City Can Remain Confident as Title Race is Far from Over

This is a guest post.

Vincent Kompany said recently that he was not worried about Chelsea’s five-point lead in the table. The Manchester City captain may not have altered from the stance even after witnessing a near-perfect performance from Chelsea against Arsenal on Sunday. Chelsea’s 2-0 win over the Gunners re-established their five-point lead after City had earlier won by the same score against Aston Villa. The two teams arguably have the best squads in the division and it is not surprising that Kompany is not worried right now. Betfair places City at 11/4 to win the Premier League 2014-15 title while Chelsea are far ahead in terms of odds at 1/2.

Manchester City appear to have put behind the early-season struggle for form. Some have put forth the suggestions that City are making the same mistakes as they did when the club first won the league title in 2012. Complacency crept into the squad and they ultimately failed to retain the title. The poor early-season form, though, may be down to a few issues other than complacency.

City indeed have a great squad, but it is undeniable that there is a reliance upon Sergio Aguero for goals. Edin Dzeko is not the most accomplished striker to grace the game. He may need, at times, more than a couple of chances to score a goal. This is, unfortunately, a luxury that is hard to come by in the Premier League with its highly competitive nature.

Aguero spent the first few weeks of the season recovering from the injury that has plagued him for the last few months. His goal against Villa took his league tally to five for the season. He is just four short of the league’s top scorer, Diego Costa.

Costa continues to be the favourite to finish as the league’s top scorer at odds of 4/5. Aguero is not far behind with odds of 9/2.

Then, there has been the huge controversy surrounding Yaya Touré and his future at the club. After a summer of uncertainty, it looked like Touré had lost to the motivation to be one of the league’s best players. He was less than mediocre in the Champions League outings against Bayern Munich and Roma. Even for the squad as strong as City’s, an individual like Touré is highly important. He showed that against Villa by proving to be the difference. His goal out of nothing broke the deadlock and put City on the path towards victory. Pellegrini stated that he had always believed in Touré.

Toure’s goal against Villa was his first league goal of the season.

Even if Touré is not performing, City appear to have an adequate replacement in the form of Frank Lampard. Not many expected the former Chelsea midfielder to have such an impact. It is expected that his importance will be much more profound during the months of January when Touré will be unavailable due to the Africa Cup of Nations.

It is a widely held belief that one should not look at the league table before the 10th match. Last season’s title race is an apt remainder of this fact. In fact, Arsenal were top of the table with a considerable margin on 2014 New Year’s Day. Yet, they ended up struggling to even finish in the top four and this speaks volumes about the competitiveness of the league.

Chelsea have an eight-point advantage over Manchester United in the fourth place. This advantage, however, is seen as a considerable one and Betfair places United at a distant 14/1 for the title in Louis Van Gaal’s first season in charge.

The weeks after this international break will be extremely crucial to both City and Chelsea. Pellegrini’s men go straight into a home match against Tottenham, who appear to be struggling with consistency under new manager Mauricio Pochettino but remain a significant threat nonetheless.

The first Manchester derby of the season comes in the first week of October. After a shaky start to the season, United seem to be coming good and this match promises to be intriguing more than ever. For all the talk about missing a top four place, United remain only three points behind City.

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