In my preview of the season, I had Chelsea down to finish second in the Premier League. I felt that we would win it but Chelsea’s experience would see them finish above City again and that they would take us right down to the final game or two.

However, Chelsea have been a shadow of their former selves for much of this season and currently sit in fourth and a massive twelve points behind us. With City winning yesterday, that makes them fifteen points off the top spot and at this stage, they will do well to overtake Spurs for third as they trail them by some seven points.

What appears to have happened over recent seasons is that Abramovich has tightened the purse strings and all those top notch players they bought for hundreds of millions a few years ago are now reaching the autumn of their careers but they haven’t been replaced with anywhere near the same quality.

When the cash has been splashed, it hasn’t always worked out and perhaps the most spectacular example of this is the case of Fernando Torres. A few years ago, I had him and Drogba as the best two strikers in the league but since the 2010 World Cup, Torres has gone from being recognised as one of the best strikers on the planet to a an embarrassing £50million flop.

The reverse fixture this season at Old Trafford will be remembered as much for Torres’ miss as much as anything else.

There. Now I’ve set Torres up to bang in a hat-trick against us this afternoon.

I think what the game against them at OT proved though was that, on their day, Chelsea are still capable of fantastic football and whilst we ran out 3-1 winners on the day, we rode our luck on several occasions and the score could have been anything you like up to and including 8-8.

As per usual, we stagger into this game with a hospital ward full of casualties and therefore it is difficult to say who will start although there has been some encouraging news on Cleverly and Young.

Valencia has been on fire of late and so I expect him to resume on the right but if Nani has not shaken off the injury that kept him out of our last game then perhaps Young will make a reappearance on the left but I believe Nani is fit and so Fergie might just opt to keep Young on the bench for this one.

I would also expect to see Rooney come back from his own injury for this one but Fergie has a dilemma as to who will play up front alongside him unless he ducks the issue completely and goes for a five-man midfield.

Chelsea have their own selection problems, especially in defence, as I believe Terry is injured and Ashley Cole is suspended meaning that new signing Gary Cahill could well make his debut in what will be a pretty untested and therefore vulnerable back four.

One thing that did surprise me about the Manager’s press conference was the fact that we have not beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the league for ten years but I do believe that if there was ever a good time to put that particular stat to rest then now is that time.

Stamford Bridge used to be a fortress and any visiting team knew that if they came back with a point, they’d had a good game but that aura of invincibility is now fading and Chelsea have already lost three of their eleven home games this season (Villa, Liverpool and Arsenal) and, Manchester City aside, the teams they have beaten there have all been teams they would usually be expected to beat.

I believe that we have to win this afternoon. It is perhaps a game which City and Spurs will be hoping to see us drop points in and a draw would be an excellent result for those two teams. However, if we can take the points then we go back on top alongside City with another tough fixture behind us.

Rather than get too fancy with the betting, I think that the price on the straight United win represents good value and that’s what I will be going for this afternoon.

The bet is 2 points United to Win @ 2.75 with Coral.

The Red Devil - A Manchester United and Football Blog

Well, today is transfer deadline day and, as I type, I am watching Sky Sports News desperately trying to turn what has been a pretty boring transfer window into something exciting… “News just in! Joe Bloggs has signed for the Dog & Duck for a fee reported to be around two pints of lager and a packet of crisps”…

For our part, it appears that we have said goodbye to a couple of players (Mame Biram Diouf and Ravel Morrison) and although there have been murmurs of a couple of relatively unknown players coming in, there’s nothing to get too excited about as a Manchester United fan on the transfer front.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with the most important thing about today and that is the visit of Stoke this evening.

Stoke are enjoying another solid season in the Premier League but I suspect their current eighth place is as high as they will get this season. Their away form has been a bit hit and miss so far but a 0-0 at Anfield a couple of weeks ago was a decent result for them but generally, when they have played the better teams away they have been beaten by comfortable margins (3-0 against City, 3-1 against Arsenal).

