An Increasingly Familiar Sight

OK. First things first. We’re out of the Champions League, Arsenal are still in the Champions League. Financially, we’re operating against a backdrop of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debt whilst Arsenal’s finances would appear to be the healthiest in Britain so this might seem like unnecessary and unwanted concern but I can’t help but wonder what is going on down there.

For all our battles down the years – particularly during the period between the late 90s and early 2000s – Arsenal are probably the side I have the most respect for.

Over the last twenty years or so, we have consistently been challenged in the league by Arsenal with appearances by teams such as Blackburn, Newcastle, Chelsea and now Manchester City.

However, what all those teams (except Arsenal) have in common is that their success was built to a greater or lesser degree on the bankrolling of a rich owner. Like ourselves, Arsenal have generated their own finances but they have probably done things even better than us in that respect – certainly with Arsene Wenger at the helm.

It is in this area that I have always had a lot of respect for Arsene Wenger as I will touch on in a moment.

When Arsene Wenger first arrived at Arsenal back in 1996, he took over a decent, albeit ageing, team (they had won the Premier League in 1991 and the FA Cup in 1993) and they probably had the best defensive line-up in the league with the likes of Seaman, Adams, Keown, Winterburn, Dixon, Bould etc. Add to that the superb Bergkamp assisting Wright in attack and the exciting Merson in midfield, he arrived with work to do but the basics of a side capable of challenging for the league.

Over the next few years, he used his knowledge of French football to bring in players such as Viera, Petit, Grimandi and his best to date – Henry – as he started to dismantle the old and build the new Arsenal of his own vision.

He did this with incredible success winning three Premier League titles and four FA Cups over the next seven years or so culminating in their last league success with the team that became known as “The Invincibles” having gone through the entire league campaign without losing a match.

I think it is fair to say that at this stage, most people expected Arsenal to go on winning for years to come but an FA Cup the following year has been their only silverware since the year of the Invincibles and whichever way Arsene Wenger dresses it up, that has to be viewed as failure.

As I said, one thing that I was always very impressed with Wenger about was his uncanny knack of buying players for a relative pittance, getting their best years out of them and then selling them on for a profit when they were just edging beyond the crest of their wave.

I would love to see some figures for Wenger’s net transfer balance in the sixteen years or so that he has been at Arsenal and I don’t believe that he has paid over £20million for any one player which is extraordinary for a team that has been a regular in the top four for as long as Arsenal have.

However, it is this that has perhaps caused Wenger to come in for the most criticism. The building of the Emirates stadium did, for a time, suck up a lot of money and so Wenger could be forgiven for not splashing the cash – he probably didn’t have it in abundance but I simply cannot believe that a club which has participated in fourteen consecutive Champions Leagues and has operated so prudently in the transfer market has no money for transfers new stadium or not.

I know that this has been a source of bewilderment amongst the press down the years and, probably, some frustration amongst the fans and it has largely been put down to Wenger’s stubborn attitude to do things “his” way i.e. youth, youth, youth.

But I’ve been watching Arsenal from the outside for several years now and it seems almost as though Wenger gets a bunch of kids, they don’t win anything, they (obviously) get older and are then replaced with a younger model. The word appears to be “potential” but potential is worthless unless realised and Wenger never seems to give the potential the best environment in which to thrive and become realised.

Youth is great and with the likes of Wilshere, Ramsay and this new lad Oxlade-Chamberlain (who was a joy to watch on Sunday, I have to admit) Arsenal have some riches to be envious of but Alan Hansen, for all the stick he has received since, was not entirely wrong when he said “You can’t win anything with kids”. For every Neville we had an Irwin/Pallister/Bruce, for every Scholes we had a Cantona/McClair, for every Beckham we had a Robson/Keane/Ince etc. The young replaced the old but there was always a period of overlap.

Of the current crop, Robin van Persie is probably the exception to the rule in that he did come along as a youngster, served his time backing up the likes of Henry et al and is now the main man there but at 28 years of age and at the height of his powers, he seems a prime candidate to either be sold by Wenger or seek a move elsewhere of his own accord – I would not be totally shocked if he is not at Arsenal next season.

At United, we are constantly bringing “kids” through the ranks into the first team and we also buy some in from abroad. It is probably fair to say that at least 95% of them don’t make it but those that do come through in a team full of players brimming, not just with playing experience but, more importantly, winning experience. As a result, we have continued to win things whilst Arsenal have spent much of the last six or seven seasons missing out and it is perhaps this which separates the exceptional manager that Wenger undoubtedly is from the truly great manager that is Sir Alex Ferguson.

