From the minute I heard that Wayne Rooney was out injured for this one, I had a bad feeling about it and this feeling wasn’t helped too much when Javier Hernandez had to go off injured with barely ten minutes played. That was basically our first choice attacking line-up out of action and whilst Owen an Berbatov did their thing, I can barely remember either having what could be described as a shot on goal for the whole time they were on the field (although Owen did get himself into some decent positions but was either not seen or not picked out on those occasions).

Whether it was the absence of Rooney which unsettled him a bit is hard to say but Ashley Young didn’t look his usual self for this one and so another attacking threat was nullified from the off.

Fortunately, the ever-improving Nani always seems to have his shooting boots on him these days and it was another spectacular goal from him that gave us the lead just before the half-hour mark.

Stoke were always causing us problems though and De Gea was by far the busier of the two keepers and had to pull off a few excellent saves just to keep us in this one. It didn’t come as a great surprise when Stoke finally got the goal they deserved from a corner kick which was headed in by the towering Peter Crouch although some questions will be raised about our defending on that corner, though.

It is always easy to look at the chances we missed and think what might have been had they been taken whilst conveniently forgetting the fact that, if both teams took their chances, Stoke would probably have won this one by a couple of goals.

The most annoying part of this was the incident surrounding Hernandez’ injury as he was clearly through on goal and I fully expected him to slip the ball past Begovic but he was clearly given a great shove from behind by Jonathan Woodgate. Fergie bemoaned the incident later but said that the incident had “come too early” in the game for a penalty to be awarded which, on the face of it, sounds like a nonsense but I was quite dismayed to read an article today by ex-referee Graham Poll where he admits that this is actually a fact and it was something that was discussed at select group referee meetings.

It is not something done deliberately and is not some “unwritten rule” – it’s just the way it is apparently and penalties are often only given in the first fifteen minutes if the incident is so blatant (such as a clear handball on the goal-line) that it cannot possibly be overlooked.

That we weren’t awarded the penalty was bad enough – that Hernandez was forced off due to an injury picked up as a result of being pushed straight into the advancing ‘keeper was just adding injury to insult!

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that we remain unbeaten, we have five wins and a draw from our opening six games which must at least match our previous best ever start in the Premier League under Sir Alex Ferguson and already we have got a few very tricky fixtures out of the way.

Now, if only I could get my betting predictions in sync with what Manchester United are doing!

Oh Jesus! Where to start with this one!? It is one to remember and one to forget for all the same reasons.

First of all, the result. That’s the most important thing. We won. Don’t ask me how but we won. We raced into a 3-0 half-time lead thanks to goals from Smalling, Nani and Rooney and that should have been enough to put any game to bed but on this occasion, we could still have lost the game 6-3. Or we could have gone on to draw 5-5. I suppose it all depends on your perspective.

The one thing for certain is that whilst there were moments of brilliance in this game (Nani’s goal, Jones’ determination, De Gea’s saves) there were probably more examples of embarrassingly bad play. Anderson almost seemed to be playing for Chelsea at times as a couple of simple passes went straight to a Chelsea player on the edge of our area, Rooney kicked his own foot when taking a penalty and subsequently ended up sitting on his backside whilst the ball headed towards the corner flag and examples of careless, aimless passes were scattered throughout the match. Oh, and our defence gets by by the skin of its teeth at times.

On the other hand, you have Torres who (as I suspected) finally broke his scoring duck but then misses an absolute sitter of an open goal when you would have back anyone in the world to score.

And then you have Andre Villas-Boas’ very positive team selection which some people, in light of the result, were calling a mistake but I thought he did exactly the right thing and, on another day, when there wasn’t so much freakishness going about, Chelsea may well have left Old Trafford with a very convincing win under their belt. I suspect the timing of the match had something to do with AVB’s mindset for this one and it will be interesting to see if he’s willing to be so adventurous if we meet them towards the end of the season in a Cup competition because, make no mistake about it, this was probably the most attacking line-up ever fielded by Chelsea at Old Trafford.