Our home record, whilst not as good as last season, is still the third best in the league and we have beaten Stoke on the three occasions that we have faced them here in the Premier League although the 2-1 victory in our last game against them just over twelve months ago was the closest of them all which probably illustrates the progress Stoke have made over the last few years.

As usual, the main problem we seem to have is on the injury front and I have not been able to establish whether Rooney and/or Nani will be back for this one although Rooney does look the more likely of the two to appear this evening. After being an unused sub in our FA Cup match against Liverpool, Ferdinand also looks like he could come back into the centre of defence and if that is the case then I think I would like to see him partner Smalling who just looks generally better in the air than Evans.

In fact, this could be a key factor for us in this match as the reports are also that Lindegaard has suffered some kind of injury and so De Gea might continue in goal. Now, De Gea is a United player and I want him to succeed here and become a legend like Schmeichel and Van Der Sar but right now, I’m afraid that I have to watch him with my fingers over my eyes every time our opponents fling the ball in from dead-ball situations… and that is exactly what Stoke like to do the most and if De Gea is in net then it will only encourage them, I feel.

However, I still believe we will win here tonight but I wouldn’t go crazy for the 1.33(ish) price the bookies are offering for an outright win for us and I do believe that this could be a close scoreline, especially if it is correct that Nani and Rooney won’t feature.

The key to the bet on this one is whether or not we can keep a clean sheet, I feel. A 2-0 win for us would not be out of the question but I would like to see exactly what the defence is looking like before going for something like that.

At this moment in time, I am generally of the view that both teams will score this evening and that is going to be the bet because I think it offers value on what I see as a 50/50 toss of a coin type situation.

The bet is 2 points Both Teams to Score @ 2.1 with Bet365.

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I think you could tell from my pre-match post that I had a feeling that something like this would happen here, however, I would just like to clear up my clumsy choice of words when I said “if it goes wrong then it wont be viewed with enormous disappointment.”

Of course, getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Liverpool at Anfield is almost as bad as it gets and it was enormously disappointing that this is exactly what happened but with the injury list we were carrying into this game I just felt that even Fergie had to accept that it would be a big ask to expect a win… hope, yes… expectation, not really.

As it turned out, we put up a tremendous fight and it has to be said that we were enormously unlucky to come out as the losers here. The stats I have in front of me say that we had 62% of the possession which sounds about right. For long spells of this game, our midfield was passing the ball around whilst Liverpool were chasing shadows.

However, we didn’t actually do a great deal with the possession whereas Liverpool were much more direct when on the ball.

Scholes gave his usual masterclass in midfield seeing a lot of the ball, exhibiting a pass-completion rate which must have been in the high nineties but a lot of it was sideways and backwards. It’s the type of thing I would love to see us pull off when we’re winning a game with five minutes to play but we were never in the lead in this match and I just felt that we could have been a bit more aggressive on the ball.

It did seem as though Scholes was always the “out” for any player with the ball. Scholes always finds space, the other player sees him and gives him the ball and it just pings backwards and forwards like this. In the meantime, Liverpool were able to get themselves set in position with their two banks of four behind the ball and seemed almost happy with this situation because we were rarely threatening their goal (we actually only had two attempts on target throughout the whole game although Valencia struck a terrific drive which came off the post in the first half).

As a result of all this, there was the impression that both of Liverpool’s goals “came against the run of play” but for me, they just did more in possession than we did and basically showed that you don’t get points for pretty possession, it’s all about sticking the ball in the net more times than your opponents.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though. There were lots of positives to take from the game. Rafael was mostly excellent today and it was his tenacity and superb ball in which led to Park’s perfectly struck goal. Valencia continues to impress although he didn’t get a great deal of success in terms of getting in behind the Liverpool full-backs today and he was marshalled well but was unlucky not to get his name on the scoresheet again.

