In the terraces, for sure, will sit Gary Neville, who is suspended. Our defensive injury crisis worsened as John O’Shea picked up an ankle injury against France and remains doubtful for today’s game. Jonny Evans is touch and go with a calf strain and along with long-term absentee Rio Ferdinand, our defence will be stretched to its limits.

The good news is Nemanja Vidic — who has been out of action for three weeks with a calf problem — should return to marshal the defence after playing 70 minutes for Serbia against South Korea on Wednesday. Lining up beside him will no doubt be a jubilant Patrice Evra; Wes Brown, fresh from a woeful display against Brazil, and likely Rafael at right-back.

One thing you can probably guarantee is Nani won’t be getting on the pitch this weekend, despite his heroics for Portugal over the last week. His recent attack on Sir Alex will have not gone unnoticed by the manager. Paul Scholes, a lover of the much-maligned international break looks a certain starter; well rested and having missed out against Chelsea, he will surely be raring to go. For the other midfield slot, it is probably between Fletcher and Carrick, although since Carrick is carrying a slight thigh strain expect the Scot to start beside Scholesy.

Ryan Giggs, stuck on 99 Premier League goals, is expected to feature at some point as well in a bid to grab that all-important 100th goal. Gabriel Obertan will be pushing for a start, given his recent performances for both the first team and reserves, while Valencia will provide the attacking thrust down the right. Let’s hope he can deliver a few telling balls and carry on his recent run of good form.

Stand-in England captain, Wayne Rooney will no doubt lead the line against his former team. Dimitar Berbatov will look to carry forward his form with Bulgaria, as he bagged brace in the 4-1 thrashing of Malta to become Bulgaria’s all-time leading scorer with 48 goals in 74 appearances. He replaces Hristo Bonev, who held the record for 30 years.

The Toffees bring a number of ex-United stars back to Old Trafford. Louis Saha will be out to prove a point, if he manages to stay fit between now and kick-off. Tim Howard and, of course, the other Neville brother will be back, though the latter is out through injury.

Fergie clearly has a great amount of respect for Everton boss David Moyes, commenting on the injury crisis at Goodison and comparing it to our own. “Everton have had a tremendous run of injuries and David Moyes is facing much the same situation as myself at the moment. You can understand how difficult it is to win games when you don’t have your best team out. Once they get their full squad back they will soon come up the table again.”

Russian winger Diniyar Bilyaletdinov will definitely be out for Everton as he serves the second of his three-match suspension while Tim Cahill is doubtful with a groin injury. Among other absentees for the Merseysiders are Mikel Arteta, Phil Jagielka, Leon Osman and Victor Anichebe. Despite this Everton find themselves in exactly the same situation as last season, 12th on 15 points after 11 matches.

They are also bring a potential United star of the future, Jack Rodwell, recently linked with us for a staggering £20m fee, who will have the chance to show his potential employers what he is capable of. With a cool head and likened to Rio Ferdinand in style, it is easy to see why SAF is interested given the injury problems Rio has.

This season has been a tale of inconsistency for Everton but a run of 7 games without a win was ended with the 3-2 victory over West Ham two weeks ago. An injury ravaged Everton should provide a relatively simple test for us, especially after the injustice at Stamford Bridge. However, recent home results against Birmingham, Manchester City, Sunderland and Bolton do not exactly inspire confidence.

We can’t afford to drop any more points despite proclamations that the five point lead Chelsea hold isn’t ‘insurmountable’. Unbeaten at Old Trafford since 1992 against Everton, United have only lost once in the last 28 meetings between the sides.

Prediction: 3-1 United

Probable Line Up: Van der Sar; Evra, Vidic, Brown, Rafael; Obertan, Scholes, Fletcher, Valencia; Rooney, Berbatov

“I think that Raymond Domenech is the worst coach in French football since Louis XVI. If it was up to me, I’d put (Bordeaux coach) Laurent Blanc in charge of the France team,” the former Manchester United hero continued.

“He continues the season with Bordeaux, he wins the league with Bordeaux and he wins the World Cup! I’m not the only one who thinks that… What shocked me most wasn’t the handball, honestly,” said Cantona.

“What shocked me most was that at the end of the match, in front of the television cameras, this player (Henry) went and sat down next to an Irish player to console him, even though he’d screwed them three minutes earlier.

“If I’d been Irish, he wouldn’t have lasted three seconds.”

So bear with me this once.

I had the pleasure of being at work, unable to partake in the drama that was the Ireland-France world cup playoff match. My sympathies are with the Irish, who are out thanks to, what could be mildly put, an unfortunate incident.