In fact, with Fergie playing Fletcher in midfield, it was probably us who went with the slightly more defensive line-up!

It all went to provide one hell of an entertaining match which, at times, resembled a basketball game as one team attacked and then the other. The crazy thing about this was that we were leading 3-1 at this stage and really didn’t need to get so involved but we just couldn’t seem to help ourselves and this led to some breathtaking moments where we were literally relying on luck to keep Chelsea at bay.

That’s not to say that we didn’t create our own chances. On another day, Rooney would have had that third hat-trick in a row. Berbatov would have scored. Nani would have had two etc etc etc. But on this day, it wasn’t to be.

I’m going to leave this one there. There’s probably enough in this match to provide material for five separate articles. We won, City drew. We stay top with our best start to a League campaign for twenty-six years (which is weird because, on paper, this has probably been one of our toughest ever starts in terms of opposition) and that’ll do for now.

United’s tough start to the season continues this afternoon with an eagerly anticipated class with the team that I still expect to provide our closest challenge come the end of the season – Chelsea.

Fergie was saying something in his Press Conference yesterday about how Chelsea have escaped a lot of the media glare in the opening few matches of the season because all the attention has been focused on ourselves and Manchester City and something was going through my mind as I watched some of Chelsea’s match against Bayer Leverkusen in midweek.

If you take our European results into account then Chelsea’s start to the season has been just as good, result-wise, as our own and Manchester City’s with four wins and a draw but they are almost being treated by the media as “yesterday’s news”. Of course, this is largely down to the fact that ourselves and City have been banging in the goals and mostly winning pretty impressively whilst Chelsea have been winning without fireworks and also the fact that the two Manchester teams going at each other in a genuine two-way competition for the first time in decades makes for a great story and Chelsea aren’t part of it.

What this has meant is that their new coach, Andre Villas-Boas, has had a fairly smooth easing into his new role without his every last move (and mistake) scrutinised in the way that his many recent predecessors did and at the moment he looks like a very relaxed man who’s finding this English Premier League lark quite easy.

Our job this afternoon, of course, is to ensure that he travels home in no doubt as to the size of the task he has taken on. We’re not Stoke, we’re not Sunderland, we’re not Norwich or West Brom.  This is Manchester United and this is Old Trafford. We are the Champions, we intend to keep that title and we relish the challenge.

As I said, I watched some of Chelsea’s Champions League game in midweek and I was quite shocked at how pedestrian they looked. This was, of course, 24 hours before our own pretty uninspiring performance against Benfica on Wednesday where we looked equally pedestrian. The difference is that I had been watching a largely first-team Chelsea whereas our team against Benfica, whilst littered with quality, was a team half-full of players that have barely kicked a ball this season.

And this is where Fergie was cute on Wednesday as it gave him the chance to rest players like Ashley Young, Phil Jones and Anderson completely and give the likes of Nani little more than a run out so all of those players who have been part of our more exciting displays this season, if picked this afternoon, will be as fresh as daisies and raring to go again.

As a result, I hope to see our players get back to that high-tempo passing game which will hopefully bamboozle Chelsea as much as it has done most of our opponents so far this season. If we can do this and it all goes to plan then there’s a chance that this game could be won more comfortably than usual.

However, Chelsea do need to be respected and will certainly pose a threat to our defence which still looks slightly dodgy at times and a goal from them would not come as a surprise (I actually have this recurring thought that Torres might actually score it – players who haven’t scored for ages do tend to find their scoring boots against us, it seems).

This is not really a match I would like to get too heavily involved in from a betting perspective, so many things could happen. It could be another goal-fest, it could end 1-0 either way or even 1-1.

But, I do believe that there will be 2 or 3 goals scored and that is going to be the bet.

The bet is 2 points 2 or 3 Goals Scored @ 1.95 with Bet365.

Incidentally, Bet365 are running a special offer on this match today which means that you can get a free in-running bet on the match. See their website for full details.

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.