On the downside, De Gea still cuts a worrying figure in goal. He looks like his confidence is shot to pieces at times and he was probably culpable for Liverpool’s first goal as he became more interested in Andy Carroll than the ball and knew next to nothing about it as it flew over his head into the goal. One or two other nervy moments didn’t inspire confidence either and it has to be said, again, that Lindegaard’s claim for the Number One shirt only seems to strengthen every time De Gea plays.

At the end of the day though, we’re out of the FA Cup (again) and whilst the headlines last weekend were saying Manchester 2 – 0 London, this week they are saying Liverpool 2 – 0 Manchester and King Kenny now looks set to end Liverpool’s six year trophy drought.

As for us, we finally seemed to come through a game without adding to the injury list and a few of the injured will surely now be in a position to return against Stoke tomorrow.

The Red Devil - A Manchester United and Football Blog

Apologies for the lateness of this post but I have been hearing all kinds of things all week about who is not going to be fit to play this afternoon and I wanted to leave it as late as possible to see if there was any kind of clarification.

At various stages of the week, I had heard that Jones, Carrick, Nani and then yesterday Rooney were all struggling for fitness following the Arsenal game.

Obviously, Jones looked a major doubt but Nani also hobbled off in the Arsenal game and Rooney appeared unable to even walk at the end after a series of clattering challenges.

Anyway, I am no wiser this morning and I do wonder if Fergie is going to take a bit of a gamble in this game and rest those players who might not be 100% fit so that they might be ready for the league games.

The Premier League is clearly our priority this season and with Stoke and then Chelsea coming hot on the heels of this one, we have two stern tests ahead of us in that competition and I am now of the view that Fergie will put out a team which he believes will push Liverpool here today but if it goes wrong then it won’t be viewed with enormous disappointment.

In any case, our record at Anfield of late hasn’t been great and it did look for long periods in our league game earlier this season that we were largely second-best and whilst we managed to salvage a 1-1 draw on that occasion, Liverpool probably felt that they deserved the win.

Liverpool themselves have been a bit inconsistent of late. They put in two very good performances to overcome Man City over the two legs of the Carling Cup semi but those games sandwiched a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Bolton and a mediocre 0-0 against Stoke.

I think we could win here today, even if all those listed above are out injured but it will require whoever steps in to hit the ground running and perform to their best.

Making any kind of prediction here is difficult but I think the game could see more goals than our league fixture and that is going to form the basis of my tentative bet.

The bet is 1 point Over 2.5 goals @ 2.00 with Bet365.

The Red Devil - A Manchester United and Football Blog

An Increasingly Familiar Sight

OK. First things first. We’re out of the Champions League, Arsenal are still in the Champions League. Financially, we’re operating against a backdrop of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debt whilst Arsenal’s finances would appear to be the healthiest in Britain so this might seem like unnecessary and unwanted concern but I can’t help but wonder what is going on down there.

For all our battles down the years – particularly during the period between the late 90s and early 2000s – Arsenal are probably the side I have the most respect for.

Over the last twenty years or so, we have consistently been challenged in the league by Arsenal with appearances by teams such as Blackburn, Newcastle, Chelsea and now Manchester City.

However, what all those teams (except Arsenal) have in common is that their success was built to a greater or lesser degree on the bankrolling of a rich owner. Like ourselves, Arsenal have generated their own finances but they have probably done things even better than us in that respect – certainly with Arsene Wenger at the helm.

It is in this area that I have always had a lot of respect for Arsene Wenger as I will touch on in a moment.

When Arsene Wenger first arrived at Arsenal back in 1996, he took over a decent, albeit ageing, team (they had won the Premier League in 1991 and the FA Cup in 1993) and they probably had the best defensive line-up in the league with the likes of Seaman, Adams, Keown, Winterburn, Dixon, Bould etc. Add to that the superb Bergkamp assisting Wright in attack and the exciting Merson in midfield, he arrived with work to do but the basics of a side capable of challenging for the league.

Over the next few years, he used his knowledge of French football to bring in players such as Viera, Petit, Grimandi and his best to date – Henry – as he started to dismantle the old and build the new Arsenal of his own vision.

