The top of the mountain is visible once again to Manchester United. The question is not so much can they climb it against Aston Villa, but if they do, how long can they tolerate the rarefied air?
The visit of Villa concludes a calendar year of tidy progress under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Over the piece only Liverpool and Manchester City have returned more Premier League points. However, since the arrival of Bruno Fernandes in the last week of January none have been so relentlessly acquisitive, 62 points to Liverpool’s 61 over 29 matches.
The degree to which United have benefited under the anomalous conditions presented by Covid is tricky to determine. We have seen a dramatic tail off in Liverpool’s points accumulation. This may be the result of a cyclical shift to more realistic returns or the levelling consequences of multiple injuries in the squeezed circumstances.
More points are an obvious measure of progress at Old Trafford. Other positive metrics include improved patterns of play in the migration from counter attack to effective control of possession. United have developed a more flexible approach to games built around the influence of Fernandes, who might yet prove as significant a catalyst as Eric Cantona, who transformed United’s prospects when joining from Leeds almost 30 years ago.
There is also that harder-to-measure quality confidence, reflected in the atmosphere about the place, the attitude of the players, upbeat reflections, and not least, the balanced commentary of Solskjaer, who in good times and bad has never been anything but honest in his appraisal of performance, happy to call out weaknesses and identify problems with welcome candour.
With rivals floundering, United have capitalised
His problem then was not his understanding of the problems but demonstrating that he was the right coach to solve them. The purchase of Fernandes, the maturing of Marcus Rashford, the development of Scott McTominay, the greater consistency of Fred and a fully fit Eric Bailly at centre-half have all helped strengthen his hand.
Solskjaer is benefitting also by the unsettled circumstances of their traditional rivals. Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City are each managing change to a greater or lesser degree.
Solskjaer is clearly more advanced in the business of renewal than Mikel Arteta at Arsenal and Frank Lampard at Chelsea. Pep Guardiola’s is coming at change from a different place with arguably a much stronger foundation. Nevertheless the loss of Vincent Kompany and David Silva and decline of Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho have significantly flattened the City curve.
The picture is never perfect. Solskjaer has yet to get a turn out of winger Dan James. Right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka is a dead-end in the opposition’s half, which compromises the poor sap playing ahead of him. Anthony Martial appears locked in his own quixotic loop.
And the midfield is still a muddle when the McTominay/Fred tandem is disturbed either by the inclusion of slow moving vehicle Nemanja Matic or the enigmatic Paul Pogba.
After the sterility of the uber-organised Wolves, Villa offer a different kind of test and one United are arguably better equipped to meet. Like Leeds, Villa are a team built to prosper on the front foot, which theoretically at least creates the space for United to attack. Then again, if you accept Marcelo Bielsa’s argument, his United were the better team in the 6-2 defeat at Old Trafford, undone only by inferior finishing.
Villa made a fast start in the corresponding fixture last season, Jack Grealish making a statue of David de Gea with a sumptuous strike in a 2-2 draw. And enhanced by the addition of Ollie Watkins and Bertrand Traore, Villa have morphed into contenders themselves, spreading the goal threat in a way that might yet tilt the title narrative in their direction.
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