Kind Of Blue

They’ve been the sensation of the season...until the last month. Is it too late for Roberto Mancini’s boys in blue to turn the tide on their bitterest rivals?

Craig Fitzsimons, 10 Apr 2012

Right, okay, it may be time to admit that the shit has hit the fan. As prophesied incessantly for the last few months by a multitude of my Manchester United-supporting mates, the wily old bugger they call Fergie has held his nerve and kept his head, while many months’ worth of magnificent football on City’s part would appear to have been in vain, a truly hideous March having presented the Red Devils with the sort of lead they are historically disinclined to surrender.

The league table now makes for painful viewing, as does a glance at the two clubs’ remaining fixtures. Nonetheless, there is, as they say, plenty of football still to be played. Am I about to throw in the towel at this stage? No fucking way.

I write in the immediate aftermath of United’s visit to Blackburn Rovers, who it must be said gave them a right go before buckling under to two horribly cruel late strikes from Messrs. Valencia and Young, ensuring that United now have a five-point cushion to play with as we enter the Easter weekend’s festivities. Their unconvincing recent ‘victory’ over Fulham owed much to a gobsmacking refereeing decision of the sort that invariably smiles on them at this time of year, and it isn’t exactly paranoid to make the working assumption that there will be more where that came from before the season has run its course.

In all likelihood, Roberto Mancini’s men are now in a situation whereby they will need to storm the Emirates and beat an in-form Arsenal who boast the best striker in England, then outwit Fergie’s forces in an enormously high-pressure fixture (assuming the race is even still alive by that stage) and pray that United find it within themselves to fuck up one other match somewhere along the line. It all seems a bit much to realistically hope for, and you need to go back to 1992 to find the last time United wilted in the white heat of a title race. Their springtime record since then speaks for itself. To put this as bluntly as possible, I am no longer expecting City to ascend the summit.

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