I must have been half asleep for the last few weeks because I have completely failed to notice the price about Manchester United winning the Champions League this season.

Currently available at 10 with several bookies, this is an absolute gimme as far as I’m concerned. Of course, I am not entirely convinced that we can cope with what looks like being a demanding Premier League campaign and the Champions League (i.e. I would be surprised if we actually win the CL) but I think that that price is inflated because of the historic reputation of our knockout-round opponents – AC Milan.

As an example of why this is so, consider the fact that Arsenal are also 10.0 with several bookies!

Let me put it this way, Arsenal have NO chance of winning the Champions League. We do have a chance. Where would you rather put your money?

We made fairly easy work (in the end) of the best side in Italy at this stage of last season’s Champions League. We really should be able to deal with AC Milan over two legs. They are not the side they were and they have sold the player who did most of the damage the last time we played them (Kaka).

I thoroughly expect to see us get through to the Quarter Finals. At which stage, our price will come down considerably (probably to something around the 5.5 mark). If you take the 10.5 on offer from Betfair now, that should leave a decent margin to lay the bet off for a guaranteed profit, whatever should happen from there on in.

Cheer up Arsene, there's always next season...

The wheels finally fell off the Arsenal Title Challenge today after they were soundly beaten 2-0 by Chelsea who now go top of the League again by two points.

I don’t know what madness of optimism came over me that I thought that a team who were hammered 3-1 by us last weekend at The Emirates and demolished 3-0 by Chelsea at The Emirates earlier in the season could somehow transform themselves into a team capable of getting any kind of result at Stamford Bridge but hope springs eternal here in The Red Devil’s humble abode.

Arsenal now have to face Liverpool who seem to be back on track a bit themselves and then they have to play Porto in the Champions League. Neutrals and Gunners can only hope that their season isn’t all over by March (again).

Saturday, 6th February 2010 – KO: 15:00

This is a strange day to have a match for Manchester United. Today is, of course, the anniversary of the Munich Crash. We’ve had matches around the date in recent years but this is the first time in a while that a game has actually taken place on the day. To add further to the weirdness, four minutes into the game will be the exact anniversary of when the accident took place.

Personally, I think the match should be delayed by five minutes and allow the OT faithful to pay their respects before kick-off. I doubt five minutes is going to inconvenience anyone too much.

Anyway, onto the game itself.

Portsmouth come into this game in all kinds of trouble on the field and off it. A new owner has just come in and I must say how refreshing it is to hear someone come along and state upfront that he doesn’t have a clue about how to run a football club and wants out asap. An attitude many fans would appreciate their own owners admitting, I’m sure.

On top of all the financial problems, Portsmouth are currently rock-bottom of the Premier League. On the face of it, everything looks bleak for Portsmouth. The one thing they have in their favour, however, is a decent manager in Avram Grant.

This was the man who was given the unenviable task of replacing Jose Mourinho at Chelsea and came within an adulterous ex-England Captain’s slip of doing something even the special one couldn’t achieve – winning the Champions League.

If you look through Portsmouth’s recent resuts, it isn’t quite the horror show you would normally expect to see from the team at the foot of the League.

They lost narrowly to Fulham in midweek, they made Man City huff and puff to a 2-0 win before that, they have drawn with West Ham, beaten Sunderland in the FA Cup and even beaten Liverpool 2-0 in December. The only real mullering they have suffered in recent games was the 4-1 defeat at the hands of Arsenal.

I have been hearing predictions of a 3-0 or 4-0 win for Manchester United here today and if we maintain the form we have shown recently then that would not be a total surprise but I think this game could be more difficult than that.

I mentioned on the site the other day the massive games we have coming up in February (not least of which is an away game against Villa in midweek) and because of that, I think Fergie might just tinker with the team a bit and give some players a breather for this one.

I only hope that he doesn’t go overboard with the changes because whenever he has done that this season, it has invariably failed.

Anderson was due to play for the Reserves the other day but the match was postponed. At first, this seemed like Fergie punishing him for missing training the other week but the fact that he has resisted efforts by a couple of sides to take him on loan during January suggests that he has not completely lost patience with him and his inclusion in the Reserve match might just have been to give him a bit of match practice because he hasn’t featured since the first leg of the Man City Carling Cup tie, if memory serves me correctly and Fergie clearly has him in mind for the coming weeks.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Fletcher sit this one out and Anderson come in. Fletcher will have a very busy few weeks ahead of him.

