Manchester City, Celtic, Wolves and Ayr United — not an obvious list of connected outfits but what they all have in common is at the moment they’re the teams in British football dominating their divisions.
Down south most of the focus is on City after their Manchester derby success at Old Trafford on Sunday, coupled with faltering results among the chasing pack, puts them 11 points clear at the top.
One step down from Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering team, surprise packages Wolves are not doing half bad in the Championship and, despite an unexpected weekend slip when they were held at home by struggling Sunderland, they hold a five-point gap over second place.
Up north and despite squandering a two-goal lead at Hibs on Sunday, Celtic are doing what everyone expected and strolling to another title.
In fact, the only surprise about the Hoops right now is they’re not further ahead of second-place Rangers than five points, though with a game in hand and a seemingly never-ending unbeaten domestic run, it’s impossible to imagine anyone catching them.
Drop down two divisions and Ayr United’s place at the top of League One is looking increasingly commanding. They’re five ahead of Raith and, although the Fifers have played one game fewer, having just equalled a 30-year-old club record by winning eight games in a row, Ian McCall’s Honest Men are strongly placed.
In this part of the world the big question has to be are Dundee United about to join that list of dominants?
It remains early days in new manager Csaba Laszlo’s reign but signs are it can happen.
The Billy King double that secured victory at Morton on Saturday means with five wins and a draw from the last six league outings they are very much the form team of the second tier.
As well as to Laszlo, credit must be directed toward his No 2 Laurie Ellis. As caretaker boss following the sacking of Ray McKinnon, he steadied the ship and kicked off the unbeaten run with successes over bogey team Dumbarton and main promotion rivals St Mirren.
His new boss has built on those foundations in spectacular fashion, not just in terms of results but with a keep-ball style of play that’s seen United dominate possession in every game under him.
That’s produced a run that all bar the Buddies have found impossible to live with.
This weekend sees Laszlo take his men to Dumfries to face Queen of the South, the other form team in the Championship right now. After a stunning 5-2 success at Dunfermline, the Doonhamers will be tough opponents, particularly on their synthetic surface, but another away victory for United would leave Gary Naymisth’s team trailing by 10 points and thinking only in terms of a play-off place.
That would leave St Mirren the only close challengers, though there is reason to believe the festive season can be used to open a gap on them.
After this weekend’s tricky encounter, United have three games that might just prove season defining.
Two days before Christmas they play host to Livingston.
Livi have been the shock troops of the campaign so far and their fine start included, of course, a home win over United.
The weather, though, has been cruel to them and two recent postponements are likely to stretch their resources over what is already a busy period.
If business is taken care of there, United can then do themselves a huge favour when they finish the year under the Friday night lights at St Mirren on December 29.
Four days later, 2018 kicks off with what should be a home banker against bottom club Brechin. If the Tangerines are still unbeaten in the league under Laszlo after that, they might just have joined that list of runaway league leaders.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.
