The Simple difference between Man United and The Rest

By: Rob | April 22nd, 2009

$The reason for United\'s success$ Andrei Arshavin’s four goals last night pretty much signed sealed and delivered the Premier League title to Manchester, from Russia, with love. Man United play tonight against Portsmouth, and while this post will probably look really stupid if they lose (especially if they get beat 4-0 or something), the title really is theirs to throw away. Level on points and now with two games in hand (one tonight), and it’d be a stunning capitulation if they didn’t win it.

So what is the secret to their (soon to be) success? Its not glamourous, its not exciting, but it is the fact that they have had such a good defence all season. Blips aside (they got slaughtered by Liverpool) you don’t see them competing in a 4-4 match as all of the rest of the “Big Four” have in recent weeks.

Fergie might have spent an absurd amount of money on getting attackers into Old Trafford at the start of the season, but the real secret has been the status quo and centre half. Vidic and Ferdinand’s partnership has been sublime and indeed even better than previous seasons. Van der Saar got the plaudits for a stunning run of clean sheets, but he rarely had anything to do.

What future this poses for the Premier League, I’m not sure. Whether sides will all try and take a leaf out of United’s book and try and shore up at the back, seeing an end to freakish but exciting 4-4 draws, perhaps.

Perhaps United will develop a reputation akin to Arsenal’s (unimaginable now) early 90s reputation as “Boring Boring Arsenal”. Certainly an argument could be made for such a thing – 20 of United’s games in all competitions this season have finished with one goal or less in them.

Its a shame if it does promote 1-0isms in English football. I’d much rather watch my team draw 4-4 than win 1-0, excitement and entertainment is the name of the game. But I don’t see too many United fans complaining if it yields the Premier League title at the end of the season.