One of the most ubiquitous chants among pundits in the ongoing Premier League campaign is the one that says Manchester United have more strength in depth than Arsenal. After having written Arsenal off at the beginning of the season and then being proven wrong, they can not say the team that has lost 4 times this season is the stronger one. Instead they talk about "strength in depth". So let's examine the two squads.

 

Manchester United have 28 players in their squad. The players are:

Goalkeepers:

1. Edwin Van Der Sar
12. Ben Foster
29. Tomasz Kusaczak
Tom Heaton

Defenders:

2. Gary Neville (captain)
3. Patrice Evra
5. Rio Ferdinand
6. Wes Brown
15. Nemanja Vidic
19. Gerard Pique
22. John O'Shea
23. Johnny Evans
25. Danny Simpson
27. Mikael Silvestre

Midfielders:

4. Owen Hargreaves
7. Cristiano Ronaldo
8. Anderson
11. Ryan Giggs (vice-captain)
13. Park Ji-Sung
16. Michael Carrick
17. Nani
18. Paul Scholes
24. Darren Fletcher
33. Chris Eagles

Forwards:

9. Louis Saha
10. Wayne Rooney
21. Dong Fangzhuo
32. Carlos Tevez

 

Arsenal's squad consists of the following players:

1. Jens Lehmann

2. Abou Diaby

 

Myles Palmer has this take on United and Arsenal in the Premiership title race. What I like about Mr. Palmer is how bold he usually is with his predictions. What I am amazed at however is how often he is wrong.

I think the title is Arsenal's to lose and not United's to lose. That takes nothing away from United as the defending champions. We have a better squad and contrary to what Palmer, Roy Keane and Tevez think are stronger. I don't say it as a fan.

Wenger says this is the best squad he's had as Manager. i trust his judgement over most people's and think if this team don't win the league this season they will never win it. They know that. Wenger knows that. The club knows that.

They will fight all the way.

On the other hand the Champion's League is United's priority. They will drop many points in the League as they did last year. I don't see Giggs and Scholes having big seasons. Their midfield is not creating enough.

The lesson I have learnt from Ferguson's teams over the years is that the hungriest and fittest always win. Their treble year was won with kids killing teams of in the last quarter of the game. They were hungry as hell.

Now the hungriest and fittest team in the league is Arsenal. I am backing Arsenal all the way. The signs are there too.

What some don't realise is that last year was the season in which we were close but not good enough. Injuries to Henry and Van Persie meant we lost at least 20-30 goals they would have scored and created. That was worth at least 15 points and would have had an impact on the final standings.

This is the season in which we have to win or it all breaks down for Arsenal. The stakes are clear, and by all indications, the boys know it and are going for it.

The kooks at BBC and ESPN and all the usual punditocracy are suggesting Arsenal are top only because we have not played tough teams yet. In reality we've gone 20 games unbeaten stretching past Chelsea last season. Another set of idiots have said Arsenal are top of the league because United underestimated Arsenal. Nonsense! Everybody knew this was going to be a tough season. Even if they underestimated Arsenal, they did not expect Chelsea and Liverpool to be stuttering as they are now. The reason we have dictated the early pace in the Premiership is Arsene Wenger. It is a reason he was severely criticised for; and that's not buying a platoon of new players in close season. It takes time for teams to blend. It takes more than one season for most players to adjust to the Premiership.

This season we have played 3 teams in the Top 6 in the league and beaten all three. We have played three Derbies and won all three. We beat a swashbuckling Sevilla team. Our kids spanked a Newcastle team that was desperate for success in the Carling Cup.

Some people erroneously think of this Arsenal teams in terms of their birth dates not in terms of their experience. We have a team that has been to the Champion's League Final. Some of these kids; Fabregas and Van Persie for example played a peripheral part in the invincibles campaign and have the medals to prove it. Arsenal had more players in the last World Cup than any other team in Europe. More than Barcelona. More than AC Milan. More than Chelsea or United. Adebayor, the leggy inconsistent that he is scored 11 goals to singlehandedly take Togo to the World Cup. Togo! That's like Craig Bellamy single-handedly taking Wales to the World Cup. We have a young team, but they are not so inexperienced. Nobody with any credibility worth a fiver doubts the quality of this Arsenal team.

The most important factor is that these guys are good. We forget that in a way, United's resurgence is based on kids. It was Rooney and Ronaldo and Carrick who drove them last season. Our kids are in the same league as those guys. I'd say only Ronaldo is better than anyone we have. Our kids realise that this is the time for them to make their names and become the best.

I am betting on them to be the real deal. I was one who said so at the beginning of the season, even though I doubted how little they would suffer the loss of Henry.

That is not to say that Arsenal would walk to the title. Of course it is not guaranteed that any team at all would win. We're just 25% into the season and nobody can predict this early. The best we can do is read the early signs and try to determine who are the favourites. A complete reading of the signs places Arsenal and not United or Man City or Chelsea or Liverpool as favourites.