Saturday, 17th October 2009 – KO: 15:00

Well, here we go again and this game marks the start of the real nitty gritty of the season for me.

Some would disagree but I think the next few weeks are a season-defining period for us. The period during March-May might be more important but what we do here and now is the foundation for what comes later.

Having dropped a couple of points at home to Sunderland (and almost all three) in what was probably our worst performance of the season so far, this game is a must win.

Bolton have been a bit strange this season in that their away form has actually been better than their home form. They have yet to win at home but have won twice away from home. It must be said, however, that those two wins were against Portsmouth and Birmingham.

Our own home form has been excellent so far this season with that last game against Sunderland the only blip in an otherwise perfect record. It is very hard to imagine us dropping points for a second successive OT Premier League game.

Slowly but surely, the injury situation for Manchester United is starting to resolve itself and if Owen Hargreaves can make his expected comeback in three weeks then we will be back to full strength.

Of course, there are always others picking up little knocks and strains here and there and the big miss for this one is likely to be Rooney who sustained some kind of calf strain when playing for England last weekend.

I genuinely believed that he would be ready for this one but it looks like Fergie is going to opt for the Berbatov/Owen partnership here.

Berbatov has really started to hit some form in recent weeks and this was underlined when he scored a hat-trick for Bulgaria in midweek (admittedly against lowly Georgia). He also became a father for the first time the day after his hat-trick. Quite a week for The Berb and if that lot doesn’t put a spring in his step and a smile on his face, well…

As for Owen, he should be fit and raring to go for this one after a good break following the groin strain that caused him to make way for Berby after just 20 minutes when we played Wolfsburg a few weeks ago.

The rest of the team? Well, it’s anyone’s guess. We have a run of big, big games coming thick and fast in the next few weeks and Fergie is likely to be rotating two or three positions in every game during this period and I very much doubt we will see the same back to back starting line-ups even once.

However, we should have too much for Bolton whoever plays here today. Expect them to get men behind the ball and try to spoil. An early goal for us could well throw their plans into some disarray.

Whilst we have won three and drawn one in our four home games so far this season, those three wins were just by a solitary goal and I think we are due a more convincing home win here.

2-0 is a real possibility and if we were to score three or even four it would not come as a massive surprise.

With the re-assuring presence of Van Der Sar likely to start in goal again, the defensive unit should be a lot more solid and a clean sheet will be the order of the day (we have leaked far too many goals at home already this season).

I think a convincing win is on the cards here today.

The bet is going to be 3 Points Manchester United -1.5 goals @ 1.92 with Bet365.

When Ronaldo left in the summer, the big question was, “Where will United get the goals from?”

As usual, Fergie has all the answers. Easy… we’ll get our opponents to score them for us!

When Zat Knight inadvertently redirected Michael Owen’s tame header into the back of the net it was the fourth own goal in our favour this season so far.

When Valencia scored his first official United goal after 33 minutes, it looked like this could end up in a 4-0 romp but we just couldn’t seem to get that killer third.

When Matty Taylor got one back for Bolton after 75 minutes, it was a strange last 15-20 minutes as Bolton really went for the leveller and we seemed completely rattled.

However, we eventually came through it 2-1 winners and on balance, deservedly so.

Valencia looked good in this game and Berbatov maintained his excellent recent form and only a great save from Jääskeläinen kept him off the scoresheet. Giggs again was in the thick of most of the good things we did too.

The bet went down and it is doubly disappointing because we had more than enough chances here to make it a clear winner but it wasn’t to be.

Better news came earlier in the day with Chelsea losing to Villa and Liverpool also lost (again) to ensure that this victory put us once again at the top of table.