Rag_hater wrote:Ted Hughes wrote:Im_Spartacus wrote:Ted Hughes wrote:
I think that this year, so far, it does.
If we play shite from now on & the rags play well then fair enough but I strongly believe that we have played better than them over the course of the season so far & that they have had the breaks whilst we haven't.
The simple fact that they played Steve Bruce's Sunderland straight after the 1-6 is a defining moment imo. I watched the whole of that game & it's amongst the worst performances I've ever seen from a Utd side. Sunderland were dogshite but still Utd were caking their pants & the crowd was whinging like fuck. Up steps Wes Brown with an OG the Bendtner misses a few sitters.
I don't believe for one minute that it was a brown envelope job, but ad it been one, they could not have done it better. Any decent side would have finished Utd's season that day.
They have been very lucky on many crucial occasions. We have been mainly unlucky at similar key moments.
If I was a City fan winning the league with Utd's squad & performances, I would feel elated, like I'd got away with murder, but be very very worried that a long stretch awaited me in the future.
My perception of what happened after the 1-6 is that as you say, they were at sixes and sevens. They did however, by hook or by crook manage to eek out 5 or 6 1.0 victories on the spin, it wasnt pretty at all but they went back to the simple basics of sorting out their makeshift defence and rebuilding their game and confidence.
That run of 1.0 victories, although we derided it at the time, is what will win them the league if things stay as they are.
That run of 1.0 victories in a tough spell, is something we seem incapable of doing, and that is the difference when it boils down to it
None of those victories was against teams who'd spent the past week slaving over a way of stopping them like thay have with City. Had they done so, it would have been a lot of 0-0 draws. They had Rooney playing in midfield for some of those. It was desperate & they got away with it because they were allowed to, not because they played well or like 'Champions'.
They have been fortunate to stay in the race this year, mainly down to the fact that the top teams have been under strength when they played them imo. If Bale had played for Spurs, they would have 3 points less for a start. Arsenal were decimated boith times. Chelsea battered them twice & were just plain unlucky. It adds up to a lot of points.
If the twats get the luck though like they have for a number of years what can we do?
I don't believe that they've always had the same amount of good fortune as this season. They always get the refs but the number of different things which have gone their way, right down to them having a home game after EVERY champions Lg away game, us losing the only players we couldn't afford to lose, in the most crucial period, it just goes on & on. They have had a fluke of a season.
In the future, more teams will take points off them, especially the top teams & we will get better & better. I expect the top half of the Premier League to get tougher in the coming years. It may mean we lose a few but so will they.
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