DOES anybody actually want to take fourth place in the Premier League this season?
After their wobble, Tottenham seem finally back on track and will surely take third, but for Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea fourth is a prize all seem too daunted to grasp, which makes the meeting of the latter two at Old Trafford on Sunday all the more fascinating.
Chelsea seem to have spent the season morphing into Arsenal. A club that seven years ago won the Champions League on the basis almost of doggedness alone has become mentally fragile, habitually overawed away from home and prone to collapse in the face of the slightest mishap.
—Spurs: Lose
—Manchester United: Lose
—Arsenal: Lose
—Chelsea: HeldWho wants to finish in the top four? pic.twitter.com/IgMJY8TxuK
— B/R Football (@brfootball) April 22, 2019
They’ve lost five of their last seven away league games; the other two were against Fulham and Cardiff, where it would be fair to say refereeing decisions went their way. After Monday’s draw with Burnley there were even complaints about the opposition not allowing them to play.
Fans continue to grumble but, for now at least, the pressure on Maurizio Sarri seems to have eased. The underlying problems, though, remain. Sarri’s football may or may not work in the Premier League – and should have a better chance of success when he has had a full pre-season with his side after a season of bedding in – but he is hamstrung by a squad that doesn’t necessarily suit what he is trying to do. Assuming the transfer ban remains in place, there is little opportunity to put that right.
United’s position, if anything, is even stranger. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a club legend and his start at the club was remarkable, as he gathered more points in his first 10 league games in charge than any other manager in Premier League history. He only suffered his first defeat six weeks ago, but that feels an impossibly distant event now.
The current run of seven defeats in nine games is United’s worst run of form in six decades. It would be an overstatement to say that United are already suffering buyer’s remorse after giving Solskjaer the job two games into that run, but questions are certainly being asked about the wisdom of handing him the position when he had two months of his temporary contract left to run.
If he had to make the decision now, would Ed Woodward still give Solskjaer the job? Would United fans want him to?
26 – Manchester United have spent only 26 days in the top four of the Premier League in 2018-19 so far; fewer than Watford (40). Liverpool (255) have spent the most days in the top four, followed by Man City (245), Chelsea (190), Spurs (189) & Arsenal (72). Outsiders. pic.twitter.com/EDRNxJW2v3
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 25, 2019
In that sense, both clubs are suffering a similar problem. Both have squads left unbalanced by years of flawed recruitment. Both have squads that are a hotch-potch of competing ideas, that have little internal balance or coherence. For both there are doubts as to the long-term sustainability of the manager, little sense of being part of a developing project as exists at Manchester City or Liverpool or Tottenham. And the result in both cases seems to be a general lack of backbone.
It’s true United showed some fight against City on Wednesday, but only until they went behind. After that, there was never any real sense that they would get back into the game. Even when they did create a genuine chance, Jesse Lingard seemed so surprised that he miskicked and missed a bouncing ball entirely. Whether or not Roy Keane was right in the tone of his attack on United, and whether or not he should have singled out Paul Pogba for particular condemnation, can be debated, but the general substance was right. Something has gone very wrong in the mood at the club.
The players, at both United and Chelsea, have to take some of the responsibility for that. But then it’s perhaps unrealistic to expect a player in a club with no apparent plan, with a chaotic recruitment policy, and with a dearth of leadership, to continue to feel motivated. It’s all very well to speak of professionalism and the responsibility brought by the wages players are paid but they are not machines. No matter how much they may want to try, be trying to try, very slight downturns can have enormous consequences. In that sense what both United and Chelsea are suffering is a failure of leadership.
Champions League qualification remains vital to both. The money it brings will free up the budget for spending in the summer (if Chelsea are allowed to make any signings). But for now, the sense of drift at both clubs is such that both sides could miss out to an Arsenal that can barely win away. Chelsea still have a chance of qualification though the Europa League but Sunday could be terminal to United’s hopes of playing in the Champions League next season.