That’s not to say that Fergie has always got it right and has finished above Wenger every season. In the 2004-05 season, we finished a distant third behind Chelsea and Arsenal but Fergie saw what was wrong and quickly went about putting things right and within a couple of years, we were back on top.

Looking at Arsenal now, they look no better or further on than they did five or six years ago. It has been a period of consistency for them but they have consistently been second, third or even fourth best.

If anything, it could be argued that they have actually been going backwards. Certainly the table today makes for grim reading for anyone Arsenal-related as they sit in fifth and five points behind four teams who are all playing better football and have better squads than them and Newcastle and Liverpool are now breathing down their necks.

The Champions League places are obviously still not totally out of reach for them but some bookies are offering as much as 5/2 on them to finish in the top four.

On the subject, Wenger was recently quoted as saying, “For me, not making the top four would be a disaster. Because I want to play with the best. We want to play in the Champions League and anything else would not be good enough.”

I have no doubt that it would be a disaster for Arsene but not necessarily for Arsenal FC. One way or another, a failure to finish in the top four (or worse) could be seen as a watershed moment and would surely have to make Arsene Wenger finally realise (or, at least, reluctantly acknowledge) that his policies aren’t working and persuade him to revise his principles which, whilst admirable, would have been proven to be flawed… again.

Of course, the other option, would be for the decision to be removed from Arsene Wenger’s hands altogether. At this stage, it is only his reputation that is keeping him in position and that reputation is becoming more and more tarnished with every passing season.

Emirates Stadium
Sun, Jan 22nd 2012 Kick Off: 16:00

Naturally, after the drubbing we gave Arsene Whinger’s boys at Old Trafford earlier in the season, this one has attracted all kinds of speculation as to what might happen this time at the Emirates and whilst nobody believes we will see a similar scoreline most do expect there to be several goals in the game again.

Personally, I have a feeling that it could go the opposite way with both teams playing very cagily.

After a disastrous start to the season followed by an incredible, Van Persie-inspired run of results, Arsenal are currently going through another little dip and the prospect of them not even qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in (fifteen?) years is looking a very real possibility.

However, it has been on their travels where Arsenal have suffered most; at the Emirates, they have been very strong and have only suffered the one defeat there this season (their very first home game of the season against Liverpool when Arsenal were struggling and Liverpool were full of optimism for the new season).

They have conceded just six goals at the Emirates in the league but, somewhat unusually for Arsenal, have scored just sixteen which from ten games is not the stuff Arsenal have been renowned for down the years and they do rely far too heavily on Van Persie to provide the goals.

As for us, well, the injury situation does appear to be resolving itself which means that Fergie will have a decent number of players to choose from and it is just as well because this match represents the start of a tough set of fixtures which we will do well to come through unscathed.

I actually have a feeling that Fergie won’t pick what we might by now consider to be his “strongest side” for this one. Park might get the nod somewhere in midfield (he seems to have a happy knack of scoring against Arsenal) but as for the rest, it’s anyone guess but I think there’ll be a couple of surprises.

I’ve been on a bit of a roll with the bets of late and I suppose that run has to end at some point and it could well be today because I’m going to go slightly against the general consensus for the bet here.

The bet is 2 points Under 2.5 Goals @ 2.1 with BetVictor (the new name for Victor Chandler).

Old Trafford
Sat, Jan 14th 2012 Kick Off: 15:00

After last weekend’s fireworks against City this one has a lot to live up to but the players really do have to get back into winning ways in the League because it has to be remembered that, prior to the City win, we witnessed two pretty mediocre displays which got us all the points we deserved.

Bolton, meanwhile, have managed to finally put some more points on the board in their last couple of games and two away wins in their last two away fixtures means that they arrive here in some semblance of form.

However, trips to Old Trafford have not been particularly profitable for Bolton for years now (they last won here over nine years ago) and we have won the last eight at Old Trafford – sometimes by comfortable margins but in recent years the scoreline has been much closer and none more so than this fixture last season which we won by a solitary goal (Berba scored the late, late winner).

I’d like to think that our “blip” is over for a while now and that we’ll get back to business here and win by a decent margin but news coming from Fergie that the likes of Jones and Smalling are “doubts” don’t inspire me with great confidence – how many more injuries can we withstand? Personally, I think that this might be Fergie playing his little games and I expect at least one of those two to make the starting line-up, if not both.

