After a hectic festive period, we take stock of the year gone by and review the teams at the half-way mark of the season. In Part One, we turn the focus on the top six.
A New Year usually brings with it the hope of change. This time, so does the Premier League. For while 2011 may have seen Manchester United finally knock Liverpool ‘off their perch,’ there are signs that their own stay at the top is now going to face a serious threat. And, with the usual suspects – Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool – undergoing a period of rebuilding, the challenge is coming from clubs that have had little familiarity with the heady heights of the league in recent times.
MANCHESTER UNITED
For Manchester United, it was a year of memorable highs and forgettable lows. The Red Devils saw off Chelsea’s late challenge to win a record 19th league title, as manager Alex Ferguson achieved his publicly-stated aim of overtaking Liverpool’s haul of 18. It wasn’t a vintage season, but a solid back-four led by Nemanja Vidic and Edwin van der Sar, the form of Nani and Antonio Valencia balanced by the experience of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes in midfield, and the goals up front from Wayne Rooney, joint league topscorer Dimitar Berbatov and signing of the season Javier Hernandez – he finished with 13 league goals in his debut season, many of them crucial late winners, and cost just 6 million Pounds – brought Ferguson his 12th Premier League title.
Ferguson then completed 25 years of his incredibly successful reign at Old Trafford in November – a milestone the club marked by naming a stand in his honour. But even as the United manager celebrated, the neighbours he had once dismissed as ‘noisy’ ensured there was plenty to think about. Manchester City trounced United 6-1 at home in an incredible match, which Ferguson readily admitted was his worst ever.
There was more misery to come from Europe. While a ‘hiding’ at the hands of an imperious Barcelona in the Champions League final in May – their second defeat to the same opponents in the final in three years – was not disgraceful, an early exit after failing to beat either Benfica or Basel was. United went out in the group stages for only the third time in 17 years, and now face the humiliation of Europa League football on Thursday nights.
Still, battered and bruised, the Red Devils enter 2012 neck-to-neck with early pace-setters City as perhaps their only challengers, if not slight favourites. And, given that Ferguson has had to build yet again after the retirements of Scholes, van der Sar and Gary Neville, preferring to rely on youngsters like Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck and Phil Jones rather than costly buys, the position will be a satisfying one.
MANCHESTER CITY
Manchester City, on the other hand, have splurged without restraint and will be slightly disappointed that their expensively-assembled squad – further bolstered by the arrival of Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri in the summer – doesn’t have a bigger lead at the top of the table. Which says a lot about how far City have come in what was a landmark year for them.
The club ended their 35-year-wait for a major trophy by winning the FA Cup in May, a victory that was even sweeter as it came after a win over bitter rivals United in the semi-finals. They also finished above Arsenal to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history. That campaign ended in an uncomfortably early exit, albeit from a tough group, but more drama came from a group match against Bayern Munich when Carlos Tevez refused to come off the bench to warm up. Tevez was ostracized and fined, but the long-running saga is yet to end as the club try to recoup the money spent on the mercurial striker. And with Mario Balotelli causing fireworks on and off the pitch, Roberto Mancini had his hands full trying to manage the squad.
After a title challenge that never really materialized last season, the Italian deserves credit for having taken City to the top of the standings, with an attacking verve that saw them rack up a goal difference of 35 – the highest ever by any team after 14 games – before a first defeat of the 2011-12 season at Stamford Bridge. Whether he and his team are able to withstand the pressure and win a first league title since 1967-68 remains to be seen, but City are now definitely a force to be reckoned with.
TOTTENHAM
The same cannot yet be said with conviction about Tottenham. It was the Spurs who first broke into the top four, and they also negotiated a difficult path to make the knock-out stages of the Champions League, memorably beating AC Milan before going down to Real Madrid, eventually finishing fifth. However, they made their ambitions clear by refusing to sell Luka Modric – despite the repeated attempts of Chelsea and the player to force the move – instead purchasing Scott Parker and Emmanuel Adebayor to add to a squad already brimming with the talents of Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart. The result was that Spurs overcame a dispiriting start to end the year at third, surprisingly the only London club with a realistic shot at claiming the title. Injuries and inexperience may hamper their bid, but they are well-placed to achieve their highest-ever finish since coming third in 1990.
