I’m just hoping that our boys can get off the schnide early and force the rentboys to come out and play. I’d really like to see goals pouring in every 10 minutes or so a la the match vs Roma ending somewheres in the vicinity of 8-Nil. Hopefully Rooney will get a couple and maybe set him off on one of his goal frenzies and maybe Berba could toss in a brace as well just to shut up the tosspots wanking about him. Let CR7 blast in a freekick from 35 yds out to keep him happy (and make up for that horrendous attempt in the final) and lets get one from Anderson (just to make believers out of us all) and then have Tevez break free and take Peters freaking padded noggined head clean off his sloped shoulders! And to round the evening off nicely lets have Edwin bounce one in off a freekick just outside his area (hell, Robinson managed it so let the dutchman dream!)

I think that the key issue with this year’s version of the RentBoyz is that they are soooo inconsistent – if you saw them against Villa in September/October, you would have thought it was a time-travel back to Puskasz and Hideguti’s demolition of Ingerland, the game was soooo one-sided in their favour but if you have been watching their recent performances it really looks like a blue version of Wimbledon from the early 1990s.

Their inconsistency stems from three factors: injuries, which are a problem for all teams, have hit the RentBoyz hard as they have lost Essien and Carvalho (two really fantastic players) for a long stretch and Drogba has been in and out of their line-up; no PlanB – if they can’t steam-roller the opposition then they seem to get confused; and believing their own press clippings from September/October. Add to that, Scolari seems out of his depth, JT is slowly down and becoming an octopus like Carragher, and – just like SAF stated – they have nowhere to go but down since they have only one player (Jon Obi-Mikel) who could be considered young and a raft of guys who have seen better days.

That said, they still have a lot of quality in their team and real fighting spirit, which was in evidence last spring when they just refused to buckle under until the last weekend of the EPL season. IF they lose to TheLads on Sunday, then I am predicting that all hell breaks loose at Stamford Bridge but IF they can win at OT on Sunday then the gloating and bleating will make us all sick to our stomachs. It’s not imposible; don’t fool yourself about that. I would be very loathe to underestimate them – don’t prod a wounded bear.

Its going to be played at 100 miles per hour with tackles flying in all over the place but no real quality football or chances created. Both sides will be terrified of losing, so both will be quite happy with a 1-1 or 0-0 finish. We just have to hope that there is an early goal to open the game up. Check that, that UNITED score an early goal so they are forced to come out of their shell a little. If they score first, it will be Sunderland/Boro all over again and I imagine they will be a lot better at parking the bus.

Come on Berba, step up to the plate my son.

Methinks that with the attack we have, we’ve been simmering for just a little too long. Sooner or later the lid’s going to blow … and Sunday would be a great occasion to show what being world champions really means ! Let’s go straight for the Jugular and send them back crying all the way down the M6 / M1 !

I think that Scolari is on thin ice – only the prospect of the return of AverageGrant is really “saving his bacon”. And, let’s not forget, that Roman Abramovich is on even thinner ice in terms of the viability of his financial empire – one senses that Chel$kiFC would be one of the last of his fripperies to get a cash infusion after he has had to go cap-in-hand to the Putin government just to stay afloat. Lose big and this has the potential to turn into a perfect storm for the RentBoyz. I live in hope.