Saturday, 3rd April 2010 – KO: 12:45

The biggest game of the season so far and due to the fact that on this day eight years ago, my youngest son was born, I won’t be able to watch it! I’ll be traipsing around Camelot theme park, desperately trying to over hear any mobile phone conversations about how the game is going.

There will, of course, be one far more important person watching the game who would much rather be playing and we all wish he was playing too – Wayne Rooney – and of all weeks for the thing we have been dreading might happen, it had to happen during this one – perhaps the most pivotal week of our entire season.

Anyway, since Rooney hobbled off against Bayern, Fergie will have been mentally putting together the team and the plan to finally put some daylight between ourselves and Chelsea.

This game has always loomed on the horizon and everytime either team has gone ahead by a few points, there was always the feeling that the title was still in the hands of the other. After this game, one team will have one hand on the title and the other will be relying on them slipping up and with just five games to go after this one, there’s not a lot of room for manoeuver.

There has been some talk that a draw would not be a bad result for us in this one and, of course, it would be better than a defeat and would maintain our slender one point lead but I just feel that with tough games against the likes of Spurs and Manchester City to come, the four point cushion that a win here would give us might be necessary.

Psychologically, it could test Chelsea’s resolve to the max if they were to lose this one. Playing catch-up when you’re one or two points behind is one thing because you know that one round of fixtures can see you go back to the top but playing catch-up from four points behind is a different ball game because at the back of your mind, you know that even if you do beat the likes of Aston Villa 7-1 and do that for the remaining five games, it still might not be enough.

When we met Chelsea earlier in the season, we weren’t playing too well and many people predicted a hammering for United. Chelsea won the game 1-0 but there were more than enough signs from United that we might be back in business and it was generally agreed that we were unlucky not to have taken at least a point from the game.

Since that time, the two teams have been through some good and bad patches but overall, we have fared the better and what has been noticable from this United team is that when the chips are down, in those games when you really do fear we might go down, they seem to rise to the challenge and produce something extra.

Chelsea are not to be discounted lightly, of course. Twelve goals in their last two games is incredible. Especially when you consider that seven of them came against a team who had previously boasted the meanest defence in the League. On their day, Chelsea can rip a team to shreds with goalscorers all over the pitch and if our defence is as shambolic as it was against Bayern for their second goal the other night then we could be in for a torrid afternoon.

However, for as good as their attacking options are, their defence is perhaps a weak spot at the moment and I think we have the players to exploit that, even without Rooney.

It’s going to be a tough encounter and with so much riding on the result, it could get a bit messy out there but we have not lost two games on the bounce so far this season and I don’t think we will start now.

This is a chance for United to get one hand on the Premier League title and put daylight between us and the rest. I think we will respond to that incentive and rise to the occasion again.

I’m going to stick my neck out and go for the United win here on the basis that Chelsea have had their little purple patch in front of goal and we have had our abomination for the week against Bayern. We have a score to settle with Chelsea and Old Trafford is where we do our scoring.

The bet is 2 points United to Win @ 2.62 with Bet365.

Review to follow…