First off, apologies for the lull in activity during the weekend prior to the biggest game of the season but things have been busy. Real busy. Anyway, I’m here now and no time like the present to do some blogging.

As the title suggests, the team that Fergie put out (mostly youngsters but not exclusively) was more than good enough to beat Hull and therefore silence any possible critics on the matter. You may or may not remember that I said this in a post a while back, while I was talking about Ferguson’s selection quandary:

“But for all the people out there who think it shows a lack of respect, bear in mind that given their positions, and the lack of heart and pride they’ve shown recently, Hull, Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland will probably all lose come Sunday, and end up making this argument completely redundant.”

Don’t like to say I told you so but…ahem…Anyway, it was an absolutely stunning Darren Gibson goal that sealed it against what truly was an appalling poor Hull side. They honestly are barely even a shadow of their earlier season-selves. But we’re not complaining.

It was actually a strange game to be honest. The youngsters of United (including De Laet in his first game) didn’t exactly show the tenacity that was expected of them but such was Hull’s bluntness and generally direness that they rarely posed a problem. Rio Ferdinand, perhaps surprisingly didn’t feature, Fergie opting to give him a bit more time. Wes Brown, though, did start and played well in his first game in a long time.

I doubt that any players that weren’t in Fergie’s thoughts for the CL Final have forced themselves in from Sunday’s game but if nothing else, it was a nice opportunity to see some of the reserves/youngsters in action, especially Tosic, who hadn’t been seen alive in a long time.

Not much more to say other than congratulations to Hull City for staying up.

The upcoming weekend of Premier League football is of massive importance, not for the top of the table but for the bottom. One side is already down; West Brom. And there are four other sides who are in danger of going down; Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Hull City and Sunderland. For the first two, the situation is dire, neither ‘Boro or Toon have their own destiny in their hands, and are hoping for either Hull or Sunderland, or both to slip up. Sunderland, who’ve been teetering on the brink almost all season host Chelsea at home but will only go down if they lose, and Hull and Toon win. So now we get to Hull, who face us at the KC on Sunday.

They had a great start to the season but since the New Year have dropped almost as quick as you can say “relegation”! Hull need no more than a draw to stay up but that’s easier said than done against Man Utd. Or at least it would be against the usual Man Utd. For you see, this Sunday’s match is no less than four days before the Champions League Final in Rome. That’s right, the EPL season will end four days before the biggest game in European football. Ample preparation? Hardly! Typical Premier League planning? Definitely! So that’s why I say it may not be easier said than done for Hull to beat us; Sir Alex will have to rest players.

He’s going to rest a lot of players too, don’t expect any of the starters in the CL Final to feature against Hull, except perhaps Rio, for fitness purposes only. SAF will put out a squad made up of youngsters, hungry for competition and desperate for a spot on the bench in Rome and sadly, Darren Fletcher, who’s bound to feature given that it will be his last game this season. This will still be a strong side, but nowhere near the strength of our usual first XI. It could look something like this:

GK: Kuszczak
DF: Rafael-Neville-Evans-Fabio
MF: Nani-Fletcher-Gibson-Possebon
FW: Macheda-Welbeck

And this is what has got some people going, should Sir Alex play his strongest team for the sake of withholding the credibility of the EPL? I say, no way. Now Newcastle won’t be happy if we go to the KC and lose or even sneak a draw. They’ll say it’s showing a lack of respect for the situation down the bottom of the EPL. But it’s not. These sides are down there because they deserve to be, not because of anyone else. Do you think if Chelsea had played an under strength team against Toon in Alan Shearer’s first game in charge would he have complained about it? No way. These sides are down there for a reason, because they’re not very good.

Here’s why we’ll play a weakened side at the KC; the Champions League Final. Not because of Hull, or Newcastle or anyone else. Because because of the enormity of next Wednesday, and because we’ve earned that spot in Rome, we’ve earned the right to rest as many players as we want prior to it. Are Barcelona going to play a full strength side against Osasuna on Sunday? No. Are we going to against Hull? No. Should we guilty about it? No. But for all the people out there who think it shows a lack of respect, bear in mind that given their positions, and the lack of heart and pride they’ve shown recently, Hull, Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland will probably all lose come Sunday, and end up making this argument completely redundant.