What other changes Fergie will make is anyone’s guess but I am pretty convinced that all those who predicted a 3-0 or 4-0 win were assuming that Rooney would be playing in this one and that might not be the case. With Owen, Berby and Diouf, we have three very good strikers who are currently sitting on the bench and also need a bit of game time.

A change up front would not be a surprise.

As for the defence, Vidic looks like he will be back for this one but I seem to have said that for a couple of games recently only to find some mysterious injury has once again scuppered his return ten minutes prior to kick-off. If he is back then expect him to partner Evans.

Nani has received a lot of praise for his last three performances but I actually thought that this change in form for him started in our game against Burnley. He is definitely a different player of late and Fergie now has a decision to make.

Valencia is probably due a start but it is hard to drop a player who has been brilliant in recent games.

As for the rest, it is anyone’s guess. My own guess is this formation:-

VDS,Evra, Evans, Vidic, Rafael

Park, Carrick, Anderson, Nani

Owen, Berbatov

I am not going to make any predictions on the score because the corners market has proved very fruitful especially when we are playing at home against a team we are well fancied to beat.

I would have preferred an Over 11.5 corners market but I think this one could do the business…

The bet is 3 points over 12 corners @ 1.90 with Bet365.

After around 39 minutes, being cautious on the goal front seemed a wise move as, although the first half was largely one-way traffic, United hadn’t actually put the ball into the net.

A few minutes later, it was 2-0 to United and suddenly, a cricket score looked likely. When we went 4-0 up with 30 minutes still to play, it seemed almost cruel to let the game continue but this did represent a fantastic opportunity to not only go top of the League but to do out goal difference a few favours.

I wondered before this game whether Fergie would make a few changes but I should have worried more about Avram Grant because he did make a few changes. They play Sunderland in midweek and it appears that they did something similar to what Wolves did here earlier in the season – rested quite a few of their players in readiness for the “easier” game to follow.

Fergie did make a few changes however. Nani started on the left with Valencia resuming on the right. Gary Neville came in at right back. Dimitar Berbatov partnered Rooney up front for a 4-4-2 line up with Carrick and Fletcher in midfield.

The other news was that Vidic didn’t start, despite Fergie saying before the game that he had trained for the last few games and seemed ok.

This left Brown and Evans in defence.

All things considered, United couldn’t have asked for an easier game to go top of the league. We achieved that (although Chelsea can go back to the top again tomorrow if they beat Arsenal) and are now the highest scorers in the league with the best goal difference.

The bet won by the skin of its teeth with United getting 12 corners and Portsmouth getting just the one (but a VERY important one as far as the bet was concerned!)

Owen Hargreaves has been removed from our Champions League squad and has been replaced by Ritchie De Laet.

This is clearly only going to add further fuel to the speculation that Owen Hargreaves is unlikely to feature for Manchester United at all this season, if ever again.

Reports in recent days suggested that Sir Alex had dangled the carrot of a place in the squad to face AC Milan in a couple weeks in front of Hargreaves, hoping that this would give him plenty of incentive to really get himself back to match fitness.

It obviously hasn’t worked and Sir Alex has had to have a rethink about the players he wishes to have on standby as we attempt to repeat our Champions League success of the last couple of seasons.

More understandable is the news that Danny Welbeck (currently out on loan until the end of the season) has been replaced by Mame Biram Diouf.

A couple of weeks ago, Rio Ferdinand appeared to hit Chris Fagan of Hull on the back of the head. It wasn’t seen by the referee at the time but was picked up on video after the game.

This resulted in a three match ban.

United appealed the ban and Rio was subsequently hit by a further one game ban for the “frivolous” nature of the appeal.

United are now apparently about to appeal this further one game ban… a decision which, should it backfire, could see Rio banned for yet another game.

I must admit, I do not follow every incident concerning every team in all the divisions of the football league and as far as I am aware, the first and only time this sort of situation has occured was in 2008 when Jeremie Aliadiere of Middlesbrough appealed a red card only to see his ban increased for a “frivolous” appeal.

