It seems a long time ago now but just before we played Arsenal in the Premier League (the game just before the International Break) I mentioned that we had a massive set of fixtures ahead of us.

Arsenal were flying and unbeaten before we played them. We won. Tottenham were flying and unbeaten before we played them. We won. City were flying and unbeaten before we played them. We won.

Sandwiched in between that lot was the small matter of a Champions League match away to Besiktas. We won that too.

It has been an unbelievable sequence of tough fixtures and no way did I think we would come through them all with wins, but we did. Incredible. Fergie and his boys deserve enormous credit.

We’re all still catching our breath from that crazy kamikaze Manchester Derby but the next set of big fixtures is nearly upon us.

Our next game is on Wednesday night in the Carling Cup at home against Premier League opposition (Wolves). As defending champions, we will be expected to start our defence with a very good performance (i.e. a win).

Then we’re away at Stoke in the League. Maybe not the most glamorous fixture we have had of late but they are likely to provide as stern a test at their place than anything else we have faced away from home so far this season.

Then we have Wolfsburg in the Champions League. It is early days in the CL but Wolfsburg did enough in their opening game to show that they mean business in the group stages.

It almost seems unfair of us Manchester United supporters to ask for another three wins after the recent sequence of results but, as two of the above are home games and the other is against a side we should have too much quality for, anything less is likely to be met with complaints from somewhere.

Come on United!