Well… what can I say? This was quite possibly one of the best football matches I’ve seen at Wembley for many a year. It was obviously given added spice because it was between ourselves and City but, a bit of handbags here and there aside, it was played in very good spirit with both teams playing hard but fair. I thought the referee, Phil Dowd, had a great game (some City fans might disagree with this assessment, though!)

I had fears beforehand that it was going to be a cagey affair with neither team wanting to lose more than either team would want to actually try to win but my fears went out of the window within a few minutes of this game starting as United, in particular, seemed to be going for the throat from the off.

Fergie stayed true to the kind of team he had played throughout our pre-season Tour and gave the likes of De Gea, Smalling (at right back!), Anderson and Welbeck their chance alongside the more expected Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Nani, Young, Carrick and Rooney and it was working a treat. City were largely on the back-foot for much of the opening half hour or so. The pitch seemed to be in great condition and with just a little bit of rain, there was that zip about it which helped us to play our quick, one and two touch passing game which left City chasing shadows.

However, we hadn’t made our dominance count with a goal or two and City started to get themselves back into the game after around twenty-five minutes or so and piled on a bit of pressure of their own but it was more of a 50/50 match by this point as we continued to press ourselves whenever the opportunity arose.

A foul given away by Evra in a decent position for Silva to deliver a lovely free-kick from out wide after 38 minutes which was met by the head of Lescott for 1-0 to City felt like a kick in the teeth though. Evra comitted another dodgy foul on Milner just outside the area moments later but this time, it fortunately came to nothing.

As a result of this little sequence we got to see one of De Gea’s strong points as he delivered a fantastic ball the lengths of the field straight from a corner which almost set Nani free on the counter. I’m in no doubt whatsoever that this is going to be a weapon we see used time and time again during the coming seasons.

However, just before half-time we got to see something which I hope we’ll never see again from De Gea as Dzeko let fly with something of a speculative effort from 25-30 yards out which went past De Gea despite being a good five feet inside the post. Vidic was partly to blame as he didn’t get anywhere near close enough to Dzeko but he seemed confident that De Gea would deal with the shot. Indeed, no matter how many times I watch the shot, I still cannot understand how it managed to evade our young new keeper. It was a well-struck shot, low and with plenty of power but the feeling was that De Gea saw it coming and had enough time to get something behind the ball but, no. And that meant that it was 2-0 to City at half-time.

This seemed quite undeserved and, I must admit, I thought we’d have to do something very special to even take the match to penalties at this stage. Fergie’s half-time subs were a slight surprise though as he took off almost all the older, more experienced players (Vidic, Ferdinand, Carrick) and replaced them with Jones, Evans and Cleverley.

United started the second half in exactly the same way that they had started the first one, though and if anything, they looked to be playing at an even higher tempo. City had the 2-0 lead to defend though and so seemed content to allow United possession for the opening few minutes while they just got bodies behind the ball.

We were going for it at this stage though with Smalling frequently raiding down the right, Evra down the left and even Jones was to be seen in an advanced position from time to time. The forward players Nani, Young, Welbeck, Rooney and Cleverley were passing it around well between them though with plenty of good movement providing more than enough to keep City occupied.

After 51 minutes, United were awarded a free kick from a similar position (although on the opposite side) as City’s free kick in the first half and the outcome was very similar as Young fizzed a great ball in which Smalling met with his boot to guide the ball past Hart in the City net.

That goal seemed to come at just the right time for United and we were right back into the match with plenty of time to grab the equaliser. We didn’t have to wait long though as Nani found the back of the net after 57 minutes following one of the best examples of passing and movement to weave through the City defence you will ever see.

Nani picked the ball up deep in his own half, passed to Cleverley and went sprinting upfield. Cleverley laid it off to Anderson who played it onto Rooney who ran on with the ball before passing back to Cleverley who took it on a little bit before knocking it into Welbeck who played a fancy back-heeled pass to Rooney who played to Nani who played to Rooney who flicked to Cleverley who played back into Nani who had run on following his pass. Nani calmly took the ball around Hart and chipped it over him from a fairly acute angle.

