So after a disappointing draw against Aston Villa, nearly a week has passed without seeing Manchester United in action, but a tough test is upon us. AC Milan are next up for Sir Alex Ferguson and his Red Army in the Champions League Second Round 1st Leg. With United at the San Siro first, it is sure to be a difficult tie.
Minds will surely be cast back to the last time the two sides met in 2007, United took a 3-2 lead back to Old Trafford and were very confident of finishing off the job in Manchester, only for Kaka, Gattuso, Pirlo et al to completely dismantle an inform United, utterly deflating them and producing a display akin to the great Milan side of the early 1990’s.
Other than 2007 the Rossoneri have dumped United out of Europe’s elite competition on three other occasions, – 1958, 1969 and 2005. So no matter what you have heard about Milan being a waning power and a team in decline, they will be dangerous, especially at home, there is no doubting that.
Never mind David Beckham – Manchester United have a score to settle with AC Milan. The Reds have played the Rossoneri four times in Europe’s premier competition and the Italians have prevailed on each occasion. So will it be fifth time lucky for the Reds? And should you back them to qualify at odds of 1.56 (4/7)?
The audio, where a United fan questioned David Gill for his contrarian remarks, has been heard, I’m sure, by all and sundry. Well done by that fan to go that far in the first place, however, I do have a gripe with said fan for not being, um, a little more prepared.
A five-star showing and brilliant performances from the likes of Michael Carrick, Nani and of course Wayne Rooney. Sir Alex Ferguson must be rubbing his hands with glee as his team face Aston Villa at Villa Park tonight, the side are in full flow and finally look like a team of Champions.
Aston Villa have the best defence in the Premier League and will look to extinguish the majestic Wayne Rooney who is in superlative form. In a dress rehearsal for the Carling Cup in two weeks Manchester United will look to flex their muscles and exact revenge after Villa won 2-0 at Old Trafford in December.
United will start the game with Edwin van der Sar, backed up by Tomasz Kuszczak as is the norm. In front of the Dutchman will likely be Rafael, Wes Brown, Jonny Evans and Patrice Evra. Rio Ferdinand is still suspended and Nemanja Vidic, though in the squad, is not fully recovered from his leg problem so may have to settle for a place on the bench.
Right. It looks like our match previewer is AWOL so let’s keep it short here. Consider this an open discussion thread — predictions, pre-match whines, moans, cheers; everything.
We lost our last match against Villa, but this United side is streets ahead of the huffing, puffing, lump of blob that was getting by on crutches.
The first 3D football match and John Terry axed as England captain, football…bloody hell! Aside from drooling over the magnificent victory at the Emirates Manchester United must now refocus their thoughts as attention turns to the visit of the Premier League’s bottom side Portsmouth.
Avram Grant is probably on his way to another brothel to take his mind off the thought of the impending visit to Old Trafford. As United showed their superiority against Arsenal, a signal that the traditional New Year title push is underway, Portsmouth have on the other hand picked up one point in their last five games, are without a win since late October and have not beaten United in the League since 1957.
Manchester United are the classic ‘good things’ for favourite backers with struggling Portsmouth the opposition at Old Trafford this Saturday afternoon.
Odds of just 1.14 (1-7) are for the big bettors or multiple backers only, but it’s hard to argue that United are almost as close to a certainty as you’ll find in the Premier League.
And if you’re just getting started on betting, backing United to win in this game is the easiest ‘win’ you’ll get all year.
On the day we went to the Emirates to spank Arsenal the reserves set out to Norway to play a Norwegian first division side, Stabaek. The side was packed with summer signings like Diouf and Obertan as well as loan returnee, Rodrigo Possebon.
United reserves ran out comfortable winners — 3-0 the final score — with Mame Biram Diouf netting two of them.
Here are brief highlights of the match as well as goals (towards the end of the video)
This was our lineup: United reserve side for game vs Stabaek: Amos, Gray, Brown, Dudgeon, Gill, Obertan, Evans, Norwood, James, Brandy, Diouf. [via @bauck on twitter]
United continued their dream run of the past few weeks; the ten days has been compared to the famous period in 1999 in this Richard Williams piece, but let’s not elevate this to those levels just yet. However, yesterday’s performance — if not the string of them over the past ten days — could perhaps be termed the watershed moment of our season, if this leads us to something of significance, come May.
