For the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson departed Old Trafford two years ago now, Manchester United finished a Premier League weekend at the top of the table for the first time since May 2013 courtesy of their victory over Sunderland and Manchester City’s 4-1 defeat at Tottenham.
Our resident Red Devils have naturally been in jovial spirits with none of the experts claiming that United could win the Premier League at the start of the season but on the face of it, perhaps Louis van Gaal’s men could lead a surprise charge to the title after all?
The league seems wide open this year with Manchester City’s early lead pegged back and Chelsea still well down the table so who knows, somebody such as Manchester United – whose fans will admit the club are still in transition – can perform heroics.
Louis van Gaal is a manager who has been used to winning silverware in his career but he remains trophyless in charge of the Red Devils after one season so he’ll want to put that right and what better way to go about that than by going for the biggest prize of all – the league title.
With our Red Devils supporters daring to dream right now, we’ve devised five reasons why United will win the Premier League this season.
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 reasons Manchester United will win the Premier League.
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Because they now have the squad depth
Although they are still heavily reliant on Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial staying fit up top, what’s incredibly striking about Manchester United’s playing roster is that they now boast tremendous strength in depth.
Particularly in central midfield, United are now able to call upon the likes of Michael Carrick, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin, Ander Herrera, Daley Blind, Marouane Fellaini and even young Andreas Pereira while in defence and on the flanks, options are in abundance too.
In goal, United boast two experienced international number one’s in David De Gea and Sergio Romero while for players such as Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia, they can play in multiple positions so Louis van Gaal’s men look well equipped to battle on all fronts while remaining competitive.
To win a Premier League title calls upon more than just a good starting eleven and with United now back in the Champions League this campaign, United’s squad looks like it’ll be able to cope better than it did so previously when inevitable injuries come to strike.
They’ve proved they can spend big with January in mind
Compared to the likes of Premier League title rivals Arsenal, you’re that much more convinced that Manchester United may be able to pull off a game-changing mid-season signing in January simply due to the fact that Ed Woodward has splashed out lavishly in the recent past.
Dominating the last two summer transfer windows, United have spent over £200 million in Louis van Gaal’s one-and-a-bit year tenure at Old Trafford so far and with this kind of spending, it is clear that the manager is being backed to the hilt to find those right players to ultimately seize glory.
One man who was signed in a January transfer window and the 2014 edition to be precise was Juan Mata who is now one of the indispensable members of United’s first team following a slow start.
If United are still at the top or in touching distance of the Premier League summit come January, perhaps United will again spend big to get over the line in terms of signing an additional striker or top class defender.
There’s less pressure on them than City & Chelsea
This may seem like a strange statement on paper given the fact many Manchester United fans and neutrals refer to the Red Devils as the biggest club in the world but the fact remains; nobody was really tipping United for the title at the start of the season.
With the club still in transition, to win the league title this term would be seen as an ahead-of-schedule-type achievement despite the club spending those multi-millions but given the sheer fact they’ve negotiated the early weeks of the season well, many supporters are now starting to believe.
For us, there has been far more pressure on fellow big spenders Manchester City and Chelsea to win the title given the fact that City are well, City and Jose Mourinho’s Blues are defending last season’s crown with both sides not in transition and truly believing that they could win the league.
With many experts not being able to see beyond these two teams, United’s rise to the top has been pleasant because nobody was really expecting it and perhaps the Red Devils can use this outsider, under the radar-type stigma to reel everybody in while really making a fist of it come the business end of the season in May.
Because Martial is young, hungry & willing to learn
In Anthony Martial, the Red Devils have a striker who has taken everybody by surprise in regards to how quickly he has found his feet at such a big club in his first competitive season outside his native France.
Still just 19-years-old, it’s absolutely fantastic for the boy that he’s shouldered all the responsibility of being a £36 million player who is officially the most expensive teenage signing of all-time while going about his weekly duties of putting the ball into the back of the net with four goals in five games.
Proving that he is hungry to succeed at Old Trafford, Martial will go through spells of not scoring like all strikers do but given his fast start, this has prompted many Red Devils supporters to have reason to believe they may have pulled off one of the most effective signings of the summer.
This is despite the extortionate price tag of course but you get what you pay for as it’s proving thus far!
Because they now have a settled formation
If you think back to Louis van Gaal’s debut season in charge of the Red Devils, the Dutchman proceeded with using wing backs for the first part of the 2014/15 campaign on the back of utilising the system for the Netherlands at the World Cup while the likes of Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia bought into the system relatively well.
However, he didn’t stick with that system opting to change it throughout the course of the season, most notably when Wayne Rooney was reverted from being a number 10 to a number 9.
Things are all change this season however with Louis van Gaal sticking with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Rooney now back in the number 10 role with Anthony Martial working wonders as the club’s main striker.
With United’s players knowing exactly which system the manager is utilising on a week-to-week basis nowadays, things are much more settled and ultimately, United are throwing away less points as a result.
The perfect tonic for Premier League success, no?
