This shows how much of an influence a poor start contributes to the league standing.

i still don't get it .

xD Arsenal is fourth. Will this ever stop?

he meant by their performance from September 1 and not the beginning of EPL, where ManU started off shaky than made a comeback from the 15th to the top 5

IF IF IF
If Only 2015 would count

Since the start of the season, Chelsea would still be on top if you would count both away or home matches.

Away

Home (with a game in hand)

@TheGame: We are known for notoriously poor starts, but pack a punch towards the end. If I remember correctly, we won like 5-6 titles on the last day. Even lost two-City recently, and Arsenal in early 2000's. So, I'm not surprised we're close to CFC. Next two weeks will be crucial for us.

@ashwin1729 that is generally true, but this was the poorest start we've had in 10 years. The table since Sept. 1st excludes ONLY 3 games. Those 3 games, against Swansea (home), Sunderland (away) and Burnley (away) we're games we should've won, but produced only 2 points for us. Fine margins indeed.

@ThaGame: True, but to be honest, those games are not the ones that we have thrown points away this year. We should not have lost to Southamption at home this year. Draws to Aston Villa, Stoke, and Tottenham were the main reason why we're in 4th and not 2nd, which would have given a push for the title this year. That 1 month was pretty bad for us.

@ashwin, all games are worth 3 points. The only way to evaluate the importance of games is to see how well your rivals did in relation to your own performance. Those games you mentioned occurred around January where Chelsea and City had blips as well. I still maintain that us starting out so slow in relation to our rivals is the reason why we are not putting up a title challenge.

Agreed, but the team was not in a good position at the beginning of the season. If a team like Chelsea (which is very stable) dropped a few points, then that would have been a talking point. We had a lot of young players playing on the wings. Defence was not stable. Points were expected to be dropped. However, the games during the winter holidays, we had almost a fairly stable team barring injuries and suspensions. We had several very good chances against Tottenham that should have been put away. We failed miserably against Southamption at home. Aston Villa and Stoke were performances where the team showed no creativity. Overall, I'm happy with the position we're in right now. We should get 3rd as long as we beat Arsenal at home.

I absolutely concur. And not to mention we were playing that dreaded 3-5-2 formation, which was just so inconsistent in giving us positive results. One week it would work out brilliantly, the next we were getting outplayed. But yea I am really happy with LVG and know that we'll be bringing our A game against City, Chelsea and Arsenal. I am also really happy with the way our defensive players have responded in the absence of Ferdinand and Vidic, as evidenced by having the 3rd best defensive rating in the league.

Exactly. Aston Villa at home next week, and then City & Chelsea. 7 out of 9 points, and we're good. I'm excited.

Don't want to interrupt your fantasy football , but do you honestly think that you will be able to beat City and draw Chelsea ?

7 ouf of 9 points in these 3 matches, you will need to play football which you didn't produced this season so far.

@Marcus, we have the best record against the top 4 and arguably in better form than Chelsea and City. I see us beating Chelsea if they think they can just stumble their way for the league title, similar to how United did in 2012-13. @quikzyyy, you mean the type of football we played against Spurs and Liverpool?

Well, your performance vs Spurs was probably the best I saw this season, first half against Liverpool was similar. But Chelsea/City is not Tottenham. On the other side I will be happy if you beat them.

Cough cough mate , do I need to remind that shameless draw in which Di Maria dived and we were left with 10 men ? That you like other United fans still feel as deserved ....

You mean that 2012 - 13 year when we you beat us at home, and when we were completely robbed by referees who left us with 9 men ? Yeah I remember that year very well .

Game help me understand , how does United fans brain works ? With no disrespect , so many years i been watching football and I have to agree that United fans have the incredibly strong selective memory of the their past events . No other fans in the world are like you . Even Barca does not come close .

And yeah That record will change quickly in few weeks .

Do you even get half of the arguments I am making? I am starting to think that I am operating on a whole different level of intelligence. I am talking about the complacency towards the end of that season that set in after we knew the title was ours. Di Maria dived? There was clear stud to heels. And why even bring that up when you know Chelsea threw that game away? I am just wasting my time trying to rationalize things for a Chelsea fanboy. You want to banter? Fine. But don't bring up BS which has nothing to do with the arguments being made, like you do in every thread. Talk about selective memory, when you don't even address the negative aspects of Mourinho's management or how his first stint at Chelsea ended in a complete disaster or how he hasn't won a major title in 3 years. Go waste someone else's time, because you've already wasted enough of my time bringing up pointless arguments which have little to no substance and are completely outside the domain of reality.

Guys...

Life isn't fair, so does football, live with it. MU and Chelsea we both have some shit performances got robbed and saved by the refs.

One thing is, doesn't matter how high we are in the table, I never feel like we (Manchester United) deserve it, I can admit that. De Gea saved our asses big time.

The game vs Spur were the best game I have seen since Sir Alex left, and looks like LVG finds his way to make the "better" our strange squad...

But one game doesn't say it all, it's a big hope though. We are still as shit as last year in term of performance and game play doesn't matter how high we are up there. Does that work for you yet if we admit that?