At the time, this caused shockwaves amongst the footballing world because no one had ever been subject to this treatment before (there was even some talk that it had only happened to Boro because they weren’t one of the ‘big’ teams and were being hit so hard because they were less likely to fight back).

What it suggested to me at the time though was that the FA were perhaps being a little too big for their boots. There’s an arrogance to it all. It is like they were saying, “Our time is very important. We have FAR more pressing matters to attend to than listen to your appeals.”

The fact is, listening to appeals is one of their main roles. They are the governing body. If a club has an issue with a decision made by one of THEIR appointed officials then the proper course of action (as laid down by the FA themselves) is for the club to go to the FA and ask them to have another look at the situation. The FA should only be too happy to do this and ensure that the rules of the game are being implemented correctly and that should a mistake be made, they will rectify it without question or hesitation.

If it is found that the original decision was correct… fine. The Club concerned must accept this and we all get on with it.

To start imposing extra punishment on top of the original punishment simply for making an appeal seems to go against not only the rules of the game but against the whole point of having an appeals process in situ in the first place.

A sending off offence is a three game ban, no more, no less and even if an appeal is deemed “frivolous” in private, such words should never be used by the Governing Body in public.

A three game ban for a player is never a small issue in the eyes of the club or the player and if the club considers the ban worthy of appeal then the FA should treat it with the utmost respect and seriousness.

In what other area of “law” does a person find their punishment increased for appealing the original penalty?

Clubs need to know that they can appeal without fear of further punishment. To frighten people into NOT appealing by using the prospect of further, enhanced punishment is a perversion of all known justice and a blatant abuse of power.

To change the rules of the game on a whim as they did when Boro were first subject to this was also a blatant abuse of power. It was also arrogant, slightly despotic, in fact.

If Manchester United are successful in appealing this extra game ban then it could mean the end of it which would be a great thing for ALL clubs at all levels.

Whoever decided to start this “frivolous” thing two years ago should hang their heads in shame. By going away, having a word with themselves and admitting that it is wrong would go a long way towards their redemption.

You might say that I am only writing this because it concerns Manchester United but, in my defence, I was not writing this blog two years ago but I doubt very much that I would have written anything different. I remember my feelings at the time. I was pretty outraged at the arrogance then. The intervening couple of years have done nothing to quell my feelings of injustice on the issue.

A bit of a shock in the Premier League tonight as Hull managed to hold Chelsea to a 1-1 draw (they briefly led 1-0 during the first half).

This now means that for the first time in quite a while, the League table looks reasonably “true” in that no teams at the top have games in hand on one another.

We are now just two points behind Chelsea who are just five points ahead of Arsenal.

We all expected Chelsea to sweep Hull aside and hoped that perhaps Arsenal could do us a favour on Sunday.

Suddenly it is not beyond the realms of possibility that we could take top spot on Saturday and stay there.

We still need to beat Portsmouth of course and a decent win could remove Chelsea’s goal difference advantage but if Arsenal can get at least a draw then we could be top of the League for “real” by Sunday evening.

However, Arsenal now really do have everything to play for when they take on Chelsea on Sunday. A win for them would put them just three or four points behind the leaders (depending on how we do against Portsmouth).

Good stuff!

After the titanic clashes against Manchester City and Arsenal in the last week or so, the United players have a well earned breather before we take on Portsmouth at the weekend.

Us supporters are probably glad of the time to get our own breath back too. It’s been quite a week.

Whilst the manager and the players will be churning out the “one game at a time” cliche, it is impossible to resist a little look forward beyond this Saturday’s game against Portsmouth.

The next game is away against Villa (who, of course, beat us at Old Trafford a few weeks ago).

The game after is AC Milan in the Champions League.

The game after is away to a resurgent Everton team who, with their players coming back from injury, are starting to look a lot more like the team that has threatened to break into the top four for the last few season.

The next game is the Carling Cup Final, again against Aston Villa.

All massive games, all tough fixtures and all in February.

Arsene Wenger has never been one known for praising the opposition. Any defeat his side suffers is usually down to some dodgy refereeing, his opponents “cheating” (i.e. playing long balls and/or tackling his players) or because his side played poorly.

After our win against Arsenal yesterday, he was not willing to concede an inch in our direction and put the defeat down to his side playing poorly and “we know we are better than that”.

