Manchester United defends a five point Premier League lead tonight with Aston Villa at Old Trafford. Indeed, Sir Alex Ferguson’s outfit could move up to eight points clear with Arsenal also in action on a busy night in the Premier League.
Ferguson can boast a virtually fully fit squad, with most leading lights returning to the side following United’s victory over Southampton in the FA Cup last week. In addition to rested stars, injured defenders Rio Ferdinand and Rafael da Silva are fit to return, while Michael Carrick will feature if an ankle problem has cleared sufficiently. Patrice Evra also returns following a short trip back to France for a family bereavement.
United faces a Villa side with renewed confidence after the £24 million capture of Darren Bent and three wins on the bounce. And without a victory over Villa in the past three meetings between the sides, United is set for another close encounter with the Midlanders.
Ferguson is set to reunite Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov in attack, with each experiencing deeply contrasting fortunes this season. While the Bulgarian has now bagged 19 goals, with a brace against Blackpool last week, Rooney has just one strike from open play this season.
It’s a fact that does not sit comfortably with Ferguson though.
“Some of our critics are making a meal out of the fact that Wayne Rooney is lagging behind in the goal stakes. He is, compared with the bucketload he scored last year, but I am not worried,” said the United manager.
“It is the scoring partnership that matters and the combination between our two front men has improved beyond all recognition. Last year, Wayne benefited from Dimitar’s work but this year it is Berbatov enjoying the last touch.
“If we finish the season with Berbatov scoring 30 and Wayne on 10 – and those are the targets I have in mind – I will be more than happy. That is what I call a successful strike partnership, reminiscent of Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke.”
It is this outlook underpins United success under the Scot’s management over the past quarter century says Ferdinand, with the Reds coming from behind to win twice in the past week.
“You never lose faith when you play for Manchester United,” Ferdinand told The Sun.
“It’s in our make-up the game’s not over until the final whistle has blown and until then you try your hardest.
“If you do that week in, week out, you get a bit of luck and you get your rewards. It comes from the manager – he has got that desire and will to win.
“He’s been here 25 years and if he’s still got it, then why haven’t players who have only been here for a year, two years, 10 years, whatever?
“So it comes from him and filters down through the club and that’s always the way it’s been. That’s why you see it so often that we can come back from adverse situations and create results like we did against Blackpool.”
Meanwhile, Villa will give a late fitness test to Agbonlahor, with the striker suffering a minor hamstring strain. Defender Nathan Baker is suspended, while Fabian Delph has a knee injury. New signing Michael Bradley could play following a deadline day transfer from Borussia Monchengladbach.
Darren Bent return’s the the squad after missing last week’s FA Cup win over Blackburn Rovers.
Despite Villa’s lowly position in the Premier League under-fire manager Gerard Houllier says his team can with at Old Trafford.
“We’re capable of beating any team,” said Houllier.
“We need to take our hats off to the record so far of Manchester United – to stay undefeated for that many games. They’re impressive.
“They were impressive when we played them. It was a thrilling game. The way they came back into the game – I think the goal from Federico Macheda changed everything because it brought a spark of hope. If we’d have been able to hold another ten minutes it would have been different.
“I wish I could play as badly as they do and have the same record! People say that but when they played well they battered Birmingham 5-0, Blackburn 7-1. I hope they don’t play well then!”
While another cricket score seems unlikely, with Villa’s record at Old Trafford respectable in recent years, Ferguson will take any victory and a vital three points in the title race. Indeed, with Chelsea spending more than £70 million on transfer deadline day in a desperate attempt to clam back lost points, Ferguson will be keen to ram home United’s advantage.
Opposition
Villa – 433 – Friedel; Clark, Cuellar, Collins, Walker; Petrov, Reo-Coker, Bannan; Albrighton, Bent, Young. Subs from: Bradley, Marshall, Downing, Delfouneso, Heskey, Pires, Makoun, Agbonlahor.
United
United – 442 – van der Sar; Rafael da Silva, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra; Nani, Scholes, Fletcher, Giggs; Rooney, Berbatov. Subs from: Kuzszazk, Evans, Brown, Gibson, Owen, Bébé, Lindegaard, Fabio da Silva, O’Shea, Carrick, Anderson, Obertan, Hernández, Smalling.
Officials
Referee: Chris Foy
Assistant referees: Dean Mohareb & Glenn Turner
Fourth official: Stuart Attwell
Form
United – WWWWWW
Villa – LWDWWW
Good record against em..means nowt nowadays, happy with 3 points anyway.
I can see us dropping points tonight unfortunately.
Its tricky to think how this match is gonna pan out,with us blowing hot and cold all season.
The way I feel right now, a draw would be a satisfactory result, that cant be correct to think like that.Jaysus we are at home, we should be mullering a team like Villa.
Lets just hope we get a Blackburn/Birmingham type performance,and put the Villians to the sword.
