Just three points separate Manchester United and Chelsea, with the blues yet to visit Old Trafford and arguably their two most important players about to leave for the African Cup of Nations.
Sir Alex Ferguson has looked at all the rivals to our title this week, whilst John Terry and Frank Lampard have talked up their chances.
Which attitude will pay off come May?
Playing it down
Ferguson: It could be open. It is a tough league. The form of Aston Villa makes you look over your shoulder and say “Hey, wait a minute”. And Tottenham are challenging in that top group as well. The history of the league points to it being between two teams but, from the spectator and general interest point of view, you hope it changes. It would be good if four or five teams are involved in the last month of the season. It would be fantastic.
Bigging yourself up
Terry: We should be further ahead at the top of the league and we only have ourselves to blame. I understand everyone feeling frustrated, our defending of set-plays was unacceptable. We’re still on target for 90 points this season and we are the only club which is.
nb. Terry doesn’t half talk shite.
Lampard: United have a history of doing it but we’ve had a history of doing it as well. We’re very determined. We had a really bad time around this time last year but when Guus Hiddink came in we were in the best form by far of anyone in the league. We can do that again.
nb. For the 12 games Hiddink was in charge until United were named Champions, Chelsea won 10, drew 1 and lost 1, claiming 31 points. United won 9, drew 1 and lost 2, claiming 28 points. Hardly the best form “by far” fat boy.
Man Utd News 24/7
i said last week villa could be the surprise package.not to win the league but to stay close to United and chelsea and make arsenal earn that 3rd spot and cause a few more upsets before the end. Spurs are very good but results like stoke and wolves at Home will cost them. i feel we missed a decent player in kranckjar, looks really good.shitty are too inconsistent. 8 draws already.thats rubbish when you spend 150 million and yet cant defend.
as for terry and lampard. Fuck them .Chelsea are a bunch of overconfident cunts. a few weeks back after the arsenal game drogba said catch us if you can.that was followed by defeats at shitty and draw against Everton.
United are the champions and have every right to be positive without being called arrogant. The fact that we are quite humble is more to our credit.
I’d love to put Chelsea in their place and I think we will. Much has changed from the start of the season and 90 points is probably not the target- which is just as well.
hmm lampard and terry lets see who has the recent history.
united prem titles 11
chelsea prem titles 2
uniteds cls 2
chelseas cls 0
man utd world club cups 2
chelsea world club cups 0
man utd fa cups 4
chelsea fa cups 3
man utd league cups 2
chelsea league cups 1
yea they really have the history, and tell me chelsea when did you last win the league oh yea 2006 we are almost in 2010, like I say with chelsea you are so 2006.
I wish attitudes played a part in all this because Chelsea would definitely get f*cked. However, i remember Jose Mourinho and how cocky he was. Didn’t do him any harm in the first 2 seasons. What we must do, is focus on playing matters. Words won’t give us the league. A big run of wins will.
I don’t know. Knocking him for using the words ‘by far’ is being too pedantic. We all know most footballers talk shite. Carrick’s interviews are always boring, and Rio isn’t too great either. And for most opposition fans Neville is a WUM, but he’s a hero for us. It’s all part of the game and fun. Let’s not pay too much heed to what is really small talk and parse these sentences. They mean nothing really.
Let them talk. We’ll see who’s kissing the prem trophy in may.
I am sorry, since when is united fan can be called anything but arrogant?
All talk is cheap, no matter who is doing it. All questions going to be answered come spring.
Enjoy the ride while it lasts, everything changes sooner or later.
Personally, I am looking forward to weekly moan from Fergie.. usually quite amusing stuff.
we should let our football do the talking.” Actions Speaks Louder than words”.
Red Ranter – Carricks interviews may be “boring” as you put it but he is NEVER arrogant.
As Keano said in his book “TALKING about winning is easy”.
aig – Don’t put too much on Villa.They were third last Jan and we all know what happened. Much like the rentboys O’Neill plays the same players week in week out. Come Feb or March they will be fucked. Their squad is still pretty thin mate. As for Kranjkaer, yeah he did ok at Pompey and is doing well at Spurs but that is more than likely his level. Don’t think he is good enough for United. Modric on the other hand.
