Arse Spuds

Manchester United visit The Emirates today in what would traditionally be a clash of the titans. Only today is very different. Not only have United already won the league convincingly, but it's been a good few years since we've given them a good game.

Think back to January 2012, 2-1. A pretty close game, inevitable defeat, but regardless of the result nothing we could have done would help us forget the woeful 8-2. Moving forward. November. 2-1. Close again? No. it wasn't close, and it should have been 4 or 5 to them, with Santi hitting a consolation as the last kick of the game. Ferguson complained his team didn't score enough. He looks at this fixture as a way to boost goal difference, on the contrary about 10 year ago, he would be shitting himself. Of course the Arsenal "fall from grace" is well documented, so lets move back to today.

With United having already won the title, i'm hoping they won't play a full strength side. Of course HE will play, but Ferguson now has a chance to rotate and give his younger players some first team action (unless he wants the points record, which i don't think he cares about). They played on Monday, so lets assume they "partied" into Tuesday and aren't as well rested. It only takes one or two players to not be up for it to change a game, and considering  the Sp*rs result yesterday, i can't see that being a problem on our side. A different story for them perhaps...

When looking at our run in, i thought this to be a game we would mark as a defeat and move on. I try to be realistic and not hopeful. As the game drew closer, it started to look pretty certain they'd actually win the title at our ground. They didn't however, partly thanks to the Spuds. I'd rather give them (and HIM) a guard of honor then them actually win it here and run around celebrating at our place.

I've built up a quiet confidence here, and if we can really have a go at them i don't see why, now, we can't actually win this one. They'll let us have the ball, they always do. Hopefully they'll field a slightly weakened side, but that's not a certainty. With Giroud out i'm praying Arsene keeps the same formation and just swaps Podolski into his place, but it wouldn't surprise me if he played Gervinho there instead. I'd love the Ox to start, but he'll probably be resigned to the bench once again. Presumably Theo will start, and he really needs to put a shift in. He's scored once since signing his contract and He's been anonymous in most of the games since Christmas.

Taking all of this into account, and if we play our game properly, I'm confident we can avoid defeat, and maybe even win. But like i said i try to be realistic, and so...

1-1

Matt