Manchester United match preview
Last updated : 29 October 2004 By Keith Allman
Let's be honest, there's no such thing as a "good time" to play Manchester United. There is however, a terrible time to play them - and it's this weekend. After their somewhat over-enthusiastic celebrations of being eight points behind Arsenal last weekend, it was clear that we were in a no-win situation. If they'd lost to the Gunners, they'd have been out to prove themselves; if they'd drawn then they probably would've been equally motivated to get a result; and since they won, now they're going to be over-flowing with confidence and ready to go on a ten or fifteen game winning streak to shove themselves right back in the title race.
And this is where it becomes slightly problematic for us. Admittedly last season we managed to beat them despite being underdogs, but it was a bit different then. The players were exploding with confidence, United were on a bit of a downer, and every single key play was fit and raring to go. This season, they'll be determined to put right the wrongs of that game a little over six months ago.
On the plus side, Ruud van Nistelrooy won't be playing at the weekend, suspended for his disgraceful challenge on Ashley Cole. But when the replacements are Rooney, Smith and Saha - all three of whom scored against us for different clubs last season - it's not such a blessing. We're pretty much full strength, barring three important omissions; De Zeeuw is still on the comeback trail and completed his first ninety minutes against Leeds in mid-week, whilst the goal hero from this fixture last season, Steve Stone, is still ruled out with his achilles problem. Finally, Berkovic still has a calf problem, sustained in midweek. Still, our strike options look promising, especially given Kamara's goals in the last two games - and let's be honest we'll need to be on form to get past the likes of Ferdinand and the form he's in.
You may have guessed from the tone of this preview that I'm not confident. It's not so much pessimistic as realistic; they're going to be flying out of the blocks and brimming with confidence, they're 15 games unbeaten - we're facing a huge challenge. But then again, I guess that was the whole point of promotion; to lock horns with the biggest clubs in the land and see how we fare. Unfortunately I can't see any further than an away win - but I'd love to be proved wrong.