I can almost smell it.

At the end of tomorrow’s match we could be celebrating our third consecutive EPL title for the second time since the league’s inception in 1992.

As it stands we sit six points ahead of Liverpool in second with two games to go, with that in mind we need only one point from our remaining two games to win this year’s Premier League.

Arsenal come into this game on the back of their first EPL defeat in twenty two games, a 1-4 defeat to London rivals Chelsea at the Emirates. And that defeat was on the back of a 1-3 defeat to none other than…who? Oh, that’s right, us…

We, on the other hand come into the game on the back of some rather impressive form. After a tight game at the JJB we eventually overcame a resilient Wigan team on Wednesday. That game followed an impressive, if exceptionally easy 2-0 win over City at Old Trafford.

So, we’re the form side with the taste of victory at our nostrils, they’re the young boys trying to salvage something from a season that promised so much, then so little, then so much and now has delivered little. The United players will be going out there to try and dispel the memories of Arsenal winning the title at Old Trafford not long ago, while Arsenal will be going out to spoil the party. But they’re a side in very low confidence who appear to be praying for the season to end while our season, in a way, is only just getting epic.

Both sides will be hugely motivated for the game and I can’t wait for what will no doubt be a thrilling meeting. This game, like the previous two, is another opportunity for Carlos Tevez to (depending on your point of view) either earn himself a new United contract or, as might be more likely, earn himself a lucrative contract with a rival of United. Either way, I’m not too worried, regardless of whether he stays or goes, he’s in the best form he’s been in for a long time and appears to be the main player urging us over the title finish line. I have to say though, I’ve put on €5 at 40/1 for him to score a hat-trick so I hope to fuck he keeps up his good form, knowing my luck he’ll be on the bench though.

It’s pretty late here in Ireland and I couldn’t be arsed writing more but I am gonna leave you with my prediction for the match. I am (for the sake of my €5 bet) gonna go with a barnstorming 4-1 for United with who else but Carlos Tevez scoring three of them.

Leave your predictions below to tell me if you agree or think I’m fucking mental for predicting a hat-trick for Carlitos. Enjoy!

And if you want to get in the mood for victory, and haven’t seen yesterday’s blog, check out some nice past victories against Arsenal here. Also, check out Martin from the Arsenal Offside’s preview here..

They call it the hallmark of champions, being able to grind out wins when you’re playing badly. And boy, did we play badly, in the first half anyway. But we ground through it with more than a little help from a little Argentine.

The first half of the first half was a bit of a mess. Wigan were strong and had some good chances, United had the clearest cut chances though, Rooney and Carrick missing from around five yards out.

Fergie brought in Rooney, Scholes and Carrick for this match, and left Tevez on the bench after his great performance against Man City on Saturday. But it was Wigan who had the first real chance of the match. After only two minutes, Antonio Valencia ran free through the United backline and as he approached VDS he attempted to chip him, only for the ball to drift wide.

Wigan did in fact take the lead in the twenty-eigth minute through the impressive Hugo Rodallega. The ball was played high into the box and was fought for by Vidic and Rodallega. The ball bounced off the both of them and bounced in the box, both were disorientated for a moment but it was the Colombian who regained his composure the quickest and smashed the ball low past VDS while Vidic scrambled for the ball. Wigan, indeed could have had one or two more but spurned some good chances at the end of the first half.

United came out in the second half knowing they had to improve massively if they wanted the three points. They were a bit better; faster, more creative and smarter but it really wasn’t until the introduction of Carlos Tevez that things got going properly. He got the players moving faster, played some neat balls and generally looked lively. Indeed, if he is leaving soon, he’s going out the right way after his last two performances. In the sixty-first minute Michael Carrick received the ball at the edge of the box and shot, it was a poor attempt though and drifted towards Tevez. With little on and no apparent shot at goal available the striker pulled one right out of the top drawer, as the ball drifted towards him he shifted his feet and stung a wondrous backheel into Richard Kingson’s net. 1-1, game on baby!

