Man United V Man City – The Fallout

So, what did we learn following Man City’s unprecedented 6-1 victory over United at Old Trafford? For me, the main things to be said about the Manchester Derby and what it means for this season are as follows:
So, what did we learn following Man City’s unprecedented 6-1 victory over United at Old Trafford? For me, the main things to be said about the Manchester Derby and what it means for this season are as follows:
This Sunday the theatre of dreams will stage the most eagerly awaited Manchester derby fixture the city has ever witnessed. Local bragging rights are up for grabs, and a place at the summit of English football’s premier league for that team that is victorious.
After weeks of waiting for it, the Manchester derby is almost upon us. In the red corner we have England’s most successful club Manchester United and in the blue corner we have the ‘Noisy Neighbours’ Manchester City who want to become the most successful English club.
Manchester United play Romanian Champions Otelul Galati tonight in both team’s third match of this year’s Champions League group stage. It will no doubt be a game United on paper should be winning and one that Sir Alex Ferguson will be demanding a win from too.
Kenny Dalglish and Sir Alex Ferguson are set to renew their rivalry this Saturday when Liverpool welcome old foes Manchester United to Anfield in what is expected to be Reds captain Steven Gerrard’s first start of the season after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a groin injury.
Despite the long and illustrious history of the European Cup, there have only ever been five winners from capital cities (see if you can get all five – answers are at the bottom of the page). It is of no surprise that a number of European Cups have been won by some of the poorest areas, not least Liverpool.
Manchester Untied travel to Anfield this weekend to face our old foes Liverpool, who will no doubt want their messiah Kenny Dalgish to inflict a first league defeat of the season for Sir Alex Ferguson.
Arsene Wenger completed 15 years as manager of Arsenal a fortnight ago. And, in those 15 years, he has had several interesting battles with various managers. While very few of those have been on personal fronts, he fought with fellow managers over trophies, tactics, refereeing and approach to football. So let us take a look at what I consider his greatest five rivals.
Recently I have heard little rumours here and there about January transfer targets for Sir Alex Ferguson.
One of the interesting sub-plots of the season so far at Old Trafford has been the fact that Manchester United’s £30m striker Dimitar Berbatov appears to have fallen behind Danny Welbeck in the pecking order at the club.
What football fans witnessed this week in the form of Carlos Tevez’s refusal to play was repugnant. What Alex Ferguson has witnessed in the form of TV’s ever growing influence over football was repugnant also, in his opinion. At the heart of both these much publicised incidents is the idea of power within football and who should have the right to exercise that power.
On the night their dear neighbours faced a daunting coming of age over in Germany in the Champions League, Manchester United faced a rather ordinary looking tie at home to Basel, the Champions of Switzerland who have never qualified for the knockout stages of the competition that Sir Alex Ferguson claimed on the dawn on the tie was the “greatest in the world”.
Carrying on from my previous article which looked at the unsavoury side of Roy Keane, it's worth remembering constrating his attitude towards his on-pitch violence with his view of one of the most inspiring and jaw-dropping performances by any football player, anywhere, at any time.
By any stretch of the imagination Roy Keane is an extraordinary sports personality and an unusual human being. For a football player that was not blessed with natural footballing skills he became the most effective player of his generation and became a monumental figure in the midfield of the park for both club and country.
On Wednesday night Michael Owen starred for Manchester United for the first time in the 2011-2012 season, scoring two goals in a 3 – 0 win away from home against Leeds in the Carling Cup third round.