This time United came up with something new for us to watch on Wednesday evening.---Take the lead within the first 30 seconds and try to defend it for 92 minutes.
The saddening reality about Wednesday is that West Ham were good for a draw and if one of those long balls had bounced kindly for one of their attackers, then we'd pretty much have no cause for complaint. Thankfully, in the end, we managed to get the sixth point of 9 in what is a crucial week for us ahead of the derby.
Reading Away is the next of those fixtures that we cannot afford to drop points in. The reason I say we cannot is because we've already lost three game already and so a fourth one before Christmas would put us in a position of 'no room for error' between now and May.
The reality is that City are virtually out of Europe (they might not even make the Europa League) and that leaves them with just the League and the FA Cup to distract them between now and May. It's unlikely that with the squad that they've got and the freshness they have, they'll find it hard to win every Saturday. I mean mid table EPL clubs thrive on such spread out fixture lists so much so that they give Champions League participating clubs a bloody nose the match day after.
The Manchester clubs seem to have pulled away from Chelsea (thanks in no small part to Benitez) so we can only measure ourselves in comparison to them. The table standings give off a very itchy look to a pessimist United fan---City, despite being below us and despite having scored more goals than them, have a better goal difference. Taking the lead within the first minute against West Ham told of an inevitable thrashing about to be dished out. But we could only get one, falling another goal behind them after their 2-0 victory.
It might be a tad too pessimistic to suggest that the title will come down to goal difference again but given how close we've been with them in the standings, you can't rule that out and God knows we cannot afford to lose another title to them in the manner in which we did last season.
Get the Business done at Reading and let the build-up begin!
Labels: REVIEWS