After the equaliser United went from strength to strength. They harried Wigan off the ball and the home side barely got out of their own half in the last half hour. Paul Scholes pulled the strings as the game went on. He sat in midfield and everything went through him, he was brilliant. Ronaldo however was awful today. As the match went on he must have had at least four good chances and spurned every one of them. While you were looking for one of the flair players to pop up and get a goal, it was a surprise candidate who got it. In the eighty-sixth minute Ronaldo ran up the right wing, passed the ball inside to JOS, who in-turn centred it to Michael Carrick. Carrick let the ball run across his body and with his left foot drove an absolute beauty towards the top corner past the hapless Wigan ‘keeper. It was a stunning goal that should be shown to kids being taught how to strike a ball.

After United took the lead, they took it easy, not going for any more goals and generally keeping things as they were. The only moment of merit was a nice move involving Giggs which ended in Ronaldo sticking a good chance into Row Z of the stands.

So, not quite the routine win some had expected, myself included, but a huge one nonetheless. It must be noted that Carlos Tevez’ contribution tonight was immense. Despte playing only a third of the time that Ronaldo did he put in twice as much work and really put the Portuguese winger to shame. While the Ronaldo lay on the ground, flapping his hands and looking for all the world like he was about to cry, Tevez was running his ass off for the sake of the team. Ronaldo could learn a thing or two from the whippy Argentine.

Some good performances despite the tight win tonight. Our midfield was quite good and really, only the two centre-backs looked dodgy, and even that was only in the first half. In light of how the match went I have to go with Michael Carrick as my man of the match. It wasn’t a great performance but a goal and an assist is certainly worthy of man of the match, no doubt!

After tonight, we need only one point from our final two EPL games (at home to Arsenal and away to Hull) to win the title. Honestly, I can almost smell it, so let’s hope we can spare the anxiety and wrap it up by hammering the Gooners at Old Trafford this Saturday.

(Pics from of BBC Sport)

Tonight we play Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium (or soon to be DW Stadium) safe in the knowledge that a win will leave us in need of just one point from our final two games of the season to clinch the title.

United come into this game in stunning form, having beaten Man City at home on Saturday and having won seventeen of their last nineteen games in total. Wigan, meanwhile, haven’t won in five games, and having looked good for a Europa League spot, are now suffering from Charlton syndrome (not relegation obviously, a poor end to the season). Their main problem has been their inability to score and if they want any chance of halting their slide down the table they’ll need their strikers to be firing on all cylinders. Not Zaki though, who’s out with ankle problems.

United have two main fitness worries in the form of Jonny Evans and Rio. Rio tweaked his calf in training during the week while Evans strained his hammie against City on Saturday. If both are injured, JOS will step in but Fergie is said to be hopeful that they’ll be alright.

Scholesy, Rooney and Carrick are set to return after being rested for the match on Saturday. What remains to be seen is whether Ronaldo or Tevez feature. Tevez ruffled a few feathers with his comments at the weekend but did score during a great performance against City, meanwhile, Ronaldo has also caused some controversy with the way he reacted to being subbed during the same game. Considering his reaction to simply being subbed, I don’t think he’d like being left out for a potentially huge game, so I expect him to start.

I’m feeling good about this match. Bruce’s side are in dire form and falling fast, and if United can take advantage of that it could be a walk in the park. Bruce, however, will be dying to get one up on his former manager and his players could be really pumped for this one. Still, with the form we’re in and with every player dying to claim a place in the CL Final we could see some great performances tonight. Also, we won the title here last season so I feel it’s a bit of a lucky charm.

My prediction has to 3-0 to United! Oh also, here’s a potential link to a live stream of the match.

Match Squads

Wigan: Kingson, Melchiot, Figueroa, Edman, Boyce, Bramble, Scharner, Valencia, Koumas, De Ridder, Cattermole, Brown, Watson, N’Zogbia, Kapo, Mido, Rodallega, Sibierski, Pollitt.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Foster, Kuszczak, Rafael, O’Shea, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Ronaldo, Nani, Carrick, Scholes, Fletcher, Anderson, Park, Giggs, Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov, Macheda.

So there we have it, leave your comments, hopeful first XIs and predictions below. Cheers.

