Key differences between champions and Man United

After just two matches in the new season we're left with more questions than answers with the Red Devils

Since taking over as the managers of the two Manchester clubs Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola have respectively spent £ 344 million and £ 476 million in order to reclaim the Premier League title. While City exceeded all expectations and claimed a league and cup double rivals Manchester United have failed to impress many as their performances have been tedious and mostly frustrating as they've haven't lived up to their money's worth.

While it may be easy to downplay City's success over United to the difference in spending in the transfer window, there is an underlying issue about how United have gone about their transfer business.

City's transfer business reads like the same script as Guardiola used in his previous jobs at Bayern Munich and Barcelona: get the right type of players who play in the way you want them to and the results take care of themselves.

This speaks volumes about a plan in the grander scheme of things and more importantly living in line with a philosophy which will also produces other future stars.

On the other hand with Manchester United, how they've recruited players has been a bit of a shot in the dark where Mourinho's looked to have taken a scattered approach in just randomly getting players on board to play for the Red Devils regardless of whether they would fit into his system and footballing philosophy.

Here's the thing about this approach it shows a.) lack of planning and b.) makes it harder to achieve any sort of goals because there isn't a predetermined end game to their effort and we'll likely see United run up and down the field without actually producing anything.

Another major issue for Manchester United and Mourinho is the problem about the club's identity at the moment. Despite having players of the quality of Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku United have reverted to the type of football which would even keep the most hard-core United fans away from watching.

More importantly the poor man management on Mourinho's behalf won't go anywhere to making things better by pointing the finger at players especially if some of them are the most influential. The result? More performances like the one at Brighton will occur more frequently and its becoming obvious that things have to change.

How the change will occur is all up to Mourinho; either he makes the necessary changes to his team and at least achieves a third place finish and even maybe a trophy or he could continue as he's done and United will have a change in management very soon.

Early troubles could see Red Devils season end in disaster

Two games into the season and United's season already looks in jeopardy

Based off early predictions for this season Manchester City were tipped to win the league title with Liverpool expected to give them a good push and Manchester United to finish third. However, based off the results of this weekend, the prediction of a Red Devils finish in third look to be far off base.

United suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of Brighton, and while it may be too early in the season to doom this campaign to failure making a bad start to the season will not help their cause considering the type of starts their rivals have made after the first two games.

City were slick as ever in their 6-1 demolition of Huddersfield, Sarri's Chelsea made a good start to their campaign pipping rivals Arsenal to three points at home and Tottenham had a 3-1 win over a newly promoted Fulham.

Even though Liverpool are set to play their second fixture of the season tonight there has been a clear message about being positive and starting the season on the right note. And considering how premium a spot in the top four will be from now on United's early season performance could prove to be the difference in them finishing outside of the Champions League places.

Chelsea may be a work in progress under Maurizio Sarri, but with a squad rich in talent you'd expect them to get better as time goes on. Eden Hazard, Jorginho, Willian, Pedro, N'golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic on paper represent better quality than what United have at their disposal at the moment. An exciting next few months look to be in store for Chelsea.

Coming into this season, Spurs have been a team many have seem to have forgotten about. This is most likely due to their lack of activity in the transfer window. However, when taking consistency and good defensive acumen into account Spurs should be right up there alongside Liverpool and City.

The North Londoners have finished in the top three for the past three seasons and let's not forget that at one point in 2018 they had collected more points than any other team in the league. Even more impressively, this happened while they took on a gruesome run of fixtures which included matches against Arsenal, Liverpool, Man United and Juventus.

At the moment with the current atmosphere around not only Manchester United but also Jose Mourinho, that predicted third place finish let alone a spot in next season's Champions League looks highly impossible.

Key questions to be answered in the upcoming EPL season

EPL was value for money last season as fans were thoroughly entertained and this season will be no different 

The English Premier League has firmly established itself as the best league in the world. With high quality performances and the competitive nature of the league it has rightly been labelled as the biggest drama in world football.

And what's a drama without an interesting plot and the many intricate subplots that it entails? 

This season English football fans will be thrilled with quality football and what most of us will be looking forward to is how the story of the world's most entertaining league will unfold.

Will Mourinho go the distance at United?

If you're looking to sum up Jose Mourinho's time as Manchester United manager; frustrating would be the most appropriate word. The Portuguese manager had two seasons to turn around the world's biggest club and things haven't gone as planned as they still wait to be crowned champions of England yet again.

Due to the nature of their performances fans and pundits alike have been left unimpressed with the Red Devils.

Despite winning the Europa League, League Cup, Community Shield and achieving their highest place finish since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down there has been a lot of negativity in the media concerning United.

