Whoever finishes above Manchester United will win the title.
The spirit of Fergie is back. The aura is back. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is back. And Jose Mourinho’s two biggest signings of the summer, Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic, have been sensational in their first games.
I cannot understand the negativity of United fans who call Six-0-Six after back-to-back 4-0 wins and say, “Yes, but it was only West Ham and Swansea.”
Sorry, but I seem to recall United dropping points at home to both those yeams last season. I don’t think they will be shelling another 25 points at Old Trafford this time.
In this column, I’ve always tried to call it as I see it, whether it was sticking my neck out to say Ryan Giggs should have taken over from David Moyes or that Louis van Gaal’s football was boring.
You can’t please all United fans by being opinionated – otherwise they turn round and accuse you of being bitter and a Class of ‘92 reject.
But I’ll stand by my prediction that Mourinho is going to win his fourth Premier League crown this season – but he has no excuses now.
This is his United team. Anything less than a trophy and a top-two finish would be a failure with the squad he’s put together.
United should progress comfortably from their Champions League group, they have a home draw against Burton in the Carabao Cup and they have made a flying start on the title front.
Lukaku has looked majestic, Paul Pogba has looked like the world’s most expensive player 12 months ago and Matic has been superb.
And best of all, the football is good to watch again – the best since Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge.
United ripped West Ham to shreds, and they may have been efficient rather than startling for 75 minutes at Swansea, but the way they plundered three goals in as many minutes – bang, bang, bang – demonstrated the ruthless streak of potential champions.
Dull, functional, organised? Don’t give me any of that nonsense. They look powerful, energetic, dynamic, exciting.
If you play a high defensive line, or you throw caution to the wind, at Old Trafford, Mourinho now has the pace up front to destroy you.
Lukaku, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial are going to frighten teams to death.
For me, the only slight chink in United’s armour is perhaps on the left side of their defence, where they may be one card short of a full deck.
Daley Blind has performed admirably so far, but I’m not 100 per cent sold on Chris Smalling, Phil Jones or new signing Victor Lindelof, who will need time to settle.
Maybe one more left-sided centre-half or full-back would complete the jigsaw puzzle.
But from what I’ve seen in the first two weeks of the campaign, the fear factor has returned.
Visiting teams are going to pitch up at Old Trafford this season and wonder how they can stop Manchester United instead of fancying their chances.