Well, Arsenal have put in some very impressive performances this season but they have generally come against the sides lower down the league. When they have met one of the quality sides towards the top, they have generally come unstuck. To be quite honest, probably their most impressive result of the season came in October when they beat a flying Spurs side 3-0 at The Emirates.

I’m sorry Arsene but this season is starting to look very much like every other season for the last five years as far as Arsenal are concerned… all over by March.

This is something I have mentioned on several occasions on this site (here for example, or here).

Of course, if Arsene Wenger and his boys want to prove me wrong then I would love to publish an entire post praising them for their victory over Chelsea next weekend…

I don’t often get involved in the goings on with other clubs and their players but this story has over-lapped into England territory and so I feel that this gives me all the excuse I need to offer my own two-penneth.

It concerns, of course, the story about John Terry who had an affair with former team-mate Wayne Bridge’s former girlfriend, Vanessa Perroncel.

At first, John Terry and his lawyers successfully gained what is effectively a “gagging order” over the press which prevented them from revealing the identities of anyone concerned.

However, this was over-turned the other day and the judge summed it up like this, “Freedom to live as one chooses is one of the most valuable freedoms, but so is the freedom to criticise.”

I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment as a general rule but it does seem to avoid the one word that all of this is about… Privacy.

The Great British Press, of course, feel that they have a National Duty to divulge details of the affair because it is “in the public interest”. I had to laugh when I read the following in the Daily Telegraph… (I suppose I should add that this was printed by them because it was the News of the World’s argument for publishing the story and does not necessarily reflect the views of that esteemed publication)

“Details of the affair was in the public interest as any fall-out between the players could affect team morale in the England camp and even influence team selection at this year’s World Cup.”

Hmm… right. So revealing the details have solved that problem? No. Of course they haven’t. They have made it worse. Had Bridge found out in a different way then there may have been a bit of a head-to-head between the two in private. Now it has been splashed all over the papers for the world to see and cast judgement on.

Six months before a World Cup and with John Terry being the Captain and Wayne Bridge an important back-up for Ashley Cole, I would have thought that any concerns for the welfare of the English National team would have been best served by waiting until AFTER the World Cup or just keeping your mouth shut.

No, make no mistake about it. This story was not published with any sense of “duty to the nation” in mind and this story is not “in the public interest”. It was chance to sell some more newspapers and make a few quid. It was a chance to point the finger at a multi-millionaire footballer, caught with his trousers down and open him up for public ridicule whilst at the same time, causing enormous embarrassment for Wayne Bridge.

Wayne Bridge has been reported to be “in bits” about the revelations. He must have thought, like so many of these footballers do, that Miss Perroncel really, really loved him and was with him for his good looks and fascinating stories of how he beat the offside trap before unleashing a screamer into the top corner.

Get a grip man. Like so many of these women, they are there because you’re famous, pull several million pounds a year and get to go to all kinds of showbiz parties. The WAG culture offers these women their own 15 minutes of fame and a bit of publicity (perhaps the naughtier the better) for a lingerie model wouldn’t do her much harm either. How much will she be selling her story for? I hear she has enlisted the services of mega-publicist Max Clifford. Let’s start the bidding.

The big impact all this has is on the England situation. John Terry is the England Captain. There are calls from the hand-wringers for Terry to be relieved of his Captaincy, if not kicked out of the England setup altogether for this.

Wayne Bridge has apparently even said that if John Terry goes to the World Cup, he will withdraw himself from the England setup.

Well, I am sorry Wayne but you should be more professional than that and if you want to start making ultimatums like that then be prepared to spend the summer watching the World Cup from home because John Terry is more important to England than you are.

I am sure Capello realises by now that such is the sick nature of our Press they will be working overtime between now and the World Cup to dig up as much dirt as they can on as many of our National team as they can (all in the Public Interest, of course) so this revelation will be completely forgotten by June, anyway. My advice would be to not change a damn thing. Keep JT as Captain.

Apparently, in a show of support for their team-mate, the Manchester City players wore “Team Bridge” t-shirts under their City shirts today whilst the Chelsea players showed their support for John Terry yesterday when he scored their winning goal.

Me? I’m on no one’s team, they’re both a pair of plonkers.