Opposition ignorance, United bliss

IT was a difficult week for the cities that host England’s leading football clubs. And just as the problems highlighted will demand a lot of soul-searching and cash to address, the same can be said for the difficulties that dogged all of Manchester United’s closest challengers in the Premier League last season.

Curiously, Manchester City aside, the contenders appear to have buried their heads in the sand.

First to Arsenal — if only because their problems also appear to stem from having too many skittish youths milling about with little guidance and no purpose.

So far, Arsene Wenger has addressed concerns about the lack of leadership, proven quality or experience in his ranks in familiar style; by adding unproven, inexperienced teenagers and seemingly selling anybody who has played more than 50 games for the club.

Of course, Wenger might yet be pestered into rolling out the water cannon and buying one of the many lumpen English centre halves paraded before him this summer, but in refusing the obvious knee-jerk reaction to Arsenal’s riotous defending, it’s possible Wenger can finally arrive at the better long-term solution his patient work surely deserves.

The guiding philosophy behind all of his additions this summer — most notably Gervinho and Chamberlain — has been pace. If Song and Wilshere can begin to replicate the partnership Vieira and Petit once forged, the speed now available on Arsenal’s flanks can make them a much less ponderous prospect than they have been in recent seasons.

The team can sit deeper, counter quicker and protect the maligned defence.

A creaking defence ranks high on Liverpool’s list of deficiencies too, but until the arrival of Jose Enrique this week, Kenny Dalglish has also focused on other areas, in particular the acquisition of every over-priced British midfielder on the market.

What Kenny’s stockpiling says about the increasingly-fragile Steven Gerrard, we don’t yet know, but it also suggests he retains rather greater trust in the last-ditch-lunging capabilities of Jamie Carragher than many others.

The biggest problem Spurs have faced in recent times came two seasons ago, when, due to no real fault of its own, the club tasted modest success. Clearly, Champions League qualification terrified everybody at the club, especially Harry, and all the water that Tottenham have treaded since has ensured that painful time should be a one-off. If they were in any way serious, Harry would, by now, have wheeled or dealed for two, maybe three top-class forwards this summer. That 40-year-old Brad Friedel has been the only arrival probably encapsulates the extent of this season’s ambitions. Conveniently, today’s postponement gifts Spurs the prize they have cherished most in recent years; the game in hand. By nurturing such a handicap carefully, Spurs can remain safely out of the pressure positions while still codding fans with false hope.

John Giles wrote off Chelsea’s chances on Newstalk this week when he saw new manager Andre Villas-Boas carrying a clipboard where lots of arrows had been sketched. “Any plans that complicated are not right.”

In truth, Chelsea’s chances probably slipped quietly away with Carlo Ancelotti in May. Anyone who witnessed meek defeats at Old Trafford in the league and Champions League saw a playing squad in drastic need of regeneration, unable to live with United’s intensity.

But the last thing a club crying out for new players needs is a manager who prizes, above all, his own role. With his background in scouting reports, Villas-Boas may return to Chelsea some of the doggedness and obsession with the opposition they have lacked since Mourinho left.

But they no longer possess players as good as Mourinho had, so it won’t matter.

Mind you, if their challengers have seemed unwilling to address obvious faults this summer, Manchester United have, so far, made no attempt to counter their own lack of conviction in the middle of the field, unless Tom Cleverley’s rash promotion to the England ranks is a genuine reflection of his prospects. Even if Wesley Sneijder does arrive to pull some strings, his advanced positioning is unlikely to help United contest possession against the best sides. Without any injection in this area, there’s a danger the Wembley embarrassment at the hand's of Barcelona may not be a one-off.

That leaves City. Lacking creativity last season, they add Sergio Aguero and probably Samir Nasri. Needing more pace out wide, they recruit Gael Clichy. Sometimes, the obvious route is indeed the shortest one. Money, it seems, can focus the mind after all.

Premier League Prediction: 1. Manchester City 2. Manchester United 3. Arsenal 4. Chelsea.