenal have been the best club in London and have only lost the title through their own lack of effort or lack of luck. Before December 2001, Man Utd could say that, but not any longer.
August 17th, 2004 at 2:04 pm
For me Chelsea have always been The Enemy (despite the charms of Ranieri and Zola) because they’re a nasty, true-blue, queen-and-country racist protestant club - they were vile to the Turkish supporters in last year’s CL - linked with Rangers and with loads of Tory politician supporters. The seedy Abramovic billions just add to their ghastliness. Red clubs good, blue clubs bad - traditionally - so the poor manure are almost OK. True, they’ve got a billion twottish supporters but some quite nice old-fashioned wrinkly northern ones too. I think they’ll come behind Liverpool, maybe even behind Villa, but actually I was surprised at how good they were in the CL considering they had 9 first-choice players out.
August 17th, 2004 at 3:02 pm
Simply put…YES!
By Colin On
August 17th, 2004 at 10:38 pm
Have to say that when you win UEFA cup in one season and CL cup in next with an aveage squad, you’ve got to be a fantastic tactician. IMHO, that cocky Mourinho may not be below Wenger in the mastery of football tactics (saying that he is better than AW may earn me some harsh bombarding from u ^^). STILL, I have NO respect for someone who is willing to work for a club that has sold its soul to a guy like Roman who seems to have the ambition to become European football super power, now already having his say in Porto, PSV (that’s Chelsea’s “Beveren”, hmm…), and er, CSLK Sovia (can’t remember how to spell)? Where is your sense of achievement when you win every cup and title on display with a club like Chelsea?
Sure2,he can come and tell me how much harder it actually is to get all those superstrars to gel and play for each other. he can say that it is easier to manage club like arsenal where most players have been around for years. But the fact remains, today, when you walk away from your modest club heading towards Stamford Bridge, you know it’s all about money and “instant sucess”. Mourinho could tell that he may never get any CL cup anymore if he were to stay with Porto, so he come to Roman to prolong his amazing CV. Coming the end of this season, it will be sweet to see Chelsea without trophies and Porto lifting their league Cup (of course, CL cup is ours ^^). No matter how many more superstars they buy, they we can still take them on. After all, this is FOOTBALL.
Oh and what’s the topic again? Sad to say this but when MANU were 1-0 down and they were bombarding Chelsea like crazy in second half, I wanted them to score for a draw or even a win. I respect MANU as much as I am sick of them. Read from some article (about how financial wise we should have sold Paddy) that they will be expanding their stadium to 75000 cap. We are in serious debt now and what we will end up with is 60000. Seems that MANU empire can’t go down that easily guys. At least, they will always have the financial muscle and enormous fan base to support them. They may be into another hard season this year, but they will always have the quality on and off the pitch to make a comeback. When Heinze settle in, Rio, Horsey, and Ronaldo return, and some older players and good-for-nothing brothers replaced, they will be back in business.
August 18th, 2004 at 2:31 am
Well if you could dig up my posts from last year, you would find I was speaking their demise then, and nothing happened during the summer that would change that impression. Let’s expand on this solidarity concept, because there is some lovely ripe fruit there. The season is 2002/2003. I remember it as clearly as if it were yesterday. I watched Manchester United play each week, and I watched Arsenal play each week - and even with Arsenal building a solid lead in the tables I knew Man U would win the league before we left the month of January. You could see it in the way that Manchester players were *genuinely* excited for each other whenever they were successful. Cut to Arsenal and you saw emotionless, *professional* displays. They looked like they were too tired to care. It ate at my gut, but I knew we’d lose eventually even as we racked up points.
Now cut to 2003/2004. Now it was Arsenal’s turn to feel the good vibrations - and what a difference!!! That memory is so vivid in my brain now, that I get butterflys every time I see Thierry blow a teammate off the way he did with Reyes. If Reyes weren’t a good natured kid, that could have bought some trouble. Say what you like, but chemistry is both very fragile, and very important.
