Following Manchester United’s draw with Everton on Sunday – and Manchester City’s victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers – the Reds’ Premier League lead is now just three points. With just a trio of games to go in the Premier League season the title race could well come down to next Monday’s derby at Eastlands.
Indeed, victory for City will leave Roberto Mancini’s outfit top of the Premier League on goal difference. By contrast, should United triumph at Eastlands Sir Alex Ferguson’s men will require just a single point from matches against Swansea City and Sunderland to secure a 20th domestic league title.
Form and location may favour Mancini’s side, but Ferguson and his experienced lieutenants certainly know how to convert tight situations into victories. Despite City’s infamous 6-1 victory at Old Trafford in the Premier League this season, it was United that took the FA Cup third round fixture at Eastlands in January.
Sir Alex has already labelled next Monday’s match the biggest derby during his 25 year reign in charge of United, claiming that United’s draw with Everton has handed City the initiative. Meanwhile, Mancini has sought to play down expectations at Eastlands by stating that United has already won the Premier League.
But what do you think will be the result in Monday’s derby?
[poll id=”78″]
WIN!
Absolutely!
Mother Fuckerrrrrrrrrrrrs!
Didn’t City have a player sent off in that FA cup match after about 1/4 of an hour, then come back from 3-0 down at half time to make it 3-2 to Utd?
Ha ha!
Yes the great moral victory of 2012!
City 3-0
Balotelli dive pen, Aguero, Toure
But Utd still win title.
They’ve got us in midfield. I think we’ll find it difficult.
As a United fan I pray we do pull it off but to be honest I just can’t see it happening. 🙁 City are just to strong at home IMO but let’s just wait and see.
Offensively, if we bring our A-game, we can hurt them. Some of the attacking play at the weekend was out of this world. The goals were so good which is part of the reason why drawing the game in the manner we did was particularly painful.
Defensively, we need to seriously get our act together. Our full backs are an Achilles heel. Rafael is capable of a top drawer performance (I still cling to that performance v Bayern Munich where he got sent off) but Evra is a liability.
We’ve done well against most of the top teams this season so that’s a good omen.
I just hope we don’t play Phil Jones anywhere in defence, if he is picked. I’m sure Giggs will play. Will Scholes?
sheesh – I’ve got this sinking feeling that Giggs, Jones, and Park will all play.
Ed wouldn’t that be suicide?
Given their lack of games and form, it would be a risk to bring any of those three in.
Hopefully he’ll stick with the team that started on Sunday but Rooney will be asked to drop deeper when we don’t have the ball.
Given Welbeck’s form against Everton and his goal at the Etihad in January, I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t start.
If we’re set up positive, I think we’ll score and we won’t lose. If we’re negative and invite them on, we will lose.
something tells me park is going to be in for a recall next monday
If Jones plays at right back or in midfield then god help us
Heads up boys, city were pants two weeks ago and have had a couple of wins against average opposition since.
Yes we’ve ballsed up and let them back in with a chance, but these big games are what we’re all about. 2-1 united.
Draw 1-1, I just can’t see Mancini going all out and I can see us waking up defensively for this one. Carrick, Scholes and Rooney in a midfield 3 Hernandez up top. The only other change will be Smalling at fullback in place of the twin. Lescott will have a nightmare.
Despite the poor result of Sunday, Fergie was at least vindicated in his decision to stick with Welbeck up front. He offers so much more than Hernandez as a footballer and has done all season.
Although Hernandez’s pace would worry Lescott, I’d still prefer to put trust in the link-up between Welbeck, Rooney and Nani on Monday night.
That said, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Park and Valencia on the wings and Hernandez up front. Fergie might want to keep a tight ship in midfield and look for Hernandez on the break.
If we lose, then we have to put up with all the jibbering and jibing about us `bottling it’. If we win then we have to put up with Fergie proclaiming himself to be a god and not needing to strengthen anything (and some of us grovelling at his feet, crying “forgive us Master: we’re so unworthy, so unworthy..”)
No it’ll be a draw: with us leading right up to the last seconds and then the usual one-legged ballet dancer faux pas in defence that lets in …Tevez to make sure the thing will drag on to the final day.
Got this feeling (apart from the dream I had near the beginning of the season that City were going to be champions)that we will lose this title by the narrowest of margins (goal difference), as opposed to what Fergie wanted: to win it by the narrowest of margins (a goal difference of one or two, or failing that, as an absolute last resort, by a single point.
Of course, if he goes genius on us and plays Giggs and Park in central midfield just to show the world who’s boss …
They’ll bum us.