He did this with incredible success winning three Premier League titles and four FA Cups over the next seven years or so culminating in their last league success with the team that became known as “The Invincibles” having gone through the entire league campaign without losing a match.

I think it is fair to say that at this stage, most people expected Arsenal to go on winning for years to come but an FA Cup the following year has been their only silverware since the year of the Invincibles and whichever way Arsene Wenger dresses it up, that has to be viewed as failure.

As I said, one thing that I was always very impressed with Wenger about was his uncanny knack of buying players for a relative pittance, getting their best years out of them and then selling them on for a profit when they were just edging beyond the crest of their wave.

I would love to see some figures for Wenger’s net transfer balance in the sixteen years or so that he has been at Arsenal and I don’t believe that he has paid over £20million for any one player which is extraordinary for a team that has been a regular in the top four for as long as Arsenal have.

However, it is this that has perhaps caused Wenger to come in for the most criticism. The building of the Emirates stadium did, for a time, suck up a lot of money and so Wenger could be forgiven for not splashing the cash – he probably didn’t have it in abundance but I simply cannot believe that a club which has participated in fourteen consecutive Champions Leagues and has operated so prudently in the transfer market has no money for transfers new stadium or not.

I know that this has been a source of bewilderment amongst the press down the years and, probably, some frustration amongst the fans and it has largely been put down to Wenger’s stubborn attitude to do things “his” way i.e. youth, youth, youth.

But I’ve been watching Arsenal from the outside for several years now and it seems almost as though Wenger gets a bunch of kids, they don’t win anything, they (obviously) get older and are then replaced with a younger model. The word appears to be “potential” but potential is worthless unless realised and Wenger never seems to give the potential the best environment in which to thrive and become realised.

Youth is great and with the likes of Wilshere, Ramsay and this new lad Oxlade-Chamberlain (who was a joy to watch on Sunday, I have to admit) Arsenal have some riches to be envious of but Alan Hansen, for all the stick he has received since, was not entirely wrong when he said “You can’t win anything with kids”. For every Neville we had an Irwin/Pallister/Bruce, for every Scholes we had a Cantona/McClair, for every Beckham we had a Robson/Keane/Ince etc. The young replaced the old but there was always a period of overlap.

Of the current crop, Robin van Persie is probably the exception to the rule in that he did come along as a youngster, served his time backing up the likes of Henry et al and is now the main man there but at 28 years of age and at the height of his powers, he seems a prime candidate to either be sold by Wenger or seek a move elsewhere of his own accord – I would not be totally shocked if he is not at Arsenal next season.

At United, we are constantly bringing “kids” through the ranks into the first team and we also buy some in from abroad. It is probably fair to say that at least 95% of them don’t make it but those that do come through in a team full of players brimming, not just with playing experience but, more importantly, winning experience. As a result, we have continued to win things whilst Arsenal have spent much of the last six or seven seasons missing out and it is perhaps this which separates the exceptional manager that Wenger undoubtedly is from the truly great manager that is Sir Alex Ferguson.

That’s not to say that Fergie has always got it right and has finished above Wenger every season. In the 2004-05 season, we finished a distant third behind Chelsea and Arsenal but Fergie saw what was wrong and quickly went about putting things right and within a couple of years, we were back on top.

Looking at Arsenal now, they look no better or further on than they did five or six years ago. It has been a period of consistency for them but they have consistently been second, third or even fourth best.

If anything, it could be argued that they have actually been going backwards. Certainly the table today makes for grim reading for anyone Arsenal-related as they sit in fifth and five points behind four teams who are all playing better football and have better squads than them and Newcastle and Liverpool are now breathing down their necks.

The Champions League places are obviously still not totally out of reach for them but some bookies are offering as much as 5/2 on them to finish in the top four.

On the subject, Wenger was recently quoted as saying, “For me, not making the top four would be a disaster. Because I want to play with the best. We want to play in the Champions League and anything else would not be good enough.”

