Singling a club out just a few games into a season and deeming them to be in the first flushes of a crisis is an inaccurate science.
Last year it was Chelsea who the vultures circled over, despite the Blues going into September’s international break in fifth, a position that hardly screamed disaster.
Yet on that occasion the journalists with the especially sharpened pens were proven right, as Thomas Tuchel was sacked and all the problems highlighted in print and on programmes such as Monday Night Football only exasperated thereafter.
Twelve months prior to that however, the doom-mongers got it hopelessly wrong with Arsenal enduring a pile-on after losing their opening three matches.
Until a very late collapse, the Gunners were short-priced in the Champions League betting for almost all of 2021/22, a campaign that heralded a renaissance under Mikel Arteta.
And this time out? By rights it should be Chelsea again, as they flail about in search of an identity, or perhaps Newcastle, who have won only one of their first four.
A club with momentous intentions, it already feels like the best the Magpies can hope for is to feature in the Europa League odds next term.
Chelsea though have been spared, largely because the media don’t like to repeat themselves. As for Eddie Howe’s men, maybe expectations of them are not so heightened at this early juncture of their journey.
Which leaves us with a classic of the genre, that it is Manchester United currently in peril and even if you’ve heard this story before a thousand times over, it always sells.
If the narrative makes sense though, with the Reds languishing in 11th and seriously disappointing to date, what of the substance? Are Erik Ten Hag’s side really in trouble, or is this simply an initial blip, like Arsenal’s was in 2021?
As pertinently, are we witnessing a time honoured trick of the press, that of building up a manager and his impact on arrival, only to knock him back down at the first sign of struggle?
Certainly the performances to this point have been flat and uninspiring, that cannot be disputed.
To Finish In Top 4 - Manchester United
An opening-day win over Wolves felt like a smash-and-grab, as United somehow negotiated a remarkable 23 shots on their goal, while a second home victory at Nottingham Forest’s expense required the kind of comeback that used to paper over the cracks during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign.
Elsewhere, two moribund losses in North London extends Ten Hag’s terrible away record against the top six, and at the heart of these defeats was a malfunctioning midfield, labouring and out of sorts.
With Martinez and Varane injured, United finished at the Emirates with Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire at the back and absolutely no good can come from that, but most disconcerting of all has been the lack of form shown by their attacking roster.
Garnacho has been all-but-anonymous. Antony continues to make his enormous fee look like an ill-considered over-spend.
Lastly, it wouldn’t be a crisis of any meaning without a player breaking ranks and distancing themselves from it so step forward Jadon Sancho whose social media posts claiming he has been scapegoated served only to reflect badly on him while burdening the club with further complications.
It is all frankly somewhat of a mess and is hardly the start United supporters envisioned after an encouraging first twelve months of what was painted as a new era.
Is it a full-blown crisis though? What transpires after the break will tell us everything.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
