With Tottenham leading the Premier league points table, today’s clash against the red devils becomes a much awaited event. Manchester United is inching their way forward whereas the Spurs would love to cement their early lead in order to come out strong by the end of the season. The odds weigh heavily, and if not a convincing victory, the spurs would be glad to settle for a draw. The 2 week international break may just have been too long a break in certain quarters of the game at the start of season, and those in the England squad may just be a little worn out. Does this give the Spurs an advantage? That’s a reality only hours away.

The game we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. Certainly a game that’s’ being controlled from the start because it’s slow and the first break comes in the 6th minute as a free kick for Arsenal taken by Arshavin and is saved by a diving Ben Foster. The next failed attempt came from Fletcher in the 10th minute and was completely misjudged. A minor injury to Eboue came in the 12th minute. Great to see Brown holding fort cause it gives Man Utd a certain boost. A corner from Van Persie the next minute went straight to Foster. Great tackle by Sagna on Nani in the 17th minute to prevent his charge towards the goal post. Despite no real movement in the next few minutes, Song does pick up a yellow card for a sliding tackle on Valencia. Next there was a fleeting chance for Man Utd in the 24th minute and then one for Van Persie in the 25th minute.

Arsenal Own Goal

Then came a great mix-up, a silly Ben Foster punch on the ball, and a certain chance for Arshavin and that was missed too. A foul by Gallas in the 32nd minute saw a free kick for Rooney but no results yet. There seemed to be a half chance creted between Gggs and Rooney next but Arsenal gained ball control and changed the balls direction. Evra did refute the yellow card awarded to him in the 35th minute because he did touch the ball whilst tackling Sagna but the referee stood his ground. A few missed chances around the 40th minute and the ball continues to stay with arsenal, and Arshavin finally scored a clean goal. Just before halftime, Man Utd does get 2 chances but nothing’s converted. At half time, it’s “From Russia, with love.”

Certainly an Arsenal onslaught by Van Persie and it was saved brilliantly by Foster preventing a certain 2-0 lead. Arsenal soon gets another chance but a wrong approach acts as a spoiler. A feeble attempt by Valencia is the 53rd minute fails to get results. Probably it’s anxiousness but Man Utd soon starts losing ball control. Another sudden charge by Arsenal results in an offside for Van Persie. A diving attempt from Almunia to clear the ball has him dive at Rooneys feet, results in a yellow card foul and a penalty that Rooney converts with ease. Next there are 2 yellow cards for man Utd, one for Wes Brown, and one for Rooney. The next minute sees a great attempt by van Persie yet again. In the 63rd mnute Park is substituted for Valencia, and in the next minute, Man Utd gets lucky as Diaby scores an own goal to give the Devils a lead. Park creates a chance ou of nowhere in the 70th minute and Evra strikes brilliantly though Alumnia saves. Eboue gets a yellow card for a fake dive during which Evra was an innocent bystander.

Bendtner substitutes for Eboueafter the 70th minute and Sagna gets a yellow in the 75th minute. The next 5 minutes are rather slow and in the 83rd minute Park charges again, but no results. With 5 minutes left, Berbatov is substituted for Giggs. Almost end of game but still a very committed Man Utd sees Rooney diving in effective defense. Soon 5 minutes of extra time is awarded. A great pass from Nani but Berbatov completely blows it in extra time. A great last move by Man Utd sees Rooney set a perfect trap, asmooth pass by Berbatov to Nani, a great goal strike, a miss, another chance and a bigger miss. Out of the blue the ball shifts sides and Van Persie strikes a goal, Arsene Wenger rejoices, and the referee signals offside. A frustrated Wenger is sent off from the field and at the end of it all, Man UTD reigns. The better team has won yet again.

It’s too early in the season to decide whether winning or losing actually matters in winning or losing the title. But winning always helps getting you a step closer to the title. This Saturday,29th August 2009,  Arsenal pay a routine visit to their arch rivals Manchester United at the Theatre of Dreams with some bitter memories, especially the 1-3 thrashing they received in the Champions League 2nd leg in front of the home fans. We witness the new season with new stars.

This season Arsenal have won both the matches they played whereas United have surprisingly lost against newly promoted Burnley and have played a game more than Arsenal. Though united are without their key architecture Ronaldo, and surely lack pace and width on the field, they seem to have learned to live life after Ronaldo as they defeated Wigan by a thumping 5-0 in their last league match.

