Defeats away against fellow title rivals Liverpool and Arsenal have left United trailing their London and Merseyside counterparts in the league and with difficult matches away to Aston Villa, Villarreal and derby rivals Manchester City to come - an important ten days lie ahead for the Red Devils.

United have a wonderful record at Villa Park and will go to the midlands confident they can leave with the three points. Aston Villa, however, buoyed by their victory against Arsenal at the Emirates over the weekend, will see this fixture as an ideal opportunity to right a few wrongs against their hoodoo club. Villa, who are looking to break into the ‘top four’ this year, will be confident of taking something from the game so United will have to perform near their best to get the win.

Their derby match against Manchester City is another very intriguing contest. City, who did the double over United last season, are having a terrible time at the moment - finding results hard to come by as their Sheiks look set to flex their muscles in the January transfer window. On paper, United should win this game based on the teams current run of form, albeit for Manchester United - a recent defeat against Arsenal. However, derby games are notorious for springing up surprises and who could of predicted that City would do the double over the champions last year.

United, who must win these matches to maintain their position behind league leaders Chelsea and Liverpool in the Premiership then head off, in the weeks proceeding theses matches, to foreign shores to take part in the Intercontinental Cup and the World Club Championship. This will see the Reds miss several key Premiership matches in the run up to Christmas, leaving them in a position of catch up as we head into the New Year.

This is all hypothetical, but should Chelsea and Liverpool carry on their current trend of churning out wins week after week, United could find themselves between 15 and 20 points behind the pace setters as the Premiership heads into the spring months. That is a massive haul of points to make up even with the calibre of players present at the club.

Granted they will have games in hand over their title rivals, probably four, and teams have come back from 12 points at Christmas to win the Premiership in previous seasons, but most observers would see it as a herculean ask for United to be able to pull that sort of deficit back; under that sort of pressure and with the added possibility of catching not one but two teams.

This is why it is imperative for Sir Alex Ferguson and his United side to win their next two away games to keep themselves in the race. It is vitally important given their current mediocre away form that they show their nearest challengers that they will not give up their crown without a fight. Although the defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates was a set back, the players and coaching staff are still in confident mood as we near the Christmas period.

But let’s face it, Manchester United are Manchester United. They were dead and buried in their last two Champions League finals in 1999 and 2008 and won them both. They have the world player of the year in Cristiano Ronaldo and have a team that boasts some of the most talented players in the world, Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov, Vidic and Ferdinand to name but a few.

It will take all their resolve, all their fighting spirit and that never say die attitude that United have shown over the years to retain their Premier League title. For I fear that if they fail to win both or even one of their next two away matches, their reign as English Champions may come to a glorious end.