Draw.
Draw written all over it and the bitters to lose to the barcodes.
think park will play, to do the work evras supposed to do but has no interest in doing, defend
Well he hasn’t played for a while so he’d be full of running, but on the ball he’d be even worse than his usual level of shiteness… you never know though… as rubbish as Park is… he pops up with an important goal now and then.
I’d have a carrick jones cleverley middle three and welbeck rooney nani front three, if its still 0-0 in the final 20 mins bring scholes on to kill the game, no point doing anything stupid they’re flying we aint
“They’re flying we ain’t”
Not really. They were average against Wolves. If they were playing Everton, they wouldn’t have even got a draw.
Pressure is mounting on them again now they are back in it.
Same team as Sunday pretty much. Maybe Smalling in for Rafael… though Rafael tens to have good games against them.
I’d like to see a 5 man midfield with Carrick, Scholes and Cleverley. but Welbeck and Rooney were so good together against Everton it might do more harm than good.
Nani usually does the business against them so I’m predicting a Nani goal or assist. Either 2-1 to United or 2-2.
Fucking hell… shitting myself already.
We’re nervous, they have nothing to lose!! Easy win for them!
They have nothing to lose…. except the chance of a first league title in decades?
Idiot.
1-1. Balotelli puts them ahead early 2nd half, Rooney levels it with 10 to go. We’ll win our remaining games.
Not sure if Giggs’ll start, I’d go for a Carrick, Scholes & Wellbeck 3-man midfield.
Fergie’s got a real selection dilemma for this match. We need someone mobile who puts himself about in midfield, and probably the only person who’s fit and fits that description is Cleverly. Otherwise he’ll use Park or Giggs, but I can’t envision either of those two combining with Carrick to form a midfield that’s not going to get overrun.
This is a strong possibility. Otherwise, Richards could have an absolute field day. Young does some tracking back himself so he might be an option too. Nani will probably come on if we’re chasing the game and need a goal.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rooney out left.
Nani is in good form though… tracks back a bit too.
I think scoring first will mount the pressure on them and they will crumble. They looked nervous against Wolves for fucks sake, never mind United.
I think Nani should start. He makes a decent defensive effort these days, and he’s surely our most talented attacking player after Rooney. The last couple of games teams have been getting at City down the sides, so we need talent there. I wouldn’t mind seeing Rooney up top alone, with Nani on the left, Valencia on the right, and 3 in the middle (Carrick, Giggs & Cleverly maybe?). More likely though, I think Fergie will play Welbeck up front, Rooney behind him in a pseudo-midfielder role, then Carrick plus one other in the middle. Fitness permitting, I think I’d like to see Cleverly in the middle, Young on the left and Nani on the right. Young actually seems to be a bit of a big game player, he could nick one of his patented long-range curlers, and Nani’s a real handful on the right.
Cleverly is not very tested and hasn’t seen much game time recently, but surely he’s a better option than Scholes, Giggs, or Park? He just needs to keep it tidy, provide the running for Carrick, do a bit of a Fletcher-type job.
They don’t HAVE the title to lose though do they you retarded mong!
Oh I see… so any team other than the holder isn’t expected to win the league?
Stupid cunt.
The thing about Nani… if you start him then you give him time to do something… get involved, make a few runs, crosses, take some wayward shots… and if he’s properly tuned in with the team… he can be awesome…
But if you don’t start him, then he’s useless… because you can’t bring him on as a sub, if you desperately need something… he’ll just take the ball, and try to win you the game single-handedly… running about with the fuckin ball, looking for the wonder goal, dribbling like a fuckin deaf cunt, while his team mates in better positions shout. “Nani, oi!, give me the ball, you fuckin thick cunt”… but Nani don’t hear… he’ll just keep running about until he loses it… ah fuck, he pisses me off!
This is true.
But Ashley Young seems good as a sub. So start Nani (can keep possession better than most of our players, when he wants to) and bring Young on if needed.
Gutted that Chelsea just won. Glad that cunt Terry will be missing though.
stop agreeing with me
lol
if we want someone to keep hold of the ball – well fuck me backwards with an open umbrella – BERBA is available ffs
I have a strong feeling that we desperately need to score first: if we don’t then I hope our guys have be double-brainwashed, rised, spun and fabric softened NOT to think the thought that will kill us: we were 8 points ahed and now we are BEHIND.
