Defence is the key

This season's silverware will be decided more than ever before by the defence. Liverpool made defensive mistakes that would have cost them if it were not for a half decent striker named Fernando Torres. Whilst Thomas Vermaelen scored two goals, but it won't be up front where the title will be decided.

Take Manchester City as the perfect example. They have signed three strikers this summer it is in defence where they have most impressed. Last weekend against Arsenal they repelled attack after attack where Arsenal had a lot of the possession and whilst they may have been whole team defending it still worked as a tactic and they came out with three points, something that Arsenal may struggle to do as a tactic.

Manchester United still have a strong central defensive partnership with Ferdinand and Vidic, Chelsea's Terry and Carvalho are still tough to break down and that is why they are still the top two teams to beat, because they are so defensively strong they as a consequence need to score less, as has been seen with Chelsea's early season form.

Compare these two with the Liverpools and Arsenals who both score plenty but still may not go on to win these games, Liverpool had to score three last night to only just beat West Ham, then Arsenal scored two last weekend and still lost after conceding four, that cannot happen if they want the title.

Thomas Vermaelen is the reason why Arsenal could still win the title. Vermaelen's presence in the air at the back shows how weak William Gallas is in this area and he also has the same vision as a Francesc Fabregas or an Andrey Arshavin but in his case he knows where the ball might be going when Arsenal don't have the ball. Agger is the same for Liverpool, he has quality in the air and has the ability to the read the game, better than the declining form of Carragher.

This summer's transfer market was all about defenders, be it Touré, Lescott, Terry, Cana or Melo, the search was all defensive and that shows just how important a strong defence has become and this seasons title winners will concede the fewest goals, it won't necessarily be the highest scorers as that could well be Arsenal but if Arsenal's defence doesn't tighten up then they won't win the title.

Looking back to last season again, in a crucial period and run of results Manchester United went for about 10 games winning 1-0 and keeping clean sheets in each and every game, if their defence wasn't so good they wouldn't have won the title last season.

So if Arsenal or Liverpool want to win the league, if Manchester City or Tottenham want to break into the top four, all signs point towards a tight defence being the key and while they might not want to admit it, their rivals Chelsea and Manchester United have the templates to follow, and only time will tell if those templates lead to a title.

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