Anyway, we really should have the beating of Bolton here. Surely Blackburn provided us with the “home shock” of the season and we’re not going to have another within the space of two consecutive home games. In fact, I think we might score three in this one and win by a fairly comfortable margin. Unfortunately, the bookies feel the same and so the prices on offer are miserly.

So, I think that being slightly contrary with the bet will either blow up in my face or prove rather profitable so I’m going to go against the grain a bit.

As for the team selection… well… it’s never been an easy job at the best of times but with Fergie now plucking players out of retirement and naming them in the squad just an hour before kick-off, it has become even more difficult so I’m edging my bets on this one too and I’m going for the following:-

Schmeichel, Irwin, Bruce, Stam, Neville, Giggs, Scholes, Keane, Beckham, Cantona, Van Nistelrooy.

That lot should take care of Bolton.

The bet is 2 points Under 3.5 goals @1.97 with Bet365.

For reasons best known to themselves, a significant portion of the press chose to use the run-up to this game reporting stories of disharmony, “strained relations” and unrest between Wayne Rooney and Sir Alex. Both before and after games, both parties were at pains to deny any such thing was going on. Rooney himself said that he was still very happy at United and “wants to stay here for years to come”.

I don’t know if there’s any truth in the reports but a day like today shows that, if the press would just be a little patient, there’s absolutely no need whatsoever to report “non stories” because just a few hours on this day provided enough meat to fill the back pages for weeks to come – and, whilst some of it was even more unbelievable than the Rooney story, it was all absolutely true.

Around an hour before kick-off, there was the amazing news that Paul Scholes had answered the SOS call and, not only had he come out of retirement, he was going to be on the bench against City!

At first, I had to check the calendar to make sure that I hadn’t spent a few months in a coma or something and that it wasn’t actually April 1st but when the team sheet was announced, there he was – named as a substitute. Incredible!

That, in itself, can give the press stories to tell for the rest of the season.

And then the actual game began and it was to prove to have talking points aplenty – more than enough to keep idle journalists in articles for the next week and beyond.

First of all, it’s worth mentioning our line-up for this one. Lindegaard was given the nod ahead of De Gea in goal, Jones was switched to right-back, Evra on the left with Rio and Smalling making the central partnership. There was some doubt over Smalling’s fitness coming into the game but he came through the test with flying colours and I believe that the future of one of our central defensive positions could well be sorted for the next ten years.

I felt that Jones might have been used in midfield but Fergie chose to play him at right-back. I think that the Newcastle game exposed his deficiencies in central defence so I was just pleased to not see him played there against the trickier City players such as Silva and Aguero.

Fergie went with a four-man midfield of Nani, Carrick, Giggs and Valencia and I was just pleased to see Valencia on the right. Whilst it has been a case of “needs must”, Valencia is totally wasted in the right-back position. He has been superb on the right wing whenever utilised there this season and this game was no different and it was his run and excellent cross that led to our first goal.

Up front, Fergie went with Rooney and Welbeck. I’m afraid that I completely over-looked Welbeck in my pre-match article and I went with Hernandez but the Rooney/Welbeck partnership is actually probably our best at the moment. Hernandez may well be the best poacher we have at the club but there are areas he could improve on – namely his first touch and ball control but these are two things that Danny Welbeck has no issues with and he was able to demonstrate this to great effect on numerous occasions this afternoon.

Oh, and he can score, too. I was raving about Demba Ba’s goal against us in midweek but Welbeck’s goal here this afternoon was similar in some respects but, technically, it was probably even better as the ball was going away from goal (and Welbeck) but he showed tremendous technique and agility to put it away.

Anyway. The match itself started with City having plenty of the ball and put us under some pressure in the opening exchanges and in some ways, it was similar to the game we played against them at Old Trafford but in reverse. In that game, we were pretty dominant for the opening twenty minutes and City’s first goal came largely against the run of play. On this occasion, it was perhaps our goal that was against the run of play as Rooney headed brilliantly from Valencia’s cross to put us 1-0 ahead after just ten minutes to stun the home crowd.

Just a couple of minutes later, City were in turmoil as Kompany was shown a red card for a two footed challenge on Nani.

