“Manchester United do not look absolutely irresistible,” said Wenger. “But they know how to deal with the money time. That means the last 15 minutes when it is 0-0. They have won so many titles because they are not nervous.”
This season, our squad has been ravaged with injuries. Our captain and most important defender, Nemanja Vidic, has been ruled out since December. Since the turn of the year, we’ve spent most games with Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs as our only available central midfielders. Nani, who was voted the players’ player of the year last season, hasn’t played for over month. Yet here we are, five points clear at the top of the table, having the compete against The Richest Team In The World (TM) who have suffered nothing like the injuries we have.
Alan Hansen described this current squad as the worst for two decades earlier on in the season and that quote looks like it has come back to haunt him, however if we were honest, we can obviously admit we’ve had better teams and played better football than we have this season.
However, it is strange to see Wenger criticise us when you consider that we are a massive 18 points ahead of his team this season. Then you remember we beat Arsenal 8-2 at Old Trafford and 2-1 at the Emirates. If United aren’t “absolutely irresistible”, I do wonder how he would describe his own club’s performances this year.
It’s not just a comparison with Arsenal that serves us well though, as 31 games in to the 2007-2008 season, where went on to win the league title and European Cup, guided by the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo, we were three points worse off than we are this season. Last season we were champions and on 31 games we were ten points worse off than we are this season.
So, we’re not too shabby this season, considering this is the worst United squad for years…
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