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After a lengthy mid table spell with little to play for, we suddenly find ourselves smack bang in the middle of the title race.

Unfortunately, whatever happens the Premier League trophy will not be heading to East London but we are in a prime position to derail Manchester United’s title hopes this Saturday lunchtime.

Everybody on the planet (well apart from perhaps the younger members of the Fritzl family), must be aware that Man U currently top the league table over second place Chelsea, the two sides being separated by goal difference, after Chelsea’s victory last Saturday lunchtime at Stamford Bridge. Therefore, if Man U can win both of their remaining two fixtures (against us and away at Wigan), then they will be champions regardless of how Chelsea do against Newcastle (away) and against Bolton at the Bridge (unless one of those victories involves a 20 goal winning margin).

Much of Manchester United’s title bid this season has been built on success in their home games. Where they have been beaten four times on the road, including at our place at Christmas and have drawn five away from Old Trafford, they have been victorious in sixteen of their eighteen home Premier League fixtures. The only sides that have managed to get anything at Old Trafford are Reading, who took a point back home on the bus, having parked that bus in front of the goal to earn a goal less draw, and local rivals, Manchester City who are the only away side to have won at Old Trafford.

The superior goal difference is testament to the way that they have played, with the emphasis on attacking play. Interestingly, for a side that focuses on all out attack, they manage to do so without an all out attacker, instead allowing the trio of Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Christiano Ronaldo relative freedom to change roles within the final third.

Credit also has to be given to their mean spirited defence, where the central defensive duo, in particular, have had praised heaped upon them. This has been fairly deserved of a side that has only conceded twenty one league goals so far and just six of them in home fixtures.

Recent performances have seen the side in something of a blip, draws away at both Middlesbrough and Blackburn and the defeat at Stamford Bridge has allowed Chelsea back into the picture. However, the Champions League ties and the need to rotate players has contributed to United taking their eye off the league fixtures, a strategy that paid off as they beat Barcelona in Tuesday night’s game to qualify for the final in Moscow.


Man Utd will line up with Holland international, Edwin Van Der Saar between the sticks in front of a central defensive duo of in form West Ham academy product, Rio Ferdinand and Wes Brown, unless Nemanja Vidic can recover from the concussion he suffered in last weekend’s clash with Chelsea.

It is the duo of Ferdinand and Vidic that have been much admired, even drawing gushing praise from the Italian sports paper, Gazetta Dello Sport (a rag that knows a thing or two about good defending) after their performance in Rome. The club will be hoping that Patrice Evra is fit to appear on the left and it will be a choice of Brown or utility player, Owen Hargreaves at right back.

Ferguson has been tampering with the team in recent games and has tended to go for a lone striker, particularly when he is up against sides that Ferguson respects. There is discussion amongst the supporters as to whether this has been the right strategy, the argument is that when you have one of the best attacking sides in the world, surely you should be playing to your strengths rather than attempt to mitigate risk. However, providing Rooney is fit at the weekend, they are likely to revert to a 4-4-2 against us.

Assuming that Sir Alex is going to put out his best side, we are going to be up against the free scoring Portugese international, Christiano Ronaldo. Despite failing to deliver the goal that he promised against Barcelona, he can console himself with the 28 league goals that he has managed this season. He arguably has the fastest feet in world football, a seemingly endless array of stepovers and fancy tricks as well as being a dead ball expert and is a decent headerer of the ball to boot. His only weakness, of late has been penalties, missing one at the Nou Camp as well as one at the Boleyn so it appears that he has some sort of problem with spots.

Man U are spoilt for choice as far as midfield is concerned. The recently favoured duo to line up in the middle is Paul Scholes and another ex-Hammer, Michael Carrick with Ryan Giggs on the left hand side. The line up is fairly flexible and you could look at it as a 4-3-3 with Ronaldo as the third striker, but whatever set of numbers it goes by, the emphasis is on attack.

Considerable strength in depth comes from Korean international Ji-Sung Park, renamed “three lungs” by the Manchester United faithful due to his unfaltering level of effort and commitment, Scottish International, Darren Fletcher, Portuguese international, Nani and Brazilian, Luis Anderson. Ferguson may be tempted to bring one or two of these in after his side’s midweek exertions with perhaps Anderson the favourite to get a run out.

Up front, Argentinean striker, Carlos Tevez, needs no introduction after his role in keeping us up last season and for his textbook performance on how to return respectfully to your former club, back in December. Tevez has made a decent start to his Man U career with a total of 12 goals and continues to impress with his ability and workrate. He has spent some time on the bench in recent weeks as the side has switched to a lone striker but is expected to start against an appreciative away support on Saturday. Louis Saha is currently ruled out of contention with a hamstring problem.



Man Utd will be hoping that Wayne Rooney has regained fitness by the weekend. He had missed out on the Champions League semi with a hip injury (ie a sore in the bone around his waist, not something funky like a metatarsal or whatever’s en vogue this season). If he is back, the experience of marking the England striker should serve as good experience for young master Tomkins.

Will we screw Man Yoo?

Now, if this was a Serie A game, then traditionally, our side would offer no resistance, instead happily allowing Man U to win the game in lieu of a future favour (or possibly because of owing them a favour for last season’s fixture).

However, because this is England and because our virtues of fairplay are deeply ingrained into the psyche, you know that we are going to turn up at Old Trafford and overcompensate for any possible thoughts that we helped Man Utd by raising our game, probably to an “obscene” level of effort.

For once in my life, I would probably take a West Ham defeat as I would be much happier seeing the likes of Tevez, Rio and Carrick picking up the Premier League trophy than any of Lampard, Terry or Drogba. However, that is said in the cold light of day before kick off, I am sure that as soon as we get underway, the desire to win and to enjoy the pain of the opposition support will kick in, especially on the last beano of the season.

The game could easily go the Reds' way in a very straightforward manner as despite the improvements last week, we are still very much a mid-table side with enough weaknesses not to trouble any of the top four sides (see Chelsea at home and Liverpool away for examples).

I think our cause would be greatly helped if Evra doesn’t return, especially if Faubert keeps improving at the rate he has done over the last two games and I think the big game atmosphere, the fact that the match is televised and that we are the pressure off underdogs in this game will all help us to put on a good show.

In respect of the score, it is less predictable than most games but I'm going to stick my neck out for a second successive double over Man Utd as we beat them 1-0 with a late winner.

Enjoy the game.

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