never the twain

It is an historical quirk that the two biggest clubs in English football have contested only a handful of league title races between them, none of which could be described as a classic.

Unlike the incestuous relationships between the likes of Celtic and Rangers, the reigns of United and Liverpool tend to run in lengthy periods of domination and supplication. Like one of those clocks with the man and woman on them that seem destined never to meet, these periods such as United’s recent domination or Liverpool’s hegemony during the 70s and 80s, sees one of the rivals out for the count while the relentlessly hoovers up silverware. 

None of United’s 17 title successes have come as following a direct head-to-head fight with their bitterest rivals. In fact Manchester City have been involved in more memorable title scraps with us than Liverpool, taking the 1968 title courtesy of an inspired performance at Old Trafford in mid-March that blossomed into a confident run-in while United faded (sound familiar). The same could be said of Everton, whose annual tussles with Liverpool made the mid – 80s a bit more interesting.

The first season (1946-47 ) after football resumed following the Second World War saw the closest title race between United and Liverpool. The Merseysiders triumphing following a 1-0 victory at their place in early May, winning their 5th league title by a single point. In 1963-64 Bill Shankly’s Liverpool secured the title by three points following a 3-0 win over Busby’s men, again at Anfield. In 1975-76 Tommy Doc’s tearaways lost out in a 3 way tussle with Liverpool and QPR while the 1979-80 race ended with Sexton’s Army storming to six straight wins before losing to Leeds on the final day of the season, missing out on the title by two points. Ever since the title races won by either side have been fairly emphatic over one another.

United have won tight title run-ins over Villa, Blackburn, Newcastle, Arsenal and more recently Chelsea. None of these clubs could claim to be special rivals of United. And when the reds lost the 1968 title to City it didn’t matter so much because every Mancunian egg had been firmly thrown in the European Cup basket.

This term, with the magical number 18 looming over preceedings and Liverpool, like United last year, about to embark upon some emotional commemorations of their own, the run-in will be charged with meaning. Thankfully United won’t be playing Liverpool in the Champions League as the opportunity for certain supporters to bring shame on the club would have been hard to resist.

Instead, this spring will be illuminated by a special title race, at a unique time in both club’s histories. Liverpool, for so long dismissed as last-minute chancers, appear to have the edge in terms of tactics, form and leadership at the crucial moment. United have the points advantage, the better players and the opportunity to make history. Come the end of May the inhabitants of one city will be celebrating like there’s no tomorrow while the other will be studiously ignoring the TV and refusing to answer calls.

I still take United to do it but it’s going to be mighty close.

Games in hand 1 – 4 points clear

In light of recent events I thought an update would be timely.

First off let me congratulate Liverpool on their win last week – no sarcasm here, just a genuine well-played for beating the best team in the country. Most reds were predicting that we’d put away the title last week at home in some style but Liverpool were too good on the day. United looked lethargic, made uncharacterstic errors and Torres in particular exposed a few weaknesses at the back. Still the 1-4 scoreline was possibly a bit lop-sided but losing by one or six doesn’t really matter a loss is a loss.

The national euphoria surrounding the result was harder to take. Ok, so it was United’s first league defeat since November and ended an 11 game winning streak.Yes, it gives Liverpool and Chelsea a slight opportunity to take advantage but the feeling persists that the foundations for number 18 have been carefully laid, only a freak event could prevent United from equalling Liverpool’s title record. The race has hardly been ‘blown wide open’. Once again, Liverpool wanted it more, United made mistakes that were punished and then chased the game and were punished further but, aside from gloating about how United lost, let’s not make it out to be any more than that.

After today’s Champions League draw it would seem inevitable that United will be hot favourites to land the quintuple. Perhaps this is the real reason behind last week’s over-reaction to scouse glory. United have been handed the ‘easy’ side of the draw with Porto and then Arsenal or Villareal. All three are good teams, none are particularly scary, scouse or managed by a Dutchman with a brilliant track-record in tournament football (which is what the CL now becomes).

If United aren’t in their 4th European Cup Final this May there will have been an almighty loss of form or a large dose of the kind of bad luck Fergie was referring to this week when he dismissed talk of United performing a clean sweep. The bonus, as far as our title race rivals is concerned, is that Liverpool and Chelsea will meet again with the potential to bruise each other sufficiently enough to ease the path to the title.

Forget the nonsense spouted by Rafa last week, the most consistent team in Europe over the past 5 years have been Chelsea. Semi-final defeats to Monaco and Liverpool in 04 & 05, knocked out by eventual champs Barca in 06, by Liverpool again in 07 and the defeat to us last season means they’ve been in the last four in 4 out of 5 seasons and I’d back a repeat of last season’s Moscow final in Rome this year with, as seems inevitable in these cases, a Chelsea win to balance out the karma and satisfy the ABUs.