United aren't ready to challenge for the title...yet

On Sunday, Manchester City thumped Liverpool 4-1 at Anfield, their first win there in almost 2 decades. It was more than a statement, it was almost a confirmation that they would be the next Premier League champions. They were missing two key players in De Bruyne and Aguero, yet were rampant against the admittedly faulty reigning champions.

But how can I be so presumptuous to crown the Premier League champions in February, with City only 5 points clear of second place? Well, they have a game in hand for starters, and second placed Manchester United seemed to have cracked under the pressure of a potential title race, taking 9 points from the last possible 18. This dismal run culminated in a 3-3 draw with Everton at Old Trafford, where United conceded in the 95th minute following a careless freekick being given away by Axel Tuanzebe on the halfway line.

A mixture of failing to run the clock down intelligently and another lapse in defensive shape when defending a set-piece led to Calvert-Lewin stealing a point for the Toffees. United were actually sitting pretty at half-time, 2-0 up and cruising after Fernandes had curled a beautiful long range attempt into the left top corner. Everton entered that second half on a mission, scoring 2 goals in 3 minutes in the early stages, one coming form a David De Gea error, the other coming from extremely poor marking. It seemed like the Manchester United of old, throwing 3 points away due to individual errors, until the 70th minute, where McTominay nodded the Reds in front.

United had chances after that but were left to rue them as Tuanzebe gave away a careless freekick right at the end, after United really should have ran the clock down in the corner to seal the win. A hopeful hoof came off an unmarked Michael Keane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin pounced and poked it home. This was the 4th time United had not won a Premier League game at home after leading 2-0 at half-time. Simply not good enough.

The leadership and experience in the squad is lacking, the fact that De Gea booted the ball from a freekick at the end of the 94th minute (there were 4 minutes of added time) instead of focusing on ball retention to see out the result, left several United fans scratching their heads. Defending on the 2nd and 3rd goals conceded were sloppy, with laziness and lack of awareness from United as a defensive unit, not singling out any specific individuals, costing United dearly in the end.

The game then should be contrasted with Manchester City's huge win over Liverpool the day after. The winning mentality, the hunger and the leadership shown by those players after missing a penalty and conceding right after scoring their first should be commended. They defended in an astute manner (thanks in part to the new, solid partership of Stones and Dias) and attacked with ferocity in the second half, pouncing on Liverpool's errors and showing their hunger to win the title once again.

That specific word, hunger, seems to be missing from this particular Man United side and it will be the deciding factor between them and City this season in the title race, if you can call it that at all. If City win their game in hand, they will go 8 points clear of United with the possibility of them losing a game anytime soon being extremely thin. Any glimmer of hope United had of challenging for the title seems to have disappeared into the darkness, with the focus shifting to securing a Top 4 spot. Even then, the lack of defensive positioning and decision making in high pressure situations needs to be dramatically improved if they are to have any hope of maintaining their position in the Premier League table.