I have no doubt that it would be a disaster for Arsene but not necessarily for Arsenal FC. One way or another, a failure to finish in the top four (or worse) could be seen as a watershed moment and would surely have to make Arsene Wenger finally realise (or, at least, reluctantly acknowledge) that his policies aren’t working and persuade him to revise his principles which, whilst admirable, would have been proven to be flawed… again.

Of course, the other option, would be for the decision to be removed from Arsene Wenger’s hands altogether. At this stage, it is only his reputation that is keeping him in position and that reputation is becoming more and more tarnished with every passing season.

The Red Devil - A Manchester United and Football Blog

Naturally, after the drubbing we gave Arsene Whinger’s boys at Old Trafford earlier in the season, this one has attracted all kinds of speculation as to what might happen this time at the Emirates and whilst nobody believes we will see a similar scoreline most do expect there to be several goals in the game again.

Personally, I have a feeling that it could go the opposite way with both teams playing very cagily.

After a disastrous start to the season followed by an incredible, Van Persie-inspired run of results, Arsenal are currently going through another little dip and the prospect of them not even qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in (fifteen?) years is looking a very real possibility.

However, it has been on their travels where Arsenal have suffered most; at the Emirates, they have been very strong and have only suffered the one defeat there this season (their very first home game of the season against Liverpool when Arsenal were struggling and Liverpool were full of optimism for the new season).

They have conceded just six goals at the Emirates in the league but, somewhat unusually for Arsenal, have scored just sixteen which from ten games is not the stuff Arsenal have been renowned for down the years and they do rely far too heavily on Van Persie to provide the goals.

As for us, well, the injury situation does appear to be resolving itself which means that Fergie will have a decent number of players to choose from and it is just as well because this match represents the start of a tough set of fixtures which we will do well to come through unscathed.

I actually have a feeling that Fergie won’t pick what we might by now consider to be his “strongest side” for this one. Park might get the nod somewhere in midfield (he seems to have a happy knack of scoring against Arsenal) but as for the rest, it’s anyone guess but I think there’ll be a couple of surprises.

I’ve been on a bit of a roll with the bets of late and I suppose that run has to end at some point and it could well be today because I’m going to go slightly against the general consensus for the bet here.

The bet is 2 points Under 2.5 Goals @ 2.1 with BetVictor (the new name for Victor Chandler).

The Red Devil - A Manchester United and Football Blog

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.

The Red Devil - A Manchester United and Football Blog

For reasons best known to themselves, a significant portion of the press chose to use the run-up to this game reporting stories of disharmony, “strained relations” and unrest between Wayne Rooney and Sir Alex. Both before and after games, both parties were at pains to deny any such thing was going on. Rooney himself said that he was still very happy at United and “wants to stay here for years to come”.

I don’t know if there’s any truth in the reports but a day like today shows that, if the press would just be a little patient, there’s absolutely no need whatsoever to report “non stories” because just a few hours on this day provided enough meat to fill the back pages for weeks to come – and, whilst some of it was even more unbelievable than the Rooney story, it was all absolutely true.

Around an hour before kick-off, there was the amazing news that Paul Scholes had answered the SOS call and, not only had he come out of retirement, he was going to be on the bench against City!

At first, I had to check the calendar to make sure that I hadn’t spent a few months in a coma or something and that it wasn’t actually April 1st but when the team sheet was announced, there he was – named as a substitute. Incredible!

That, in itself, can give the press stories to tell for the rest of the season.

And then the actual game began and it was to prove to have talking points aplenty – more than enough to keep idle journalists in articles for the next week and beyond.

First of all, it’s worth mentioning our line-up for this one. Lindegaard was given the nod ahead of De Gea in goal, Jones was switched to right-back, Evra on the left with Rio and Smalling making the central partnership. There was some doubt over Smalling’s fitness coming into the game but he came through the test with flying colours and I believe that the future of one of our central defensive positions could well be sorted for the next ten years.

