One month into the new Premier League season, excuses about bedding-in processes and newly assembled squads needing time to gel are wearing thin and for Manchester United there is an acute sense of urgency as the international break looms.
United are by no means the only ‘big club’ enduring a faltering start to the campaign but after so much pre-season optimism, the spotlight has fallen very much on manager Michael Carrick ahead of Sunday’s trip to Fulham.
Only one win in four league games, at home to promoted Ipswich Town, has been compounded by Wednesday’s League Cup exit at home to Brighton and Hove Albion having led 2-0.
Another setback at Craven Cottage against a Fulham side
without a league win so far would escalate the pressure on
Carrick and deepen the sense that United’s season is in danger
of drifting before it has properly begun.
“Of course we can turn it around, we have got some really
good players,” Carrick said after the 3-2 defeat by Brighton —
the first time United had lost at Old Trafford having led by two
goals for 50 years. “It feels bad because we haven’t had a great
week or two, or three weeks.
“We’ve got another game on Sunday, and that’s the crucial
thing now. We need to flip that and start winning games again.”
United will be buoyed by the fact they have not lost at
Fulham since 2009, but while the London club have made a slow
start under new manager Alvaro Arbeloa, a draw at Liverpool last
week and a League Cup win at West Ham United in midweek offered
glimpses of better things to come.
Liverpool remain unbeaten under new manager Andoni Iraola in
all competitions but three draws from four Premier League games
has stifled any early-season momentum.
Iraola will be back in very familiar surroundings on Sunday
as his side travel to Bournemouth, the south coast club the
Spaniard consistently had punching above their weight.
Bournemouth are yet to win in the Premier League under
Iraola’s replacement Marco Rose, but three draws and a rather
unlucky loss away at Manchester City is scant return for some
eye-catching football under the German.
Chelsea began the season with a flourish under Xabi Alonso,
prompting talk of title challenges, but defeat by Arsenal and a
draw at home with promoted Hull City have offered a reality
check.
They will hope to get back to winning ways on Friday as they
kick off the weekend action at unbeaten Brentford.
If Carrick is already feeling the heat, Tottenham Hotspur
manager Roberto De Zerbi’s need for a result this weekend is
perhaps even greater.
After a summer spend in excess of £300 million ($401
million), things were supposed to be different this season after
successive 17th-placed finishes. Instead, after four games, that
is exactly where Tottenham find themselves again after no wins
— and not a single goal — in their opening four games.
De Zerbi remained confident after Tuesday’s League Cup loss
at Liverpool that his side would ‘click’ soon and Saturday’s
early kickoff at home to an Aston Villa side with only one point
so far would be an opportune moment for that to happen.
With so much focus on the failings of others, reigning
champions Arsenal and Manchester City have been serene.
Both have 100% records and have already distanced themselves
from the pack in ominous fashion.
City aim to continue their impressive start to the
post-Guardiola era with a home clash against Sunderland on
Sunday, while Arsenal face perhaps the trickiest of this
weekend’s potential banana skins away to Brighton, whose tally
of 13 goals from four games is the highest in the division.
Source: Khaleej Times