For you see, tomorrow at 13.30GMT we play host to our old rivals from Middle Eastlands, Manchester City. The blue side of Manchester come to Old Trafford on the back of a good run of form, which has seen them record their first away win since August. The main reasons for this return to form, or perhaps it should be called a maintained consistency because they weren’t really in any sort of form before, are that Robinho has started scoring and Elano has pulled his head out of his arse and remembered he’s actually a footballer. Of course, even through City’s bad period of the season Stephen Ireland was still getting rave reviews and he too has been stunning in the last few games, setting up numerous goals. We, meanwhile, have completely discarded any memory of our our two-game blip and are now striding towards the finish line, when it previously looked like we’d hobble over it. The two memorable performances of recent weeks have to be the 5-2 home win against Spurs and the 3-1 win against Arsenal in the CL Semi-Final Second Leg. The second half performance against Spurs and the entire performance against Arsenal showed that this team in full flow are nigh on unbeatable and can rip any defence apart with some neat passing.

It’s an interesting match, it appears, from the outset. Here we have two in-form sides who really don’t like each other and always want to get one up on each other. Earlier in the season we beat them 0-1, courtesy of a goal from Wayne Rooney, whilst they done the double over us last season. There are going to be some key figures in this game that I feel the need to discuss. For City, their main men are Robinho and Stephen Ireland. Ireland, when given time on the ball, can pull the strings in midfield and if he links up with the little Brazilian they can cause havoc. You regularly see the two parading and overlapping up the wings, ripping teams’ defences to shreds. Robinho is less of a danger I feel, I don’t feel that he has the ability to make something out of nothing that Ireland has, but he’s still a good player. If Rio and Vidic (or whoever’s playing centre-back) don’t close him down then he will cause us trouble. However, if they do close him down and rough him up a bit, I can see him getting phased out of this one.

In response to the talisman Ireland, I believe that Fletcher is one of our key men. Following on from his red card midweek, and living in that he’ll probably miss the Final in Rome, I think that Fletcher will want to leave his mark on this season. I think he’ll play every one of our remaining domestic games, starting with Sunday. He showed against Arsenal how he can cramp players, and give them little to no time on the ball. He needs to do exactly that to Ireland to cut City’s creative supply off at it’s source. he could do a job on Ireland on Sunday, if he can stay on his toes, and anticipate the Irishman’s movement he could nullify that threat. Ronaldo is another key man for us in my opinion. City are weak when it comes to their full-backs, Wayne Bridge has been especially dodgy after been tipped as City’s defensive saviour. If Ronaldo can get some runs up the wings he can terrorize Bridge. Bridge isn’t clever when attackers come inside from the wing so if Ronaldo does this then he has Bridge beat, I think.

These are just a few players who I think will play a big part tomorrow. Obviously, there are others (Rooney, Rio and Elano and Given for City) who’ll play pivotal roles but I think these players will provide the key battles on the pitch at Old Trafford.

It could be a tight game, as some have predicted but given the attacking nature of both teams and the attacking quality of both teams I think it will be very open. I think it will be end-to-end and there could be a few goals. Regardless of who wins it, it will probably come down to who defends best, because both sides can provide attacking masterclasses on their day.

I’m going for a 3-1 win for us.

The first twenty five minutes of the match was alright, two teams going back and forth between each others boxes with no clear cut chances at either end. But then, in the space of three minutes Spurs scored two goals. First off, Lennon played the ball back to Vedran Corluka and from the right he crossed it in, it went over Nemanja’s head and landed at Darren bent, it hit him and he composed himself to knock it past VDS, 0-1. Two minutes later we saw a literal carbon copy of Porto’s final goal at OT a few weeks back. A chipped cross from the right drifted over the heads of the defender and with the right-back (I’m looking at you, Rafael!) out of position, Modric took a touch and put it past VDS, 0-2.

We reacted with very little in the remainder of the first half. But Dear Lord, Sir Alex must have had two or three hairdryers on the go at half-time. United came out a team with more vigour, more pace but sadly, little more invention. but then, on the fifty fifth minute a pass was played through to Carrick, he was one-on-one with Gomes, tried to take it passed him but was ‘brought down’, except he wasn’t. Craig Burley went on about this for ages on Setanta but he was mostly right; Gomes got the ball, no doubt. But I’m not one to argue with referees so when Mr. Webb awarded the penalty I didn’t say a word (not that he would have heard me from my living room). Ronaldo scored and the comeback was on.

