No, No, No .... Not Liverpool !!!

Having spent the summer making his demands and hiding what he was up to, many United fans have voiced their lack of respect for The Slave - Cristiano Ronaldo !!

The fact is though, it seems without him United are quite an ordinary and lack lustre team if I'm honest. We managed to get beaten by Liverpool and lose Nemanja Vidic for the trip to Stamford Bridge to boot. Given the fact Chelski haven't been beaten there for about 300 years it's not looking too favourable right now.

A Wes Brown own goal and late strike from Ryan Babel cancelled out Carlos Tevez's third minute opener to hand Liverpool their first league victory over United for four years !!

United were out-fought and out-thought by a Liverpool team without both Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. As well as missing Vidic next week it seems entirely probable the injured Carrick is now set to miss the trip to Chelsea next Sunday as well.

Thankfully Ronaldo, who has yet to play for United since openly courting his move to Real Madrid, is on course to return against Chelsea after two months on the sidelines following ankle surgery.

"Ronaldo is training now, he's with the first team and he's aiming to be a substitute at Chelsea on September 21. He's come on leaps and bounds,” Ferguson said.

"I think we mentioned a couple of weeks ago he was making rapid progress in terms of overcoming the injury problem he had and the training he's been doing with the physios and Tony Strudwick the fitness coach.

“He's been making great strides in the direction towards first-team football."

United sorely need the 23-year-old to return following their pale display at Anfield that leaves them facing problems in their bid to retain the league title.

Ferguson did actually admit that his team's performance was way below expectations.

“When you score after three minutes, you should be consolidating that, but we never won a tackle and you have to hand it to Liverpool," he said.

“When you have bad days, the big thing is to get something from them, but we conceded two goals that were absolute shockers. People will say that it is some Conference team defending when they see us on television. It was shocking stuff.

“The first was a really scabby goal to lose. Liverpool have had a bit of fortune with both goals, but they have deserved their luck, you can't deny that.

They won every tackle and we just didn't respond to it. With our great record here, Liverpool raised their game an extra level."

Vidic's sending off for two bookings rules him out of the Chelsea clash and Carrick is now set to miss both the Champions League meeting with Villarreal and the trip to Stamford Bridge after damaging his ankle against Liverpool.

Arbeloa The Comedian

Alvaro Arbeloa insists Liverpool can still beat Manchester United
without Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres.

The two best players they have and he thinks his team can take
on Europes best without them !!!

That either makes him extremely stupid and ill informed or just
arrogant and big headed !!

Gerrard is recovering from groin surgery, while striker Torres is
struggling with a hamstring strain.

The funniest bit was when he told the Liverpool web site:

"'Fernando and Stevie are really important for us and they are
probably our best players. But we have a really good squad and
know we have other really good players too. We can still beat
Manchester United without Fernando and Stevie. 'It will be a
hard game for us, but it will also be tough for them. Their
defenders have to play against players like Yossi
Benayoun, Dirk Kuyt and Robbie Keane. We now have
people like Robbie Keane, who is a really good player,

and Albert Riera too.'

Manchester United Trivia - The More We All Know The Better

I've been rummaging through my United books again.
I have all the stats books and the facts and figures of
this, that and the other, I follow it all.

Who scored six goals in one game for us on 7th Feb 1970 in an
8-2 win over Northampton Town in the FA Cup 5th Round ?
That's easy, George Best, but he's not alone. I thought Georgie
was the only one, but on 25th Sep 1911, whilst playing in the
Charity Shield against Swindon at Stamford Bridge, Harold Halse
also scored six !!

Five in a game is easy. 4th Mar 1995 in the FA Premiership, playing
Ipswich Town in a 9-0 victory Mr Andrew Cole scored 5 ! Scoring 5
in one game and winning 9-0 are both Premiership records too by
the way. But once again, he's not alone. On 12th Feb 1949, in the FA
Cup 5th round versus Yeovil Town, Jack Rowley scored five too !!

The scoring of 4 goals in a game is far too easy, I mean 54 people have
done that for goodness sake, boring !! Well ... not if you bang them all
in within 12 minutes of coming off the bench ! As 20legend did. He
bagged his 4 and United scored a further four for an 8-1 away win at
Forest, the fastest four goals ever scored and the record win in the
Premiership, away from home !! Another game where they set two
records, that must be a record too, surely, or am I being greedy here ?

Our top five record victories, every fan should know this if they wish
to appear genuine !

10-0 v Anderlecht, EC Cup Prelim 2nd leg, 26 Sep 56 at Maine Road in
front of 40,000.
10-1 v Wolves, Division 2, 15 Oct 1892 at North Road in front of 4,000.
9-0 v Walsall, Division 2, 3 Apr 1895 at Bank Street in front of 6,000.
9-0 v Darwen, Division 2, 24 Dec 1898 at Bank Street in front of 2,000.
9-0 v Ipswich, FA Premiership, 4 Mar 1995 at Old Trafford in front of
43,806.

And don't you forget it - Grrrrrrrrrrrr ... !!

Now I'm always fair, so if we have the top 5 victories, then yes, you got
it, we better have the top 5 defeats ... and the 5th one is a nightmare !!
So, ahem, to be fair, here we go ...

0-7 v Blackburn, Division 1, 10 Apr 1926 at Ewood Park in front of 15,870.
0-7 v Villa, Division 1, 27 Dec 1930 at Villa Park in front of 32,505.
0-7 v Wolves, Division 2, 26 Dec 1931 at Molineux in front of 37,207.
1-7 v Stoke, Division 2, 7 Jan 1893 at the Victoria Ground in front of 10,000.
1-7 v Liverpool (Aarrgghhhhhhhhh !!), 12 Oct 1895 at Anfailed in front of 7,000.