What a terrible year it will be if Chelsea win the Champions League and City pip us. Wouldn’t be so bad if Fergie were Japanese: then we would know that he would do the right thing: a crsip morning early, sweet sounds of a flute, ceremonial saki poured over the blade, stomach bared..
But he’s a bit too shameless for that, and will probably just shrug his shoulders, throw out a few back-handed compliemtns and claim that he wuz robbed (so easy for teams to robb us with a powder-puff midfield like he has got to perform was beyond itself to have put us in contention).
Did your mother keep the afterbirth and raise it by mistake???
They have NOTHING to lose, we have the title…. fuck sake, you and Han want to put your heads together, you might be able to make a cup tea with warm water and a plastic spoon!
They would LOSE their chance to win the title.
In the same way Newcastle could LOSE a Champions League spot.
Chelsea could have LOST their spot in the final last night.
Stop trolling you stupid cunt.
You’d know all about trolls,seems you were born to a pair of them.Now watch your abuse or I’ll be forced to thrash you, I’m rant royality, the only thing in common you have with royality is the inbreeding that goes on in the Windsor household.
Your a royal jester alright. Your good for about 6 mood swings a game.
Who stuck 10p in you to talk?
Only two….if we’re winning, happiness, if we’re losing, the end of the world depression.
it’s han to you, you ignorant mongoose
and with supporters like you, take some advice from SAF….go fuck off and follow chelsea if you can’t take the heat
he suffers from permanent pmt
We’ve got some things going for us. Assuming Shitty play Aguero and Tevez, Evans and Rio are pretty well equipped to cope with them. They both do better with more mobile skilful attackers instead of big bollockses, which is Vida’s job. I wonder if Mancini is tempted to play Dzeko because all season we’ve shown ourselves vulnerable to bullying in the box.
Fuck this game’s going to be huge.
We need to hit them on the break, they will come out flying. 4-3-3. They will be fired up and naive. With the right team selection we can ride out the early onslaught and grab one. It’s all about who scores first. 3-1 to United. United till I die!
I totally agree Trev. I think SAF will put more bodies in central MF and play one up front. Rooney will likely drop back and maybe Welbeck or Chicharito as a lone striker. But who he plays in the center of the pitch could decide the outcome of this game. I’d assume it would be Carrick, Scholes and 1 more – Giggsy? Park? Jones? Cleverley?
I’d go with Giggs, I get the feeling SAF has been keeping him fresh for this one.
Are they going to do that embarrassing blue moon projection bullshit that they did before, that resulted in a 20 minute bottlejob from Barry and the rest of the shite because they knew their average abilities couldn’t possibly match the hype
I love the pre-match hype and quite like the face-off that goes on at the Wastelands before the derby between the City and United fans:
United fans tried to get a load more flares in to that game but most of them were confiscated. There was a plan to have United fans sat in the seats where City project a blue moon onto, and they were going to let off their red flares thus ruining said moon, heh.
I love pyro. I have a red flare that I’m gonna use one day. Just waiting for the right occasion.
James Ducker @DuckerTheTimes United are sweating on the fitness of Jonny Evans for the derby. He’s not trained all week. Will post story am #MUFC
evans will have kittens on monday night
For three nights in a row I’ve dreamt we’ve lost 2-1, worth a bet?
surprised that you didn’t wet the bed as well those 3 nights
Nani injury scare
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/9232704/Manchester-City-v-Manchester-United-Nani-suffers-injury-scare-ahead-of-Mondays-crucial-derby-at-the-Etihad.html?
Fuck.
Not to worry about Nani, Valencia is the key to victory.
We need to win this game or its all over till next season.
We will get a point against Swansea but we will not beat Sunderland away, bottom line. Martin O’Neill stated today that his team will go all out for victory as they have already beaten Man City at home.
You guys get too uptight when we play these top teams. I’m not worrying about the Man.City game, we will beat them. But we will turn right around and lose at home to Swansea. Thats the bullshit I’m talking about. You need to worry about Swansea and Sunderland.
Herbie has spoken…
He talks complete shite…
But he has spoken.
herbie
if we beat city and lose against swansea, i’d take that as a sequence of results all season because the bitters still have to go to newcastle and we would be 6 points ahead before a ball is kicked next sunday
HOW are the most votes going for a loss? On a United blog?! You are all way too negative. Refuse to believe we’ve lost the League.
Ok my dream changed last night, we lost 5-3 against city, we went 0-2 up, then 2-2 we took a 2-3 lead on the 80th then I turned the tv back on and we’d lost 5-3!!
No wonder I’m too much of a shit house to watch the game tomorrow!!