When Aston Villa come to Old Trafford you start to think ‘thats 3 points in the bag’ specially considering their record in the premier league against Manchester United.
And when Chelsea dropped 2 points against Everton before the start of the United game, it was a great opportunity to go top of the table with a 1 point advantage. But it was all a missed opportunity on Saturday. Read further…
You never listen, do you?
I disagree with anyone who says that Nani is inconsistent. I think he is very consistent. When his team needs him to pass, he shoots and when his team needs him to shoot, he passes. He continues to disappoint in every game he plays. What more level of consistency can one expect from him? His display against Stoke City proves it. When Berbatov and Rooney were unmarked on the edge of the box, he decided to shoot for goal himself and missed in the process. I think it was wrong of Rooney to expect a pass from him in this situation and he was wasting his time showing his anger at him.
All Manchester United fans are hoping that Nani can replace Ronaldo to some extent but Nani is doing is best to prove them wrong. I am just wondering how long will it take for Sir Alex Ferguson to get rid of him.
Giggs on the other hand showed what a simple game football is. He made a simple pass that created a goal for Berbatov (who rightfully acknowledged Giggs’ effort) and then produced a beautiful delivery from the free kick for John O’Shea to score.
Valencia on the other hand looks little above average if not great. He knows he has to run behind defenders and created passes and cross for the strikers and that is what he does. His delivery though will improve as he gets more playing time.
Fletcher and Scholes looked their usual self with their tackles. Fletcher good with them while Scholes bad with them. No one in the world can understand how come a player of Scholes talent never got his tackling right. But anyways good to see him avoid the red card. The handball was accidental and was not yellow card worthy.
It was a frustrating game till Giggs’ introduction and I was left with a question in my mind – If Nani is playing like he is, who’ll play when Giggs’ is injured or needs rest? Till I get an answer to this one, lets hope Nani does some wonders.
Everywhere else it was goals galore:
12 November 1881 – West Gordon (St. Marks) hosted Newton Heath. Result was Newton Heath winning by 3 goals to nothing. It was described as “a pleasant game”. West Gordon (St. Marks) went on to become Manchester City and Newton Heath went on to become Manchester United and the games between these two were no longer pleasant.
so much for pleasantness
In the 152nd derby meeting between these two, Manchester United (un)welcome Manchester City with there multi million $ signings to Old Trafford. Previous 151 meetings have resulted in 49 draws with United wining 61 times and City winning 41 times.
This is a hugely anticipated clash since Manchester City have given themselves the big club tag with their star signings namely – Tevez, Santa Cruz, Adebayor, Barry, Toure, Lescott (not sure how exactly these guys are stars, they are good players though). Manchester City are expecting themselves to be knocking on the top 4 door and with their display last weekend against Arsenal, everyone is thinking that they might just. But Arsenal are one thing and Manchester United are another. Arsenal are an amazing team but are many times undone by their own flamboyancy while Manchester United get the job done when needed to even if means without their usual style of play.
Manchester City are without their star players – Tevez, Robinho, Santa Cruz, Ireland (all injured) and Adebayor (out due to suspension for the tackle on Van Persie). Without these players, City look the same as last year with the exception of their defence – which conceded two over the weekend. Its difficult to see where the goals would be coming for City considering their major strike force and creative midfield missing. Their only hope is to prevent United from scoring and getting a 0-0 draw or probably try and nick 1 on the counterattack using the pace of Bellamy and Wright Phillips.
It would have a good booing exercise for United fans if Tevez would have played who snubbed United to join City.
I won't be sitting in this chair this weekend
Manchester United dispatched another top 4 contender in Spurs over the weekend and got an away win in Turkey in the Champions League. This is a chance for them to show Manchester City that they do not belong in top 4. Paul Scholes is ineligible for this game due to his red card in the game against Spurs. Ryan Giggs has played the most derby games and would be relishing another chance to run at City defence. Ferdinand should be back to full fitness after missing the game against Besiktas. Fletcher was rested during midweek fixture and should be starting this one. His steel in the midfield would be an important asset for United.
Line up that I would like to see on the pitch would be:
Foster
O’Shea – Ferdinand – Vidic – Evra
Valencia – Fletcher – Anderson – Giggs
Rooney – Berbatov
Man Utd have an incentive of going top with a win (since Chelsea are playing after United game) and also opening up the gap against City while City can leapfrog United into 2nd place with a win.
I expected a fast paced game with United being too good for City. 3-0 to United for me.
Watch it live this Sunday 17:55 IST on ESPN
Other games this weekend:
There have been some surprises and some usuals in the EPL season till now. Here is a run down of every team.
David Nugent to Burnley: 4.5/5
Finally, he goes to a place where he would get regular playing time.
I personally like him since his Preston North End days. He performed really well for them. When he moved to Portsmouth I considered it a good move for him and thought he would get good premier league experience but somehow he didn’t get as many starts as I expected. He has moved to Burnley on loan for 6 months with a view of making the move permanent. Burnley would be really happy to sign him since he is a proven goalscorer. He has scored regularly in Championship, netted a few in premier league and score for England under-21 as well as the senior team. With this signing Burnley can surely hope to kill few other giants as well and hopefully stay up.
