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.

Fergie largely left the side unchanged for this trip to Bolton. As expected, Hernandez came in for the injured Welbeck but there was some swapping and changing in the back four as Jones was switched to the right, Smalling was dropped and Ferdinand came into the centre. It worked a treat though as Jones looked quite sensational out on the right at times.

I thought Fergie showed great faith in the central midfield partnership of Anderson and Cleverley by continuing with them for this game. They deserved their chance because they’ve hardly put a foot wrong so far but I did feel that this match might be a little too physical for those two.

Fergie did mention in his press conference the day before the game that Valencia would be in the squad but this was obviously a bit of mind-games from Fergie as Antonio had to make do with a seat in the stands for this one and didn’t even make the bench.

Anyway, we came to Bolton expecting a physical game and Bolton clearly weren’t going to disappoint us and within just a few minutes, Jones was left in a heap following a “challenge” from Paul Robinson. However, disaster struck just seconds later as Cleverley was tripped by Kevin Davies. It looked more cynical than malicious – he had no chance of getting the ball and it was one of those tackles designed just to ensure that the player is stopped in his tracks. Well, it certainly had the desired effect because Tom Cleverley has now been stopped in his tracks for three or four weeks as scans revealed ligament damage to his ankle.

Davies got away with that one without a booking which seemed quite scandalous but the main concern was with young Tom Cleverley who must be absolutely gutted that, having finally been given his big break, has seen it derailed by an injury. Get well soon, Tom.

This meant that Carrick was brought in and we had used one of our subs with less than four minutes of the game played.

However, we had the perfect answer to Bolton’s bully-boy tactics and within moments of the restart, Hernandez was prodding the goal home to make it 1-0.

Bolton were undeterred, however, and within five minutes or so, Davies was at it again. This time with a challenge on Evra which took his legs from under him and sent him flying into the air. Thankfully, the referee did his own job properly at this stage and showed Davies a yellow card.

A few minutes later, Nani was cynically brought down by Mark Davies with acres of space ahead of him. Again, it was a deliberate and cynical foul, designed only to stop play and Davies joined his namesake in the book – rightly so.

It did seem to be the case though that all these things merely made us play better and within seconds of that incident, Rooney was poking the ball in to give us a 2-0 lead with less than twenty minutes played.

Five minutes later, Phil Jones gave a brilliant example of what he can do as he went on a powerful run almost the full length of the field which ended with him taking a shot on goal. The shot came back out and provided Rooney with a fairly simple finish for his second and United’s third. The plaudits went to Jones though. This kid looks the business.

Mere seconds later, Chicharito had the ball in the net but it was rightly flagged as offside but it was yet another example of the pace with which can break forward and put opponents in all kinds of trouble in the blink of an eye.

It was noticable at this stage that Bolton seemed to be a little more cautious with their tackles – perhaps part in fear of going into the book and part because it seemed that the rough house challenges were backfiring in the same way that poking a bear with a stick is likely to see you lose an arm or two and, incredibly, the two bookings that had already been handed out were the last of the game.

Robinson did give Jones another whack after half an hour though which went unpunished by the referee and Bolton really could have been down to nine men by this stage.

There was little else to report in the first half as United seemed content to ease off the gas for a while which allowed Bolton some possession but they did very little with it and so the half-time whistle blew with United sitting on a comfortable 3-0 lead.

The second half got underway with neither team making a change during the interval although I’m sure that Fergie would have warned his players about slacking off too much, despite the 3-0 lead, because they did allow Bolton a few sniffs at goal towards the end of the first half.

The first 5-10 minutes of the first half were largely played in deep into Bolton’s half as a succession of free-kicks, throw-ins and corners tested the Bolton defence to the hilt but our fourth goal didn’t actually come directly from this extended period of pressure as Bolton eventually got the ball clear, had a couple of shots and a corner of their own but this led to a quick break from us as De Gea once again showed his excellent distribution skills to send Nani away but the chance only led to a corner but from this corner, Carrick had a tame shot which ricocheted back into the path of the man who always finds himself in exactly the right place at the right time – Javier Hernandez.

4-0 to United and it really was a case of how many more we could stick in the net with over half an hour still to play.

However, Fergie took this goal as his prompt to make a double change as Smalling and Giggs came on for Evans and Young. Initially, Park seemed about to come on (possibly for Anderson who was having a mixed bag in the second half so far) but the boss was forced into a quick change of mind as Evans seemed to get injured as the subs were getting ready to come on.