I think and believe if for any reason we take a beating tonight,Sir Alex’s words in support of Rooney are going to fall on deaf ears,and he is going to take a right royal pasting everywhere.
Cmon United.
Fucking Sheasy
scholesless team = 0-0
actually benty will score
away win for houllier at ot again
0-1 murphy pen
pleased with the team sheet
should be a good game with villa on the up
need to win
come on united
Man Utd: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Fletcher, Carrick, Giggs, Berbatov, Rooney.
Subs: Lindegaard, Owen, Anderson, Smalling, Hernandez, Scholes, Fabio Da Silva.
Carrick & Fletcher in midfield
It’s all got to come from Giggs, again
no gibson – not even on the bench?
maybe the penny has finally dropped with SAF?
3-0.
Bardsley scores for Sunderland 1-0 Chelsea
Stream: http://sportsmax.co.tv/ch1.html
shrek needs a couple of goals to settle him into this season
i have a feeling he will get 1 tonight
rooooooooooooooooooooooooooney
fucking hell
Live link ups to other games too. Chel just equalized…
Nahh… we’ll do ’em large…
4-0
VDS—Rooooooooooo
ROOOOOONEY!
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Commentators are gutted we have scored early, it’s like a funeral
nani should have done better just then
lolollol
come on Rooney!!!!!!!!!!
Anyone got a working stream chaps?
Sunderland 1-2 Chelsea
come on united
build on the good start
Arsenal 0-1 Everton
anyone got an english stream working please ??
sahahahahaha for everton
Sunderland 2-2 Chelsea
Fucking hell
2-2 at stadium of shite
bentley boy
ffs all the united old boys helping out
come on the reds
Sopcast 82153
tks mate
Saha, Richardson and Bardsley continue their work as undercover agents!
If that’s not a penalty then Raf’s wasn’t the other week against Blackpool
need to up the tempo
http://www.aymo.net/p/channel-2.html another stream
should have made it 2
that bald cunt saved again
come on united
Good football
Class shot from Nani telling the K Stand to ave it
Just got in hi Han , good start, how we doing.
hi mad red
brilliant start – shrek scored after 1 min
gone a bit quiet in the last 10 mins though
http://www.veetle.com/index.php/channel/view#4d45498abd420
come on united, thanks Han.
should really be turning the screw against these brummies – no offence mad red
Why is Anderson benched nowadays
no offence,Han i hate villa.
come on anderson – have a decent game tonight
Fucking hate Downing
Cunt’s got an attitude problem, like Gibson
come on reds
get one more before h/t
come on let’s get another this half. Nice effort by Nani, but I hope we won’t regret these saves.
nearly there again
bald cunt saves again
fuck off friedegghead
Brad Freakal always has a monster of a game against us, yankee baldy cunt
friedel nearly always plays a blinder against us
good goalie
cunt
fucking hell danni
great minds think alike
lol – just you and me in the Anderson, Gibson fanclub I think
the game is there for the winning
up the tempo a little reds
there are plenty more but just too shy to say i guess
good contribution Ando; foul, ffs.
look, I don’t want to get in the way of you and Madred
Roooneyyyyy
Game over
1 min added time?
shittttttttttttttttt
rooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooney
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
no no no
3 some is cool
plus i love ur name……….
incredible cross by Nani
Perfect pass…then Rooo…about time he got his scoring boots on.
Brilliant ball from Nani
Good to see the Roonster getting goals again long may he continue
Genius – Ronaldo-esque cross and cool finish from Rooney.
Rooney is BACK.
needed the 2nd goal
could really give them an arse toasting 2nd half if the lads are up for it
he may attack me with his Madred Cock. Me scared.
once again 2-0 – YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
shrek for the hat trick anyone?
always room for one more ha Han
if the scores stay the same in all the other games – perfect evening
just what we needed just before halftime, Rooney is he returning to his best?
fingers crossed
encore
http://veetle.com/index.php/channel/view#4d454f2b2e75e
how did you know i had a cock, lol ,his name is twat because he is always up it.
aye especially the tronixxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ffs
http://veetle.com/index.php/channel/view#4d454f2b2e75e
without doubt the best stream – awesome you otherwise good for nothing german sausage
want a 3rd
put them to bed
come on now united finish the game off, be ruthless.
OK, let me shave my arse
kinky,
cry baby scored for chelsea. 2-3
MANCHESTER IS MY HEAVEN- SIR MATT BUSBY
come on united
O’Shea, you fucking oaf!
arse equalize
get a 3rd reds
give the ball to berbs
Awful freekick
That’s why we can get away with playing O’Shea against Villa
fucking hell reds
make it difficult ffs
FUCK!
come on united
58 minutes in and its finally competitive
cunt
careless
come on united
come on united.
vidAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
fucking beauty
vidaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
vida
Vidic……………… get in!
that was a lovely strike by the terminator
STREAM IS FUCKED GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
crap, Arsenal and the Chavs are both winning now. I wish the arse would drop points.