I did however pore through twitter, where I’m quite active. [Stop snickering at the back there! What?! You're not on twitter? Well, you should. And when you do, you should do the right thing and follow me; byte-sized pearls of wisdom, and immortal quips, I can guarantee.] And amidst the streams of frustration, sadness and anger was another wave — a tidal wave of moral indignation. “Henry is a cheat!” “Thierry Henry has tainted everything because of that.” “Henry u r a fkin twat! @#$#)*,” said another quite eloquently.

But such hysteria is acceptable to a degree. It’s a part of the game; passions are heightened because of the occasion. There’s a lot of pain for most Irish, and fans of the Ireland team, and it’s quite natural for anyone to fall into that depressing chasm.

I also observed a fair number of journalists on twitter — English journalists mainly. You saw a similar thread of thought not too different from fans. Of course, they are, after all, like us — passionate football people; love some or loathe some. But the least you’d expect is for them to collect their emotions, lock it in a basket in some mental recess — keeping just an ounce of it — while gathering that thing called perspective and write a piece that doesn’t centre on the demonization of a footballer. Everyone, from Henry Winter in the Telegraph to some on the Mirror have gone for it.

The vocal majority conclusion, or so it seems, has been this: Thierry Henry, while auditioning for the French national volleyball team, has tainted everything that he achieved as a “footballing legend” forever consigning him to the ranks of footballing villains.

Of course, if I would briefly put on my red-tinted glasses, we as United fans would know fully well that Henry is far from one of our favourite players. I wasn’t particularly fond of him, for all his brilliance for Arsenal. And I think it’s not just because he was an Arsenal player. What shocked me about the widespread media reaction to his act of cheating wasn’t their general hysteria over it, but their conclusion that this incident particularly destroyed his reputation. What, then, of his blatant dive to earn a free kick against Spain in the last world cup? Was it because it was against the Iberians that it wasn’t tainted enough? Does it have to be against one of the teams on which the glare of the English speaking media are firmly trained to earn a despicable taint? This, of course, doesn’t include the wide litany of reasons United fans would give to explain why Henry was a twat, but let’s leave that aside for now.

It’s not right that Thierry Henry cheated. It’s terrible, in fact. Everything about those series of events feels awful even in highlight reels. The result is terribly unfair, and will doubtless spark off another series of debates on the need for technology [as the cynic in me would say only as far as the club season resumes in the weekend.] But, this self-righteous indignation — of demonizing anyone because they weren’t confirming to their moral framework, dismissing, in a fit of rage for sure, everything a player may have or have not done because of an incident is something they need to get out of. It’s deflecting blame from real issues. Ronaldo was vilified for a wink [while Rooney was overlooked for actually stamping on Carvalho's crotch], Eduardo was treated like a terrorist for a dive but when his leg was broken in two by a horrific (potentially career ending) tackle by Martin Taylor — the tackler received more sympathy on the lines of “oh, he’s not that bad as a person.”

Diving is as bad as thuggery on the pitch. I would actually argue that where diving cons the referee, thuggish, cynical tackling could potentially end careers. Nonetheless, the moral compass will continue to scream whenever a player cheats, and invoke sympathy for thugs. There are the usual thoughts on Platini and Blatter, for instance, to have rules in place to stamp out both ugly sides of the game. But, as much as we would like to introduce video replays it’s hard to strike a balance, disrupting the pace of the game, in our bid to try to get every decision right. But, as much as Platini’s faced stick, his proposal of having referees near the goal would have spotted this particular incident. But that’s besides the point.

My point? Well, there wasn’t one particular point in this rambling piece. I think I tried to cover a few issues that have irked me several times in the past.

Meanwhile, discussions between Arsenal fans stoutly defending Henry as an Arsenal great to United fans will have moved the discussion towards who was the more honourable diver. “Hey, at least Henry admitted it was a handball,” said one. Indeed. Quite moving.

PS: For those of you scratching your heads going WTF, at this post, fret not. Regular service will resume — United related service, I mean. It’s a momentary lapse… of topic.

The gist of the story was:

1. players can be interviewed immediately after a match [ie, players of winning teams only. If it ended in a draw players of both teams can be interviewed right on the pitch once the whistle blows]

2. managers are required to talk to ‘rights holders’ — which means Sky (to whom Fergie already talks to) and the BBC MotD (to whom he doesn’t and sends Phelan instead)

3. it is also mandatory for the manager or a senior member of the coaching staff to give a press conference.

