Chris Smalling gave a very refreshingly honest take on the Premier League title race, a phenomenon that doesn’t really exist in the truest sense right now. With 14 games left, Manchester United are 12 points behind their neighbors Manchester City, making the April 7 Manchester Derby at The Etihad a must win.
Additionally, United would have to not lose any more ground on their intra-city rivals, plus need City to drop nine more points, while they keep winning. Even if they can pull level, a very formidable task in the least, City are +19 on United in goal differential. In other words, this isn’t just an extreme long shot kind of situation, it’s one that borders on the nearly impossible.
That’s why the observations of Smalling are spot on and realistic. While teammates Paul Pogba and Juan Mata espoused more party line rhetoric, the so-called “saying all the right things,” or what people might “want to hear,” Chris Smalling instead told United supporters what they needed to hear instead.
It is of course, something they already know. Smalling said of the next derby:
“If we can be in with a shout at that time of the season that’s when nerves can creep in so hopefully those last few games we’re there or thereabouts.”
“I think we have all been there where league title hopes have been dwindled and people have been caught but we can only focus on ourselves.
“There is a big points gap at the minute and we just need to make sure we win our games because if we don’t there’s no point even at all.”
Smalling and United are next in action on Friday night at Yeovil Town in the FA Cup fourth round. Their next league game is at Tottenham Hotspur a week from Wednesday.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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