I felt that Jones might have been used in midfield but Fergie chose to play him at right-back. I think that the Newcastle game exposed his deficiencies in central defence so I was just pleased to not see him played there against the trickier City players such as Silva and Aguero.

Fergie went with a four-man midfield of Nani, Carrick, Giggs and Valencia and I was just pleased to see Valencia on the right. Whilst it has been a case of “needs must”, Valencia is totally wasted in the right-back position. He has been superb on the right wing whenever utilised there this season and this game was no different and it was his run and excellent cross that led to our first goal.

Up front, Fergie went with Rooney and Welbeck. I’m afraid that I completely over-looked Welbeck in my pre-match article and I went with Hernandez but the Rooney/Welbeck partnership is actually probably our best at the moment. Hernandez may well be the best poacher we have at the club but there are areas he could improve on – namely his first touch and ball control but these are two things that Danny Welbeck has no issues with and he was able to demonstrate this to great effect on numerous occasions this afternoon.

Oh, and he can score, too. I was raving about Demba Ba’s goal against us in midweek but Welbeck’s goal here this afternoon was similar in some respects but, technically, it was probably even better as the ball was going away from goal (and Welbeck) but he showed tremendous technique and agility to put it away.

Anyway. The match itself started with City having plenty of the ball and put us under some pressure in the opening exchanges and in some ways, it was similar to the game we played against them at Old Trafford but in reverse. In that game, we were pretty dominant for the opening twenty minutes and City’s first goal came largely against the run of play. On this occasion, it was perhaps our goal that was against the run of play as Rooney headed brilliantly from Valencia’s cross to put us 1-0 ahead after just ten minutes to stun the home crowd.

Just a couple of minutes later, City were in turmoil as Kompany was shown a red card for a two footed challenge on Nani.

At first, I thought it was extremely harsh and, in some ways, I was disappointed because I would have preferred to have beaten City with eleven men – City down to ten men with eighty minutes still to play provided City with every excuse they would have needed no matter what score this one had ended. However, after seeing several replays, the red card was deserved. Kompany went in two footed with studs up. It was reckless, it was dangerous and, had Nani not been able to take evasive action, he would undoubtedly have had to leave the field with a nasty injury.

Basically, players know that this type of tackle is no longer allowed and so why such an excellent player as Kompany chose to attempt it is quite baffling.

At this point, we had City where we wanted them and drove home our advantage thanks largely to great work from Welbeck with his goal that I’ve already mentioned and a run he made into the box which drew another foul and a penalty. Rooney took the penalty but, whilst it was saved, Rooney nodded home the rebound to make it 3-0 with five minutes of the first half remaining.

At this point, the United support were chanting “we want seven!” and it really didn’t seem beyond us at that point. City were like a boxer who has been hit and whose legs have gone. As the boxer tries to hold on desperately until the bell, City seemed to want to hold on for the half-time whistle.

When it arrived, most people were wondering what the hell would happen in the second half. Would City come out fighting or would they accept that today wasn’t to be their day and go for damage limitation.

A couple of substitutes from Mancini during the break suggested the latter to me as he brought off Johnson (who had been giving Evra a pretty torrid time on our left flank) and Silva (who remains one of their most potent attacking forces) in exchange for Zabaleta and Savic.

Now, I don’t presume to know what Fergie said at half-time to our own players but, no matter who or where we are playing, we should not be throwing a 3-0 half-time lead away and so I guess that part of the message was that whilst we could still get more goals from the game, the highest priority, especially for the opening five or ten minutes of the second half, had to be to give nothing away. Give City no encouragement. Keep the ball. Pass the ball.

So, when Nani tried some kind of stupid back-heeled flick after just a couple of minutes of the restart which was easily intercepted by Richards who drove towards our box, putting Evra under such pressure that he eventually conceded a free-kick just outside the area, Fergie must have been livid.

Up stepped the lethal set-piece specialist Kolorov to unleash an excellent free-kick to make it 3-1 with just three minutes played of the second half.