While the two players were waiting to come on, Nigel Reo Coker very nearly pulled one back with a terrific drive from out wide which clipped the top of the crossbar.

United then went into a period of keep-ball as they zipped the passes around between themselves to leave the Bolton players, already dispirited and beaten, chasing shadows.

After sixty-seven minutes, Nani showed how much he has progressed and matured in the last year or two when he dribbled into the box before fooling everyone by pulling the ball back for Rooney to slam home for his second hat-trick in successive games and a quick glance at the Premier League table shows that, with eight goals to his name already, Rooney has scored more goals by himself than all the other teams in the league except Manchester City!

Moments later, Rooney tried to manufacture a hat-trick for his teammate, Hernandez by forcing a pass towards him when perhaps a better option in the form of Nani was running in behind him. Hernandez still tried to make the most of the chance though but just failed to connect.

And that was largely that as neither team really created anything of note in the remaining twenty minutes or so. United’s defence remained strong and stubborn, obviously wanting to keep a clean sheet although Bolton did have their half-chances during this period – especially from late sub Tuncay Sanli who, in retrospect, Owen Coyle might wish he’d brought on sooner.

There was a moment of concern in the 78th minute as Evra got into a bit of a tangle with Ngog and appeared to twist his knee awkwardly. Fortunately, he was able to continue (we had no more subs left at this stage) but was running rather gingerly for a few minutes afterwards.

Anderson could have found himself on the scoresheet again in the closing minutes when Hernandez squared the ball to him but, perhaps because he was tired after having put in one hell of a shift in, he wasn’t quite alert to the opportunity.

So, 5-0 is how it ended and that sealed our best return from our opening four Premier League matches for five years.

In my pre-match write-up, I did say that there would be goals in this game but I wasn’t convinced that United would do all the scoring, I felt that Bolton would have at least one goal in them but I was clearly wrong about that one.

I also said that i still wasn’t 100% convinced that we had turned the corner with our away form but I think we can safely say now that whatever the problem was last season, it has now been well and truly put to bed. I think we were helped in this game by going ahead so early and that settled us down straight away but we only went ahead early because we have developed this habit of starting extremely brightly in games and catching our opponents cold.

It’s all good stuff for United fans at the moment. We’re scoring plenty of goals and it feels like the manager has hardly even used half of the players at his disposal so we have many great options still to come in and these will be fresh and raring to go when the manager eventually decides to give them their chance.

Long may it continue!

By the time we kick-off against Bolton this evening, the results of matches featuring all of our main title rivals will already be known and it does seem highly unlikely that we’ll still be at the top of the league at that stage – what effect this will have on the team obviously remains to be seen.

However, Fergie will doubtless be stressing the importance of just getting our own job done and not paying too much attention to what goes on elsewhere – like he won’t be watching the results himself as they come in!

Our record against Bolton has generally been very good down the years and they have only managed to win this fixture once in the last nine (a 1-0 win almost four years ago) but there have been a few draws in the fixture down the years, including a 2-2 draw last season when we twice had to come from behind to grab a point.

Of course, our away record last season was generally pretty mediocre and we registered far more draws than we would normally get away with for a title winning campaign and I am still not 100% convinced that our away form has picked up. We obviously looked good in our two home games this season but our opening day away match against West Brom smacked of more of the same to me as we laboured to a 2-1 victory which could so easily have ended in another draw.

Bolton are generally pretty decent at home and didn’t lose too many there last season but they suffered a reverse in their only home match of this season so far – a 3-2 defeat against Manchester City.

What is going to be interesting to see this afternoon is exactly who Fergie puts on the field. Obviously, several of our players were involved in international matches in the last week or so and we get our Champions League campaign off with a tricky away tie against Benfica on Wednesday so these factors will probably influence his decision but it does seem to be a shame to make too many changes to a team that has been playing so well so maybe he’ll stick with more or less the same team that played Arsenal and make the changes for Benfica?

He was quoted in yesterday’s press conference as saying that Valencia will make the squad for this match and so I’m guessing that whilst Young will start, he will be subbed in order to give Valencia a run for the last 15-30 minutes or so and I’m looking forward to seeing Valencia back on the pitch again but he’s going to have to go some to displace Nani and Young in those wide positions on a regular basis, it seems.

Welbeck has started this season well and it is unfortunate that he suffered an injury in the game against Arsenal which will keep him out for this one but Hernandez is on the comeback trail after his own injury and should start alongside Rooney here but Rooney is another I wouldn’t be too surprised to see subbed in the latter stages should we get into any kind of lead.

