United are now confident of going on to retain the title, and confident they should be as they have most of a squad ready to come back from injury. For City, it could be a matter of time before their challenge runs out of steam.
Whilst most of the country was falling over itself to declare Roberto Mancini’s men champions in the autumn as scintillating performances took them top, the warning signs were already there. It was simply a superb run of form helped by a favourable run of fixtures and the incredible form of David Silva. But even then you could see the problems to come. Momentum doesn’t last forever, and neither does the form of Silva. A drop in his standards, and City would drop too as their fortunes rely so much on the tricky Spaniard. It is all well and good having Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko, but there’s nothing they can really do if the midfield loses its creativity.
Samir Nasri has never replicated his form of last season at Arsenal, where he possibly ran out of motivation. After all, he was scintillating as Arsenal surged to the top of the table in the first half of the season. After that, his form dropped off significantly, and he looked less interested. Presumably knowing City wanted him, and knowing how much they would pay him (don’t they all?) Nasri was perhaps motivated more by the financial rewards on offer than the trophies he could win. After all, why move to City when Man Utd are interested? A far bigger and successful club.
So without the form of Nasri or Silva, City are struggling. Without that creativity in midfield they are not the same team. The loss to Everton showed that. This is a team which is too reliant on one or two players and they need them to get back to form quickly.
The signs are not promising though, and it would take a brave man to bet against Man Utd to retain the title. Though, if Tottenham can put together the kind of run which took them up to third at Christmas, then they could still wrest the title away from Manchester.
Mancini’s men have also never put together a sustained title challenge – this is the first time they will have pressed for the championship all year. It is unusual for a team without experience of putting together a title charge to win it at their first go. Experience usually tells, and that may be the problem Tottenham face as well. It is for those reasons, that Alex Ferguson and his team must be sitting and feeling particularly confident right now.
