Saturday, 12th September 2009 – KO: 17:30

Following Mozzi’s excellent post on this match isn’t going to be easy but I do like to give my opinion on every match before it kicks off so I’m not stopping now!

Well, as I mentioned in my own post yesterday, Manchester United, after a ten day period of thumb twiddling, are now about to enter a pretty intense schedule which could have a massive bearing on our season.

Fergie will be taking a full squad for this match as I believe they will be travelling straight to Turkey afterwards.

I think this game takes precedence over our match against Besiktas and I think Fergie will play a strong hand here. I say this because even a defeat in our opening group game would not be a complete disaster. Fergie’s Formula For Fampions Feague Fuccess (how’s that for alliteration?!) has always been win the home games and grab what you can away from home.

Nine points in the home games and three points picked up away from home by any permutation will give you top spot in the group.

I do think that Fergie will fancy us to reach at least twelve points in our CL group even if we do drop  a couple in Turkey.

The Premier League, however, is a different matter. Having lost against Burnley, we have already lost ground on a couple of clubs – most notably Chelsea but Tottenham are the other and I am sure that this will be uppermost in Fergie’s mind coming into this match.

Chelsea have a tricky away fixture against Stoke but, all things considered, you would expect them to pick up another three points from that so we could kick off this match against Tottenham six points behind and even at this stage, that is the kind of gap that will have little alarm bells ringing.

So. I think the order of the day is a swift win against Tottenham and see what we can do against Besiktas whilst keeping half an eye on the next massive Premier League match against City.

Normally, we like to give Tottenham a head start whenever we play them. It might be one goal, two goals or even three goals and then we come roaring back with five of our own but Tottenham are on a high at the moment and Harry Redknapp, even at this early stage, is entertaining fantasies of a top four finish. They might prove to be a soft touch midway through the season but at this point, they mean business.

Mozzi has called for the use of Anderson in this game and I do believe his showing for the reserves a couple of weeks ago proved that he is chomping at the bit to prove his worth but at this moment, I think Fergie’s best midfield duo is Carrick and Fletcher and I would expect them to start here with Anderson getting his chance in Turkey but if Anderson does start for this one then I won’t be complaining too loudly.

Up front, the question is Rooney. Fergie has always been protective of Rooney. He is the obvious choice to start here with a breather in midweek against Besiktas but Fergie has a habit of throwing a spanner in the works and if Ledley King is starting for this match, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Owen given the nod and I for one would like to see how King copes with Owen.

The other question is Berbatov, returning again to his old club and, no doubt, a pretty hostile reception. If he plays in this one, it wll be a massive test for him.

Defensively, should Rio Ferdinand be confirmed as fit then we should be pretty much at full strength.

It is basically down to how Fergie shuffles his pack throughout the other areas of the pitch.

The beauty is, of course, that we have the strength in depth in most positions to beat Tottenham.

They have their injury problems and Modric is a massive miss but I do feel their main weakness is in defence.

They do have some great attacking options but we have a great defence.

On balance, I can see a hugely entertaining game with plenty of goal-mouth action (if this game ends 0-0 I’ll eat my hat!). However, despite reputations, games between these two teams don’t often end with a hatful of goals.

In fact, since 2002, League games between these two teams have yielded an average of just over two goals per game.

Everything does point to a 1-1 draw but whilst Tottenham might be happy with that, I can see us just giving it that little bit more to win the game and I think we will win 2-1 or 2-0.

3 Points United Win @ 2.3 with Bet365.

I made a little joke in the preview about us always seeming to give Tottenham a head start before we kick into gear but this was a bit ridiculous. Just 45 seconds into the game whilst most people were just getting comfy in their seats, the on-fire Jermain Defoe pulled off a fantastic overhead shot to put Tottenham a goal up.

Ryan Giggs maintains his incredible record of having scored in EVERY Premier League season since it's inception in 1992.

Any United fans who were slightly worried about the threat Tottenham posed here today had had their worst fears confirmed.

Indeed, it is worth mentioning here just how positive Harry Redknapp was with his team selection. Defoe, Crouch and Keane were all in the starting line-up. Throw into that mix the attacking talent of Lennon and it was a statement of intent from the Spurs camp.

Our line-up was pretty much full-strength but I must admit to having a few doubts when I saw both Giggs and Scholes starting alongside Anderson and Fletcher in midfield.

However, all four were to feature significantly during the match (for different reasons).

So, a minute gone and already we were a goal down against a side that were in great form and with lofty ambitions going into the game. Not ideal.

