It doesn’t take much for Manchester United fans to get overly excited these days. The club wins a few games and all of a sudden their supporters start talking about a return to the days of football domination.

And the English media, who love nothing more than to lavish praise on all things Old Trafford, are jumping on the bandwagon, running stories about the genius of Louis van Gaal and how United are once again a force to be reckoned with.

Now I readily admit things are looking up for United. Despite their rather ridiculous injury list, they are starting to play as a team, something that has been absent since Sir Alex Ferguson hung up his hairdryer.

But equally I think we need to get a sense of perspective here.

Beating a poor Crystal Palace team just 1-0 is hardly a result to get the blood flowing, while the 2-1 win at Arsenal was gutsy and determined but hardly what you would describe as thoroughly deserved.

The victory over Hull City was more comprehensive, admittedly, but Steve Bruce’s team aren’t two points off the bottom of the Premiership for no reason.

Finally there was last week’s 2-1 win over Stoke City. Another good result on the face of it, but in reality only heroic goalkeeping by David de Gea stopped the away team snatching the point many pundits feel they deserved.

Those four results may look great on paper, but don’t tell me any one of those games was a vintage Manchester United performance. Whereas in the past United would probably have won most of those games without breaking a sweat, the current team is having to fight and scrap for every single point.

As I said earlier, that is not a bad thing in the slightest. It shows that what United may currently be lacking in cohesive performances they are making up with heart and passion – definite progress on last season’s weak efforts.

But these four victories are simply just a good run of results, similar to that which any team may enjoy from time to time during the course of a season – nothing more, nothing less.

Three-quarters of those games could have had entirely different outcomes and we would not be talking about United’s resurgence but merely their continued stuttering form. Indeed, if the football gods hadn’t been smiling on them, those 12 points could have been as few as five or six. And that would have left them in mid-table mediocrity.

United remain an inconsistent team going through a rebuilding process who just happen to have had a lucky run of results

Before United fans grab their pitchforks and take to the street to protest at my bare faced insolence, I have to point out that I am not slighting Van Gaal or the progress he is making. Not at all.

However, some fans, in fact, many of those I have met over the past week, are getting more than slightly ahead of themselves and letting this winning streak distort reality. A few of them have even started letting that old, irritating arrogance rise to the surface again.

Tomorrow night United travel to Southampton for a game that sees third playing fourth. Win that one and follow it up by beating Liverpool next weekend and I will be forced to agree that the tide has turned.

For the moment, however, United remain an inconsistent team going through a rebuilding process who just happen to have had a lucky run of results. That’s all.

Give Mario a break

It’s never easy sticking up for Mario Balotelli but I find myself compelled to do so.

The Liverpool and Italy striker (I use that word in its loosest possible form, of course) is under fire for reposting what he thought was an anti-racism tweet which actually turned out to also be anti-Semitic.

Now if you or I did that, then I would agree that we deserve a jolly good finger wagging and maybe even a slap on the wrist.

But Balotelli?

The lad is obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed and it is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility to imagine he is capable of missing any subtle (or not so subtle) undertones in something he sees.

I understand that the FA needs to be strong with footballers and ensure they uphold high moral standards, especially when they use media like Twitter, which communicates with the masses.

However, in this case, anything more than a quiet telling off for Balotelli and warning over future tweets would be, in my opinion at least, overkill.

If he does get a ban, however, then expect an appeal. Not from Liverpool but from the other 19 clubs in the division…

The art of fence sitting

Meanwhile, congratulations to the Football League for making what must be one of the most absurd rulings in history.

Last week they decided that Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino was ‘unfit’ to own the club and banned him from doing so – until March next year.

I appreciate that Cellino might not be the most squeaky clean of gentlemen, with a slightly shady past, but how on earth can that be considered a realistic punishment?

Is his past likely to get less murky between now and March 18? Is he going to have a moral makeover in the next three months? Does he have plans to delete his data from Google?

I am not for or against Cellino as I don’t know enough about him to formulate an honest opinion. But you would imagine the Football League do, having investigated him.

Yet they come out with a ruling which is the ultimate display of sitting on the fence. Either just shut up and let him get on with owning Leeds or declare that he is not, and never will be, the sort of owner they want in the league.

All a ban like this is going to do is cause more unrest for a club that has, let’s be honest, had more than its fair share in recent decades.

F1’s speedy U-turn

Formula One is set to scrap the controversial – not to mention downright stupid – rule that awards drivers double points for the final race of the season.

As it turned out, the extra points on offer in Abu Dhabi became irrelevant after Lewis Hamilton won the race, and with it the title.

However, the sport realised that a quirk of fate could have handed a totally undeserved championship to Nico Rosberg and done substantial damage to F1’s credibility in the process.

And on that basis the rule will be scrapped from next season onwards.

I have to admit what I do like about Formula One is their flexibility. Not only did they have the courage to try something new, they also had the sense to realise it was a mistake and change things back almost immediately.

Can you imagine Fifa moving with anything like that speed to change a football rule?

It would take them several years and numerous high-level conferences in the Bahamas just to think about trying something new.

And then it would only be implemented once they reached a sufficient quota of brown paper envelopes…

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade