Manchester United host Spurs in the crucial league stage.

After some great round of football last weekend when Chelsea lost and United won the league it back with the utmost excitement. All the twenty teams will be in action. Starting the play with an early kick off on Saturday is Tottenham Hotspur, who defeated Chelsea and previously defeated Arsenal also, will be on the way to Old Trafford to play against defending Champions Manchester United while leaders Chelsea will be hoping to cruise past Stoke City at home and sit at a comfortable position with their lead on Sunday.

The match at Old Trafford is important for both teams. Manchester United are desperate to get back at the top and retain the title while Tottenham on the other side would be hoping to cement their fourth place while takes them to the champions league qualification round. News from the locker room is that Rio Ferdinand and Wes Brown may be back in the starting line up for the red devils while Wayne Rooney is still short of full fitness to start. Sir Alex will be banking on the experiece of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes to break the deadlock. For Spurs Jonathan Woodgate is out injured with a groin trouble while Jermaine Jenas is doubtful to play at OT. The table will be changed… lets see what happens.

The match timings of the weekend matches are:

Saturday

Manchester United Vs Tottenham Hotspur 1245 Hours GMT

Bolton Wanderers Vs Portsmouth 1500 Hours GMT

Hull City Vs Sunderland 1500 Hours GMT

West Ham United Vs Wigan 1500 Hours GMT

Wolves Vs Blackburn Rovers 1500 Hours GMT

Arsenal Vs Manchester City 1700 Hours GMT

Sunday

Aston Villa Vs Birmingham City 1200 Hours GMT

Burnley Vs Liverpool 1500 Hours GMT

Everton Vs Fulham 1500 Hours GMT

Chelsea Vs Stoke City 1600 Hours GMT

Rooney-less United to prove a point against Chelsea this weekend.

The stage is set for the biggest match of the season. It will be the clash of the titans as champions Manchester United will be hosting rivals Chelsea at Old Trafford as if not everything, allot depends upon the leader of the league after this match. The two have met in the Champions league, FA Cup and all loads of tournament and most of the time the result have always seen one team losing the trophy to other.

 

In other matches, Arsenal will be hosting Wolverhampton Wanderers and would be hoping to get back on track for the title while struggling Liverpool hope to get the fourth place when they face Birmingham City. Fourth placed Tottenham will be visiting the stadium of light to face Sunderland who had put up a decent show this season.

After their champions league defeat in the hands of Bayern, Manchester United will be hoping to have a positive result out of this one. Big blow for the red devils is the injury to Wayne Rooney which he received in the midweek loss.Although it is not a fracture but a ligament tear will also take a minimum of two weeks to heal as a result he may miss the return leg against Bayern Munich at Old Trafford. Other than that Manchester United will going with their usual side with Ryan Giggs, Valencia in the wing and Berbatov up front.

Knowing the intensity, the blues are all fired up to get this one away that to in front of the devils crowd. After their exit from Europe they will be hoping to lead the table after the match. With Drogba fit and Lampard providing the breakthroughs, Carlo Ancelotti’s men has no doubt to get this one.

The match timings are:

Saturday:

Manchester United vs Chelsea 12:45 Hours GMT

Arsenal vs Wolverhampton Wanderers 15:00 Hours GMT 

Bolton Wanderers vs Aston Villa 15:00 Hours GMT
Portsmouth vs Blackburn Rovers 15:00 Hours GMT
Stoke City vs Hull City 15:00 Hours GMT
Sunderland vs Tottenham Hotspur 15:00 Hours GMT
Burnley vs Manchester City 17:30 Hours GMT

Sunday:
Birmingham City vs Liverpool 15:00 Hours GMT
Fulham vs Wigan Athletic 15:00 Hours GMT
Everton vs West Ham United 16:00 Hours GMT

Chelsea looses, United draws, Gunners wins. The table remains the same…

Unable to take advantage of their rivals loss, Manchester Unitedremained at second place with their 1-1 draw against Aston Villa.Chelsea’s fared worse when they
lost against mighty Everton by 1-2, it was former Man United playerLouis Saha
getting the double for Everton. Arsenal finally got into winning ways after
defeating Liverpool with 1-0.

 

 Villa took the lead in the 19^th minute when Stewart Downing’s right-wing
cross was not fully cleared by Rafael as a result the ball dropped to Spanish
defender Carlos Cuellar whose curling header made the ball go into the far
corner. But just 4 minutes later United levelled through an own goal
when Ryan Giggs’ volleyed cross was turned into his own net by Villa defender
James Collins.

