Saturday, 17th April 2010 – KO: 12:45

The most eagerly awaited Manchester Derby since erm… the last one is more interesting than usual because for the first time in living memory it comes towards the end of the season and BOTH teams still have something to play for quite seperate from the usual “bragging rights”.

A win for us here will put us a point behind Chelsea and the pressure this will apply is just about our best chance of getting back into the title race.

As for City, they are currently occupying the fourth spot and a win for them here will keep them there regardless of what Tottenham do against Chelsea later in the day.

A draw would probably not be a disaster for City but it would be no good to us.

In any case, these Manchester derbies rarely end in draws – there’s usually a winner and I see no reason why either team will settle for a point here today – even if the winning goal comes well into injury time as it did for us when we met City at our place earlier in the season.

Fergie has been keeping the Rooney fitness situation close to his chest but I think Rooney will play. If he was willing to risk him against Bayern the other week then he will surely “risk” him for this one. We need a win here today and if the Blackburn game showed us anything last week it is that without him, we are severely lacking in firepower. With the way City are scoring recently, we are likely to need at least two goals to win here.

I don’t see much point in trying to analyse this one further. There are so many plots and sub-plots surrounding this one that just about anything could happen.

We have played City three times already this season and the one thing all three have had in common is goals – a total of 14 in the three games. Whether this one will follow suit is hard to say because it could be that with the importance of the result, both teams might play a more cagey game.

It is clear that our defence is going to have to be at the top of their game for this one and the silly mistakes that have seen us concede a few goals in recent weeks will have to be eradicated. We are also due a bit of luck on the referee’s decisions front.

If we can keep the Argentinian Troll restricted to his headless chicken impersonation and the Welsh Whinger Bellamy quieter than we did in the game at our place then we might be able to go on and win this one.

On the other hand, if Rio decides with a few minutes to play that the very best thing to do is try an audacious chip over a midfielder’s head or Rafael tries to shake an opponent’s hand forty minutes too early then we might find ourselves with an uphill battle.

Personally, I would like United to go into this game with the attitude that there is nothing more to lose and everything to gain – take the game to City and steamroller them from the opening whistle.

As for a bet on the game well, it is a tough one because literally anything could happen here but it somehow seems written in the stars that either or both of Rooney or Tevez will score in this one. It is possible to back both and still come out with a profit if either scores but I can only pick one for this site so I will back Rooney to come back with a bang.

The bet is 2 points Wayne Rooney to Score at Anytime @ 2.2 with Coral.

Well, if this is how Paul Scholes plays the day after signing a new contract then I think Fergie has made a big mistake by giving him a new one year contract… he should put him on weekly contracts!

I have been… not necessarily critical of the older players this season but the fact that we still seem to be relying on them a bit too heavily and I must admit that my heart sank a little when I saw that all the old stagers (Scholes, Neville and Giggs) were all included in the starting line-up here.

We were coming in against a very hungry Manchester City who had scored something like 14 goals in their previous three matches and were as determined as ever to get one over on us for so many reasons.

However, I have to say that this was the best I have seen Scholesy play all season. He really looked up for it with some great tackles, some good forward runs and passes and, most important of all, the winning goal.

This is the kind of thing Scholesy has built his reputation on and it was good to hear that Fergie had told him to get forward more because that is still where he is most effective but far too often this season, he seems to have been restricted to nothing further forward than a few yards from the opposing penalty area.

Rooney came back from his injury but still didn’t look 100% and had to be substituted yet again and it is probably just as well that we have a full week before our next game against Tottenham.

Evans came back to partner Vidic in defence and looked much better for his little break.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the fact that Fergie chose Gibson ahead of Carrick in the centre of midfield and that must be a worry for Carrick.

Gabriel Obertan came on late on but still appears nervous at this level and having watched him play brilliantly for the reserves, I know that he is far more assured than he shows when playing for the first team.

Whatever… today was all about getting three points to give us a glimmer of hope in the title run-in and we did that.

Some will say that it wasn’t vintage United – that it was a fairly average performance. We seem to have been putting in quite a few of these performances this season.

As it stands, we have just limited one of the most potent attacks in the league to a couple of half-chances and beaten them 1-0 to put ourselves one point behind the league leaders… we must be doing something right.