It was absolutely breathtaking stuff from United. We’ve seen it a couple of times during pre-season but that was against, with all due respect, teams that don’t possess the quality of player that City have. It was the kind of goal that United fans will never tire of watching and it will likely bring a smile to our faces every time we see it repeated on TV for the rest of our lives. It was a goal which should have won something special but, as it was, it had merely brought us level in the Community Shield. With half an hour still to play, there was still more work to be done.

United had the bit between their teeth now though and looked well up for the task of completing the turnaround. Some of the City players looked like they wished there was another half-time break coming up as they looked bewildered and, in some cases, rather knackered, to be quite honest. Almost as if to rub salt in their wounds, Fergie took this opportunity to withdraw Evra and replace him with yet more youthful exuberance in the form of Rafael. I’m not quite sure off the top of my head what the average age of the United team was at this stage but I’d have a guess at something in the region of 22-23 but, ironically, it was Young at 26 who was the “old-man” out there at 26 years of age!

Anyway, for much of the last half hour, United continued to press and City had their moments but neither keeper was unduly troubled and penalties looked to be on the cards and with a couple of minutes remaining, Berbatov came on for the excellent but visibly tiring Welbeck.

Something was to happen that was even more dramatic than penalty, though – and something infinitely more satisfying than winning on penalties as City mounted one last attack which almost saw Dzeko get his head on a cross but it instead fell to Rooney who just thumped the ball clear upfield. It landed somewhere between Kompany and Clichy but neither took responsibility but Nani was perfectly willing to do so – chasing down the “lost cause”, he got a bit of luck with the ricochet which left him clear through on goal with just the keeper to beat. Kompany tried to get back at him but Nani took it around Hart and slotted into the net.

After the best part of 93 minutes played, it was testimony to Nani’s fitness, despite the fact that the season hasn’t really even started yet and he deservedly received Man of the Match for his two-goal performance.

There were great performances all over the pitch though. Welbeck looks twice the player he was a few seasons ago. Cleverley is giving himself every chance of making the breakthrough. Smalling just gets better and better every time he plays. Young seems to have quickly found his feet and looks every bit a United player. Jones looks mature beyond his years and will surely be a fixture in United’s defence for years to come. Rooney looks back to his very best which, if you consider that we were almost carrying him for the first few months of last season, can only bode well. Anderson looks like the player who first arrived here again. And then there’s Nani who finally seems to see himself as a true United player – it was quite funny at one stage to see him giving Smalling a little round of applause following a run and pass which Smalling played – it’s like Nani now sees himself as one of the “old heads” around the place whose role is to help and encourage the young kids who might be feeling the strain.

There have been seasons in the past where we haven’t started particularly well but, given the fixtures we have at the start of this season, Fergie has clearly recognised the need to get off to a flyer and have everyone absolutely fully fit and raring to go from the off. If this match is anything to go by, we’re more than ready to defend our title.

United will be hoping to continue their fine pre-season form with a win against City this afternoon in the Community Shield whilst United fans will just be hoping that we actually turn up and play this time, unlike the last time we met at Wembley in last season’s FA Cup Semi-Final.

Guessing either team for this one is a tough task and it will be interesting to see if Fergie retains the confidence in the younger players that he showed in our USA Tour matches. I would guess that one of either Smalling or Jones might line up with Vidic in central defence but we might just see a more experienced line-up this afternoon.

My own guess is De Gea, Rafael, Smalling, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Giggs, Young, Rooney and Berbatov.

It’s obviously far too early to make confident predictions as to what will happen here and I intend to just watch and enjoy the game without putting too much emphasis on the result.

However, I think  a small bet on a low scoring affair might be in order.

The bet is 2 points Under 2.5 Goals @ 1.70 with Bet365.

The new Manchester United season 2011-12 Away kit is available today and I must admit that my initial reaction to it wasn’t particularly favourable but how many times have we initially thought that on seeing a new kit but then by the end of the season, we can’t imagine the players wearing anything else?

