Could 'Being Solid' Win The Title For United?

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Luis Suarez
Typical. Just as Andy Carroll begins to show a little bit of form (he even scored the other night! Glory be!), Kenny Dalglish is presented with one of those 'nice headaches' to which managers always refer, with the return to availability of Suarez. Perhaps slightly frustratingly, the system of Carroll up front, supported by the various darting runs of Craig Bellamy et al was just starting to work, just as Suarez's suspension ends.

There can be little doubt that Suarez will, when fully fit, return to the Liverpool side, but how will he be used? Dalglish is in the awkward position of having two strikers who, when on form are extremely effective, but who excel when the others are not there. So, having found a couple of systems that work, will Dalglish choose to rotate his number nine and number seven, or attempt to build another way of playing that incorporates both men?

If the alchemist Dalglish figures out a way to get these two disparate characters to work together, he will fully deserve the faith placed in him by Liverpool fans.


Spurs
Their manager is otherwise engaged, but of more concern to Tottenham is arguably their ever-growing injury list. Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe are rated as doubtful for the visit to Liverpool on Monday, while Benoit Assou-Ekkoto picked up a knock in the win over Wigan as well.

With this in mind, one might snigger at the signing of Louis Saha, but the striker's durability actually has been pretty good this season. He's played 20 times for Everton already (15 starts), so it shouldn't necessarily be his fitness that concerns Spurs fans, rather his scoring record - he's only got two goals in those 20 games.

With the injuries in mind, one must question Tottenham's January business even more. Sure, Stephen Pienaar may have been slightly superfluous, but Harry Redknapp maintained around half an hour before his loan back to Everton went through that he would have to be replaced. Also not replaced was Vedran Corluka, while Ryan Nelsen, who hasn't played since August, came in for Sebastian Bassong.

It was a window that displayed a couple of things. Firstly that Spurs really aren't planning past the summer, under the assumption that Redknapp will be elsewhere. Secondly, it indicated that their target is staying where they are, rather than pushing for a potential title challenge. Premier League winners do not tend to sign players Everton and Blackburn are prepared to let go for nothing in the middle of the season.

Still, we talk as if this is necessarily a bad thing. Tottenham's primary target should be the top four, but they still need a deep squad to make that. Do they have it? We'll know more on Monday.


Manchester City
For a manager to basically admit to underestimating a team as good as Everton is astonishing. One might say that it's not the attitude of champions in waiting, because title winners get to that position by taking every game absolutely seriously - seriously enough to win most of them.

So what caused Mancini's slip? He can't have been distracted by the transfer window, because all hope of Carlos Tevez's sale disappeared well before the deadline, and City's only other bit of real business was to bring in David Pizarro on loan.

One can only assume it was good old-fashioned complacency. And that's not good. As detailed in the last edition of this column, given the disparity in the number of key injuries suffered by City and United, there's no way things should be level at the top of the league.

Has money made City and Mancini complacent? It would be extraordinary if so, because they haven't really achieved anything yet. One thing's for sure - after the defeat at Everton, they need a win and a convincing performance against Fulham on Saturday.


Manchester United
Many commented during the sh*tstorm that followed the suspension of Suarez that United played things brilliantly from a PR perspective by doing nothing at all. They kept quiet while Liverpool released statements and wore t-shirts, and generally looked like the bigger man.

The title race might be taking on a similar theme. Few could argue (apart maybe from Sir Alex Ferguson in his feistier moments) that United have been a great deal more than solid this season, but there they are - level on points with City at the top of the table. Of course, they often haven't been allowed to be more than solid given their injury list, but at the moment solid is proving enough.

I remarked to a friend not long ago that it's in equal parts disturbing, annoying and comforting that, no matter how much money they spend, City will always be City. The inevitable tragi-comic talent to make a mess of things is in the water at Eastlands, and while it's too early and incredibly hasty to say City are cocking up the league, the initial signs are there.

Of course, to take advantage of any prospective collapse, United must continue to be solid, but they may need a little extra against Chelsea on Sunday.


Ben Amos
Not seriously tested against Stoke, Amos might be forced into action again on Sunday. Against Chelsea this time.

Best of luck.


The Chelsea left-back
One of the brighter spots in Chelsea's season has been the reliability of their left-back. Ashley Cole hasn't missed a league game yet, but he will be absent on Sunday after his dismissal at Swansea on Tuesday.

So who will replace him? Will it be young Ryan Bertrand, who only has a handful of top-level appearances to his name? Or a makeshift option like Paolo Ferreira or Jose Bosingwa.

