The word ‘transition’ is a comfort blanket to most, a state of flux that some teams never seem to break out of (see Arsenal). It is a cliched expression that can be an all too convenient excuse for some. So are Manchester United in transition or have they successfully travelled through the transitional period and emerged stronger for the experience.

Saturday’s performance at Spurs seemed to be a turning point. United lost an early goal and went down to ten men but emerged with a 3-1 win at the league leaders. Tottenham were up for it, ‘Arry got them playing on the front foot and got a goal head start before United knew what had hit them. A team in transition would have folded and blamed a missing star or foreign system for the adversity but not this current United team. In the end they wiped the floor with Spurs, Redknapp admitted that they’d been humiliated later, which was a bit harsh, but United controlled matters after the first 15 minutes.

Playing 4-4-2 used to be the default setting in the Premiership. With Ronaldo in the team however we didn’t need to play ‘open’, with a player that good (a striker and a winger rolled into one) we could leave everybody else on defensive duty and let the Portuguese plunder the goals. This explains our outstanding defensive record but also our often dull football last term when players were used to passing the buck.

There’s no doubt that without him we are likely to see a more stretched team but we may will also see the best of a number of individuals previously thought purely defensive. Rooney is one example but Anderson showed that his youtube highlights aren’t a figment of a feverish Brazilian imagination. He got forward, linked well with the front men and looked a different player to the anonymous teenager we saw in Rome back in May.

The main casualty of this new style would appear to be Michael Carrick who is widely perceived to lack the pace and aggression to play in a midfield four. Carrick seems to have been made a scapegoat for the Barca defeat where he didn’t look like transforming United’s fortunes once they fell behind.

Darren Fletcher by contrast has become our most consistent player. Super Fletch has developed into one of the best midfielders in Europe (can’t believe I’m writing that!) his passing, tackling, aggression and will-to-win reminiscent of Roy Keane in his pomp. The only thing he lacks in comparison to the Irishman is perhaps the ruthless hard man image. But his ability to pull United back into games has been a feature so far this season and we would have fared better in Rome had he been available. Iniesta and Xavi would have had something to think about at the very least.

It’s clear that United have been transistion (I suppose we all have) and, domestically at least, we seem to have come through the other side a stronger unit. United are more of a collective without Ronaldo and the form of Rooney in particular is a source of joy. When/if he gets injured (it’s inevitable) then we need to see Berbatov step up. He’s threatened on occasion this season, perhaps Saturday’s visit of City will see him turn it on.

City have made a great start and the giddy-o-meter is off the scale. The defeat of Arsenal showed them at their counter-attacking best and their defence and goalkeeper withstood a lot of pressure from the Gunners. Yet the blues are yet to fall behind this season and City tend not to cope with adversity too well – traditionally preferring to fail comically than heroically stage a comeback – so it will be interesting to see how they cope with going a goal down.
Should the two teams play to form, Saturday’s derby could be a classic.