At the start of the season, there was a broad consensus on the make-up of the Premier League’s final top four and a band of overwhelming favourites to qualify for next season’s Champions League. The order depended on who you asked but just about everybody agreed that Manchester City and Liverpool would be joined by Chelsea and Manchester United.
Two of those four clubs have spent the past week competing in the semi-finals of this season’s Champions League, having already secured their place in next season’s too. For City, to win the competition would be the crowning moment of the Abu Dhabi era. For Liverpool, it could still complete an unprecedented quadruple. It is late April and this season could still be a historic one for both clubs.
Their two rivals, by contrast, can barely wait for the campaign to end. Chelsea and United play each other at Old Trafford this evening in a fixture that will have little bearing on their respective seasons, a game that has been shunted around the schedule to clash with the Europa League. Many viewers might decide that West Ham’s first European semi-final in 46 years is an altogether more enticing prospect than this meeting of two jaded giants.
Chelsea still have the FA Cup final to look forward to, at least, and will eventually secure their top-four finish. It is some way sort of the sustained title challenge many expected, but then very little has gone according to expectation at Stamford Bridge over these past few months. The takeover saga is reaching its most decisive days. Most importantly, whatever the outcome, the future of the club is secure.
United have not suffered an existential crisis in the same way but that is just about the only thing that has not gone wrong at Old Trafford over the past nine months. This season could be described as forgettable if it had not arguably been the most dramatic and traumatic of the post-Ferguson era. Erik ten Hag’s appointment can only offer delayed gratification at a club that needs - and often craves - an instant hit of optimism.
The problems continue to pile up. After Paul Scholes’ public proclamations of dressing room unrest and Scott McTominay hinting at something similar after the defeat to Arsenal at the weekend, there is now an injury crisis to contend with. Ralf Rangnick revealed at his pre-match press conference yesterday that he will have only 14 first team players available on Thursday night.
Harry Maguire has picked up a knee injury. Jadon Sancho has tonsilitis. Fred remains sidelined, as do Edinson Cavani, Luke Shaw and Paul Pogba. Aaron Wan-Bissaka is also a doubt, leaving Rangnick to weigh up whether now is the time to trust in academy products like Hannibal Mejbri, who caught the eye with that combative cameo in the humiliation at Anfield. That may be the sensible thing to do with so little left to play for.
United’s injury record remains a worry, though, and it is an issue Rangnick has repeatedly brought up in recent weeks, having been deprived of players during a critical stage of the season. He has suggested a thorough internal review to get to the bottom of the problem, but was sure to divert any blame away from those individuals within United’s medical department. “There is nothing that needs to be put under scrutiny there,” he insisted, “but obviously if we are supposed to have seven outfield players missing out tomorrow this is not a good thing at this part of the season.”
Scrutiny is instead turning to Rangnick himself. This is far from an easy club to manage but his interim spell has not had the desired effect. “I think I've tried everything I can but that does not necessarily mean that we did everything right,” he conceded at Carrington, when asked if this spell had damaged his reputation. “Everybody has to question himself, the staff, the players and myself, what could we have done better in the past. This is part of our job. Everybody has to be self-critical enough to do that.”
Whether it is players or management, nobody at Old Trafford can be spared that criticism, even if United win all four of their remaining league games. It says everything about how badly the season has gone that a perfect record between now and the end of next month could be viewed by some as less a blessing and more a curse. If a spot in the Champions League has gone, as it surely has, a place in the Europa League is little consolation and one in the Conference League even less so.
Rangnick has used Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool as a reference point several times when discussing United’s rebuild and the absence of European football from his first full season in charge has been noted. With their midweeks free, Liverpool finished fourth that year. Arsenal look likely to benefit in the same way this season, while even Louis van Gaal’s United returned to the top four after a year spent out of Europe. An eighth-place finish would be the worst in 32 years and, perversely, the best thing that could happen to Ten Hag.
“It could be an advantage but that does not mean we will give away any of the remaining four games," Rangnick said. "For us it's clear and our obligation. This is our job, my job, the job of the players that we try to get the best possible results.” It is ultimately a question of professional pride, after all. And while their rivals all have the opportunity to add to their trophy cabinets over the coming weeks, that is all that United have to play for.