I honestly think despite the dippers form of late it will still be the same top four. It is a marathon not a sprint. Don’t like Villa simply for the reason Collymore supports them!
Did anyone see the “Big Utd quiz” on MUTV last night? Owen pretty much knew all the answers, even the United ones. For example “Who captained United to their champions win in 1999?”. Carrick and Hargo both said Keano. Owen said no him and Scholes were banned. Fair play to the lad. He seems to know his stuff.
“Chelsea are so 2006″. Nice one rooney is the new king!
“It ain’t bragging if you can do it.” TinyTears and PhatPhwanque might be well-advised to reconsider their recent history – because they ain’t done it since Jose’s second year.
And, speaking of Jose, don’t you all just wish him the best of luck in the next round of the CL ? He couldn’t beat UTD last year and this year he got an easier draw.
A poll is suggested scott.
Just kidding,we know united will win the poll
many clubs have a history of doing it fat boy.. blackburn, arsenal, liverpool, no wait…..
By the way, I missed the CL draw – who are LiverPoo matched up against ? and what about ManShitty ?
King Eric
i am impressed by villa but you are right. something happens to young or agbonlahor and i can see them struggling. if they make some signings in january things may change. i can seeing arsenal finishing 3rd but 4th place is very much up for grabs and i dont think it will be the dippers. i would love to see spurs in 4th. harry has got a good squad and some quality in there in all departments unlike the wastelands circus who dont have any decent defenders. i rate modric very highly but he would be expensive whereas spurs got kranckjar for 2 million. for that price he is a bargain
Let’s worry about Fulham first. With Zamora on a streak these days and our shaky form, tomorrow’s match may not be pretty.
The dippers have been drawn against the well known european giants Unirea Urzicena. As I said in an earlier post, this is THE european tie to see. Expect this match to generate crowds in the region of 10,000 and a television audience on channel 5 of 30 or 40 people.
I am worried about Fulham too. Our lads must not forget last season’s game and paticulary the second half when they dominated Fulham with a player less. That’s the kind of attitude that they must have tomorrow, only this time the finishing must be better.
Did anyone hear what happened at Tottenham? Just last week, Redknapp publicly told his players that they are forbidden from attending any parties. Guess what happened? A day or two before the home defeat to Wolves, a party of 16 players led by Robbie Keane flew to Dublin for a party!
King Eric — so what’s wrong with being arrogant? For many champion players in sport, arrogance has been the fuel that pushes them on to perform. Cantona had that arrogance about him, and he was loved for his pomp.
You have legends who aren’t arrogant and are held in high esteem, like Roger Federer, Pele, Giggs, but that’s just the icing on the cake. It’s nice to see a great player be humble, but it’s just a “nice thing to have” rather than a be all and end all.
Red Ranter:Eric Cantona had an arrogant demeanor ON the pitch, off the pitch he was a softly spoken, modest and unassuming gentleman. That is the difference between the iconic legend he is, and the pair of wankers Terry and Lampad are.
i am worried about tomorow as well. zamora will be a handful and without vidic we may struggle against him.they are a well oiled hard working side. keep zamora quiet and we will win. they get a lot of crosses in from duff and pantsil . Credit to Roy Hodgson he has done a great job there. i feel we wont get many chances so we cant be wasteful like we have been. I think rooney will play alone up front and SAF will revert to the 4-5-1 formation. dificult game but we should beat them. want to see fletcher in midfield and da laet at Right back so that fletch and boss the midfield. we dont have the same authority in midfield when fletch plays at Right back.
aig Alex: No doubt we will have to work hard for the points at Fulham, but Iam not too worried about Zamora. After all ‘When the ball hits your head and your sat in row z it’s Zamora!’
@Rob: Haha! Never head that one before!
