English Premier League: Moyes confident of United recovery

Manager believes he is right man for the job ahead of Sunderland tie today.

MANCHESTER:

Manchester United manager David Moyes has no doubt his side will turn around their difficult start to the campaign and figure in the title reckoning.

Moyes succeeded Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford in the pre-season following the trophy-laden manager’s retirement and, since then, the Premier League champions have lost three of their first six matches of the new campaign.

They did secure a 1-1 draw in the Champions League at Shakhtar Donetsk in the midweek but return to league action at bottom-of-the-table Sunderland today with lots of ground to make up.

The fitful start, United’s worst to a season since 1989, has left them eight points adrift of leaders Arsenal.

And with 32 matches of the league season remaining, a bullish Moyes told reporters at a news conference yesterday that his side would be in the title race come the end of the campaign.

“They’re really good players and they know the standards they’ve set over the years and together we’ll work to get it right, I’ve got no doubt about that,” he said.

“Anybody who comes in to a new job you learn as you go along and I’m doing that as well.

“I already knew I was coming to work with a group of really good players but that we’d have difficult times as well.

“There’s a long way to go in the Premier League. It’s a long season and you see great changes as the season goes on, so we’ll hang in there and get ourselves as close to the top as soon as we can.

“It’s a good club, Manchester United. I’m sure they know they picked the right man for the job and Sir Alex was part of that process as well.”

City seek Everton boost after Bayern beating

Manchester City return to domestic action against Everton with manager Manuel Pellegrini looking for a reaction following his team’s humiliating Champions League loss to title-holders Bayern Munich.

Since arriving in pre-season, his new side have been outstanding in 4-0 and 4-1 Premier League victories over Newcastle and Manchester United but sloppy in a 2-0 win over Hull and a goalless draw at Stoke, and undermined by defensive errors in 3-2 defeats at both Cardiff and Aston Villa.

City defender Micah Richards said the home team would need to raise their game considerably if they were going to salvage something from a difficult week.

“We’ll look forward to Everton and try to get a better result,” he said. “We’ve had two disappointing results. Against Villa we played really well and didn’t get the points we wanted and we didn’t play well against Bayern.

“It’s two poor results and hopefully we can make it better at the weekend.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2013.

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