When United put Chelsea back in their place

The 2010-11 English Premier League title was won by Manchester United in a season where many of the challengers failed to take advantage of a United side distracted by Champions League exertions.

Chelsea and Manchester City proved to be United’s closest challengers but ultimately Sir Alex Ferguson’s side showed their resolve to maintain distance and record a relatively comfortable victory, finishing on 80 points, nine points ahead of the chasing pack. The title was their 19th which took them beyond Liverpool’s tally of 18.

CHANGES

The 2010 summer represented a seismic change, with Manchester City, despite having spent large sums of money prior, becoming a major player making major transfers. The much-coveted David Silva was acquired from Valencia for £24m, while Champions League winner Yaya Toure joined for £28m; both these men would be stalwarts of City’s successes for years to come. Jerome Boateng, Aleksandar Kolarov, James Milner and Mario Balotelli also arrived as the team was completely overhauled.

In comparison, the spending from the rest of their rivals was relatively low-key. Arsenal brought in Laurent Koscielny for £8.5m from Lorient, while Manchester United strengthened with Chris Smalling and Chicharito Hernandez. Two of the more eye-catching deals came late in the day, with Sunderland acquiring Asamoah Gyan for a club-record £13m, while Tottenham lured playmaker Rafael van der Vaart for a cut-price £8m.

But this was a rare season where the winter transfer business will live much longer in the memory than the previous summer. Chelsea destroyed their record transfer fee, spending £50m on Fernando Torres from Liverpool, prompting the Reds into action.

They immediately responded, bringing in Andy Carroll from Newcastle United for a huge £35m, and at the same time completed a deal for Luis Suarez from Ajax for £23m. Indeed, the latter would prove to be the only truly successful deal of the three, despite being markedly the cheapest.

Liverpool…

Source link : https://www.footballcritic.com/season-reviews/when-united-put-chelsea-back-in-their-place-the-premier-league-in-2010-11/48

Author : [email protected] (Martin Macdonald)

Publish date : 2024-07-31 12:00:00

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