Costas: To the tune of it’s amoure by dean martin
Costas: It must be pissing Redknapp off good style. The best chance they have in years to really do something big and they do that! Expect some arse kicking at the Lane.
@Rob: Yeah i am familiar with the tune. I had never heard those lyrics that go with it before,hehe.
Harry was seriously pissed in the press conference today, but he said he will handle it within the club. How daft can some players be? No wonder they lost to Wolves. If i were Tottenham, i would fine the those players, apart from Keane whom i would sack. The club captain that ledy by example!
Rob the red.hope so mate but zamora seems a transformed player after his shocking miss against shitty a couple of months back.scored 2 in midweek too. Vidic has to play too
if we can stay close and get through the injury problems we should be favourites,lets face it sir alex is full of shit we he suggests 5 teams in the ruuning would be fantastic,fuck that stay close for the next month and open it up towards the end
Red Ranter – That’s just it though. It is ok being arrogant if you can back it up. Fat Frank and Tiny Tears and the like can’t back it up. They ain’t been Champions of England for nearly 4 years.
Costas and hurr – I aren’t particularly looking forward to Fulham but if Scholes hadn’t of got sent off I think it could have been a very different game. We hammered them at home and in the cup. Would be much more confident though with a fit back five.
aig – You are right about that. He was a steal for 2 million.
rob the red – Spot on about Cantona.
You can afford to be arrogant if you win or have a recent record of winning. Arrogance is somewhat in the eye of the beholder.
@King Eric:
Same here, but there are a couple of pluses in all this. For one thing, our away form this season has been terrific. 9 wins in 12 matches in all competitions. Secondly, the team is gettin used to playing with absences. And that’s a plus because they are learning to do it the hard way. Since the Rio-Vida partnership started blossoming, everyone(including their own team mates) expected them to bail us out every time. Now they are learning to cope without them. We see players like De Laet and Carrick taking charge. Craven Cottage will be a tough test for these inexperienced defenders, but i hope that by now they have got the hang of it.
If i had to guess a line up, i would say:
PIG-De Laet,Carrick,Vidic,Evra-Valencia,Fletcher,Gibson(or Scholes),Anderson,Giggs-Rooney
4-5-1 has helped a lot in away games.
Costas – Exact same team I would pick. I would go with Scholes. He should be ok after Wednesday seeing as he didn’t have to break sweat. I really do think though that this could be Gibson’s proper breakthrough season. He could feature a lot between now and May. Has shown some good form. I actually like this formation away from home. Our midfielders are chipping in with goals.
Exactly King Eric. Not to mention that Valencia and Giggs have more space to work in. We will see about Gibson. Over the last few weeks he is starting to feature more and more. Fergie could play him and Scholes and leave Ando out. It’s nice to have so many options in midfield.
By the way, Nani is out for 2 weeks. Hence his absence from the Wolves game.
Costas – Hmmm. Just heard Fergie say “I have my team for tomorrow in mind, it may surprise a few people but………….”. I also heard him say at his press conference that the defeat to Fulham last March was “revealing”. What has the wily old fox got in mind?
Furthermore Costas I note you put that the team is getting used to playing with injuries. Fergie also said that the team NEVER discuss injuries. That is the belief they all have. He said that they all have the belief that whichever “ten red jerseys are out there they are there to win a game”. Got to admire the man.
I head his line about the Fulham game from last March. I think that the defeat at Fulham was revealing because the team had completely different performances in the two halves. Maybe he meant that. There were also a couple of bad judgments on his behalf that day. Fletcher on the right, Scholes and Giggs in the middle, Rooney on the bench… But what really cost us that game was the fact that the lads were still reeling from the Liverpool game in the first half.
I wonder what kind of surprise he could spring on us. Maybe a start for Michael Owen? Given the way that Fergie rotates his first XI, that’s the one thing that would surprise me.
chelsea along with lampard and terry come back when u have won what this empire united side have won the we can say you have history
Their bought victories will always be hollow and meaningless.
yeah right. chelsea have a crap history compared to ours, the bullshit lampard only knows how to talk