One drew, one lost. One walked off the pitch with a foreboding sense of dread. The other walked off the pitch knowing this was just another step in the right direction. Where one club has money problems another has as much as it needs. Manchester United and Manchester City are in completely different scenarios, on different points and their respective fans will wake up in evidently different moods on Monday morning. One thing is clear however. This is going to become more and more common. Twas often that Manchester City fans would be the miserable ones in Manchester on Monday morning and Manchester United fans would be the delighted ones. This Monday is different and it won’t be the last time. Nor, i should point out, is it the first. Man City have had good weekends before. Man Utd have had bad weekeends before. Only before it was an odd occurence. Before it was nearly always Manchester United fans in a good mood on Monday morning.
From now on the spread if likely to be far more even. Manchester City defeated Chelsea for the third time in a row. Chelsea rarely threatened. Manchester United drew with Bolton. In itself it is not an entirely bad result, in comparison, however, it is dreadful. Manchester United fans still have a good chance of celebrating glory at the end of the season but they should slowly acclimatise themselves to the fact that Man City are going to be a top club and they can’t monopolise the glory, the satisfaction and Monday morning happiness anymore. It has to be shared.
Strangely enough the source of the Manchester City satisfaction on Monday morning is an ex Manchester United player, Carlos Tevez. He scored the winning goal against Chelsea, a team he was close to signing for 15 months ago. That appears a long time ago indeed right now. Tevez, the Manchester City captain, has been in tremendous form for nearly 18 months and is inspiring his team to consistently good results. On the red side of the city things are not so promising. Wayne Rooney appears no closer to finding his form and consequently Manchester United are struggling tremendously. In the past fortnight the team has drawn with Rangers, Everton and Bolton and defeated Scunthorpe. Some home victories in the Premiership have also been achieved but the truth is the team appear a long way short of challenging for the title. Needless to say such form is temperemental and within a fortnight Manchester United might be top of the table and performing wonderfully. Right now, though, that appears a long way away.