The real problem that Man U faced, even in 2002/2003 when they won the title - and still face today, is that much of their strength lies in their reputation. They possess, and have possessed, some real superstars, but they haven’t been as strong as Arsenal *across the board* since 2001/2002. What they had instead was amazing team chemistry, very solid fundamental play, and plain old intimidation. You need to look no further then the erstwhile David Beckham to see this in action. Week after week I watched as *nobody* challenged Beckham for the fear factor alone - only to watch him scorch team after team with clean, unblocked crosses into RVN. I almost got sick watching it. I give Beckham his due, but he wouldn’t have scored *half* as many goals turning an agressive defender as Man U did from his crosses. Whenever you can get teams intimidated enough to set back on their heels and not challenge your passes, you’ve already won the game - and Man U was exceptional at this. There is a weakness though…
When the bubble finally bursts on your charade, and teams discover they can actually challenge you just like everyone else, you can become considerably weaker *seemingly* overnight. Remember what I said about overall strength? Manchester United’s bubble has truly burst - for a variety of reasons; i.e. Beckham leaving, his natural replacement Soleschar getting injured, Rio getting suspended - and overnight they discovered that in amongst their superstars were far too many sub-par players to walk the title-dog. Manchester United is a highly beatable team these days, and they are beatable now because teams *know* they’re beatable. And all those teams with a little cowardly egg on their face want payback, and some of them will get it. I can think of 6 or 7 names right off the top of my head that have no business playing for a Man U team that wants to contend. Losers is the correct term I think. Man U is dead - and they will stay dead until they fire the dead wood, and send Sir Alex packing, because like most old men who have succeeded in a certain way for so long - he simply can’t see the weakness in his squad. He’s too invested in it. He won’t fix it.
I fear only Chelsea. I think an extremely good point was made when someone suggested that we don’t do well when teams play us too defensively. I couldn’t agree more. There is a relatively simple solution though - although it requires great patience. Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, and repeat. The good news is that we are already good at this, but we need to play this game on their end of the pitch until we lose it. We let them break with it a little, and then we counterattack. Four, five, or even six counterattacks like that should net us a goal or two, and in very close defensive games, that’s all you need. We just get too impatient and try to force the ball. That just leads to more impatience, and its a vicious circle.
For the record, I love how everybody is now much more positive about the team now that Viera decided to stay - *in spite of the fact that we’ve looked very, very good without him*!!! It’s almost like people wanted the Viera insurance policy in order to be allowed to feel good about our existing team. It’s all academic now, but I will always believe that even if PV4 had left we would still have done the business. No disrespect intended.
August 18th, 2004 at 3:53 am
So to be an Arsenal fan I can’t love my Queen or Country, which I do. I can’t be a Protestant, which I am. I can’t vote Tory or have admiration for Rangers, which I do. I must also be nice to Turks, which I won’t. Hey, I sound just like all my friends and gooners who frequent the same bar.
Did you go to Copenhagen in 2000. Were you ever threatened with knives, did you see your mate get stabbed leaving a bar. I guess not otherwise you’d hate the scum as much as any other gooner who had to fight in the square. Let me repeat that, HAD to fight in the square. Running away was not an option, even the bobble hats had to stand their ground.
Keep the other stuff out of the game. I don’t care if you’re jewish, muslim, seventh day adventist, liberal democrat or believe Telletubbies will one day rule the world. As long as you’re a Gooner you’ll be a friend.
Okay maybe telletubbies was over the top, but you get my point.
KEEP THE FAITH
August 18th, 2004 at 6:19 am
The season is just a week old and will never court Man Utd out. They are not the same side as 2 or 4 yrs ago but will wait till January. Arsenal are playing some great football but there are lots of games to go.
Wait and see.
August 18th, 2004 at 1:15 pm
I take the point. But some clubs do have a distinct political/cultural identity. Real-Barca, Ajax-Feyernoord, Lazio-Roma, Celtic-Rangers - those rivalries are fuelled by wider ones to a city, a neighbourhood, a political or religious allegiance. OK, it’s less clear-cut with Arsenal, but that raises the question of what it is about Arsenal that we love, what we’re actually loyal to. A part of London? For me that’s a bit of it but it’s obviously not for most fans on this site. A style of football? Nope (much as I love the current one), still less footballing success. So what then? I’m sure most supporters feel that their club has a particular character but with Arsenal no one agrees what it is. Makes me curious about its history, what earlier fans believed.
August 19th, 2004 at 4:00 am
The bond I have with the club is purely and simply down to my loyalty to my friends. Some of us have been together for 38 years supporting The Arsenal.
We’ve made new friends ‘cos of The Arsenal. We’ve been to each others weddings, unfortunately funerals, watched each others kids grow-up.
We’re still there each week and although we don’t get to as many away games as we used to, we’re still like the 18-year olds that ran off the specials in some northern town, only we now travel in style with plenty of toilet breaks.
And no matter where we are in the world we’re always and forever Arsenal.