Can United retain the Premiership despite their dismal start?

Just five months since successfully defending their Premiership Crown, critics are already wondering if Manchester United can win the Premiership for the third successive year.

A quick recap for those who have been to Outer Mongolia. After Sunday's draw at Stamford Bridge, Manchester United are currently languishing in 15th place behind "title contenders" such as Sunderland, Blackburn and bitter rivals Manchester City. In other competitions, they lost in the Super Cup final to FC Zenit, and had a lacklustre 0-0 draw at Old Trafford in their first European Group Stage match against Villareal.

Can United retain the Premiership?

The answer is a resounding YES.

1. United have finally captured Berbatov who has shown glimpses particularly in the game against Liverpool that he is going to be an excellent addition to the squad.
2. This is a very similar start to the 2007/08 season. Last August, Manchester United were amongst the bottom three. Many people could not envisage them defending their crown then, let alone completing the double with the European Cup.
3. Arsenal although currently top after the away win at the Reebok, proved last season to run out of steam. With the departure of key players during the summer and no big additions, one would imagine that a similar scenario could take place again especially during the Christmas campaign and the inevitable fixture pile-up.
4. Although Liverpool managed to win against United at Anfield for the first time in seven years, they have still not sorted out their internal conflicts. If Saturday's result is the start of a poor run, Benitez will look even more like wanting to exit than ever before.
5. Chelsea have had a good start to the Premiership. However, yesterday showed that title race has only started. United managed to lead at Stamford Bridge for 79 minutes and were more than capable of inflicting a home defeat on the Blues for the first time since 2004.
6. United have welcomed back Ronaldo from injury and Gary Neville had a great game against Chelsea even though he is lacking in match practice.
7. Sir Alex has witnessed far more dismal spells than this. United have not lost to the bottom club in league, and have had a harder draw of matches than their closest rivals.
8. United have proved time and time again that experience prevails. The team thrive on proving their critics wrong and this is another such occasion. As Sir Alex Ferguson would say it is not even close to "squeaky bum time"..................