Now I have no access to the actual literature of the rules that have been reportedly passed by the Premier League. So I cannot comment on whether this actually forces the manager into talking to the rights holders — or if he could send his deputy. [Note: I am talking about the post-match interviews to reporters and not the press conference in #3.]

But, since there seems to be a big deal made of this, let’s say we trust the Telegraph story and assume that the new rules will indeed force Ferguson’s hand. Now, this means it will usher in a new age of more transparency between press and the Premier League sides.

Now that’s all well and good. The problem however is it opens up players and managers to more vulnerability in saying things in the heat of the moment, and perhaps higher chances of saying stuff they would normally not say.

This is in light of everything that’s transpiring between the referees’ union and Ferguson — all because he expressed an opinion, albeit a rather harsh one, on referee fitness levels. So with increased media access, are the Premier League also taking steps to define rules on what kind of things a manager or player can or cannot say.

Let’s dispense with the obvious: one cannot eff, or cee, or go bollocks! at the reporter — “it’s a family show,” they would say. But how about defining, to everyone involved, what constitutes ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ behaviour. [As an aside, if they are working on it, good luck to them.]

A simple case in point, why this is very tricky: Geoff Shreeves, I believe, asked Ferguson following the Chelsea defeat, “I don’t want to try and put words in your mouth, but did the referee cost you the match?”

I don’t know, Geoff, but to me you just shoved those words deep into his oesophagus. And I think, Fergie, with all the stuff going on around him, did a decent job chewing those words down, instead deciding to go for some sensible — albeit banal — phrasing.

There is increased press access — some would say, on the lines of how it’s done in North American sport — but if that means there are less shackles on the pressers to put as many crafty words as they can into managers’ and players’ mouths, will there be a relaxation (or a more defined structure to the rules) on the players’ / managers’ side to make this actually work?

If not, we’ll either see more outbursts — and hence, more recrimination from offended parties — or we’ll see players and managers trot out tired cliches, making this whole exercise rather pointless and adding little value.

Further reading — although a bit tangential to this — on United Rant regarding the refs’ union’s threat to sue Ferguson.

Here’s Schalke defender Marcelo Bordon, in an interview to German newspaper, Bild on goal keeper, Manuel Neuer:

“I know it would be terrible for the supporters of the club, but you have to keep the situation of the club in mind. Maybe therefore it would be better to let Manu leave, just because you would receive a whole lot of money for such a transfer.”

Now, I wonder why the defender of a club is any person of authority to talk about finances, and chances of a teammate leaving — but it could, at the least, point to a feeling of inevitability of this move. The question is when (considering it’s world cup year), and — more importantly — where?

Three ‘keepers — Neuer, Adler and Akinfeev — continue to be linked to us, and this soap opera, while in its infancy, is bound to gather steam as the window reopens. So watch this space…

*

Following an unprecedented touchline ban by the FA on a manager (for comments made to the media) the referees’ union are apparently not satisfied, and they reckon Fergie was let off softly. Suggestions of possibly suing Ferguson have come up. Here’s Alan Leighton, national secretary for referees’ union:

“We need to take a few steps back and see what has happened here and I would like to see more about the judgement. We never wanted to get lawyers involved in but if referees don’t feel they are being protected by the regulatory bodies and someone says something defamatory sooner or later someone is going to take action over it.”

So there you have it. There’s mountain out of a perceived molehill. And then there are lawyers who’ll make this sound even more ridiculous. Just as Ferguson criticised Wiley to divert attention from the poor performance of his own players, so are the refs’ union trying their best to deflect the focus from a series of appalling refereeing performances.

Managers deflecting attention from poor performances will help or hurt his team, based on the personnel and his reputation. Deflecting attention from the refereeing incompetence, on the other hand, hurts the entire league.

I’m quite sure which one worries me more.

Further reading: Henry Winter asks for some perspective.

2. RoM also interviews United fan, and journalist Mick Hume

3. A spanking new episode of the Soccerlens is up. (this means it doesn’t qualify as a read, but a listen, but you get the drift.)

4. Finally, and there’s no escaping the top story of the day, Rob Smyth’s piece in the Guardian on refs, the FA and Ferguson.

Also, he has to give up his car, and his house for a year. Go to an island, and survive for a month along with other famous British celebrities. He is banned from drinking wine for the rest of his life. And will have to listen to Alan Shearer’s rendition of Baa Baa Black Sheep for five hours. Daily.

Ok, I made the second paragraph up. But the first one is real. Here, have a look. Offered without further comment.

