There was a graph that surfaced on Twitter last week showing that Manchester United had the easiest run-in of any of the 20 Premier League teams, assessed by the average opposition league position they would face.
It is certainly true that there is not much trepidation in the remaining United program, so perhaps it would be unpleasant to complain about the matches again, but the calendar could certainly have given Ole Gunnar Solskjaer a better hand.
United return to competitive action on Friday 19 June when they attempt to detonate the cobwebs with a chain attack against Tottenham Hotspur in north London.
This starts a three-game streak in eight days, the outcome of which will be crucial in seeing whether United will maintain momentum under Project Restart or whether the summer slogan will turn into a wet squam in July.
No number of practice games at Old Trafford can tune the United team to the coming of reality, especially when an interval of exactly 100 days without a competitive match immediately ends with a difficult game, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against a Jose Mourinho desperate for revenge and a Spurs suit that knows only victory will keep his hopes alive in the Champions League.
While the remaining United fixture list may not bring many Stretford Enders to sweat cold, the first two Premier League games are against two of their rivals for a Champions League spot.
After Tottenham United returned to Old Trafford on Tuesday, June 24, to face the Sheffield United surprise package, which at that point could have been ahead of the Solskjaer team in the top four game, with the game in hand against L ‘Aston Villa week before.
Put these two games aside and United have a series of what seem like five very successful games, three of which are at Old Trafford, before a trip to Leicester City on the last day of the season.
The problem for United is that the first two games will be crucial in determining their fate in the league and will come at a time when players will continue to go back to achieve sharpness, when unpredictability is a significant determining factor.
Ideally, Solskjaer’s men would have had time to make their way into these bigger matches, rather than starting with them, when their result will define the mood for the rest of what remains of the 2019/20 season.
Before the season was suspended on March 13, United was the workhorse in the race for the top four places, ensuring league wins against Chelsea and Manchester City during an unbeaten 11-game match in all competitions involving them. filling the gap on the Blues in fourth with three points.
At that point United looked like they had taken over from Frank Lampard, but now they need to rediscover that moment, but doing it against Tottenham and Sheffield United won’t be easy.
Take six points from six and United must be the favorite to finish fourth, but it slips and the plot for the rest of the season changes.
These encounters also come at a time when Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford are returning. While all players will seek a certain level of fitness in the game by not having played for three months, Rashford’s absence from competitive action dates back to mid-January and Pogba to Boxing Day. It would be understandable if they had been handled gently in the first week of the season restart.
After navigating their top four potentially decisive battles, United will turn their attention to the FA Cup on Saturday 27 June. The trip to Norwich City looks comfortable on paper, with Solsjaer’s team winning 3-1 on Carrow Road earlier in the season and 4-0 at Old Trafford, while their FA Cup run has so far been impressive.
But this is still in a phase where disturbances are perhaps more likely and having already knocked out Tottenham, the Canaries could start thinking that this could be their year in the Cup.
United’s confidence in Carrow Road will be almost entirely affected by what happened in the previous week. Raise the unbeaten run to 13 with at least one win in there and the mood will be optimistic, but demanding matches in the first week of Project Restart mean that United’s “easy” run-in isn’t all that has been resolved.
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