Monday gossip

Last one 'til next week



Mon 19 Sep 2011, 9:23AM

Posted by David Clayton

Well, you’d think the title race was over if you listened to TalkSport’s after match analysis last night, listened to Match of the Day or sifted through the papers this morning.




While it’s true our neighbours in red have made an impressive start to the season – no doubt spurred on by the Blues’ own impressive start – there were enough chances for Chelsea to have taken more than a point at Old Trafford.

And it’s true that City shouldn’t have let a 2-0 lead slip away at Fulham – something Manchester United would NEVER do – at least according to Alan ‘You never win anything with kids’ Hansen on MotD2.

So that’s it. Five games in and the title race has ended because mathematically, with only 33 games left and City trailing United by two points, Roberto Mancini’s boys can no longer catch Sir Alex Ferguson’s team.

What a load of rubbish.

It seems the media in this country has become so reactionary that it is only the now that matters and the theory you are only as good as your last game has never been truer.

Jeremy Wilson’s piece in The Daily Telegraph is fairly balanced, though his last sentence we shall come back to in a moment. He writes: “More significantly, after a month in which the two Manchester clubs have been indirectly trading blows, it is the blue half of the city that has suffered the first bloody nose.

“True, there was good fortune about Fulham’s deflected equaliser but, with such a spirited performance, they had also made their luck. It may also come to signify a very meaningful moment in the wider contest for silverware.

"Manchester City might have dazzled with their attacking play so far this season but there is still a question mark hovering above a defence that, until yesterday, had been largely untested.”

Largely untested? Not quite true considering 80% of that defence ended last season with the second-best defensive record in the Premier League.

As numerous managers have quite correctly said over the years, ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint,’ and it’s true. There will be many twists and turns along the way but as for the title race being over, Fulham being as good as down and Stoke preparing for Champions League football, let’s just wait and see.

It’s early days, yet…