Away Form Undermining Man United's Premier League Ambitions After Draw V Stoke

There was a time when you could win your home games and draw away and expect to win the championship. But that's not true not anymore.

Manchester United have set the bar so high over the last 20 years that it's no longer enough to draw away from home if you want to win the Premier League title. 

Title challengers are expected to be as dominant away as they are at home. Every slip up is greeted like a gift by the other hopefuls in the race.

United's unbeaten run has prompted talk of a title challenge this season. There's a feeling that if they can get their injured players back, then they can take advantage of playing only one game a week in the way Liverpool did last season.

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But that can't happen unless they start finding a way to win games away from Old Trafford. The draw against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium was United's third in a row away from home. Louis van Gaal insisted after draws at Aston Villa and Tottenham that they were "missed opportunities" and "two points dropped." 

In contrast, United were fortunate to leave Stoke with a point on New Year's Day. But it was still disappointing. Van Gaal admitted as much in quotes carried by the Manchester Evening News after the game.

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We have to play better in away matches because in my opinion there is no difference in away or at home, because the fans from United were again very loud and fantastic so we have to do that better.

I am not interested in an unbeaten period. I am in a process and we have to win away games. We didn’t do that against Aston Villa or Tottenham and now Stoke City.

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It's a sign of the level Van Gaal wants United to achieve when drawing away games isn't considered good enough. They have a good record at Old Trafford this season, despite losing their opening game to Swansea. But failing to win away only puts more pressure on them to win their home games.

You get the feeling, after the busy Christmas and New Year's fixture list, that United are at a critical juncture in their season. If they can turn away draws into away wins, then title talk won't seem so fanciful. 

But if their away form begins to affect performances at home, then they'll be looking over their shoulder at those chasing a place in the Champions League, rather than looking up toward the title.

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There were positives for Van Gaal at the Britannia Stadium in that it was a game you felt United would have lost earlier in the season. There is at least a belief and resolve there now that was absent under David Moyes.

But a disappointing draw at Stoke is also evidence of how far United have to go to get back to where they were. Away draws weren't good enough when Sir Alex Ferguson was chasing titles. And they won't be good enough for Van Gaal, either.

Quotes obtained firsthand.