As a Manchester United fan, I was delighted to see our local rivals Man City lose their first league game of the season and most other premier league followers will agree with my statement. It seemed that City where walking away with the league and someone needed to put them back in their tracks.
Nobody imagined Man City losing this game after they opened the scoring inside two minutes. Before this Man City had only ever being trailing in a league game this season for 15 minutes which is a remarkable feat. For both Chelsea and their new manager Andre Vila Boas (AVB) this was a game they couldn’t lose.
I don’t see all the hype associated with Andre Villas Boas. He was with Porto for one year. He may have won the Portuguese Primeira Liga, the UEFA Europa League and the Portuguese Cup. The Portugese league is not considered as a very competive league and this is shown by the fact only two teams have won the league for the past ten years. (Porto and Benfica). The Europa league is seen by major clubs as a consolation prize for not qualifying for the Champions league and a penalty for the big clubs for not reaching the knockout stages of the champions league. A club like Liverpool could have won it last year had they shown any bit of interest in it but instead were knocked out in the last 16.
I personally think Andre Villas Boas hasn’t proven himself at the biggest stage in football and for Chelsea to pay Porto €15 million as compensation to activate his release clause makes it more outrageous. His move makes him the most expensive manager ever. I know Chelsea owner Romam Ambraovich wants success immediately but isnt this not a huge gamble to take. Only time will tell.
Last week saw the two Manchester clubs exit the Champions league.
How could this possible happen with the starts both teams made to the premier league.
I believe Man United’s good start was not due to playing brilliant flowing football and scoring plenty of goals for the first couple of months but coming up against some poorly organised teams such as Chelsea and a truly awful Arsenal side. We were being perceived by these teams as simply unstoppable. I think Man United current problem is their midfield. We are missing a creative player like Silva and I think Fergie has done a bad job in replacing Scholes . With the injures mounting up, its time to start to looking in the Janruary market whether Fergie likes it or not. Who can we buy tho? Or is the short term loan the better option for the forseeable future.
People may say that Man City didn’t qualify because it was their first year and lacked experience at this level. However I believe this not to be the case, players like Kompany, YaYa Toure, Dzeko, Aguero, and Silva have all played in the Champions league with previous clubs. Spurs made the knockout stages last year and didn’t have the quality and dept in squad as City have at their current disposal.