Again, I don’t presume to know Fergie’s thoughts but the fact that Nani was subbed within ten minutes of this came as no surprise (although the reason could just have been that Nani had picked up a silly yellow card by this stage and with the referee – Chris Foy – having his usual game i.e. poor and baffling, it might have just been a decision made to protect Nani from picking up a second yellow).

The substitution resulted in a sight no Manchester United supporter ever thought they would see again as Paul Scholes trotted onto the  pitch.

The substitution was probably made with thoughts of retaining possession in mind and, for the most part, Scholes’ passing was of the highest quality (97% pass completion ratio, apparently) but, incredibly, it was a bad pass by Scholes which led to City’s second goal.

As Aguero slotted home their second on the rebound after Lindegaard had spilled his initial shot, all eyes went to the clock which confirmed that the score was indeed 3-2 and that there was still the best part of half an hour still to be played.

Whatever advantage we had enjoyed going into the half-time break had now been completely reversed. The momentum was now with City and I must admit that I felt it inevitable that they would score the equaliser.

However, it never came, despite us enduring some extremely anxious moments towards the end of the game (no more so than when Kolorov had another free kick from a similar position to the one which resulted in their first goal right at the death but on this occasion, Lindegaard saved it well).

And so the final whistle blew to bring the curtain down on a fantastically entertaining Cup-tie which saw United fans, as per usual, put through the wringer when we should have been sitting with our feet up, smoking cigars for the final ten minutes.

The drama wasn’t to end there though as a few hours later, the draw for the fourth round was made and, somewhat predictably, we were drawn away against Liverpool. But that’s a story for another day… right now, I need a lie down.

The Red Devil - A Manchester United and Football Blog

Had this game taken place a couple of weeks ago then I think most United fans would have gone into it with the confidence that we could get some sort of revenge for the 6-1 drubbing but after two defeats and, worst still, two pretty abject displays in our last two games then it really is difficult to think of one good reason to believe that we can win this one.

On the other hand, there are plenty of reasons to believe that City will win.

For a start, they are arguably the best team in England at this moment. The league table backs this up. The way they beat us at OT earlier in the season adds further weight to the argument.

City have turned the Etihad Stadium into the kind of fortress that teams such as ourselves at OT and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge have done in recent years. In fact, in their last twenty home league games, they have dropped just two points (Fulham, last February).

City are the defending FA Cup Champions whilst our own record in this competition in recent years has been pretty underwhelming.

Despite Mancini’s frankly laughable comments that he didn’t know if he had eighteen players available for this one (with the Toure’s going to the African Cup of Nations) he has a formidable starting eleven of fully fit players (although Barry is suspended and Yaya Toure is out so that does mess their normal midfield up rather a lot) whilst we have an injury list which, whilst improving of late, is still ridiculously long and includes at least two players who would no doubt have started in this one (Vidic and Fletcher).

So that’s the case for Manchester City in this one and I think it’s fair to say that an awful lot of boxes are ticked there. The head can only come to the conclusion that City will win this one even if the heart begs to differ.

However, I have been supporting United long enough to know that we can never be written off. Some of our best ever results have come out of the blue (no pun intended). Indeed, there may even be the possibility of some degree of complacency on the City part that we can take advantage of but perhaps that would be grasping at straws.

There is also a possibility that we may view the FA Cup differently this season. In recent seasons, I have had the feeling that Fergie hasn’t treated the competition very seriously – of course he would like to win it and sends out a team he believes is capable of winning the match but it seems to be a case of either win the game or lose the game… but don’t draw the game because a draw means a replay and another fixture to contend with as we attempt to compete for the bigger prizes such as the Premier League and the Champions League.

This season, we don’t have the Champions League to worry about. Yes, we have the Europa League and I don’t know what Sir Alex’s private thoughts are on that tournament but, speaking as a fan, I think I would rather see us lift the FA Cup than the Europa League trophy. It could well be the case that a draw in this fixture so that we can get City back to an OT replay would not be seen as such a bad thing.