At first, I thought it was extremely harsh and, in some ways, I was disappointed because I would have preferred to have beaten City with eleven men – City down to ten men with eighty minutes still to play provided City with every excuse they would have needed no matter what score this one had ended. However, after seeing several replays, the red card was deserved. Kompany went in two footed with studs up. It was reckless, it was dangerous and, had Nani not been able to take evasive action, he would undoubtedly have had to leave the field with a nasty injury.

Basically, players know that this type of tackle is no longer allowed and so why such an excellent player as Kompany chose to attempt it is quite baffling.

At this point, we had City where we wanted them and drove home our advantage thanks largely to great work from Welbeck with his goal that I’ve already mentioned and a run he made into the box which drew another foul and a penalty. Rooney took the penalty but, whilst it was saved, Rooney nodded home the rebound to make it 3-0 with five minutes of the first half remaining.

At this point, the United support were chanting “we want seven!” and it really didn’t seem beyond us at that point. City were like a boxer who has been hit and whose legs have gone. As the boxer tries to hold on desperately until the bell, City seemed to want to hold on for the half-time whistle.

When it arrived, most people were wondering what the hell would happen in the second half. Would City come out fighting or would they accept that today wasn’t to be their day and go for damage limitation.

A couple of substitutes from Mancini during the break suggested the latter to me as he brought off Johnson (who had been giving Evra a pretty torrid time on our left flank) and Silva (who remains one of their most potent attacking forces) in exchange for Zabaleta and Savic.

Now, I don’t presume to know what Fergie said at half-time to our own players but, no matter who or where we are playing, we should not be throwing a 3-0 half-time lead away and so I guess that part of the message was that whilst we could still get more goals from the game, the highest priority, especially for the opening five or ten minutes of the second half, had to be to give nothing away. Give City no encouragement. Keep the ball. Pass the ball.

So, when Nani tried some kind of stupid back-heeled flick after just a couple of minutes of the restart which was easily intercepted by Richards who drove towards our box, putting Evra under such pressure that he eventually conceded a free-kick just outside the area, Fergie must have been livid.

Up stepped the lethal set-piece specialist Kolorov to unleash an excellent free-kick to make it 3-1 with just three minutes played of the second half.

Again, I don’t presume to know Fergie’s thoughts but the fact that Nani was subbed within ten minutes of this came as no surprise (although the reason could just have been that Nani had picked up a silly yellow card by this stage and with the referee – Chris Foy – having his usual game i.e. poor and baffling, it might have just been a decision made to protect Nani from picking up a second yellow).

The substitution resulted in a sight no Manchester United supporter ever thought they would see again as Paul Scholes trotted onto the  pitch.

The substitution was probably made with thoughts of retaining possession in mind and, for the most part, Scholes’ passing was of the highest quality (97% pass completion ratio, apparently) but, incredibly, it was a bad pass by Scholes which led to City’s second goal.

As Aguero slotted home their second on the rebound after Lindegaard had spilled his initial shot, all eyes went to the clock which confirmed that the score was indeed 3-2 and that there was still the best part of half an hour still to be played.

Whatever advantage we had enjoyed going into the half-time break had now been completely reversed. The momentum was now with City and I must admit that I felt it inevitable that they would score the equaliser.

However, it never came, despite us enduring some extremely anxious moments towards the end of the game (no more so than when Kolorov had another free kick from a similar position to the one which resulted in their first goal right at the death but on this occasion, Lindegaard saved it well).

And so the final whistle blew to bring the curtain down on a fantastically entertaining Cup-tie which saw United fans, as per usual, put through the wringer when we should have been sitting with our feet up, smoking cigars for the final ten minutes.

The drama wasn’t to end there though as a few hours later, the draw for the fourth round was made and, somewhat predictably, we were drawn away against Liverpool. But that’s a story for another day… right now, I need a lie down.

Had this game taken place a couple of weeks ago then I think most United fans would have gone into it with the confidence that we could get some sort of revenge for the 6-1 drubbing but after two defeats and, worst still, two pretty abject displays in our last two games then it really is difficult to think of one good reason to believe that we can win this one.

On the other hand, there are plenty of reasons to believe that City will win.

For a start, they are arguably the best team in England at this moment. The league table backs this up. The way they beat us at OT earlier in the season adds further weight to the argument.

City have turned the Etihad Stadium into the kind of fortress that teams such as ourselves at OT and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge have done in recent years. In fact, in their last twenty home league games, they have dropped just two points (Fulham, last February).