Despite the draw what will be concerning Sir Alex will be that their veteran winger Ryan Giggs will be out for at least 4 weeks after fracturing his arm following his clash with Steve Sidwell in the 74^th minute. He is likely to
miss the the champions league match against AC Milan and the crucial Carling
cup final at Wembley on the 28^th of this month.

 At the same time at Goodison Park, the leaders got an early lead in the 17^th minute throughMalouda who scored through his left foot before making his way
upto the goal. But then Saha had come into action, he scored the equaliser in
the 36^th min through a corner and after the break he got the winner
in the 74^th minute when A super left-footed half volley from 18 yards flew beyond
Cech.

Arsenal final got their first win in 2 weeks by beating Liverpool by a narrow margin of 1-0 with Abou Diaby’s goal in the
71th minute. The gunners are comfortable at the last champions league automatic
place which is unlikely to go from them

With only one point difference, the league has become more exciting as ever with the last 12 matches to decide the ultimate winner.

 Mid week results were:

Tuesday:

Manchester City 2-0 Bolton Wanderers

Portsmouth 1-1 Sunderland

Wigan Athletic 1-1 Stoke City

Fulham 3-0 Burnley

Wednesday

 Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool

Aston Villa 1-1 Manchester United

West Ham United 2-0Birmingham City

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur

Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Hull City

Everton 2-1Chelsea

Anfield ready to fire at Gunners. Manchester United hosts Villa.

After their mid week victory in the champions’ league, the red devils will be all ready for Saturday’s match against Aston Villa who are currently at surprise fifth position in the premier league. Everton will be up against leaders Chelsea and the mercey side club will be hoping to win their first win at Stamford bridge in nearly a decade. Also in the offering is the classic Sunday showdown at Anfield featuring Arsenal andLiverpool, a defeat for any of them can lead to serious trouble.

Sir Alex Ferguson will be a worried man as his key defenders are out with their respective injuries which includes Gary Neville who picked up a groin injury in the match against West Ham United, Rio Ferdinand with a calf injury, there is no certainty over Owen Hargreaves. The previous two matches were relatively easy where Sir Alex could play his mid fielders in defensive role but this is an important and tricky fixture especially when Aston Villa is in the top flight. Their manager Martin O’Neill is already eying the champions’ league place for next year. Darron Gibson will be starting for United and would be seen as the key figure to score along with the likes of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes etc.
As both the clubs lost their respective matches last week, Chelsea would be a bit confident against Everton as two records goes in their favour, the first one being explained above and the second one that they still maintain the 100% win record at home this season.
Once the title contenders and fierce rivals both Arsenal and Liverpool are playing with nothing to loose as a defeat for Liverpool will further push them down to the mid table position and a defeat for the gunners will relegate them to 7th position specially their closest rivals Tottenham Hotspurs, Manchester City are having an easy fixture on paper.
Kick-off at Old Trafford is scheduled to start at 1730 Hours GMT (2200 Hours IST)
Other matches over the next two days are…

Saturday
Stoke City v Wigan 1245 Hours GMT
Birmingham vs West Ham 1500 Hours GMT
Bolton vs Manchester City 1500 Hours GMT
Burnley vs Fulham 1500 Hours GMT
Hull City vs Blackburn Rovers 1500 Hours GMT
Sunderland vs Portsmouth 1500 Hours GMT
Tottenham vs Wolverhampton 1500 Hours GMT

Sunday
Liverpool vs Arsenal 1600 Hours GMT

First Champions League 09-10 home tie for Manchester United.

After a long wait, fans at Old Trafford will get the first taste of UFEA (Union of European Football Association) Champions league as it will be Manchester United’s first home game when it will host Wolfsburg Football Club of Germany. The match is scheduled to start at 2045 Hours GMT (i.e. 0115 Hours IST) on 30th Sept 2009.

