This season's Premier League title race is no longer about what Manchester United can do, but about what stuttering City will do
The last day of the transfer window, as predicted almost everywhere, turned out to be a fairly damp squib with none of the last-minute excitement of a year ago. Yet as the fireworks promised on 31 January 2011 failed to light up the Premier League in the following 12 months, maybe that is not such a bad thing. Perhaps 31 January 2012 will come to be remembered for different reasons, such as the beginning of the end of the assumption that Manchester City will run away with this year's title.
Clearly that is a risky assertion with so much of the season to come, but consider the facts. Darron Gibson would never have scored such an important winning goal for Manchester United. United supporters were pleased to see the back of the sturdy but limited Irishman, while most Evertonians were underwhelmed by the capture but greeted it with their usual resigned shrug. Old Trafford was like a morgue at 9.15 on Tuesday evening; cold, quiet and dutifully attended, with an unspoken disappointment hanging in the still night air. Then all at once the place was alive, first with the buzz of rumour, then with the thrill of confirmation, and finally with Gibson's name being hymned in a way it hardly ever was when he wore red. Gibson did not even figure when United were trounced 6-1 on their own turf in October. Now he had struck back at City all by himself.
That sort of thing must strike even hardened realists as the hand of fate. United fans knew their side was not playing well enough, or urgently enough, to mount the cavalry charge challenge of old, and they also knew City would have to slip up to let them have a sight of the prize. Suddenly here was everything they ever wanted, delivered in a tidy parcel on the same night. United played extremely conservatively and won, with Paul Scholes not exactly rolling back the years in midfield but taking advantage of Stoke opponents who gave him almost as much respect as his star-struck team-mates, and Roberto Mancini attempting to take the blame for City's collapse at Goodison by suggesting he had underestimated how dangerous Everton might be.
As if. No one underestimates Everton at Goodison. That is not to suggest the place is a fortress, QPR, Stoke and Bolton have all won there this season after all, but as Sir Alex Ferguson keeps saying, you always get a hard game at Goodison, and City should know better than most that Everton can pack a punch. In Mancini's first two seasons at the club he lost all four games against Everton, so for him to suggest he took them lightly when City had a three-point lead at the top of the table to protect does not ring true at all. Mancini is likely to be attempting to deflect attention and blame from his players, which is fair enough. That is what managers do. It is not what supporters do, however, and just as United chat-rooms are full of congratulatory messages to Agent Gibson for a job well done, so the suggestion has entered the blogosphere that City might be the new Arsenal.
As in, not up for cold nights on northern grounds (even though they own a northern ground). As in, too many expensive star names and not enough sleeves-rolled-up grafters. Even as in, too many former Arsenal players, who were guilty of the same failings with their previous club and have simply transferred them to their new one. Quite a number of Arsenal fans are pointing out that City have not had anything like the value they were expecting from Kolo Tour�, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasri and Ga�l Clichy, the last two of whom were signed on Mancini's watch.
Granted there have been other factors in City's stuttering form since the turn of the year, the loss of Yaya Tour� being uppermost, followed by the suspension handed out to Vincent Kompany. It is possible that once back to full strength, with a little regrouping, City could once more turn out the sort of performances that so enthralled in the early part of the season. That is what Mancini and his players must hope. Yet once you reach the start of the title run-in, particularly when you are neck and neck with your neighbours and rivals in the top two positions, performances are less important than points and results. Unless they happen to be bad performances, like City's at Everton, in which case they can turn a routine and rather undistinguished United win into a day of celebration.
Before anyone points out that it might be a mistake to read too much into United's win over a supine Stoke side unrecognisable from the team that terrorises opponents at the Britannia ? given that United had a young goalkeeper making his league debut it says everything that Stoke never once put him under pressure from a cross, never mind a shot ? it should be emphasised that United are old hands at the results business. It is City's result that demands scrutiny, since they are the team in unfamiliar territory, they are the side that must find a way to keep their title challenge going in the face of unexpected setbacks.
United will doubtless drop points between now and the end of the season, though history suggests they are unlikely to be blown off course. As Tony Pulis said in defeat at Old Trafford, you would have to back them in a close race because they have so much more experience than anyone else. With Wayne Rooney, Nani and Ashley Young all expected to return within days, they may be able to finish with something approaching their usual flourish, though even if United just continue to play conservatively and keep up the pressure on their rivals it may be enough.
Because the question now is whether City can hold it together. Mancini's players do not need any extra pressure from United ? their results and performances are starting to suggest their bold facade may be undermined from within. It remains to be seen how seriously each Manchester side take the Europa League's knockout stages, but highly unusually, in United's case at least, there are no other distractions between now and the end of the season. No Champions League to prioritise, no FA Cup ties to get in the way. It is still possible that Spurs could come up on the rails and surprise everyone, though at the moment it seems to be City's misfortune that their best chance of a title in over 40 years has coincided with one of the very few Premier League seasons when United will either have to win it or finish empty-handed. Concentrating on the league, as the old cliche has it, might suit City too, though with only the one domestic prize in sight every defeat or disappointing draw is bound to be magnified.
This is not one of the great United teams, otherwise it would not still be relying so heavily on Scholes's contribution and missing the defensive security Nemanja Vidic and a reliable goalkeeper used to bring, but it can keep ticking over and can be relied upon to get going when the going gets tough. City still have all that to prove, and on the evidence of Tuesday night, nothing can be taken for granted. United's next two games are against Chelsea and Liverpool, and for all anyone knows, in a fortnight's time they may have ground to make up again.
But for perhaps the first time this season, the focus has shifted. It is no longer about what United can do, but about what City will do. It may not be traditional squeaky-bum time yet, but City have put pressure on themselves and need to react. A fortune has been spent in furnishing the Etihad with a very good team. Now we are about to find out if City can wrest a share of greatness from their neighbours.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/01/manchester-city-premier-league-title
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