So, there we go, all is fair here.

July is the only month where United have never played a competitive
game. I would have said June too ... but no, apparently not. On 6 Jun
1965 in the NEP Stedion, we played Ferencvaros in the Fairs Cup Semi
Final play off and lost 1-0. Then on 16 Jun 1965 in the NEP Stedion, we
played Ferencvaros again in the 2nd leg of the match (both legs away
from home ?) and we lost 2-1, both with crowds of 60,000. My advice
- don't play in June, we've never won or drawn a game !! Played 2,
lost 2, for 1 against 3.


April is our busiest month since United were born. We've played 680
times winning 320, drawing 164 with 196 defeats. We scored 1126
times and let in 804. Pretty good huh ? I could give you the figures for
every month but you would never come back it would be so boring. I'll
tell you that overall, we have played a grand total of 5049 games winning
2424 times and drawing 1214 with 1411 defeats. We scored 8755 and
let in 6334.

Home and away league doubles are always satisfying, especially
against the Bindippers.

We've done the double over the Scousers a total of ten times !! But it
gets better, we can rub it in real bad now. Five of the ten have come
in the 16 years since the birth of the Premier League but wait !!! It
gets better ... 3 have come in the last 4 years and four have come in
the last 6 years !!! Oh yes Scouser, we got your boys whooped pretty
bad !!

What about the all-time top substitute ? He came off the bench 84
times in the Prem and scored 16 times. He also came on 15 times in the
FA Cup for 3 goals. In the League Cup 3 times and 1 goal. Check this
out !! In the Champions League, 45 times and 8 goals !! Giving a grand
total of 150 appearances as sub for 28 goals, one of which arrived with
a rather famous phrase .....AND SOLSKJAER HAS WON IT !!!! Enough
said, Ole a real legend !!

The top scorers in Europe surprised me ! Well, RVN top of the list is no
surprise on 38 goals. But two of Sir Matts guys are still there. One in
second still ... Denis Law with 28 !! Giggsy in 3rd on 25 with Scholes two
back on 23 and Bobby Charlton still fifth on 22.

Top scorers in the Premiership has really closed up now with 5 goals
covering the top 5. We now have joint leaders on 96, Giggs and Scholes
again. Third is RVN on 95, two back to Cole on 93 and a further 2 more
back is ........... Ole Gunnar !!! The Slave is 25 further back, but I think
he is capable of closing that gap quite a bit before joining City for £600
trillion next season !!

We have 451 wins by a score of 1-0. 381 at 2-0 and 234 for 3-0. 106
times we have scraped home 4-0 and 60 times by 5-0. 6-0 is a mere 19
ocassions with 8 at 7-0, 1 at 8-0, and surprisingly 9-0 three times with
a single 10-0.

2-1 victories come in at 385, 3-1 is 254, 4-1 is 117 and 5-1 57 times, uh ?
Then there are 26 6-1 wins with 7 at 7-1, 2 more at 8-1 and a nice 10-1.

What about 3-2 ? 159, 4-2 is 60 and 5-2 has turned up 31 times. 6-2 is
rare, surely, well 13 times for us 7-2 on 5 days and 8-2 just the once !

Conceding 3 goals and winning is possible. 20 times we did it 4-3, 5-3 is
14 ocassions including being 3-0 down at HT and winning 5-3 v Spurs.
We also have 4 wins of 6-3.

How about conceding 4 goals and winning ? Well, we can do that too.......
5-4, 6-4 and 8-4 once each. Surely no one has ever conceded 5 and won ?
We did, v Chelsea in one of the all time great matches.

I'll maybe cover that in my trivia rush. Now be sure to memorise all this
as I WILL be asking questions Muahahahaha .......

We Got Him !!

I love to follow United transfer battles but this one even outshone the Tevez
Affair !! Well we got him, and I am so happy now !!

Berbatov will be the best signing since Cantona, maybe even better than the
king himself. From the minute the transfer window opened exactly 62 days
went by until it closed, and Fergie got the papers registered with 40 minutes
of the window remaining - Pheww.

For Fergie though Berbatov’s arrival was a matter of extreme urgency. While
United were always confident City would be seen off, Ferguson knew he needed
another senior striker. He has won the last two Premier League titles, and the
Champions League whilst being one man down in the striker department. We
all knew this time around, there would be no surprise signing such as Henrik
Larsson to help us out, or an unexpected seam of goals from Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer, or, due to his current injury, 42 from Cristiano Ronaldo.

Campbell might have impressed in pre-season but Ferguson realised it was too
much to expect the youngster to hold down a regular place should either Wayne
Rooney or Carlos Tevez be ruled out for an extended period. Even though other
targets such as Michael Owen, Thierry Henry and David Villa were mentioned,
Berbatov was the man Ferguson kept returning to.

At 27, Berbatov is slightly older than most of United’s recent major purchases
but Ferguson feels his silky touch - which the Scot first experienced when Bayer
Leverkusen faced the Reds in the Champions League five years ago. Fergie
believes Berbatov has the quality to score goals himself and create chances for
others. Some may question the player’s temperament in light of his recent
behaviour but that's just nonsense, Fergie has worked with plenty of highly-
strung individuals, including Eric Cantona, and got the best out of them. He will
expect to do the same with Berbatov, starting when United travel to Anfield to
face Liverpool on September 13.

What do you make of the move?

Have your say.