Aston Villa v Manchester United, at Villa Park, Aston; 20th October, 17:15 BST
The Premier League is back. It seems like a year ago that United recorded a 4-0 win over Wigan. Now, United face Aston Villa whose manager is being lined up as future England manager again, although I was treated the way he was treated by the FA, I’d tell them where to shove their job. Not that the position is vacant, mind, but the press are circling the trawler, not so much seaguls but vultures picked at the dead carcass of England’s Euro 2008 campaign. Come on Scotland!
Speaking of England before moving on to better teams, I see Rooney was partly blamed for the defeat because of that penalty. Firstly, Rooney scored a fantastic goal (if offside perhaps) and it would have been 2-0 if it hadn’t been for Press Darling Steven Gerrard. Check out this interesting analysis of Captain Slightly Not Fantastic Gerrard’s performance against Estonia.
United are without England’s Hargreaves, Carrick and Neville (still!) and Glassland’s Saha. Vidic, O’Shea and Fletcher should all be okay to play. I wonder if Anderson will get the nod after a good display against Wigan. Fletcher was clearly not match fit for Scotland, so I expect O’Shea to fit in. Brown should return for Pique which is almost a shame as I hope that both Pique and Simpson get more run outs.
“England’s best midfield” Gareth Barry will be hoping for a similar result to when the played Chelsea but United are going for their 10th league win in a row against Villa, whilst hoping to extend their clean sheet record by another 90 minutes to 659 minutes.
Special mention to Ronaldo who will be making his 200th appearance for United but Ryan Giggs doesn’t have to worry too much yet.
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Nice one. I particularily like the comments and Utube on Gerrard. He was driving me potty.