City are the defending FA Cup Champions whilst our own record in this competition in recent years has been pretty underwhelming.

Despite Mancini’s frankly laughable comments that he didn’t know if he had eighteen players available for this one (with the Toure’s going to the African Cup of Nations) he has a formidable starting eleven of fully fit players (although Barry is suspended and Yaya Toure is out so that does mess their normal midfield up rather a lot) whilst we have an injury list which, whilst improving of late, is still ridiculously long and includes at least two players who would no doubt have started in this one (Vidic and Fletcher).

So that’s the case for Manchester City in this one and I think it’s fair to say that an awful lot of boxes are ticked there. The head can only come to the conclusion that City will win this one even if the heart begs to differ.

However, I have been supporting United long enough to know that we can never be written off. Some of our best ever results have come out of the blue (no pun intended). Indeed, there may even be the possibility of some degree of complacency on the City part that we can take advantage of but perhaps that would be grasping at straws.

There is also a possibility that we may view the FA Cup differently this season. In recent seasons, I have had the feeling that Fergie hasn’t treated the competition very seriously – of course he would like to win it and sends out a team he believes is capable of winning the match but it seems to be a case of either win the game or lose the game… but don’t draw the game because a draw means a replay and another fixture to contend with as we attempt to compete for the bigger prizes such as the Premier League and the Champions League.

This season, we don’t have the Champions League to worry about. Yes, we have the Europa League and I don’t know what Sir Alex’s private thoughts are on that tournament but, speaking as a fan, I think I would rather see us lift the FA Cup than the Europa League trophy. It could well be the case that a draw in this fixture so that we can get City back to an OT replay would not be seen as such a bad thing.

What I would like to see in this game more than anything is all the players being played in their “proper” positions. Due to injuries, Fergie has tried with mixed success to put square pegs into round holes in several games recently but I would like to see something along the lines of the following (if Smalling is fit):-

Lindegaard, Rafael, Smalling, Rio, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Jones, Nani, Rooney, Hernandez in the kind of 4-5-1/4-4-2 type formation which has served us well.

Jones in midfield might be slightly iffy but I’m convinced that he is better/safer there than in central defence at the moment – he had a nightmare in there against Newcastle the other night and had some kind of hand in all three of their goals.

If Smalling doesn’t make it back then it could well be that Fergie goes with Anderson in midfield and brings Jones back into the centre of defence and, if that is the case, then I think we could have trouble and if Fergie goes with De Gea ahead of Lindegaard then City will simply bombard us with crosses all afternoon long. Neither De Gea nor Jones seem particularly good at dealing with crosses (and this is where we miss Vidic massively).

Anyway. What’s going to happen here today? I think the answer has to be: “anything could happen”. I doubt very much that we’ll be seeing another 6-1 scoreline or anything even close and some of the bookies actually seem to think that we’ll have a fairly low-scoring game. I suppose it’s possible that it will be cagey but I’ve got a feeling that there’ll be more fireworks here today.

May the… erm… “best” team win!

The bet is going to be a tentative 2 points on OVER 2.5 goals @ 1.92 with Bet365.

I jokingly referred to the 5-0 defeat we suffered at the hands of Newcastle all those years ago in my pre-match write-up but this one was, in many ways, a very similar game.

The match was not as one-sided as the scoreline would suggest (don’t get me wrong, Newcastle were better and thoroughly deserved their win) but so much of what we tried to do failed by small margins whilst Newcastle could hardly do no wrong.

Their first two goals in this game were as stunning as anything scored in that 5-0 win (and there were some beauties in that game, too) and were good enough to win any game.

Demba Ba is looking like the signing of the century as Alan Pardew got him on a free-transfer (I believe most clubs were wary of taking a chance on him because of his injury record) but I don’t think you’d be able to sign him for less than £30million at the moment and his opener is already a contender for goal of the month, if not the whole season.

Their second, scored from a superb free-kick by Cabaye was as good as any free-kick you’ll see and it was no fluke – I seem to remember him scoring an almost identical free-kick in another of Newcastle’s games earlier in the season.

Their third… well… the least said about that the better. Phil Jones made an absolute mess as he tried to head back to Lindegaard (despite the ball being about two feet off the ground) but the keeper had already positioned himself to scoop up the ball so Jones’ header merely bobbled into our own net.

