The curtains came down on last season with speculation about
who would fill the power vacuum left by the incredible Sir Alex Ferguson rife. Sensing
the opportunity to launch their clubs to the pinnacle of the English game, the
two runner ups to Ferguson’s Manchester United decided to replace their
managers with more formidable names.
Manchester City signed a couple of seasoned professionals to
strengthen their already enviable squad and Chelsea returned the trophy laden self-proclaimed
“Special one” to gel their embarrassing wealth of attacking talent. Predictions
intensified that Mourinho would be the true challenger to Arsene Wenger as the league’s new Godfather. In order to
work their way to this season’s title, they both would have to overcome Man City,
led by Pelligrini, nicknamed the engineer because of his ability to make so
much of his teams with very little resources.
As Arsenal’s North London rivals splashed plenty of
resources on reinforcing a team that very narrowly missed out on fourth place
last season, Wenger continued to tighten his purse strings. As speculation intensified
that last season’s fourth placed manager may follow his conquerors out of the
door, Wenger was thrown a life line by Madrid’s Bale signing from Tottenham.
For now at least, it looks like Wenger’s signing of Mesut
Ozil, European football’s assist master was a master stroke. The signing has
also caused previously considered average players like Aaron Ramsey and Olivier
Giroud to lift their performances to a much higher level, and a brilliant Arsenal
to the top of the league. Chelsea who started the season like a work in
progress are however lurking just two points behind and many pundits are
starting to predict that Mourinho’s affinity for trophies may just tilt the
balance of power in the blue corner’s favor.
Evidence of Fernando Torres’ recent rejuvenation may give predictions
of a Mourinho success some weight, but it is the player’s former club’s
rejuvenation that seems to be catching more attention. The Sturridge – Suarez partnership
is generally acknowledged to be the best striking partnership in the league
with many at Anfield hoping they could tilt the balance of power back to
Merseyside after a long absence. This weekend’s top of the table clash against
Arsenal may be a key pointer to which of these two pretenders in the eyes of
some skeptics is in the race for the long-haul. With Everton ridding high just
two points behind second place, Liverpool will be determined to win the clash
for Merseyside dominance if not for their own title aspirations. After all
Liverpool’s ownership has been quietly playing down their title aspirations to
fourth place much like Wenger did last season.
Ironic that despite being defending champions, there are not
many betting on the title aspirations of the team that knocked Liverpool off
their perch. Even Yaya Toure from their noisy neighbors wrote off Manchester
United’s title chances saying “they are really struggling under Moyes”, and
tipped Liverpool to be City’s major threat. Given that City are just two points
ahead of their struggling Manchester neighbors, it may be argued that the Manchester
dominance of the last three seasons is shifting away. Whether it is shifting to
Mersey side or London may be up for debate over the next twenty nine rounds. If
the spirit of Ferguson that continues lurk over Manchester with his recent autobiography
translates to the players’ performances on the pitch, Manchester may not
relinquish the power that easily. However, given the very uncertain start that “The
chosen one” has made to life at Old Trafford, even the most loyal fans will
consider any sort of title challenge a major success.
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