The game results will be a punch in the arm for the winning team as both are looking to secure early points quite unlike Manchester United slow start approach in previous years. As far as GD is concerned both teams are on a flying start, with Arsenal leading the way with a GD of 8 and Man Utd following close at a GD of 5. This one is surely going down to the wire but Manchester United seem a better bet with all the old faces still holding fort and giving very little away. Expect the old team to line up against the gunners.

Right from the start, Manchester United showed intent. The only thing on their minds was attack and score. A great pass from Nani had Fletcher almost score very early. Next came a creative pass from Berbatov to Scholes and yet another miss. 11th minute and the ball finally comes to the Wigan end courtesy a free kick conceded by Neville. A great opportunity created by Rooney in the 18th minute. Scholes with his signature attacks gets a yellow card in the 19th minute. Wigan does get a chance but Evra saves. Another great header attempt and Berbatov misses in the 23rd minute. A great on target attempt by Gomez saved by Foster on full stretch in the 26th minute. A slow 5 minutes and Rooney creates another missed one on one chance. Vidic is classic with his save in the 36th minute ensuring that Wigan doesn’t get close enough. An opportunity created and missed by Fletcher in the 38th minute. Another Wigan free kick in the 41st minute stopped effectively by the wall. In the 43rd minute Berbatov looked to be almost in scoring position but gets entangled with 2 of the Wigan players. A few slow safe minutes until half time.

A charged 2nd half start sees Rooney trying to score as early as the 46th minute. A cynical move by Evra gets him a yellow in the 49th. A scare the next minute as the ball deflects at Wigans goal scoring attempt. After a lot of tense moments and disoriented football finally a great pass by Valencia and a magnificent header by Rooney in the 56th minute to score the first goal of the game. The very next minue a close scare for man Utd but Foster saves, and then the next minute is frenzied with Berbatovs attempt finding its way to the back of the net. 2 goals within 2 minutes. A few slow minutes and Rooney creates a great chance and converts in the 64th minute. The ball did deflect so things are all in Man Utds favor. Substitutes in the 72nd minute, Owen for Rooney, Gibson for Scholes, and O’Shea for Evans. A goal attempt by Owen in the 75th minute but it yield no results. A few minutes wasted because of Vidic fouls. Great chance to get off the mark for Owen with a well crafted pass by Nani, and Owen opens his book in the 85th minute. Foster saves a 87th minute Wigan attempt. Nanis free kick is off target in extra time. A foul against Berbatov in extra time earns Scharner a yellow card. Nani takes another free kick and he converts to open his scoring streak for the season. A great game as Mnachester United crushes Wigan 5-0 and Rooney scores his 100th goal for Manchester United.

This is certainly a big game early in the league, not because it was expected to be but simply because of both teams game results in their respective matches. Manchester United lost to comeback team Burnley after a period of more than 3 decades, and Wigan Athletic lost to Wolves.

Obviously Man Utd is the bigger team here, so they’re going to go in stronger. Furthermore they have a lower losing aggregate so they always have the solace of winning many of the remaining 37 games after toady which may not be the mindset Wigan Athletic enjoys. One can again expect Owen to play as he’s yet to open score and Fergie would be happy to stop critics once and for all. All of last years big names are expected to start in order to strike a balance and score early on. The pressure is enormous and the bookies are backing United.

This isn’t what anyone was expecting excepting those betting their money on the comeback team. The last time Manchester United lost to Burnley was in 1968. And, so we can safely say history repeats itself.

Micheal Owens sighing still hasn’t shown any results yet because the striker didn’t strike magic today. Rooney as usual got close but not close enough this time. Berbatov missed yet again Some great passes, plenty of corners and no results. The best chance that Manchester United had, if not at winning but at least scoring an equalizer was missed by Carrick. The worst part is it was missed penalty. It was again targeted to his favorite spot, the right top hand corner and the Burnley goalie may already have predicted that. Certainly no justification for this loss, cheers to the Burnley return. Anderson too played today. Bad day for big boys as Rooney received a yellow card for unsporting behavior.

I hope better days ahead. We need to push up to catch up with Chelsea and Arsenal in early season, else we have a long way ahead.