For our own part, Berbatov saw a header deflected onto the post early on and then another Rooney shot from point-blank-range late on was cleared off the line and I cannot really remember much more from us than that.

What was noticable about this one was how much harder Newcastle were working, especially in the midfield areas, as they harried and hassled us into making mistakes with our passing and just generally made us look like we were doing everything at half-speed. Worryingly, Newcastle just generally looked “hungrier” than we did and that’s not something you’d have been able to say many times over the last ten years or so.

There must be a reason for it but I was also surprised that Rafael wasn’t given then right-back slot in order to allow Valencia (who has been excellent in recent games) the right-wing but Fergie opted to put Valencia in the right-back slot and Nani and Park on the wings.

All in all, whilst Fergie is urging everyone not to panic, this was a pretty disastrous result and coming on the back of the Blackburn defeat, it cannot really be described as a “blip” – especially when taken into context with our early Champions League exit – trying to pretend that all is rosy at Manchester United smacks of ostrich-like behaviour.

However, if anyone can pull this round, Fergie can. He’s done it before and I have every confidence that he’ll do it again.

I remember, many moons ago, when Newcastle were our closest title rivals and they beat us 5-0 in this very fixture (that match was actually over 15 years ago now but for many a United fan, it can be remembered as vividly as yesterday).

However, it would appear that Newcastle have been made to pay for that one ten-fold as we have generally beaten them ever since – their only other win over us was way back in 2001 when they ran out 4-3 winners in a match made infamous by Roy Keane’s attempted punch at Alan Shearer!

Of course, they somehow held us to a 1-1 draw just over a month ago at Old Trafford but that was when they were playing well and I think it is fair to say that luck wasn’t on our side that day.

Newcastle started this season extremely well and for a time, the Toon Army were tottling off to bed with little dreams of Champions League football next season but it was probably only a matter of time before the run ended and they found themselves in a more “Newcastle-like” position in the league and they currently sit in seventh place so by my reckoning, they still have a place or two to drop.

Now, having said that, they will probably stuff us 5-0 again tonight but I’m tending to think that we’re not going to suffer two defeats in a row.

As for our team selection, there were a couple of surprises in the Blackburn match with Anderson and Rafael coming back from injury and, of course, Rooney being dropped but I expect him to be back for this one tonight with possibly the in-form Berbatov alongside him.

The defence and midfield remains as tricky as ever to predict so I’m not even going to attempt it.

The main thing is that we need three points tonight in order to stay in touch with Manchester City who, of course, beat Liverpool 3-0 last night to go three points clear again.

I think we can do it tonight. Our away form has been extremely good this season (in fact, we have the best away record in the league by quite a margin) whilst Newcastle’s recent home form has been patchy.

The hard thing to predict is whether or not we will be able to continue our run of clean sheets in away games. We have won the last five without conceding a single goal because if we can do that then I believe that this will be a low scoring game – possibly 1-0 or 2-0 to Manchester United. However, I think that the run will come to an end tonight and we will need to score at least two to pick up the three points.

For this reason, I’m going to have a stab at the Over 2.5 Goals market.

The bet is 2 points Over 2.5 Goals @ 1.87 with Bet365.

Today, Sir Alex celebrates his 70th Birthday and there’s nothing he’d like more than three points in this early kick-off against low-flying Blackburn when they turn up at Old Trafford.

Steve Kean will probably just be glad that the vociferous element of his own “supporters” will likely be drowned out here.

Blackburn’s away record hasn’t actually been that bad recently (better than their home form actually) which must say something about how their own fans’ protests are having an effect on the team. Anyway, that’s all by the by. Que sera sera and all that.

Having watched us smack in ten goals without reply in our last two games, Blackburn will no doubt be reminded of this fixture last season when we beat them 7-1. To be fair, such a scoreline seems unlikely because whilst Blackburn are losing and drawing far too often, they aren’t actually conceding too many and aren’t getting beaten by many.

As usual, we have our own problems going into this one in terms of injuries and it is our defence which is looking a bit ragged at the moment after news that Smalling has some kind of viral illness (tonsillitis according to Fergie) and Evans will be sidelined by the injury he picked up in our last match. With the FA Cup tie against City looming large, it seems like a gamble for Fergie to play Rio in this one so I wouldn’t expect him to play, even if fit but Jones has apparently recovered from the knock to the face he took a couple of games ago and could resume in defence but it’s looking likely that he will be partnering Carrick in there.