Either way, they're going to be playing against arguably the Premier League's in-form player, in the shape of Luis Antonio Valencia.

Again, best of luck.


Chelsea
For all the concerns about Chelsea's season and Andre Villas-Boas's position, Chelsea are still in the Champions League spots.

Of course, even second has historically proved unsatisfactory for Roman Abramovich, and fourth might be in threat if they continue their recent run. Their last eight games have seen just two wins, with deeply irritating draws against Wigan, Fulham, Norwich and Swansea included in that run.

Indeed, scoring has proved something of a problem - they have only Neil Taylor's own goal in the last three games, and a striker hasn't scored for Chelsea since Didier Drogba bagged against Aston Villa on New Year's Eve, and he's otherwise engaged at present. You can make your own Fernando Torres joke here, but the Spaniard is supposed to be leading the Chelsea line at present, something that he is singularly failing to do.

A turnaround in form is required, and quickly. Preferably against United on Sunday.


Arsenal
Arsenal have two aims on Saturday - to get their first win this year, and to exorcise the horror of the last time they played Blackburn.

The 4-3 defeat to Rovers earlier in the season was arguably more comic and more painful than the 8-2 pounding at the hands of Manchester United, given how shambolic it was.

If the Arsenal fans were unhappy during the recent loss to United, imagine the reaction if they somehow fall to Blackburn again. One shudders.


Nikica Jelavic
Strikers moving to the Premier League from Scotland don't exactly have a sterling record of great success. Steven Fletcher is the only recent example that springs to mind of a forward travelling south and achieving anything close to a big impact. Added to that pressure, Jelavic has the burden of Everton's goalscoring expectation on him, and it's quite a burden - Everton have just 23 goals to their name this season, only Wigan have scored fewer.

Players can do little about their transfer fees, but £5.5million is a lot of money for a side as relatively parsimonious as Everton, so they will be expecting big things from the man chased by a number of clubs throughout January. In an unlikely development, Everton were widely regarded to be the big winners of a quiet transfer window, with the arrivals of Stephen Pienaar, Landycakes Donovan and Darron Gibson designed to provide ammo for a central striker, which until Tuesday evening, David Moyes didn't have at his disposal.

Nobody sensible expects Jelavic to repeat the roughly two in three scoring record that he boasted at Rangers, but a few strikes here and there to boost Everton's scoring record will do very nicely for now.


Mick McCarthy
I like Mick McCarthy. His professional Yorkshireman, 'I'm no nonsense me' schtick annoys plenty of people, but I rather enjoy his gruffness and honesty.

After the rather less than favourable reaction to Wolves' defeat to Liverpool in the week, McCarthy said: "I fully understand that. Watching that second half was unacceptable, for me or anybody else. For the last home game, there were huge rumours going that I wasn't going to be here the day after so I can't imagine there'll be any less tonight."

The problem is, for all his straightforwardness, Wolves are frankly dreadful at the moment. While one might not have expected them to beat Liverpool, a decent showing isn't too much to ask, and they need it after a run of form that has seen them slip deeper into trouble. With no wins in nine, their situation is starting to become dire, so much so that chairman Steve Morgan reportedly visited the dressing room on Tuesday to register his displeasure. That isn't good for the team, but it really isn't good for McCarthy, whose authority can only have been undermined by his boss.

Sacking a manager shortly after the transfer window would seem like an odd move, but as Uncle Ken Bates has shown this week, it's not unheard of. Especially if relegation looms.


Stoke
Just before Christmas, Stoke were one of the form teams in the division. Now, they have just one win in seven games, including a defeat to perennial bunnies West Brom, and a couple of capitulations to the Manchester sides.

Nothing unusual there, one might think, but this run started with the game against City on December 21, when Stoke made little to no attempt to actually win the game, instead settling for the sort-of-respectable-looking 3-0 defeat. Many argued that Stoke were saving themselves for more winnable games, but their run since then has proved that theory doesn't hold. When one gets into the mentality of not trying to win a game, it's tricky to get out of it again.

On Saturday they face Sunderland, who as you're about to read, are doing pretty well at the moment. Now would be a good time to snap out of this current run of form.


Sunderland
This is how the Premier League would look if it started on the day Martin O'Neill took over as Sunderland manager.

An eyebrow-raiser for sure, and as Sarah Winterburn wrote on Wednesday, an indictment of Steve Bruce's abilities.

Nick Miller - have a word with him on Twitter