The photo obviously speaks a thousand words but, as you can see, it is blue and black horizontal stripes and it struck me that if we were to wear a red version at home, it would look like a eleven Dennis the Menaces had invaded the pitch!

Chicharito Likes This

Yes, I know it’s a bit late in the day for a season review but it’s a post that I wanted to make during the time that I was disconnected from the net (following my recent house move) and it has been bugging me that I didn’t round the season off with it.

Anyway, here goes…

From a general view of the season, I will refer you to a post I made before the season started which was my Premier League Preview. Looking back at it now, I was quite accurate in my predictions for the top half of the table. I had United to win narrowly over Chelsea for the title (it actually turned out as a fairly comfortable title win but Chelsea suffered an almighty collapse following and including our victory over them towards the end of the season) and I did feel that City could displace Arsenal for the third place but had some reservations due to the unpredictable nature of City at the moment.

The rest wasn’t too bad although Villa finished ninth instead of my predicted eighth.

Where I got it almost completely wrong was at the foot of the table. I predicted Blackpool would go straight back down and even that almost backfired as they surpassed everyone’s expectations in the first half of the season but Wolves, Wigan and West Brom all beat the drop.

In my defence, it was an incredibly tight relegation scrap this season and at one point, even towards the end of the season, almost half of the league were technically in a relegation battle and the teams going down almost changed on a game by game basis.

Anyway, that’s all by-the-by stuff. The most important thing is that United won the league for an historic 19th time.

This was the one that I, and I am sure, most United fans really wanted and I think we all would have taken that at the start of the season. Sir Alex Ferguson’s mission had finally been completed – Liverpool had finally been knocked off their perch and when you consider that the “score” was 18-7 to Liverpool when SAF made that historic comment, you can see what an incredible achievement it has been by the man.

He hasn’t finished yet though and if reports of extensive rebuilding are to be believed, he already has sights on number 20 and beyond.

A lot of people have been criticising this United team (including many United fans too) and I am still of the opinion that it is a very, very good United team (or perhaps that should be “squad”?) but there are clearly frailties which are difficult to fathom.

Our record of 18 wins and one draw at home in the league is clearly almost perfect but our away form has been inexplicably poor – just five wins, 10 draws and four defeats. There have, of course, been all kinds of theories for this but I am at a loss to explain it myself although I do think that there were a few games towards the start of the season that we really should have won but, because of the run of draws we were suffering, nerves and anxiety crept in towards the end of games and it almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In any case, we won the league by a convincing nine points in the end and you can only beat what is put in front of you. Whatever criticisms are levelled at us must surely be levelled at our rivals too. Personally, I prefer to give credit to the lower teams because I think that the Premier League has been as competitive as ever this season and even the relegated teams gave a good account of themselves, taking a fair few big scalps with them as souvenirs.

The biggest disappointments obviously came in the Cup competitions for Manchester United. Our first defeat of the season was completely bizarre as it came at the hands of West Ham (a team who were to finish bottom of the league table by some margin) and it was a stunning 4-0 defeat which, to this day, I still have trouble reconciling.

Of course, Fergie rang the changes for the game but, even so, on paper it looked like a side more than capable of giving West Ham a game, even though it was an away fixture but we were absolutely trounced and so that put to bed any hopes of retaining our Carling Cup in spectacular fashion.

There was a general air of acceptance over that though. We had bigger fish to fry etc etc.

The next disappointment was in the FA Cup. This is a tournament in which we still hold the record for previous wins but it has now been seven years since we last won it and most United fans felt that it was about time we won it again. There are certainly many players within the current squad who have never won it. When we got through to the semi-final, it did look like we might just be able to go all the way. Our opponents in that semi were, of course, Manchester City but still we felt confident of success but worryingly, we never looked particularly impressive in the game and City ran out deserved 1-0 winners.