First, Nani:

“People expect more from me and it’s not easy. ‘I’. “I could be doing better, scoring more, but just think, I make a huge game today but the next one, I’m not even sure that I will play. Such a situation breaks the confidence. I know it is still early and that there are lots of games to play this season but I never got to play the big matches like Liverpool, Manchester City or Tottenham and, if I don’t play those matches, I get sadder by the day. I also played through a foot injury so we’ll see if things improve from now on.”

Now, it goes without saying there’s a tinge — to put it mildly — of frustration, mixed with a hint of resignation in the tone. Ferguson has obviously shown much more faith in Valencia this season — playing him in as many games as he could (especially in the big ones) — when conventions indicate the senior player would at least be given a chance to prove himself. Giggsy’s early season form, coupled with Nani’s schizophrenic displays haven’t done him any favours. I could hazard a guess and say he was more of Queiroz’s boy, and it appears — to me, at least — that Ferguson never really warmed up to him. And whilst his handling of the winger last season was a bit dodgy, Nani hasn’t done enough to suggest he demands a regular starting place.

I still think he deserves a fair run this season. Oh, and the money quote that’s made good headlines today, ie, his comments on the manager:

[Sir Alex] goes: ‘Nani, how could you miss this or this?’ No one is safe in the pitch. He treats all the players as equals. Even Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville get it but it takes longer with them because they are more experienced.

“And it is always with ‘Fuck this’ and ‘Fuck that’ back and forth. He is a very complicated guy, very complicated and he is tough. If things are OK, he will be OK. But if there is anything he believed to be wrong, you are screwed. He can go from complimenting you to just plain trashing you in a matter of minutes.”

He also added that he’s “not considering leaving United.” Fair play to him for handling that part right.

The obvious fuss without doubt would be kicked up on the italicised quote above, about calling Ferguson a complicated guy. Headlines already scream: “Nani outburst risks Ferguson’s wrath.” Really?!

All Nani did was call Ferguson a complicated guy, and essentially told us stuff about the manager we already know. It’s like saying the sun is a complicated ball of fire. Some months of the year it roasts the city you live in, while in other months it deserts you leaving the place cold and bitter. Some parts of the world have to bear the brunt of the sun throughout the year while some never have to deal with it. It’s like that.

Well, sort of.

Anyway, Nani should be given a fair chance this season. And if he doesn’t make it this season he would certainly be the next to be jettisoned off to another club. If only brain transplant was an easy medical procedure.

The other interview that has everyone up in arms over is the ‘RONALDO SPECIAL’ (note the caps) in the Daily Mail. [It was originally published on a Russian newspaper Sport Express] Anyway, I’ll skip all the boring parts of the interview which you can all read at leisure and come to the supposed “juicy bit”, when asked about a possible return to Man City:

‘I don’t see them being above United. Perhaps one day, but not yet. At United there are great traditions, which you can’t buy in one or two years. They are created by victories. You need to prove again and again that you are better than the others. Manchester United have always done this and are still doing it, so they are the best.’

‘I don’t know (about City’s interest). I’ve not heard about it. Now I’m at Madrid. Nobody knows what the future will bring. Real are the club of my dreams and I’m glad to be here.’

Ronaldo did what Ronaldo does best, say he has no control of his future and be vague. He also did say a few weeks ago that he wants to spend the rest of his life in Madrid. It’s laughable for anyone to think he will leave sunny Madrid for rainy Manchester especially if said club was City.

Certainly not now. Certainly not in a couple of years. In five? Well, who knows…

As one famous footballing superstar would say: “Only God knows where my future lies.”

“It will be an amazing feeling to run out at Old Trafford again. I’ll be so excited I’ll probably pass out. I just want to be part of it again, to be available and healthy. I can’t wait to be involved. I want to be able to pull on the shirt and have an effect on games. I just want to compete in matches, work with the coaches to improve my game and become a better player. I want a good season to repay the faith shown in me by the United fans.”

Love the player, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed till I see him get a run of matches.

That is a dive. Many players dive in the premier league, as well as around the world. Many players win penalties by diving.

This happened at Anfield. Home of Liverpool. Liverpool were down 1-2 to Birmingham. The resulting penalty was converted and they tied the match 2-2.

Yet, Liverpool fans — and indeed, fans of our rivals — will complain about us getting favoured by the refs at Old Trafford.

We also know what happened yesterday at the Bridge, didn’t we?

So what’s the moral of the story: it’s quite possible that all “big four” clubs get favourable decisions from the refs when they play at home.

So next time, think of this — and indeed, yesterday — when someone cries bloody murder at Old Trafford.

That is all.