While the Red Devils secured a finals slot in the Carling Cup last Wednesday against Manchester City, back at the PRemier League, Chelsea was able to wrest the top position from the Reds and with still another match slated. This means that Manchester United sees the Arsenal clash as a must-win at this point. Especially since Sir Alex sees Arsenal as a big obstacle in getting a record fourth consecutive title.

A win is important since with two matches, Chelsea could potentially get four points ahead of the Red Devils, and Sir Alex doesn’t want to play catch up with a relatively big margin. And with Arsenal potentially in the running as well, they will do all they can to thwart ManU — the ingredients of an epic battle.

Van der Sar has been going through a rough patch this year because of different woes. For example, he broke two fingers during a pre season game against Bayern Munich. The injury forced him to the sidelines for two long months. He then suffered another injury when he collided with Tim Cahill of Everton last November, which put him out of action for five weeks. He was already nearing his eventual return from injury but his wife suffered a stroke, which has forced him to go on indefinite leave from the team.

Van der Sar finally made a return last January 16 in the match against Burnley, and proving how good of a goalkeeper he is Manchester United has yet to concede a goal and he has been instrumental in the Reds getting throug the Carling Cup Final.

Sir Alex said that it’s a combination of his talent, his composure under pressure and his adeptness with the football. With that kind of warm praise from Sir Alex, I’m pretty sure that Edwin van der Sar is feeling quite invincible right now. Hopefully, that feeling of invincibility will be sustained until next week because of the tough match against Arsenal.

Rooney scored the first goal a mere seven minutes into the game, with a hit on a rebound after Paul Scholes’ long range shot was saved. He would then explode with three goals that he would fire off within the span of less than ten minutes late in the game. The three goals, which came in at the 83rd, 86th and 90th minutes were astonishing and brought the Manchester United faithful to its feet. Rooney’s four goals in the game, his first ever, brings his season total to 20 goals. Rooney’s consistency has brought the Red Devils two points clear at the top of the Premiership League table.

Hopefully, Rooney’s amazing performance this season and the Red Devils enjoying the top spot will be enough to ease the tension in Old Trafford because of the debts the team is suffering from — to the tune of 700 million pounds at present.

Sir Alex Ferguson has said that the injury itself is unusual because a dead leg usually lasts for just three or four days. He further revealed that the blood clot that is one of the causes of the problem has become knotted and this has caused calcification. He said that treating this will take a long process and this is the reason he will be unfit to play for the rest of the season. Sir Alex further revealed that it’s a really big blow for O’Shea given that he would’ve been a sure starter this season because of the Manchester United defense has been reduced because of injuries. O’Shea is known for being very versatile at the back and he can even play midfield, which really makes it a bigger disappointment that he’ll be gone for the season.

With the Red Devils beset by all these injuries it’s a big accomplishment for the team that it has soared to the top of the Premiership League again. Will O’Shea’s injury stop this momentum or is the team just too hot right now that one less player would hardly matter at this point? Personally, I’m hoping for the latter.

O’Shea will also miss Ireland’s friendly with Brazil at the Emirates Stadium on March 2 and a scheduled end-of-season training camp.

Ferguson says the upcoming friendly date is one that club managers could do without.

He added: “I don’t even think the international managers think they’re all that important now. They never play their full team and there’s always drop outs.”

Neville will be celebrating his 35th birthday soon. Though he’s getting long in the tooth, he’s still not considered within retirement age. But time has not been kind to him. He has been suffering from numerous injuries over the last three seasons. Add to that his sub par performance during the absolutely devastating defeat against Leeds United, which has led to the third round exit of the Red Devils in the FA Cup and you’ll realize why the retirement rumors are so strong.

Everything will be determined this summer though. Both Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes have already extended their stay at Old Trafford for an additional year. We’ll find out what Neville’s decision is in a few months.

Personally, I think Neville still has a lot of years to offer Manchester United. Everything really depends on his injury situation. Hopefully, his injury problems will end this season and this will prompt him to renew his contract.

Vidic is one of the most consistent defenders in the team and his injury comes at a very bad time for the Red Devils. Vidic suffered his injury during the warm-up for the FA Cup third round match versus Leed United. The Red Devils will go on and lose 1-0 and handing Sir Alex Ferguson his first ever third round defeat in the FA Cup every since becoming United’s team manager.

Because of the injury, Vidic will definitely miss the match against Birmingham this weekend and the game against Burnley next weekend.

Vidic’s injury is just one of the many injuries the Red Devils’ defensive side has suffered this season. Vidic’s partner, Rio Ferdinand, has been sidelined for months because of his own injury problems.

We’ll see how Vidic’s problems get resolved especially since there are also rumors that he is unhappy at Old Trafford and would like to move to another team, preferably Real Madrid.

Van de Sar has not played since Manchester United’s win over Everton because of a knee injury. Because of the unfortunate medical emergency, he was allowed to go back immediately to Holland. He will just receive treatment for his knee from a Holland-based team doctor.

There is no news yet on the condition of Van der Sar’s wife. Annemarie van Kesteren is 36 years old. She is being examined to find out the cause of the problem.

Our well wishes for the speedy recovery of Annemarie.

But it looks like his health woes are still not behind him. Ferdinand recently had an injection in order to help ease his back problems that have been blamed as the cause for all of his health problems.

Ferdinand has been out of action since the last week of October and even though Sir Alex Ferguson has said that Ferdinand is not out on the long-term, he has missed 13 games already. At this point, there really is no good news yet and his schedule for a return remains uncertain.

Ferdinand has remained optimistic about his situation and has even promised that he will be available for the World Cup in South Africa next summer.

I admire Ferdinand for keeping an optimistic attitude despite his injury and health problems. It’s tough not being able to know whether you can really get back to your old fighting form but Ferdinand is keeping his chin held high and I believe that his positive attitude will help him recover more quickly from his injury.

At the launch of his new charitable Foundation last week, Ferdinand insisted his place at next summer’s World Cup in South Africa was not in jeopardy.

It was an important statement, not only in terms of a health bulletin but also the positive attitude it betrayed.

Sir Alex Ferguson is banking on Mame Biram Diouf to add more pop and crackle to Manchester United. The Senegalese born striker is already hard at work training at Carrington and already possesses a work permit.

A lot of weight is being given to Diouf, especially with talk that he can be the next Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. In fact, it was Solskjaer himself who recommended Diouf to Sir Alex. His glowing recommendation was one of the reasons Fergie signed him. Now a lot of talk has been given the fact that another potentially explosive forward with not much experience is being signed into the team (we all know that Federico Macheda and Danny Welbeck fit the bill and they’re still not getting the minutes) but I trust Sir Alex’s decision. He’s proven that he has the keen intuition to know what the Red Devils need.

Diouf will still need to impress Manchester United fans though. But it looks like he will have what it takes to really win them over. He’s got the talent and the abilities that could really help in the quest for another Premiership title.

Ronaldo was transferred to Real after an unprecedented £80million fee this summer. But even though he misses life at Old Trafford he still maintains that he made the right choice in going to Real Madrid.

Ronaldo has also dismissed comments that Manchester United has been struggling without him this season. He said that even though the team has lost the last two games they are still the second placers in the league.

I think that it’s very sportsmanly of Ronaldo to say such things about his old club. We’ve often seen players who transfer to a new team lambasting his former teammates and the manager just to justify why they had to transfer in the first place. Ronaldo has proven that you can transfer without having to show any kind of animosity to your former teammates. Yes, he may be seen as a little bit of a brat by most fans but he’s shown that he can also be a stand-up guy.