This should quite easily be among the most breathtaking United matches in recent times. The drama, the talk going into the match, the punches being thrown pre-match between managers, fans and players alike, everything contributed into elevating the stakes to stratospheric proportions.

It was a derby after all, with three points to bag, but with so much talk, United and United fans would have absolutely hated losing this game much more than past derbies.

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This has to be the most eagerly anticipated derby in years, nay decades. Well certainly in my lifetime anyway.

City’s start to the season, culminating in the 4-2 defeat of Arsenal last weekend, will have surely seen United supporters with even the deepest of hatred towards our city neighbours at least acknowledge that they have, thus far, looked impressive.

Many quarters are even rather prematurely suggesting that Mark Hughes’ side are ready to mount an assault on the top four and even a serious title challenge. Well with all due respect, it’s one thing struggling past the likes of Blackburn, Wolves and Portsmouth but it’s quite another coming to Old Trafford and getting a positive result.

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while, in other news, the pigs from Orwell’s Animal farm flew around the earth.

Carlos Tevez seems rather confident that he will get a good reception at Old Trafford (assuming he shakes off his injury and makes it). “I expect to have a good reception. While at United, I always gave my best and I had good relations with the fans,” he said. “They know I did everything while at Old Trafford to try to score the goals that would help the team win matches, so I don’t know why I should have a bad reception. What will I do if I score a goal? Well, I will be glad, but I don’t think too much about that right now.”

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With Champions League action safely out of the way, United fans can now look forward to the big game on Sunday. Yes, it’s the Manchester derby and after last Saturday, when United overcame an early goal and a sending off to thrash Tottenham 3-1 at White Hart Lane and City humbled Arsenal with a 4-2 beating at Eastlands, this Sunday promises to be a cracking game.

And if you haven’t secured tickets for the game yet, this is your lucky day.

Red Rants have teamed up with Betfair, new official betting partners for Manchester United, to give away two pairs of tickets, for FREE, to the Sunday game.

To enter the competition all you have to do is to click HERE to open a Betfair account and fund it with £25. You will then automatically be entered into the draw to win one of two pairs of tickets to the Manchester derby, where you could be enjoying the beating United hand out to their City rivals from the East Stand.

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It took a Paul Scholes header to get us past Besiktas the other day, in what was otherwise, a mind-numbingly stodgy match. Passes went astray, Rooney left isolated — frustrated, even — wingers failing to provide a cutting edge consistently; all in all, a classic away European performance from the runners-up.

United’s performances, despite their superior results in comparison to the last two seasons, have been schizophrenic, for want of a better word. But a relative constant, in all of Ferguson’s methodical(?) madness of rotation, has been Paul Scholes.

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Memories of that dismal night in Rome some four months ago undoubtedly still linger among United fans, players, coaching staff…well anyone even remotely connected with the club. Surely the perfect tonic to banish those memories would be to repeat that feat and have another bash at a third consecutive Champions League final. Madrid awaits if we dare to dream and it all starts here.

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Pardon the overly extreme headline — and this will be a short one, I promise — but it’s things like these that rub bloggers or independent reporters the wrong way. You would expect the mainstream media to follow basic journalistic etiquette; if it’s a quote you attribute the source, or give credit where it’s due.

About four days ago we had published an exclusive Vidic interview on this site. Today you will have seen the same quotes plastered over The Sun and Skysports.com — I don’t want to link back to those articles but you can easily find them. [Thanks to Stephen Darwin for bringing it to my attention]. As far as I know right now, these are the two mainstream outlets that have published them. None of them credited us. I don’t want to go on a longer rant about doing the right thing, or cry out to them about wanting attention from the mainstream press, but I feel it right to call these people out on this act because I have seen plenty of bloggers face the kind of injustice the press seem to get away with.

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Rant over. I will post something United related later in the day. Till then comment away.