Man City for the title?

harry-redknapp iSporter Asif Khan believes that one of the teams from outside top four can gatecrash the established scheme of things and win the title, sounds ridiculous?

I am surprised at how Chelsea managed to not win against West Ham on Sunday, I had predicted that Chelsea will steam roll West Ham considering West Ham's performances in the last few weeks. But West Ham plugged the holes in their defences to gather a valuable point halting their slide towards the Championship.

The fact is that the so called big four, if you can still call them so, have been their most vulnerable for a while. While many analysts are still predicting that one of the teams might gatecrash the glass ceiling that the big four have created in the last decade. After the performances in the first half of the season, I believe one of the contenders for the top four positions actually stand a good chance, if they try hard enough, to go all the way and win the title.

Sounds ridiculous? Why not, sounds ridiculous to me too. But all surprises sound ridiculous to start with, who would have predicted that the blue half of Manchester will one day be strong enough to taunt the Red half and prise away one of their dear possessions? Flash back to August 2009 and all of Sky Sports analysts in England predicted a very strong start of the season for Liverpool, anyone who contended them sounded ridiculous, well the joke is on them now and I am sure they are not talking any more.

Here are my 5 reasons why someone outside old top four can actually crash the party and win the title.

1) Liverpool & Rafa Benitez
I don't like to gloat about other people's trouble, but the situation that Liverpool have put themselves this year, it has been difficult to control my glee. From being strong title challengers in 08-09 season to 7th position at Christmas for the current season is a big fall. This has made the task for the other teams easier and gather more points and surge ahead. Spurs exposed chinks in Rafa's armour and the others were quick to exploit them. Manchester City, Aston Villa and Spurs are strong enough to explore the vulnerability further.

There is no doubt any more that Rafa has got nearly everything wrong. Maybe its not him, its the management or the chairman or the owners or whatever, but its the manager who will have to take the blame eventually and whatever the situation with the ownership of the club, if he doesn't start winning soon, he will go and if he does it will bring in a period of instability at the club which will further make it easier for other clubs to race ahead.

2) Manchester United, Alex Ferguson and their massive debt
sir-alex-ferguson For the first time this year Ferguson openly accepted that he has doubts about United title chances this year, it might be just a ploy on the old man's part to throw the gauntlet at the current leaders and put them under pressure or just plain acceptance of the fact after yet another embarrassing loss.

I believed at the start of the season, like many others, that the loss of two key figures plus the ageing trio of Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes will be too big a loss for United to deal with. While Giggs still seems to be a top draw player, the addition of Ferdinand, Wes Brown and Van Der Sar to the long injury list, truly exposed the weakness of Ferguson's squad.

I have had my arguments with United fans trying to drill into their heads the fact that their team is too bare bone to challenge for the title this year, but a real fan is often disconnected from reality, especially if like United they are used to winning all the time. The rumours about Ferguson not able to replenish his squad because of the shortage of funds owing to massive debt on the club seem to be true, after he was quoted in the press saying he doesn't see the need to replenish the squad in January.

3) Arsene Wenger and Arsenal's youth policy.
Arsene Wenger changed his tone this year, instead of suggesting his young team is shaping up for the future he insisted that the team can actually win it this team and he has a strong belief that this is it.

The signs are not too great, while the loss to Manchester United was just cruel and could have been brushed aside as plain bad day, the thrashing at the hands of Chelsea, losses at Sunderland and Manchester City and the draws against some of the lesser teams exposed Wenger's claims. The Gunners did puncture Robbie Keane's claims that the gap between the North London rivals isn't much, but they have been found wanting against the big teams and that is something that will be exploited by the contenders.

4) The City Sheikhs & Roberto Mancini
The Sheikhs at Manchester City never did anything to hide their intentions and wealth, if not flashing cash at the top players in the world, they were trying to prise away the top managers from their position.

mancine The day the Sheiks arrived at City, the question wasn't if Mark Hughes will stay but when will he go? We all know that the time was last Saturday, the ruthless sacking was another signal from them that they will go to any extent, even madness, to make their money work. Which begs the question how much more money will they spend to strengthen their team in January? And who else will they prise away from the current big teams?

Roberto Mancini is a proven winner, someone who has to experience to deal with some of the biggest players in the world and that is exactly the reasons he has been brought in. I wouldn't be surprised if he predates on some of the unsettled but talented Italians from Serie A in the January window. The current upheaval at the top teams and arrival of top talents can further add to City's chances of doing the unthinkable.

5) Martin O'Niel and Harry Redknap
oniel There are not many top English managers in the game, in fact the Scots and Welsh seem to be churning out more top managers then the English. Redknap has waited all his life to manage a club that actually stands a chance to win something at the top level and managing an expensively assembled Spurs side is probably his best and the last chance.

Spurs have consistently managed to stay in the top 5 this season and considering the Spurs chairman seems to be happy to dole out more and more cash in his bid to create a winning team, Redknap might spend more in the January window and further strengthen his team.

Martin O'Niel has been working on the Villa squad for a while and last year he came within a whisker of breaking into the top 4 only to fizzle out in the second half of the season. He has been controlling the euphoria this year, but his team has been putting in the performances that will add to his desire to break in this time.

To sum it all up, I am not saying that one of the contenders from the list of Man City, Spurs or Villa will win the title. What I am saying is that if ever they had a chance to do it, this is it!