The central midfield areas are going to be interesting – so far Anderson and Cleverley have been given the nod more often than not but I do wonder if Fergie might spring a surprise by bringing either Carrick or even Fletcher back in order to give one of those two a breather.

And then we have the defence – apparently Vidic remains injured but I believe Rio is fit but Evans, Jones and Smalling have all proved able deputies in the defensive positions and I suspect that Fergie might save Rio for the Benfica game.

De Gea looks likely to continue in goal and it will be interesting to see how he copes with the aerial threat of a player like Kevin Davies.

As for a prediction: well, the bookies seem to think that this will be a routine win for United but I would just like to see us put in a couple of convincing away displays before going overboard on the outright win. The markets I think are best looked into for games between these two sides are the ones involving goals because games between us are usually fairly high-scoring affairs and our games generally (when not playing one another) have usually been high scoring.

All three of our matches and all three of Bolton’s matches this season have featured at least three goals and I see no reason why today should be any different. However, the bookies do seem to be of the same view and so the price isn’t too great (around 1.65 at best).

So, perhaps looking at the Both Teams to Score market is the way to go and that’s what I suggest here.

The bet is 3 points Both Teams to Score @ 1.83 with Betfred.

Due to the International break, this is our last game for a couple of weeks and it’s probably just as well because we do appear to have something of an injury crisis going on at the moment, especially in defence with Rafael, Vidic, Ferdinand and O’Shea all apparently injured for this one.

Fortunately, Chris Smalling has surprised everone with his performances since being asked to step in and he looks set to partner Brown again in the centre of defence (although Evans could make the squad but I doubt that he’ll be brought straight back in). Evra with take the left side but the right side would appear to be a problem and it looks possible that Fabio will be given the job.

Apart from that, the rest of the side is in pretty good shape with both Nani and Valencia coming back from their respective injuries in the last game or two.

The other dilemma would appear to concern the strikers. Rooney is picking himself of late but the performances of Hernandez have consigned Berbatov to the bench but I think the Bulgarian will get the nod this afternoon.

As for Bolton, well, they are having a very good season and remain in the frame for a Europa League spot next season. Kevin Davies will have to be watched because he’ll be the one to exploit any frailties in our defence whilst on-loan striker Daniel Sturridge has been in good form since joining Bolton.

History is in our favour though and you have to go right back to 2002 for the last time Bolton came away from OT with anything and the last seven meetings between us at OT have seen straight wins for United. Then there’s the fact that our home form has generally been excellent all season and we do remain unbeaten at home.

I think we’ll win this one but it is likely to require a couple of goals to do so as I think Bolton will grab one of their own.

There’s every chance that we will run away with this one and if Berbatov plays, you never quite know what you’re going to get – he could struggle to score or he could score a hat-trick.

Given the unpredictability of several factors in this one (and the fact that the prices on offer for most things I would normally bet on here are too low) I am going to have a little dabble in the corner market. A lot of our games at OT this season have not had many corners in them and I’m going to have a small bet on that being the case again here today.

The bet is 2 points Under 10.5 corners @ 1.9 with Bet365.

With both Chelsea and Arsenal losing yesterday, this game represents a fantastic opportunity for us to go clear second in the league, just one point behind Chelsea and surely after some of the points we have thrown away in recent games, concentration and focus will be on doing exactly that with no more slip-ups.

Valencia apart, Fergie does now seem to have an almost fully fit squad to pick from and there are reports that even Owen Hargreaves is nearing fitness again which is obviously great news.

Despite picking up just six points from their opening five games, Bolton have not started this season too badly overall and have only been beaten once (4-1 away to Arsenal) and have picked up creditable draws against Birmingham, Fulham and Villa with their solitary win coming against struggling West Ham.

Our record against Bolton in recent years has been pretty much one-way traffic and you have to go all the way back to 2004 for the last time they picked up a point against us in the league. In this fixture last season (played in March) we won 4-0.

What is going to be interesting to see today is who Fergie goes with up front. Dimitar Berbatov has got off to an absolute flyer this season and Michael Owen did himself no harm with a brace against Scunthorpe in midweek. Rooney, on the other hand, continues to struggle to score although he does have a record of scoring against Bolton for some reason (six goals in his last four matches against Bolton).

I can see us scoring goals in this game but I am sure that Fergie will be happier with a clean sheet and an end to the lack of concentration at the back rather than a sackful of goals scored and a 2-0 win would be considered a great result and this is something which I think we are perfectly capable of achieving.

The bet is going to be 3 points Manchester United -1.5 AH @ 2.31 with Canbet.