As Manchester United were the Premier League champions last year, they automatically qualified for the main draw of the champions league along with runners up Liverpool while Chelsea and Arsenal, who finished third and fourth respectively, had to go through the qualifying rounds to get to the main draw of Europe’s premier club tournament.
Manchester United will be facing first timers Wolfsburg Football Club as they qualified after showing an impressive show in Bundesliga last year. Manchester United will be definitely reviewing the 2002/03 champions league semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen when they lost on away goals rule to a team which was predicted to be an easy team to beat for the final of the mega event. But the fact of the matter is that the Red Devils are unbeatable at Old Trafford since Feb 2005 so it will be pretty tough match for the visiting Germans.
From Manchester United’ locker room the news is that Korean lid-fielder Ji-sung Park is doubtful for Wednesday’s game after being laid low by a virus. Patrice Evra was also struck by the bug over the weekend, but has sufficiently recovered and should be in contention. Michael Owen, the hero of the previous Manchester Derby, is expected to play. The speculation of Owen’s, unpredictability came after he had a tight groin in training in the practice session but is more or less expected to play. Wayne Rooney will be hungry to find the net as he didn’t score in Saturday’s league fixture against Stoke City. The veterans Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs are expected to play the key roles and make way for Berbatov, Owen to put the ball to the back of the net.
With the first home game in the champions league stage the players will be fired up for the big match. Considering the situation a 2-0 score line is expected with Rooney, Berbatov to score or one may see Nani, Valancia getting into the action and converting the chances.
Other Matches for the day are:
Group A
FC Bayern München Vs Juventus
FC Girondins de Bordeaux Vs Maccabi Haifa FC
Group B
PFC CSKA Moskva Vs Beşiktaş JK
Manchester United FC Vs VfL WolfsburgGroup C
AC Milan Vs FC Zürich
Real Madrid CF Vs Olympique de Marseille
Group D
APOEL FC Vs Chelsea FC
FC Porto Vs Club Atlético de Madrid

Giant killers did their job, Manchester United on the top…

A goal each from Dimitar Berbatov and John O’Shea secured Manchester United’s 6th victory of the season and went to the top of the table as rivals Chelsea were trounced 3-1 at DW Stadium against Wigan Athletic. Liverpool demolished Hull City 6-1 and Arsenal winning with a narrow margin 1-0 against Fulham in its away fixture at Craven Cottage. Although both Chelsea and Man Utd are at 18 points each its the goal difference that has taken them to the pole position.

At Britannia Stadium, Manchester United won a well deserved match and the credit should go to the veteran winger Ryan Giggs again who came as a substitute in the second half of the game and was the architect of the first goal which was eventually scored by Dimitar Berbatov with a simple touch. Again 14 minutes from time a wonderful kick. An inswinging free-kick from the right wing was met by John O’Shea , making his 350th appearance for the Reds, who flicked a header into the top corner to put United 2-0 ahead.
The Reds were a little lucky not to go down to ten men soon after when Scholes was penalised for handball. Having already been shown a yellow card for a late tackle on Lawrence earlier in the half the midfielder breathed a sigh of relief when referee Howard Webb opted not to produce another. Three minutes later a delicious chipped pass from Scholes found Ryan Giggs in acres of space in the area. He brought the ball under control brilliantly with his first touch, but his second wasn’t quite as pinpoint as he scooped the ball over the bar. That 100th Premier League goal and indeed 150th career strike would have to wait for another day.
With a winning weekend for Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool now all eyes will be on the champions league match this weekend which will be allot tougher than this week’s league match and the Red’s have to live up the occasion as it will be their first champions league match at home. Meanwhile Chelsea needs to rethink it strategy on how to play in the future…

Know Manchester United’s upcoming players.

As the youth of any organisation, group, family or country are the future, they must be taken full care off and given the right type of training for everyone’s benifit. Manchester United Football Club Reserves are the reserve team of Manchester United F.C where young and in many times children of 10-12 years are selected from various schools, smaller clubs, are selected and groomed for years and then some of them are promoted to the main team which plays in the premierleague. They play in the North section of the Premier Reserve League. They have been champions three times since the league’s inauguration in 1999; in 2002, 2005 & 2006. They also participate in the Manchester Senior Cup, although in recent years the teams entered in this competition have featured an increasing number of youth players. This tournment consists of several youth side which works a a full fledged league as that of premier league. Sir Alex Fergusonkeeps a close eye on the youth academy as he is responsible in bringing up some of the best players to the club through this route. David Beckham, Gary Naville are some of the famous examples, or in other words the famous products of the academy. The present day United’s youth squad consists of 18 players which are given training by the best with interactive session with the current players,who tell their experiences to the juniors which is always handy in crunch situations… According to Sir Alex “When I first came to the club one of my main aims was to reinvigorate our youth system to the level that we’ve now reached and one that we’re very happy with. I re-jigged the whole system of youth development from the scouting to the trialling. Seeing that group of players – the two Nevilles, Butt, Scholes, Beckham and Giggs – come through was fantastic and people will remember these players forever”. So one can see it is a good investment for commercially as well as for the better of this beautiful game.