Giggs has had a great game.
3 minutes later we score
We literally decided to score. For 3 minutes after they scored we played with more urgency; started fighting, tackling, heads up straight away etc.
In the palm of our hand
ffs watching this in Rusky now
come on sunderland and saha
united inviting villa in again
put ur foot down reds and get a 4th and let us enjoy the game
agreed – we basically pulled our fist out of our shit encrusted arse and started to tackle in midfield
berba absolutely not slowing game down today – completly confuses the fuck out of the opposition
whats everyone eating tonight – had a jecket potato with cheese, tuna and some beans with dash of tabaso. old skool but still good.
Nani… fuck off you fuckin pussy!
Pizza… lovely.
What a wasted free kick
send on sweet pea for the last 15 mins
rooney to stay on
berbs off
am off the pizza at the moment – supposed to be doing a 10k run in April so need to stop being a fat ass = hence sensible potato strategy. love pizza though – mmmmmmmmmm
unlucky roons
unlucky Roo – that;s much more like it – he looks as if he is enjoying the game finally
fuck off young with your gayboy snood, scarve what the fuck
hernandez or owen
or both?
Nani…………………….. what a selfish fuck head!
berba???????????????
oh come on
berbs you TWAT
score united ffs
unlucky berba
Giggs is playing left back
Good performance… Rooney back in the goals…
Giggs was excellent.
Alf happy!
great result, could have been a banana skin fixture, but we played well and easily won, nice.
job done nicely
5 home games left though
lets hope united can produce more of the same on their travels
Friedel…saved en from a thrashing…amazing goalie
later everyone , enjoy the evening,
6 innit, and 8 away
But aye, it’s time to nail the away form
later guys – good win – media practically praying for us to fuck up
yes Sid
cheers
the beers doing funny things to the maths…….
Most original song by away fans coming to Old Trafford…
(To the tune of ‘we won it 2 times’):
I wanna go home
I wanna go home
Manchester’s a shithole
I wanna go home
…an irony lost on the dirty Brummie wankers. The song did make me smile, though.
Great cross from Nani. When Valencia comes back on that right wing, you will see more goals from Rooney. Everton really blew it. If Arsenal would have lost that game, United would have been 8 points clear and the league title in the bag. But Arsenal have a tough game away coming up and I’m sure we will destroy Wolves, so by the weekend, we could be 8 points clear.
good enough performance.
rooney and nani were very good. giggs was outstanding.
arse don’t start the traditional collapse until after march
however with park due back soon and valencia, much injected vigour in midfield and on the flank will come
Giggs was sensational! Nani is our man and am certain that we are about to start getting better. Carrick won a few 50-50 tackles and was really up for it. What a strike from Vida though. Rooney scoring twice is a big bonus and hopefully he will carry on from here.
Chelsea really believe they can rein us in so we must not give them an opening.
Some people think berba slows our attacks down. If anyone was showing out attacks down last night it was carrick. He didn’t have terrible game but he doesn’t offer us anything offensively. Villa sae plenty of the ball and our midfield didn’t have the finesse to get it off them and do something with it.
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Thats Carricks problem though. He shows no aggression what so ever. He’s quite happy to avoid any physical contact and just spray the odd ball around, well the english leagues are full of players that can do what Carrick does. His lack of desire and infectious lethargy seems to rub off on the likes of Fletcher, who does’nt mind putting himself about now and again. I’ve always looked upon Carrick as a passenger, and don’t rate him. I fail to see what he has ever offerd us. Goals, no. Inspiration, no. Leader, no. He’s the most negative midfielder i can ever recall us having, possibly since Butch.
Cal serious question do you think we should give Giggs another year? he is clearly one of our best midfielders!
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It all depends on if we can off load the likes of Carrick and Anderson Bri. Your right that Giggs is playing well, and whilst our centre mid is seriously sluggish, Fergie has to keep a bit of fizz on the side with the likes of Giggsy and Scholses. Because we don’t really have any other outlet to get the ball forward. Fletch is Fletch, Ando is 2 stone over weight and Carrick thinks the opponents half of the pitch is ladened with claymore land mines so does’nt go there. Thats why Giggs and Scholes have been key because they have the intelligence and the know how. The others simply don’t.
We are going to need a full revamp of our midfield in the summer.
Carrick, Anderson, and Hargreaves should be off loaded and replaced without delay.
Nani still pisses me off… one minute he’s brilliant, providing an outstanding cross for Rooneys’ second… and the next, he’s refusing the simple, killer pass in favour of a run to nothing… or falling down like a big fairy.
And we’ve still got to play the Renties twice… we must win one of those.
yep, same as Ronnie before him – he will be more consistent and intelligent with timr
I thought Carrick had a decent game last night to be fair.