The Premiership has turned out to be very enjoyable so far this season, it’s very competitive between Manchester United and Chelsea and is good for football, rather than the one-horse race of the last two seasons.
Man United have done very well but I think that’s as much to do with Chelsea’s problems as anything else. United have exceeded expectations but they’ve avoided any injuries to their top players which makes a huge difference.
But the big story of the season has to be Chelsea’s implosion. They seem to have fallen apart and it looks like Mourinho’s days are numbered.
However, it would be a considerable achievement for Alex Ferguson should United claim the title and they will have surprised everybody – me included.
Ferguson has surprised but he still does odd things - the tactics can be strange and he’s made a lot of mistakes in the transfer market – but he’s gotten away with it and that takes us back to Chelsea.
They’ve had serious injury problems at Stamford Bridge and the problems between Mourinho and the board are clear. It looks highly likely that Mourinho will be gone in the summer. If the board won’t give him the money to spend in the January transfer window he needs to secure the title – well then I don’t see there’s any way he can stay with the club.
He has the support of the fans and the players but if he hasn’t got the support from the board there’s no point.
Manchester United have done well but they’ve also been lucky – they haven’t had a serious injury to any of their key players and that’s rare. Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have had their fair share of injuries and United will need that luck to continue until the end of the season as they haven’t got much on the bench – but so far so good as far as they’re concerned.
Of course one of their ex-players, Roy Keane, is impressing greatly in the Championship art the moment in his first season as a manager. Keane has made a very impressive start to management. He bought sensibly and has the team playing good football and I would think that he’s going to be extremely successful – he’s showing all the signs of it anyway. So far so good for himself and Niall Quinn at Sunderland.
And I think it was the right decision by Anthony Stokes to join Sunderland. It was better him going there than either Celtic or Charlton who offered him Premier League football. Sunderland might not be strong enough to gain promotion this year but if they don’t they will be favourites next year and for Stokes to be involved in an up and coming team and under a potentially great coach can be only be to his benefit.
Eamon was in conversation with RTÉ Publishing's Johnny Proby.