It was to provide the best opportunity for silverware that City have had in many a year and they took full advantage by beating Stoke in the final but there remains some lingering regret that we were not able to deny City that glory and snatch it for ourselves.

Still, we “had bigger fish to fry” etc etc.

The biggest fish of all came on the last day of our season when we played Barcelona in the Final of the Champions League. Up until this final, we had been incredibly efficient as we progressed in steady, if unspectacular, fashion throughout our campaign to the point where we arrived at the Final unbeaten and showing great form after handing Schalke a hiding in our semi-final.

However, Barcelona were on a different planet on the night of the final. Indeed, it looked at times like they were playing a different game altogether and we simply couldn’t cope with their passing and movement.

It was this match more than any other which perhaps revealed the cracks and the truth about our current crop of players. In hindsight, we had been provided with the odd warning sign but there’s little can be done about it mid-season even if the fears were justified.

All in all, I think the 2010/11 was a very successful season. We won our fourth Premier League title in five years. We reached our third Champions League Final in four years and we reached the semi-final of the FA Cup.

This would normally be regarded as a stunning season for lesser clubs but it has apparently prompted Fergie to splash the cash necessary to bring in the players to take us onwards and upwards from here and that, in itself, is a positive to be gleaned, I feel.

Stitched inside the badge of every Manchester United shirt is a word and it says simply: “Believe”.

Before a ball was even kicked in this tournament this season, Barcelona were installed as favourites whilst we have fluctuated around third and fourth favourites for much of the time. Truth be told, we have had a reasonably comfortable passage in this year’s tournament with the quarter-final against Chelsea by far and away our biggest challenge but it was a hurdle many believed we wouldn’t be able to clear AND win the Premier League title at the same time.

These people didn’t Believe.

Even now, few people believe that we can pull this one off this evening with some bookies pricing us at an insultingly high 4.00. I cannot remember the last time we were priced so high to win a game of football but I would guess that it might have been when we played Barcelona in the Cup Winners Cup Final twenty years ago and, as I mention yesterday, we all know what happened on that occasion.

I am under no illusions that winning this match will be easy. Barcelona have played some fantastic football this season and if the trio of Iniesta, Xavi and Messi are allowed to pull the strings as they were allowed to pull them when we played them in the 2009 Final, we will be in for all kinds of trouble but I would like to believe that Fergie and the players will have learned a few lessons that evening and history will not be repeated on that score.

After an initial flurry from Manchester United which almost saw us take the lead, we were sucker-punched by Eto’o after just ten minutes and it looked for all the world that we basically stopped playing from that point onwards. It was a very subdued performance, given the enormity of the occasion and, at times, it looked like the players were no more than spectators as they watched one of the biggest games of their lives evaporate into nothing before their very eyes.

This time round, I hope that we take a bit of that 1991 spirit into the game and make it happen for ourselves by pressing Barca as high up the pitch as we possibly can. Cut off the supply from Barca’s backline (because this is where it all starts for them), get in their faces and let Puyol and pals deal with the electric pace of Hernandez, the power of Rooney and the persistance of Park.

Make no mistake about it, we have the personnel to make this the hardest game Barca have had to play all season and if we play to our potential then we can win it.

No doubt Fergie will spring a surprise with his starting line-up but I would like to see the following:-

Van Der Sar, Rafael, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Valencia, Giggs, Carrick, Park, Rooney, Hernandez.

O’Shea may be drafted in in place of Rafael and the midfield of Carrick and Giggs may well be different but I think that that team has the qualities required to let Barcelona know that they have a game on their hands and that 4.00 about United to win this game could look pretty silly.

However, I can still see a close game here, it will be all hands to the pumps and everyone will need to be at the top of their game to keep the likes of Messi out for ninety minutes but I believe we can do it. The quality of this United team has been underestimated all season and I think the bookies have done it again here.

However, I have to ensure that emotion is not ruling my head with my betting predictions and so I think I will go for another market which I think offers some value here.

The bet is 3 points on Both Teams to Score – Yes @ 2.05 with William Hill.

BELIEVE!