If there was one thing Manchester United players and fans would pay for, it's a mid-week game---the chance to put Saturday's disaster behind them and think a bit more positively. Understandably, fans and players a like seem to have hit an all time low. The press has not helped matters and one can argue that but for the press, Liverpool and Chelsea would have realised that the weekend's events barely help them. The men and women in the newsrooms have held nothing back in making people believe that United are actually feeling the pressure as far as this title race is concerned.
Incredibly, the Dippers went a month without winning a league game after Rafa's rant and found themselves needing to win at OT to stay in the title race. United go unbeaten in the Premier League for almost five months and then lose a game and suddenly they are cracking up? Give me a break! The only disheartening aspect about the loss on Saturday was that it was to our bitterest rivals. But the fact is that United have it within themselves to go and pick up the League crown come May without even keeping an eye on other results. Unfortunately, that cannot be said about Chelsea and Liverpool.
This talk of pressure that United is feeling is actually being believed by a section of fans and they have gone ahead to criticise some of our players. Such is the power of the press that they can turn one defeat in 5 months into a crisis. Personally I have to admit that I was kind of taking United's victories for granted. I was not even moved by the game against Inter at OT because I knew that we would win it. I had actually stopped being extra-nervous when United was playing--something that did not occur to me for the entire last season. People talk of United being under pressure this season and yet they quickly forget that we had to win the title last season on the last day of the season. We have more points at this stage than last season with a game in hand. Much as we might not notice it, United is in a position that is no better than any other team's position in England. The only thing that can cost us now is ourselves so that means that not even the press can deny us all titles if we win them on the pitch.
Sir Alex loves to call this time squeaky bum time and no one else is as experienced as him in this period. The week is dragging on as some fans still try to come to terms with what happened at the weekend but the reality is that there is no pressure in leading the league table--Jose Mourinho was not lying when h said that the pressure is on the teams below! Anybody cheered up?
Labels: MANCHESTER UNITED
