Last March there was a spell of games that were to define our season.
With Bayern Munich in the Champions League and Chelsea in the League it was felt the two games would shape our season and although I mused that they wouldn’t make or break us invariably they did. The result in the Allianz Arena was bad but not a killer, 2-1 wasn’t a terrible result to take back to Old Trafford but the injury to Rooney was a killer and the fact he missed the Chelsea game (To my dying day I will bemoan that Drogba goal) and wasn’t fully fit for the second leg at Old Trafford told.
We lost both games in that season defining week and ended up pot less bar the Carling Cup.
Today will be the start of a similar such week with games at Stamford Bridge and Anfield that will have a bearing on where the title ends up this year.
I would like to claim that come this time next week regardless of the outcome of each game, it won’t matter but that would be a lie. As we face Chelsea and Liverpool there is a sense that we know what we have to do and for all the talk that Chelsea and Liverpool can control where the title goes realistically it is in our own hands.
There has been too much talk of mediocre squads and grinding out results and not enough talk of mentally tough and resolute players who know how to win at all cost so this week these players who have been so harshly chided get a chance to show their mettle and resoundingly roar in the faces of those that have written them.
Both games will be hard especially as they are on the road but there comes a point where this becomes irrelevant and the players who are supposedly poor travellers have to ask ‘do we want to win the league?’ Whilst picking up 3 points in each game would be ideal, the reality of the matter is that both will be tough games so for all the talk of ‘un-United like performances’ I would happily sacrifice performance for results in this instance.
We are currently 4 points top of the table and come next Monday if we have avoided defeat I think we will have made a huge step towards the title but no pressure guys, it’s only squeaky bum time!