The game started slowly with Manchester United controlling possession but to no avail really as all attempts to score early was weak. Attempts made by Nani, Evra, and Berbatov within the first 10 minutes bore no triumph, though Rooney’s’ 12th minute attempt had Birmingham City goalie, Hart at full stretch. Ben Foster did have to make a full dive stop in the 17th minute. Valencia was visible through the game. The next 10 minutes saw a feeble long shot attempt by Nani. Alex Fergusson looked visibly upset at the amount of time Birmingham City took for throw- ins. The 31st minute saw Fabio charge in with a great goal attempt. The next minute saw a poor attempt by Nani and Fergusson looked distraught and then came magic from Rooney’s boots. The ball first touched the post and rebounded out and Rooney testing his reflexes to send it to the back of the net. The 36th minute saw 2 accurate goal attempts from city. The first just about swung out and Ben foster was nowhere on target and the 2nd was saved by a header by Evra standing at the post. Fletcher missed a certain goal at the first half extra time.

Slow paced 2nd half start. The 5oth minute saw Berbatov misjudge a great pass in the box, and miss another chance at a header the next minute. Giggs substituted Nani and was at the job with his corner specialty but to no avail. Another slow 10 minutes, at the end of which Vignal picked a yellow card for a foul on Rooney. Foster saved a shot on target by Larson in the 63rd minute. With 20 minutes to go, it seems Manchester United is in control despite a slow game. A few more successive goal attempts but no success and the feeble attempt from schools in the 72nd minute. A penalty was overlooked in the 74rd minute with a foul on Berbatov. The 75th minute saw Michael Owens debut and Berbatov substituted. Wes Brown was substituted in place of Johnny Evans. Birmingham City had a great chance at equalizing in the 78th minute with a try from Chucho. The 84th minute saw another Rooney header go amiss. 3 minutes added time. Next came an offside, a novel chance for Owen to score with a one on one that Hart denies. The game ends and Manchester United register their first fragile victory

Finally the wait is over and Manchester United kicks off its EPL championship quest for 2009-2010. As for their first opponents of the season, this has been a long wait for Birmingham City. Their last meet with Manchester United in 2002 saw them go down by 2-0 with Forlan scoring a little before half time and Beckham scoring the second goal in the latter half.

It’s obvious this is a season for great cheer for Birmingham City as it marks their comeback to EPL, and they’re going to try all newer football strategies to secure their place since this is only their 6th appearance. Obviously, we’re still not sure how well they’re going to hold fort but last year’s champions are raring to go. For all red devil supporters, all hopes are pinned on Berbatov and Rooney. With Nani’s injury, he may not do much. Everyone’s keen on what Owen can do for the team and young Macheda is garnering a lot of support. Don’t forget, there can always be that chance goal from Carrick.

The community shield game played on Sunday 9th August was a real big tester for both Manchester united and Chelsea. Manchester united was playing without their star performers Christiano Renaldo and Carlos Tevez, where as Chelsea was playing under a new manger Carlo Ancelotti from AC Milan who had to meet great expectation from the fans as well as the owner Roman Abramovich

The game started with Luis Nani scoring the first goal on the tenth minute for the red devils. However Ricardo Carvalho from Chelsea scored an equalizer on the 52nd minute and kept Chelsea’s hope alive. The controversial second goal of Chelsea came on the 71st minute from Frank Lampard while Manchester United’s player Patrice Evra lay injured on the ground. The game reached a point of tie breaker when Wayne Rooney from Manchester leveled the game on the 90th minute. The game was won by Chelsea 4-1 in a penalty shoot out.

After the match Sir Alex Ferguson criticized referee Chris Foy for sparing Michael Ballack’s moves that blocked Patrice Evra. In conclusion we can only say that this win has somehow boosted the spirit of the men in blue, making it apparent that the loss of Renaldo has taken away the sheen as well as the fear factor from the Manchester United’s team which often gave them a psychological advantage over their opponents.

Finally fans player, Argentine Carlos Tevez has decided that he will not sign a deal with Manchester United. Probably Manchester United hesitated a little too much in making a decision to offer Tevez a permanent license at Old Trafford. This behavior of Manchester United always kept Tevez waiting to sign a contract and when the contract offer finally came, the Argentine star had already decided to move on.

If Tevez had signed the new deal, it would have made him the highest earner at United along side Ferdinand and Berbatov. But money was never a problem for Tevez, as told by his advisor Kia Joorabchian, Tevez was unhappy at the club as he was probably sidelined because of the arrival of Dimitar Berbatov, continued Kia.

Though Tevez will be playing in the Premier League, it is not yet decided to which club he will be heading this year. There have been rumors about Tevez getting offers from Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City. Reportedly Tevez has decided he will not head to Anfield because of its intense rivalry with his previous club Manchester United. Manchester City seems favorite to sign the Argentine star as the club has greater challenges and enough motivation to demote any one of the conventional so called top four of English Football.