With another round of international fixtures over, the focus again returns to the Premier League and Manchester United host West Brom at Old Trafford in game that will be far from an easy victory.

United’s form of late has been very patchy with successive away draws but at home a 100% record is in tact. But West Brom are a side in good form with manager Roberto Di Matteo winning manager of the month for October after a string of impressive results.

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We’ll be back to your regularly scheduled Manchester United news ‘n views in a bit, but I wanted to introduce myself properly before I got too far, and I also wanted to learn a little more about the great community we have here on RR.

Whichever part of the world we live in, however long we’ve been following the club, and whatever our individual views are on players, tactics, results, on down to the kits, we’re all here for the same reason: because we’re passionate about Manchester United.

It all had to start somewhere, and here’s how it happened for me. Continue reading

After the fantastic win over Valencia midweek, attention returns to the Premier League as a trip to Sunderland looms. But it could prove a more difficult task given Manchester United have not won away from Old Trafford in the league this season.

But that is something a fact that could be remedied by United having won six of their last seven league games at the Stadium of Light coupled with the Black Cats having only ever kept one clean sheet against United in the Premier League.

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Classifying it as a must-win match would be going a bit far, but tonight’s Champions League match at Valencia is definitely a must-not-lose for Manchester United.

After a goalless home draw against Rangers two weeks ago, United go to the Mestalla needing a positive result to avoid having a serious uphill climb to win Group C. Continue reading

It doesn’t have any bearing on tomorrow’s match at Bolton, but there’s very encouraging injury news on multiple fronts.

We’ve seen what amounts to a glimpse of Owen Hargreaves over the last couple of years, and there have been serious concerns that he wouldn’t be able to overcome his persistent knee troubles. But the club has stuck with him, and the England midfielder could soon repay that faith, as he made an impressive return to training this week.

Sir Alex is encouraged by what he’s seen thus far, and we should be too. He told MUTV, “He looked very good. I was surprised how good. … After being out so long, we’ll obviously have to monitor him and see how he’s going to progress in the next few weeks. But it’s good to see him back.”

“If he continues this way, he’s going to give me another selection problem, no doubt about that.”

We’ve had some false starts with Hargreaves, so any excitement must be with caution, but hopefully the worst is fully behind him. He’ll no doubt be eased back into match actiom, and it remains to be seen what kind of impact he can have. But if he can contribute in even a part-time role, it’ll be significant given the mountain he’s had to climb.

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Sir Alex Ferguson opted for Spain over Scunthorpe last night, as he left the squad in the hands of assistant manager Mike Phelan for the Carling Cup tie at Scunthorpe United while he did some in-person scouting of next week’s Champions League opponents, Valencia.

However, the gossip mongers at the Daily Mirror are speculating that there was an ulterior motive for the manager’s trip to the Mestalla.

While Tomasz Kuszczak was busy denying Scunthorpe United’s attempts on goal time and time again in United’s 5-2 triumph, the Mirror says that Sir Alex was busy assessing Atletico Madrid keeper David De Gea as he did the same to Valencia and is now ready to make his move for the highly-rated youngster. The 19-year-old kept Valencia at bay with multiple fine saves, which had the Europa League holders in line for a big away win until Aritz Aduriz beat him seven minutes from time to earn Valencia a 1-1 draw.

De Gea has been mentioned as a United target on multiple occasions before, and understandably so. He’s an extremely talented young keeper, as he showed with some nice stops last night, and he’s set for a very bright future, wherever it takes him.

That being said, there’s nothing to read into this, just the papers trying to make a story out of a fortuitous coincidence.

De Gea picked a fine time to do well, but Fergie being witness to his performance can just be considered an added bonus on top of getting an up-close look at an upcoming opponent. I might well be speculating myself, but I highly doubt we’d have seen this come up today had De Gea allowed three goals and had a horrific howler. Just a guess.

Fancy playing a 5-a-side game at Wembley?

That’s the chance on offer at the FA Umbro Fives – the national 5-a-side competition organised in September (and October) by the FA. The final will be played at Wembley, with participating teams going through the same experience as teams playing a real cup final (or a semi-final, or a Community Shield, or a rock concert … you get the drift) and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to score / win a title at Wembley.

Hey, it might just be 5-a-side, but it’s a lot more than amateur footballers get a shot at. And when it comes to scoring / winning, that applies for professional footballers too!

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After conceding two late goals at Goodison Park on Saturday, Manchester United have to pick themselves up for a ‘Battle of Britain’ Champions League tie against Glasgow Rangers who visit Old Trafford later this evening in the opening match of Group C.

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After the international break normal domestic service is to resume and following the recent revelations about his private life, there is only one place for Wayne Rooney to answer his critcs and opposition fans, at Goodison Park where Manchester United take on Everton in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off.

The game itself will be dominated by the Rooney subplot, but whether or not you care is entirely down to yourself, ultimately it is Rooney’s performances in a United shirt that matter and given his showing with England, it shouldn’t affect him one bit.

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Letting a lead slip twice, missing a penalty and conceding an 89th minute equaliser all resulted in Manchester United throwing away ‘silly points’ against Fulham, but Sir Alex Ferguson will be in no mood for niceties as West Ham visit Old Trafford on Saturday in a match at would seem the perfect antidote to a disappointing visit to London last weekend.

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