Mourinho hasn't looked like a happy chap throughout preseason and even still, the performances haven't been all that convincing. Along with the current situation with his relationship with his players we may once again be looking at another classic Mourinho melt down and if history does repeat itself it may be a question of when and not if Manchester United will have a new manager soon.

Is it (finally) Liverpool's season?

28 years is a long time to wait to win a league title, and this goes doubly so in the case of a club like Liverpool. 

The Reds are currently living in a banter era where they live off past glory and celebrated winning some trophies here and there, and pushed for a long awaited first ever Premier League title but ultimately they always falter in the end.

Not to mention they've had to play witness to rivals Manchester United surpass their tally of league titles as well as watched on as Leicester, Blackburn, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City establish themselves as champions of England as well.

After a season where they surprised many in reaching the Champions League final, the Reds look as ready as they'll ever be to end their Premier League drought. In addition to having the world's most deadly attacking trio Liverpool reinforced their side to the tune of over £ 179 million and we genuinely can see why this should finally be their year.

Will Spurs stop "putting on the pressure" and finally win something?

The last few years for Spurs have been ground-breaking as they've come far from the disappointment of watching on as the league's big boys get all the plaudits and they were left to look on with envy at being London's other-other club.

Now regularly amongst the league's elite, Spurs are a firm fixture of the top four and would take some delight in first finishing above Arsenal for two seasons running, and after last season where they finished above both their London rivals you'd say the North Londoners couldn't be more satisfied.

However, what will be a point of contention of their progress in recent seasons is the small matter of their trophy cabinet which has been collecting dust having last had a new addition ten years ago.

Undoubtedly, Spurs have one of the best teams in the league and have displayed potential to win trophies. But another trophyless season could see things fall apart as players realise the grass is greener elsewhere.

Last season we saw Kyle Walker leave for City and ended the season a league champion. While also Danny Rose had made it clear he was angling for a move away throughout last season.

And given that the likes of Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, and Dele Alli are yet to reach their peak a failure to secure a major trophy and the rising interests from more prestigious teams could prove too much of an incentive for them to move on.

PSG transfer activities leaves Europe's big guns feeling the heat

PSG payed € 400 million for Mbappe and Neymar last summer

Newton's third law of motion asserts that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and in the context of this transfer window it proves to be true after last summer saw players' transfer prices sky rocket.

This was in large part thanks to Neymar's transfer to Paris Saint-Germain which cost a shocking € 222 million. However, unlike Newton's third law, PSG aren't the ones who suffer from the consequences of those actions.

Barcelona were the first to feel this as teams were well aware of their desperation and vulnerability of their position after a key member of their team was lured away to Paris which meant the Spanish giants would pay any price to get their man.

Seemingly overnight the Catalans found themselves on the wrong side of the supply vs demand relationship with their main transfer target Phillipe Coutinho's transfer ballooning to the € 125 million fee they eventually paid to bring the Brazilian over to the Camp Nou in January 2018.

Let's not forget that in August 2017 the Catalans signed wonder kid Ousmane Dembele for a hefty € 105 million which is ludicrous considering Borussia Dortmund had paid just € 15 million for his services the previous season.

This season Real Madrid are the ones paying the price for that transfer now after selling Cristiano Ronaldo for € 112 million they've found that the market has changed drastically and have of yet to find a replacement for the Portugal superstar.

Los Blancos attempts at signing Kylian Mbappe and Neymar were unsuccessful and the club balked at Chelsea's assessment of Eden Hazard's transfer fee being worth £ 200 million.

Essentially we're looking at a huge shift in the power dynamic where a teams like PSG and, to a lesser extent, Manchester City buy their way to dominance over the European game.

Furthermore, PSG's big money buys will have an indirect effect on Europe's traditional powerhouses as money is no big issue for them.

Putting this into perspective PSG spent € 400 million on Neymar and Kylian Mbappe alone which is something even the likes of big spending teams like Real Madrid would consider it too high a cost.

The issue of transfer prices seems to be a topic which will leave those in the traditional powerhouses of world football hot under the collar.

According to British tabloid Daily Mail Bayern Munich chief Karl-Heinz Rummengine touched on the topic of inflated transfer prices. Although it was Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Juventus that was the main point of discussion, Rumminigge blamed it on teams like City and PSG in paying over the odds in order to win the Champions League.

'If prices are inflated then the fault lies with Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain,' he said. 'There's no need to go crazy to win the Champions League.' 

'Just look at what Real Madrid have done in the last few years without spending almost anything and this is also our philosophy.'

With these developments we could see the big teams like Real Madrid, Bayern and Barca finding an alternative route to success.

This will likely come in the form of focusing on youth development as we've seen Bayern and Madrid already take an interest in securing talented youngsters.