Harry Redknapp has enjoyed some success over Manchester United down the years with his various clubs but they have tended to be smash and grab jobs, soaking up the pressure and grabbing a goal against the run of play.

With the wealth of attacking talent he now has at his disposal at Spurs, he obviously decided that now was the time to fight fire with fire.

This was probably his biggest mistake because, their goal aside, this was an almost complete domination from Manchester United and the longer the match went on, the more I couldn’t see us losing.

All of Tottenham’s big names were virtually anonymous throughout the game and had Defoe not scored that opening goal, you wouldn’t have known he was on the pitch. Lennon and Keane did very little. In fact, Tottenham’s best player, who did cause us quite a few problems was probably Crouch who just seems to be getting better and better in the air (it was his pressure on Vidic in the opening minute which led Vidic to head the ball straight to Defoe for the goal).

Other than the odd moment for Spurs, this was almost all Manchester United and it seemed only a matter of time before we scored.

I was getting a bit frustrated with some of Giggs’ passing and movement in the first half but when a free-kick situation was awarded to Manchester United, there seemed to be a bit of discussion between Giggs and Rooney about who would take it.

Giggs got the nod and despatched a beautiful curling effort straight into the top left corner of the Spurs goal. It was a sublime free-kick and after four years of the “blast in the general area of the net” approach of Ronaldo, it was great to see a true exponent of the art finally being given the chance again.

The something amazing happened. Scholes played a “shot” into the area. It was the kind of effort that you thump in and hope something happens on it’s way to (hopefully) the back of the net but on this occasion, it came out to Anderson who didn’t hesitate and swung his left boot at it from quite some distance out. It was always slightly curling beyond the Spurs keeper and it found it’s target. Yes. Anderson, having scored for the reserves last week, had finally scored his first “proper” goal for Manchester United.

Hopefully, having now lost that hoodoo, he will start to bang in a few more on a more regular basis.

We had a few more attempts, most notably from Berbatov who was fantastic today but still seems to have broken a few mirrors when it comes to his luck in front of goal but his overall contribution was excellent.

We were controlling the game. Totally bossing all areas of the pitch and then Scholes (who had previously been booked for a typical Scholes tackle) got himself a second yellow for another typical Scholes tackle.

TV replays suggested to me that the second yellow was harsh. Tom Huddlestone clutched his face as though Scholes had slid right into it but Scholes was nowhere near his face. It was typically clumsy from Scholes and his team mates tried to appeal to the ref that Scholes had made two fouls and had received two yellow cards (whilst some of Tottenham’s players had made seven or eight fouls and had received just one yellow after about three or four) but that was Scholes gone after an hour.

It would have been a shame had Tottenham got on top after that but such was United’s dominance, especially in midfield that even when we were down to ten men, it didn’t seem to have any effect on the general pattern of play. We were still dominant.

Rooney, as usual, ran his socks off. He had had a couple of chances throughout the game but with Scholes being sent off, his strike partner Berbatov was subbed for Carrick to put the numbers back into the middle of the park . Rooney was then left to plough the frontline single-handedly.

He just seemed to revel in the situation and delighted in taking on the whole Spurs defence all by himself.

His goal after around 78 minutes was pure strength, tenacity, skill and determination. He had two players harrassing him but he held them off, kept the ball under control and still had the presence of mind to nutmeg the Spurs keeper.

On the balance of play, it was no less than United deserved and we could have even scored a couple more with a bit of luck in front of goal.

Fergie had challenged Rooney to step up before the season began and he has not been disappointed.

He also asked his midfield to step up and weigh in with their fair share of goals. One from Giggs and one from Anderson today is the response.

Fletcher also had another very good game by just making a complete nuisance of himself and breaking everything Spurs tried to build before it even got beyond the foundation stage.

Ben Foster in goal is growing in confidence with his run in the team and when Van Der Sar is fit to play, Fergie has a decision to make I think.

All in all, I don’t think there was one poor performance from a Manchester United player here today. If I had to give the wooden spoon to anybody then it would probably have to be Scholes and when he’s the weakest link, it just shows how good the rest were!

As for Spurs, they will probably bounce back but there was a naivity about them here today and a thought occured to me the other day that they were a bit similar to Keegan’s Newcastle of the mid-90′s. A bit loose at the back but with plenty of attacking talent. On their day, they can rip a team apart but if it doesn’t quite go right, they have a soft and vulnerable underbelly.