What I would like to see in this game more than anything is all the players being played in their “proper” positions. Due to injuries, Fergie has tried with mixed success to put square pegs into round holes in several games recently but I would like to see something along the lines of the following (if Smalling is fit):-

Lindegaard, Rafael, Smalling, Rio, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Jones, Nani, Rooney, Hernandez in the kind of 4-5-1/4-4-2 type formation which has served us well.

Jones in midfield might be slightly iffy but I’m convinced that he is better/safer there than in central defence at the moment – he had a nightmare in there against Newcastle the other night and had some kind of hand in all three of their goals.

If Smalling doesn’t make it back then it could well be that Fergie goes with Anderson in midfield and brings Jones back into the centre of defence and, if that is the case, then I think we could have trouble and if Fergie goes with De Gea ahead of Lindegaard then City will simply bombard us with crosses all afternoon long. Neither De Gea nor Jones seem particularly good at dealing with crosses (and this is where we miss Vidic massively).

Anyway. What’s going to happen here today? I think the answer has to be: “anything could happen”. I doubt very much that we’ll be seeing another 6-1 scoreline or anything even close and some of the bookies actually seem to think that we’ll have a fairly low-scoring game. I suppose it’s possible that it will be cagey but I’ve got a feeling that there’ll be more fireworks here today.

May the… erm… “best” team win!

The bet is going to be a tentative 2 points on OVER 2.5 goals @ 1.92 with Bet365.

The Red Devil - A Manchester United and Football Blog

I jokingly referred to the 5-0 defeat we suffered at the hands of Newcastle all those years ago in my pre-match write-up but this one was, in many ways, a very similar game.

The match was not as one-sided as the scoreline would suggest (don’t get me wrong, Newcastle were better and thoroughly deserved their win) but so much of what we tried to do failed by small margins whilst Newcastle could hardly do no wrong.

Their first two goals in this game were as stunning as anything scored in that 5-0 win (and there were some beauties in that game, too) and were good enough to win any game.

Demba Ba is looking like the signing of the century as Alan Pardew got him on a free-transfer (I believe most clubs were wary of taking a chance on him because of his injury record) but I don’t think you’d be able to sign him for less than £30million at the moment and his opener is already a contender for goal of the month, if not the whole season.

Their second, scored from a superb free-kick by Cabaye was as good as any free-kick you’ll see and it was no fluke – I seem to remember him scoring an almost identical free-kick in another of Newcastle’s games earlier in the season.

Their third… well… the least said about that the better. Phil Jones made an absolute mess as he tried to head back to Lindegaard (despite the ball being about two feet off the ground) but the keeper had already positioned himself to scoop up the ball so Jones’ header merely bobbled into our own net.

For our own part, Berbatov saw a header deflected onto the post early on and then another Rooney shot from point-blank-range late on was cleared off the line and I cannot really remember much more from us than that.

What was noticable about this one was how much harder Newcastle were working, especially in the midfield areas, as they harried and hassled us into making mistakes with our passing and just generally made us look like we were doing everything at half-speed. Worryingly, Newcastle just generally looked “hungrier” than we did and that’s not something you’d have been able to say many times over the last ten years or so.

There must be a reason for it but I was also surprised that Rafael wasn’t given then right-back slot in order to allow Valencia (who has been excellent in recent games) the right-wing but Fergie opted to put Valencia in the right-back slot and Nani and Park on the wings.

All in all, whilst Fergie is urging everyone not to panic, this was a pretty disastrous result and coming on the back of the Blackburn defeat, it cannot really be described as a “blip” – especially when taken into context with our early Champions League exit – trying to pretend that all is rosy at Manchester United smacks of ostrich-like behaviour.

However, if anyone can pull this round, Fergie can. He’s done it before and I have every confidence that he’ll do it again.

The Red Devil - A Manchester United and Football Blog