Teemu Tainio moves to Birmingham: 2/5
I have seen this guy play for Tottenham Hotspur but I was not really impressed by him. Haven’t seen him perform for Sunderland so not sure how this would shape up. I think its an ok-ok signing.
Kranjcar moves to Tottenham: 3/5
Another Portsmouth players moves to Tottenham. Harry connections I guess. Kranjcar has come in as direct replacement of Modric who is out injured currently. He shouldn’t have much trouble settling in considering that he has earlier worked with Harry Rednapp and there are couple of other Croatian players in the team including Modric.
Heitinga to Everton: 4/5
This seems to be a really good catch to me. David Moyes has an ability of finding out obscure talent. Remember Lescott. He has made good business from him and made him a good defender. Heitinga can play in variety of positions – central defender, right back and defensive midfield. Seems to me a Phil Neville type player. Should work well for the Toffees. I am surprised though that they were not able to get the loan signing of Banega from Valencia.
James Collins, Dunne to Aston Villa: 4/5
Collins is a Wales international and had an effective partnership with Anton Ferdinand during 2006/07 season after which he got a 9 month injury layoff. Villa needed a couple of defenders badly after retirement of Laursen and sale of Zat Knight. They have also signed Dunne from Manchester City which is subject to clearance by the Premier League. Collectively these two signings would be a boost for Villa specially after their Europa League exit.
Ben Haim to Portsmouth: 3/5
He is a good defender and was in the form of his life during his time at Bolton which prompted his move to Chelsea where he barely got any playing time. Later he moved to Manchester City and now to Portsmouth. There is no doubt that he lacks the ability and talent but would he regain his best form, that needs to be seen. Worth a gamble though.
Transfer day deadline is fast approaching and I am seriously dying to see Manchester United sign a creative midfielder for that missing spark in their game play.
Last season Man Utd closed with the deadline day signing of Berbatov. He is yet to show his true self in United colors but I am sure strike force is an area which is well covered right now. Even though Fergie has said that there would not be any more transfer business by United but he said the same thing before that Norwegian player signed the dotted line.
I would have loved to see Van Der Vaart sign for Man United but as I said in my previous blog entry, he has decided to stay at Real Madrid this season. What options are we left with then? IMO, none.
I just hope that if there are no new signings, the current crop is able to provide the creative spark to the team or somehow magically Hargreaves comes back pretty soon and stays fit. Damn!! I have become like an Arsenal fan, praying for player fitness to win the title.
Apart from Man Utd, Aston Villa are in hunt for defenders. I think they should be able to get Richard Dunne from Man City along with Collins from West Ham. Everton should be able to get their Spanish players, Heitinga and Banega.
Spurs have already got Kranjcar (hope I spelled his name right). Spurs seem to be becoming a small Crotian colony.
Liverpool don’t have any funds to surprise us on deadline day and Arsenal barely ever spend them. Chelsea do have loads but think they want to sit and watch since Ribery seems too expensive and Pato and Pirlo disappointed over the weekend in Milan derby.
Sunderland seem to assemble a decent enough squad and could spring a surprise on the deadline day. They do have the cash though.
Hull are doing there best to sign at lease someone, anyone but everyone seems to back off but them signing someone would surely be a surprise.
And to top it all, Portsmouth probably would sign every player available on loan.
After champions league, its now Europa League’s turn to know who all will be competing for the prize. There are some really juicy fixtures lined up today and IMO the most entertaining would be:
Roma – Kosice: First leg ended in a 3-3 draw. With 3 away goals to their credit Roma can go through with just a draw as long as they keep Kosice from scoring less than 2. Kosice on the other hand can go through with a single goal. Would be interesting to see how Roma approach this one. They play to score or play to avoid being scored against. I am tipping Roma to go through in this one regardless how they line up.
Aston Villa – Rapid Vienna: Villa’s confidence would have gotten a real boost with a win over Liverpool. They are 1-0 down on aggregate and they are more than capable of winning by two goal margin. Villa were booed off at half time in their first game of the season and failure to qualify would not go well with the fans and of course the financial impact counts as well. I think Villa would just about have enough for Rapid Vienna.
Hertha Berlin – Brondby: First leg finished 2-1 in favour of Brondby. The positive for Berlin was that they have an away goal which means a 1-0 victory can see them through. But a single goal by Brondby can make things really interesting. Berlin lost over the weekend as well and seem to be off form and are in serious danger of missing out on Europa League qualification. I have a feeling that Brondby might just nick this one.
Zenit St. Petersburg – CD Nacional de Madiera: Zenith are trailing 3-4 from the first leg but they have 3 away goals to their name. If they allow Madiera to score against them they would be in real trouble. They should be able to go through though.
Apart from these Everton, Fulham, Werder Bremen, Dinamo Zagreb, Valencia, Galatasray, Benfica, Ajax, Lazio, Fenerbahce and Villareal should have easier run into the next round after there impressive first leg victories.
