Manchester United WILL Win the Premiership

After watching Manchester United's 2-2 draw against hosts Arsenal this Saturday, I was left with one clear impression: As I predicted before the season, Manchester United are the team to beat and will defend their Premiership title this season.

To be fair, Manchester United were the better side at the Emirates and if one team was going to win that game, it was going to be the Red Devils. Owen Hargreaves clearly wasn't even fully fit but still played well, Michael Carrick and Louis Saha are just getting back into form, and Nani didn't even play, but still Manchester United had pretty good control of the game. Ronaldo looked as dangerous as ever late in the game and as I've said before, Rooney and Tevez are the top striking duo in the Premiership, if not Europe.

On the other hand, you can argue all you like that Robin van Persie didn't play either and that his return from injury will make all the difference. Here's the thing: it won't. Arsenal are less-than-convincing up top; Adebayor is a very, very poor man's Kanu and doesn't have the ability to score goals against top teams when he's up front by himself, da Silva is barely worth mentioning, and Theo Walcott is more of a wing player anyway. I'm not sold at all on Almunia in goal, and when you combine him and Lehmann you have yourself a shaky combination on the best of days. Fabregas is bound to cool off; there simply is no way he maintains this goalscoring pace all year, there isn't any precedent for it in his history.

When I look at Arsenal, I see a team who has feasted off a relatively soft schedule to start the season and struggled when they've had to play tough competition. They didn't deserve to beat Fulham at home in the first game of the season, barely beat Sunderland at home, and picked up only ties on the road against Blackburn and Liverpool. They've played 7 home games already this season compared to just 4 away from the Emirates, and 2 of those away games were in London! Give me a break! They haven't proven themselves at all yet.

Manchester United went to Portsmouth and got a tie (and that was when they had injuries and suspensions galore), won at Everton, beat Chelsea at home, won at Aston Villa handily, and have now tied Arsenal on the road. United are the team who are going to enjoy the soft portion of their first-half schedule now and with the run of form they're on, even an Arsenal win at Old Trafford on April 12 won't be enough for the Gunners to catch the Red Devils, mark it down right now.

Glory Glory Man United!