Evra will take the left but the right could see Fryers given another chance to shine.

The midfield, therefore, is likely to be Nani, Park, Gibson and Valencia.

Upfront could be interesting and I wonder if we might see the Berbatov/Rooney option restored from the start here or even Rooney again rested with Hernandez playing alongside Berbatov from the start.

Given the number of injuries we’ve got at the moment, that doesn’t look like too bad a line-up and I fancy it would be more than enough to take care of Blackburn but they do have some decent players of their own and I still can’t shake the feeling that this one has “banana-skin” written on it somewhere.

However, with City playing tomorrow, this is an excellent opportunity for us to take the top spot for at least a day and put City under some pressure as the “chasers” and surely no mistakes will be made on our side.

I think we will win this game but I’m not sure that it will be by another landslide and so backing Blackburn in the Asian Handicap might prove profitable.

The bet is 2 points Blackburn +2.5 @ 1.84 with Victor Chandler.

Once again, Fergie had no choice but to ring the changes for this one as Phil Jones either failed to recover from the facial injury received in the last game or he was just rested as a matter of course but Michael Carrick, who has been in peak form of late in the middle of the park was brought back into central defence – and continued to show that he’s not too shabby in there either.

To be fair, United largely dominated this match and our defence had very little to do so it was a good time to have defensive problems, I suppose.

Park put us 1-0 ahead after just around eight minutes and a cricket score looked likely but the score remained that way until almost half time when Wigan had a player sent off and Berbatov got the first of three goals just moments later.

In the second half, Berba grabbed himself another with an excellent turn and shot (the kind of thing we all saw him doing for Spurs all the time a few years ago), the excellent Valencia scored a screamer into the bottom corner and Berbatov was able to seal his hat-trick and make it a 5-0 romp with a late penalty.

In fairness, Wigan should not have found themselves down to ten men – the sending off was extremely harsh (I’m sure Wigan could appeal the decision successfully). It also should not have been a penalty towards the end of the game – Park was clearly tripped outside the box but that probably balanced out an earlier penalty appeal when I thought Hernandez was clearly tripped around the twenty minute mark only for the ref to wave it away.

However, we were streets ahead of Wigan today and I do think that we would have won the game even without the decisions going our way. We were supposed to be the team with the defensive crisis but Wigan appeared very open at the back at times and with players like Rooney, Hernandez, Berbatov, Macheda, Nani, Park, Valencia and Giggs ploughing into them, it was always going to be just a matter of time before we got the breakthroughs.

The good news was to get even better after this one as Manchester City were held to a highly unusual (for them) 0-0 draw against West Brom which meant that we finished the day level on points and even that goal difference which at one point looked unassailable (and growing) is now down to just five – not bad considering the injury list we have been carrying almost from the first day of the season.

Incidentally, the injury list took another addition during this game as Jonny Evans limped off with a leg injury which is likely to see him sidelined for a couple of weeks or so and it looks vital that we get Rio and/or Jones back in time for the next game or we’re going to be playing with a defensive line-up of midfielders again.

For now though, the good times are back with us. Everyone is scoring goals. Everyone is reaching peak form (I thought Evra, who has been quick to “talk the talk” a lot of late, was finally seen “walking the walk” in this game and he was excellent) and we still had the chance to give young Zeke Fryers a run-out for the second half here – and again, he had a solid game.

Fergie said before the games kicked off today that City were favourites and he’s been saying for the last week or two that he’d be happy if we’re thereabouts come the New Year.

Mind games? Probably. They seem to be working though and City who probably felt that they would be over the hill and far away by now are suddenly feeling the pressure of leading from the front, it seems and Fergie will continue to turn the screw from here til May.

For obvious reasons, time is at a premium today so I’m going to make this one very brief.

We’re playing well at the moment whilst Wigan continue to come generally close in many games but mostly leave without a cigar. They have enjoyed some decent results in recent games though and do seem to be getting their act together after a disastrous string of defeats.

However, I just think that at Old Trafford, we have to be looking to come away with a comfortable win this afternoon. Unfortunately, the bookies are thinking exactly the same and the prices for us on the -1.5 AH are around 1.5 and the Over 2.5 goals is around 1.4 so there’s nothing being given away there.

For this one, I’m going to bet that we get at Wigan from the off and score fairly early on.

The bet is 2 points on the first goal to be scored within 0 – 27 minutes @ 1.80 with Victor Chandler.