The Charge

-Rahul

The marathon is ending. The participants are tiring, and it is now or never for the two horses at front of the pack. They can’t afford to slip up but in the end, it is inevitable. Only one can get the prize, from now on it is pure jungle law, Survival of the Fittest.

   United and City at the end of last season would not have imagined themselves at this position. United surely had never expected City to turn from F.A Cup winners to Title contenders and thus title rivals in the space of lesser than a season. The city derby has never been this huge. The next time they lock horns (April 30^th ) could be the decider on which way the title is going to go.

     United’s win against third placed Tottenham showed that the champions don’t have to have to be at their best to drill out an result from even clashes of highest profile. 3-1 the score line said but like many times this season, scorelines hardly told the tale. Spurs had 52% possession and most of the game took place in United’s half. They had 18 goal attempts to United’s 6. The stand out factor was however that they only had a Shots On Target to Attempts ratio of 1:3 (33%) while United had a ratio of 5:6 (a whooping 83%). Even more significant was the clinical finishing. United converted 3 of their 5 shots on target to goals while Spurs could manage only 1 off their 6.

  This clinical finishing showed that United were still favorites to keep the trophy at The Theatre of Dreams. Another factor that could complement United’s title charge is the difficulty or rather ease of the final sprint. United have played all of the top 6 twice except City who they play on April 30^th. This means that they face only lower table teams in the final run-in. City on the other hand have to face Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool again.

  MANCHESTER UNITED FIXTURE LIST TILL THE END OF THE SEASON………(City’s?.......well it’s just tougher)

Date	Competition	Team
8th March	Europa	Athletic Bilbao
11th March	Premier League	West Bromwich Albion
15th March	Europa	Athletic Bilbao
18th March	Premier League	Wolves
26th March	Premier League	Fulham
29th March	Europa*	QF*
2nd April	Premier League	Blackburn Rovers
5th April	Europa*	QF Leg2*
8th April	Premier League	QPR
11th April	Premier League	Wigan
15th April	Premier League	Aston Villa
19th April	Europa*	SF *
22nd April	Premier League	Everton
26th April	Europa*	SF Leg2*
30th April	Premier League	MANCHESTER CITY
6th May	Premier League	Swansea
9th May	Europa*	FINAL*
13th May	Premier League	Suderland

Obviously, the closeness between Europa and League ties can have a huge impact on the team’s performance especially if United face City in any of those European ties. If it not the final, the winners of that clash will go into the April clash as favorites on paper, but with these two paper seldom matters.

 Another possibility is that even before the 30^th one of these juggernauts will falter. The more probable one to slip looks to be City, largely due to their fixture list, but as United have proved on previous occasions this season, they are not to be trusted.

 Unprectibality is thus a big factor this title race. 11 games lest in the season and the Manchester clubs look to be the only contenders. The eyes of the world will be on them; the season will be defined by how they capitalize on their opportunity. United however have been there more recently and thus are favorites…But things change, so don’t count depend on that ‘favorite’ tag for too long…Things are about to get interesting………..