CHELSEA
In stark contrast, Chelsea face the calamitous prospect of missing out on Champions League places for the first time since Roman Abramovich took over the club in 2003. Managers at Stamford Bridge have been sacked for less – indeed, Carlo Ancelotti was unceremoniously axed after a trophy-less 2010-11, despite a domestic double in his first season just a year earlier – so his successor Andre Villas-Boas – the eighth Blues boss in seven years and a former assistant to Jose Mourinho – will be well aware of the precariousness of his position, despite claiming the 13.3 million Pounds paid to secure him from Porto prove that the owner backs him in the long-term.
Just what the 50 million Pounds spent on Fernando Torres last January prove is another story. The sensational, record-breaking transfer grabbed all the headlines, but a year later Torres finds himself in the news for all the wrong reasons. A debut goal after 732 minutes, 5 goals in 24 games, 15 substitute appearances – The excuses are running out for the woefully out-of-sorts Spaniard as he heads down the Andriy Shevchenko path at Chelsea.
Torres is not the only player who will concern Villas-Boas, though. While fresh blood has been injected into the squad in the form of Juan Mata, Daniel Sturridge and Oriol Romeu, there are still seven members above the age of 30 – even after the departure of Nicolas Anelka – which just illustrates the difficult task facing the manager who is himself just 34. He will need time to show whether he can successfully rebuild a team at Chelsea while also improving their play and achieving on-field success. In the immediate future though, inconsistency in both form and tactics will need to be overcome to keep a top-four spot – much like the previous season when they managed to come second, though a repeat of that seems highly unlikely.
ARSENAL
The challenge is similar for Arsene Wenger – who celebrated his 15th anniversary as Arsenal manager in October – after a year that started with so much promise turned out one of the most difficult ever. At one point, Arsenal were right in the title race and the FA Cup, had beaten Barcelona in the Champions League first leg tie and were on the verge of ending a six-year trophy drought, faced with a Carling Cup final against Birmingham City. But Obafemi Martins’ 89th-minute winner drained the belief out of the dejected Arsenal players, and predictably, their season imploded.
Wenger found himself questioning his own philosophy as the summer saw the expected departure of Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona and the bitter transfers of Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy to City; but worse was to come with an 8-2 humiliation at Old Trafford. That forced the normally circumspect Wenger into a flurry of activity on transfer deadline day, even as the club’s worst start in 58 years saw the voices of discontent grow louder. However, new skipper Robin van Persie inspired the struggling Gunners’ recovery – he finished with 34 goals in 2011, including a hat-trick in a 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge – and where Arsenal eventually finish will depend to a large extent on the form and fitness of the talismanic striker.
LIVERPOOL
The returning Steven Gerrard could have a similar say on the fortunes of Liverpool. Last January though, it was the return of another Kop hero that raised hopes at Anfield after a miserable period under Roy Hodgson, as Kenny Dalglish took charge. The shock of Torres’ exit, meanwhile, was offset by the form of new signing Luis Suarez, though Liverpool have their own version of the misfiring striker in Andy Carroll, bought from Newcastle United for 35 million Pounds. The optimism has dimmed somewhat after a series of mediocre results, especially at home against weaker sides; and while a return to the Europa League can be expected, the top four may be out of reach for yet another season, especially as Suarez begins the year with an eight-match ban over a racism controversy.
With Chelsea skipper John Terry also facing criminal charges over alleged racist remarks, it wasn’t the best end to the year for the Premier League off the field, while in the Champions League, only Arsenal and Chelsea managed to progress. Yet, with the traditional giants in a phase of transition – a factor which might have encouraged the glut of goals in the encounters between these teams – the domestic challenge from City and Spurs could not have come at a better time. The wheels of change have been set into motion, even though its impact may not be felt immediately.
For a review of the remaining clubs, see Part Two.
Comments
0 comment