Next week might be the best time to face them. They're definitely having a lull in form. I'm not saying we can write them off in the title race, but there's definitely a temporarily reduction in confidence which we can use to our advantage. Man Utd vs Man City - 1-6 - The home thrashing which seems to have tarnished their confidence Everton vs Man Utd - 0-1 - Whilst they won the game, it wasn't a clear-cut win and Everton could have easily drawn or even won on another day. They ground that one out. Man Utd vs Sunderland - 1-0 - It's another win, but just like Everton, it wasn't a great one, and it was back at Old Trafford. Sunderland haven't found good form yet, but they still faught hard and could have easily plucked a draw. It was a Brown OG which got Utd the win. Swansea vs Man Utd - 0-1 - They're winning now, but it was a sloppy goal and Swansea are still threatening. Whilst the points haul is good, Man Utd's performances in their last four games have been quite lacklusture, and once they came up against a good team with a lot of confidence, they got whipped. They're still superb, and I'd still be delighted with a draw at Old Trafford, but providing we can bounce back from defeat, we could get a draw there, especially if we play like we did against City today and, most importantly, avoid conceding any penalties. Sunderland and Everton were very close to draws, and Swansea are pushing for an equaliser, so I think it just needs a team with good quality and spirit to turn that narrow loss into a draw, and I think we're the team to do it. At the same time, however, it depends how well we bounce back from our first loss. If Man Utd aren't playing well next week, it's irrelevant if we're also playing poorly. Even if they put in another average performance, we'd need to be at our best.
If we play like we did today and also have Tiote back to come on and control the midfield second half I see no reason why we cant draw/win. At the moment they're definitely not playing their best though they are grinding out results. Our defence will need to be on top form (I'd also swap Raylor for Santon we have nothing to lose from it) and not concede any silly free kicks or penalties of which we have done recently. Overall we need to bounce back if we can keep our heads up (no reason why not) then yes push for the points I say !
Good article. Agree with everything you've said. Also when you look at this line-up.. it gives you even more confidence IMO. We managed to draw 0-0 with a inferior line-up compared to this season and we had no Tiote too. http://www.football-lineups.com/match/77491/
We need to be more clinical. We did not take our chances in this match and you will notice we have not actually scored that many goals this season. I think we can win against United and the addition of Tiote certainly helps
I really think against Man U we can control the midfield, which I never thought I'd say against Man U, if we can do those we stand a good chance.. Although if they have Rooney and Nani firing then could be a up hil struggle!