Then just a few minutes later, with United looking like themselves again, a ball was played through to Roo who outran the defender and as he typically does, knocked it in at the near post, with more than a little help from Heurelho Gomes. Then within a few minutes Roo once again received the ball on the left wing, he took a touch, looked and swung a high cross into Ron who scored with a diving header. He then preceded to celebrate by taking his jersey off and throwing it into the crowd, which he was booked for.

Minutes later, the roles were reversed as Ronaldo chipped a nice ball to the back post where Roo was, he took a touch and slotted it towards goal. It came off Gomes, crept towards goal, slipped under Woodgate, and eventually went over the line but not before calls of “scrummage” from me and a mate who had hoped a riot of some kind would break out.

Then, to put the final, lazy and lanky nail in the coffin, Rooney once again became provider with a nice cross to Berba, who after having his header saved, showed that although he can’t score from twelve yards he can certainly score from three.

So it finished 5-2 to United and we’re back on top. An awful first-half display but the second half was easily the best we’ve played all season.

I haven’t had a chance to see both goals yet but I read a telecast of the match between United and Pompey tonight. So here’s my fairly accurate report on the day that Scholes reached 600 United caps, with some interesting news to boot!

From what I read, we were in control for the majority of the match. Rooney scored in the first half after a nice pass from Anderson was beautifully controlled by Giggsy, who slotted the ball across the box to Roo who knocked it calmly passed David James. As I said, I didn’t see the second goal but from what I’ve read Michael Carrick (a sub for Anderson) got on the end of a nice through ball from Scholes and placed a cool shot past David James in the dying minutes.

Portsmouth are said to have played well and given a very good account of themselves. No surprise there really as Paul Hart has done a great job, both on the pitch and in terms of bringing back the confidence lost during Tony Adams’ time at the club.

This win brings us back to the top of the Premier League with a game in hand over Liverpool (on 71 points) and the now (almost definitely) out of contention Chelsea (on 68 points).

I’ll fill this out more later hopefully but now to some very intriguing news about one of our former players. Roy Keane, United legend and ex-Black Cats boss is the favourite to replace Jim Magilton, who was sacked by Ipswich Town today. It is so close to being done that apparently he’ll be named manager tomorrow!

Anyone fancy a flutter on the Tractor Boys to get promoted next season?

Watch the Hillsborough memorial service here.

Today at 3pm GMT we play Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland are going through a torrid run of form that makes our form resemble our unbeaten run a few months back. This isn’t going to be a long one. I’m just up and haven’t had my coffee yet so I’m not fully coherent. But we need to win this match, no doubts.

You may have seen this interview with Sir Alex, in which he speaks about his desire to win trophies at United, and you just really hope the players would have that belief.

This match isn’t going to be an easy one, Sunderland are deep in the shit and will be working their arses off to get their first win in a while.

Some have called for us to play a weakened team here, so we’re full strength for Porto on Wednesday. If you ask me that’s a load of crap. We need to play our full strength team at every single possible occasion until the season’s end.

Some injury news, Rio is still out. Evans could, only possibly face his former club, but it apparently looks more likely that John O’Shea will fill in. Here’s the team squad for the trip, make of it what you will:

Van der Sar, Foster, Kuszczak
O’Shea, Neville, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Eckersley
Ronaldo, Nani, Fletcher, Gibson, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Park
Rooney, Tevez, Welbeck, Macheda, Berba

Anyway, enjoy the match. And leave your comments as the match progresses and your rants or whatever.

There was a minute’s silence at Anfield today ahead of the Liverpool – Blackburn game to remember the victims of the Hillsborough tragedy as the 20th anniversary approaches. It happened on April 15, 1989 and although I was only very young at the time, things that I have read and watched since have enlightened towards the events. What happened that day was absolutely tragic and puts into perspective the triviality of football. 20 years on, I hope that justice is finally found for these people. RIP.

And all title stuff aside, fair play to Liverpool for putting on a good show for their fans on a day such as this. They played great and won 4-0.