Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Hard to Say What to Expect?

Recap: Season up to Arsenal (away)


If I have any readers, I want to first start by saying sorry for the absence. I am a senior in college and have been too busy to spend too much writing down my thoughts so far. With that said I have seen and watched every United game this season and I have a lot to say to right now. So lets get to it.

United saw an injury riddled start to the season. Hargreaves is still out and Soccernet.com is reporting a decision will be made about surgery in the coming weeks. Scholes is still out from a knee injury and will be sidelined for sometime to come and could see a return during the hectic start of the New Year. Good news is Ronaldo has returned is showing signs of his best form during patches of the game. He will not return to the Ronaldo of last year for another month or so due to his recent return to the team. Carrick just returned from a broken foot bone and is getting back into form.

Rooney’s poor early start quickly began to change as he showed real class in 7 straight games scoring 9 for club and country. He is now sitting on 99 goals for United and seems desperate to hit the century mark. Ronaldo is getting warm receptions at Old Trafford but was not doing much celebrating after scoring goals. This changed in recent games and he is signaled he expects to stay at United this season and next. Fergie is adamant at attempting to get him to stay for much longer and supposedly is considering offering Ronaldo a $300,000 a week contract. A huge offer but Madrid will still come knocking and by the looks of recent results, they need some help.

United are sitting on top of their group in Champions league play but tied with Villarreal at 8 points. United and Villarreal look good to go through to the knockout round with United playing Villarreal in Spain and Aalborg at Old Trafford. United now sit third with a game in hand at 21 points. Ahead of them are Chelsea and Liverpool tied at 26 points but Chelsea, who is the best defensive team in the EPL, has a better goal differential. United lost to Liverpool and got a draw at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, two results I can only hope do not come back to haunt us.

United will finish there first 4 games against the top 4 teams away from home in the EPL this season this weekend, when United travel south to London to play Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. This could be a momentum changer for United as they struggled last weekend to secure a 4-1 lead, escaping with a 4-3 win over Hull, and saving a point against Celtic after having numerous chances to take all three points. Arsenal can say the same after dropping points to Tottenham in a thrilling 4-4 game, losing to Stock away from home at the Britannia Stadium, and drawing with Fenerbahce in Turkey today.

Both teams are not in top form, but I really like our chances going to London. They will be up for the game, we always raise our form against Arsenal, and Ronaldo looks ready to gain some Old Trafford hearts back with a top performance. Fergie has a way of getting everyone focused on the game and finds ways to get more form from a side riddled with talent. If United can play a good game and grab the result our season could finally truly take off. Arsenal will be gunning for a scalp and I hope our counter attack will be working with the speedy Ronaldo, Rooney, and Berba playing target man. Anderson played well last year and controlled the midfield for large portions of the game and I will be looking at him to see how we are doing. With Adebayor out and the team looking stretched United will look to hold strong and quickly get the ball up to the dynamic three at the top of the formation.

Big game this weekend that in the U.S. Setanta if you have DIRECTV and also online from setentausa.com. Myp2p.eu is a great place to download programs to watch live out of market games. I will have the recap of this important game and hopefully my notes do not end up wrinkled like they did against Chelsea. We Will Never Die!