It's all about Manchester

Manager Roberto Mancini led Manchester City to a 3-2 victory over Chelsea last weekend after falling behind by a goal in the Community Shield, the traditional England season opener. Eddie Keogh / Reuters

This season will likely be dominated by the same two teams as the last one, Associated Press reports.

As Olympic memories start to fade, Britain's sporting focus looks set to move from London to Manchester this weekend as a new Premier League season gets underway.

For although the London clubs led by Champions League winner Chelsea and Arsenal would like to be in the spotlight, everything points to this season finishing like the last - as a straight Manchester derby between City and United.

City had to wait until the fourth minute of injury time on a nerve-shredding final day of last season to win its first league title since 1968. However, more than a billion dollars poured into the club by its Abu Dhabi-based owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan had already marked it out as the team to beat since the previous August.

Only United was able to keep up with the frenetic pace, thanks mainly to the sheer personal drive of 70-year-old manager Alex Ferguson rather than any inspirational football by his players.

Goal difference eventually separated the blue and red sides of Manchester after both clubs finished on 89 points, with Arsenal trailing a distant third on 70.

And that's the scale of the problem facing any club based outside Manchester's ring road this season. Nineteen points is not a gap, it's a gulf.

What's more, City clearly intends to keep it that way.

Manager Roberto Mancini has been signed up to a new five-year contract, at a reported cost of 37 million pounds ($57 million), which will bring more stability to the team. The club has just signed England midfielder Jack Rodwell from Everton for an estimated 12 million pounds and remains in the market for new signings before the transfer window closes on Aug 31.

On top of that, domestic rather than European success still seems to be the main yardstick for Mancini.

"Chelsea took maybe 10 years to win the Champions League, because it is not easy to win this competition," Mancini said during a preseason tour.

"We would like to win it this season, of course, but our main target is the Premier League and a domestic trophy."

City gave some idea of that intent by storming back from a goal down last weekend to beat Chelsea 3-2 in the Community Shield.

Anxious to keep up with the "noisy neighbors", as Ferguson once termed his crosstown rivals, United fans have been hoping some of the funds raised by the club's flotation on the New York stock exchange would find their way into transfer fees.

Those hopes look to have been answered on Wednesday night when United agreed to a deal to sign Robin van Persie from Arsenal. The Netherlands forward was the Premier League's top scorer last season with 30 goals, and should form a fearsome strike partnership with Wayne Rooney.

Long before the deal for Van Persie, though, Ferguson had already had some good news with the return from long-term injury of club captain and central defender Nemanja Vidic.

The Serbia international is clearly anxious to make amends.

"Maybe we relaxed a bit last season," Vidic said recently. "We were punished and we can't allow that to happen again."

Despite finishing only sixth last time around, FA Cup winner Chelsea still looks like the side most likely to test Manchester's grip on the title.

Victory over Bayern Munich in that Champions League final fulfilled a dream of club owner Roman Abramovich since buying the Blues in 2003.

(China Daily 08/17/2012 page22)