It’s becoming easier to see the Nottingham Forest for the trees in the race for Uefa Champions League football next season, after their win over Manchester City at the weekend confirmed Nuno Espirito Santo’s team as favourites for one of the four or five Champs League places.
The battle for a spot among Europe’s elite next season is wide open, and looks like it will go down to the wire.
With Liverpool’s place long secured, the Gunners, Citizens, Forest, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Newcastle, resurgent Brighton and even Bournemouth are all in the mix. And the picture seems to change every week. It has added intrigue to a run-in that seemed set to fizzle out after the gap between Arsenal and Liverpool ballooned.
A recent Forest wobble suggested all their hard work this season – they are the only team to beat the Reds in the league so far – would be undone in the final straight. But they set the record straight in emphatic fashion at the weekend with a typically resolute defensive display against Man City.
They are not alone among the chasers for Champions League places next season, who are punching above their weight.
Meanwhile, the wisdom in Ruben Amorim’s desire to start on a clean slate at the end of the season, and the folly of Red Devils’ management in insisting he start in midseason, is being exposed more with each passing week.
Optimists among Manchester United fans may point to Sunday’s share of the spoils against the fast-fading Gunners. But there was little to get excited about in a dour defensive first half display. Talk about parking the bus …
That they escaped a hiding was thanks largely to the never-say-die attitude of skipper Bruno Fernandes. His form is one of the few bright spots in a very gloomy sky over Old Trafford. Red Devils fans are hoping that the manager will eventually get to build ‘his’ team at the end of the season, but financial constraints at the club seem to be jeopardising that project.
There’s also the issue of all the dead wood at the club, on fat contracts, potentially refusing to leave to make way for new arrivals. You can’t really blame them, though. Who would want them based on this season’s disastrous performances?
And who would want to join?
Club legend Wayne Rooney recently admitted that he would have reconsidered his switch from Everton all those years ago had United been in a similar mess. Compounding the issue for Amorim is the failure to string together a few decent performances in a row. Arguing that the players at his disposal don’t ‘suit his style’ is getting old.
There are plenty of managers in the Premier League who have made more with less: just look at the teams above United in the table.
The Gunners, for their part, will have to keep a close eye on those behind them if they keep misfiring like they did on Sunday.
They bossed the first half against United, at least in terms of possession, only to be caught out by a Fernandes sucker punch late in the half. And it could have been worse.
Mikel Arteta’s men look set for a nervy ride to the end of the season as Liverpool coast to the title.
They are closer to the teams below them than they are to the rampant Reds who took another step closer to the title. Arne Slot’s men now just need 16 points to seal the deal, if the Gunners don’t stumble again. But that’s a big ‘if’.
