“Thursday nights, Channel 5!” was a chant designed by Manchester United fans when Liverpool failed to get a top four spot in 2010, but expect it to be heard more often the next few months. United’s loss to Basel was excruciating, humiliating, and painful. Memories of Benfica and the failings of the 2005/06 season were reminders for Ferguson going in to the game. “Back then we had a lot of injuries and young players trying to break into the squad, this time it is totally different” were the words from our manager before the Basel game. But was it different? Just like then we lost 2-1 in our final game, going out in the group qualification.

Why? How did this happen? Fergie blamed injuries and inexperience for our failings back then, but are they good enough excuses after what we saw on Wednesday?

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Three days since Sir Alex Ferguson’s midweek remorse, Phil Jones opened his account for Manchester United scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Villa Park, much to the delight of the boss himself.

Ater the shocking display against Palace on wednesday night and with City putting 5 past Norwich earlier in the day, United knew that a positive result was a must against the Villains.

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“How did Manchester United not win this game?” is the question on everyone’s lips after an amazing 1-1 draw at Old Trafford between the Red Devils and the Geordies from Tyneside. United created tons of chances, with everything from a great goalkeeper and posts, to miraculous goal-line clearances keeping them at bay. It must be frustrating for United to see their two best performances in a while end in draws, after strangling out poor 1-0 wins for many games running now.

As United-Newcastle games go it was a fairly entertaining game as both sides played well, and all players performed their duties admirably well. But what did the separate teams go out to do exactly?

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Danny Welbeck’s deflected header was enough for United to claim all three points against Sunderland but the day belonged to Sir Alex Ferguson.

Old Trafford welcomed Fergie in style today, with a new banner unfolded on the Stretford End listing all the trophies won in the 25 years and the crowd belting out a loud “Every single one of us loves Alex Ferguson”.

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Manchester United are top of group C in the Champions League, after goals from Antonio Valencia and Wayne Rooney secured a 2-0 win at Old Trafford.
It was a largely uninspiring performance by Fergie’s men and, with the greatest respect for Galati, against a slightly better organized United could have paid the price for their mistakes.

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When I was offered the chance to write about United’s best ever centre-backs, as part of a Best XI feature, I jumped with excitement at the opportunity, without realizing that I was facing two huge tasks. The first is that compiling a list (no matter the subject) is never easy and always likely to leave somebody disappointed or with enough ammunition to argue the choices that have been made. The second, and more practical, is that for a club such as United, whose tradition has largely been built on an attacking approach, with all the flair and panache of midfielders, wingers and strikers, it’s easy to forget how blessed the team has been over the years, with some great centre-backs gracing Old Trafford’s turf. This is a list of (arguably) United’s best 10 centre-backs: some might seem obvious choices, some might not, some might even seem totally unjustified and spark a debate, but isn’t this the point of writing a list?

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Never in my wildest nightmares, never ever did I expect this. And yet it happened. Last night I played a match between Manchester United and Manchester City with FIFA 12 on my XBOX 360 as a precursor to the real deal which would be happening just 12 hours later UK time. I like to play our upcoming opponents as a tradition just before the real match just to get a visual feeling for what to expect. The result in my game made me laugh because I thought the chances of that score line happening was a million to one. United won 5-1 and totally humiliated City from the kickoff. What do you expect from a freaking video game anyway, realism?

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United’s unbeaten record at home came to an end in incredible fashion as a second half collapse saw them conceding 5 goals.

For the last couple of seasons this fixture has been surrounded by an ever-growing hype and this year was no exception. City and United went into the game 1st and 2nd respectively both unbeaten with Mancini’s side grabbing the most unthinkable of victories (at least in terms of scoreline), which will, no doubt, strengthen their belief that they can challenge for the title. With the money City have spent they have to be challenging for titles but, today, United’s ineptitude played as big a role in the result as City’s expensively assembled team.

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Well it wasn’t a classic that’s for sure. These days it has become apparent to me that waking up at 4:30 Pacific Standard Time to watch my beloved Manchester United is the action of stupid man not interested in his health and sleeping pattern. Frankly, the past few years has taught me to expect a Ferguson game plan and squad selection that would leave me cold and disappointed.

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Three days have passed since the Euros got over. We haven’t signed anyone. Doom, gloom and hearts stopping left, right and centre. People are dying. Wayne Rooney is partying in Vegas with his newly married wife with the likes of Le Bron James in tow. Fergie’s giving interviews over a game of golf. Ronaldo is off to Sardinia with his bird. Queiroz is being linked to the Portugal job.

We are dead. That is all. End of the world. We’d be lucky to survive in the Premiership. So let’s talk about all that is left to talk about: the captaincy debate. [Doesn't it worry you that, that is the only topic left to be discussed with more than a month to go before the season begins?]

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