Full Time : Manchester United 1-0 Arsenal
Manchester United : John O'Shea 17'
Arsenal : -
(Aggregate : Manchester United 1-0 Arsenal)



Advantage, Manchester United. The Red Devils take only a one-goal advantage to the Emirates Stadium next Tuesday. The road to Rome is not as straightforward as it perhaps could have been as United had not won a game at the Emirates Stadium before. Manchester United outplayed Arsenal in the first half by creating lots of chances in the opening minutes. Almunia made some couple of good saves to stop United from scoring more goals by increasing the winning margin. I think the man of the match award goes to Michael Carrick this time. Neat, tidy passing from Carrick. Like Vidic, on top form again after a period in the doldrums. Besides Carrick, I think every United player played very well. Will Manchester United hang on for another 90minutes at the Emirates Stadium? I hope so




Will Manchester United get a win here for the first time in the second leg of the semi-final?

Next game : Manchester United vs Arsenal (Champions League semi-final, first leg)
Venue : Old Trafford


Predicted Formation, I think Rafael should start (look how good was his performance against Arsenal during the last game, video provided below)

Training squad (24 players): Van der Sar, Foster, Kuszczak; Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Rafael, O'Shea, Evans, Brown; Ronaldo, Park, Giggs, Nani, Anderson, Scholes, Fletcher, Gibson, Carrick; Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov, Welbeck, Macheda. (Source : Manutd.com)

Injury list
Manchester United : Gary Neville, Owen Hargreaves
Arsenal : Robin van Persie, Gael Clichy, Mikel Silvestre(could be fit to play) William Gallas, Tomas Rosicky, Andrei Arshavin(Cup-tied, not injured)

Statistics:
Head to head against Arsenal: Won 82, Drawn 45 , Lost 77.
Manchester United in the Champions League this season : Won 4 Drawn 6 Lost 0
Arsenal in the Champions League this season : Won 5 Drawn 3 Lost 2

My point of view is, if United lose this first leg at Old Trafford, they'll be out of the competition. Arsenal will go all out as the champions league will be their only chance to win silverware this season, it will be a tough game. Manchester United must also avoid Arsenal to score an away goal in order to be on the driving seat during the return leg. Lets just hope that Manchester United perform another stunning performance like what they did against Tottenham. United can take the advantage as Andrei Arshavin is cup-tied. Arsenal's dangerous players will be Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Emannuel Adebayor. Ferdinand must not make some unwanted mistakes again. Road to Rome !

The update: Emmannuel Adebayor says that their side will hold more possession to make United players frustrated. "As soon as you keep the ball from Manchester United, they have a problem. Every single time you play against them, they want to take control of the game - if they are in possession more, then you are dead" says Adebayor. This confirms that Arsenal will starve Manchester United of possession.

Prediction : 2-0 win to United

Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark). The Dane last took charge of the Reds in the 2-1 victory over Sporting Lisbon in last season's group stages. (Source : Manutd.com)

Ferguson vs Wenger, head to head : http://espnstar.com/football/champions-league/news/detail/item255299/Ferguson-vs-Wenger---Head-to-Head/


Previous result against Arsenal this season:
1. Arsenal 2-1 Manchester United (Barclays Premier League)
Everyone expects Man United to win this one as Arsenal had a lot of key players missing for this fixture but a double from Samir Nasri condemned United to a second defeat of the season at the Emirates Stadium. Manchester United did not give up and continue to attack Arsenal with full force but was unlucky for not finding the back of the net. However, Rafael Da Silva rifled a consolation goal pass the Arsenal goalkeeper Fabianski in injury time, but it was too little, too late despite six minutes of injury time added. Manchester United played well but they were unable to forge another opening and were left to rue a glut of spurned first half opportunities. (Source : manutd.com)

Previous results against Arsenal last season:
1. Manchester United 2-1 Arsenal (Barclays Premier League)
Adebayor “handed” the ball pass Edwin van der Sar after the restart at Old Trafford but it was United who gets the last laugh at the end of the day. William Gallas conceded a penalty as he was caught hand-ball inside the penalty box and Cristiano Ronaldo scored the penalty to draw level with Arsenal. Minutes later, Owen Hargreaves scored the winning goal from a stunning free kick. It was his second goal for United and Arsenal was ruled out of the title race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn9rhJUpYZw&feature=related (Arsenal's goals)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfRlniXdQ0I(Rafael Da Silva's performance and goals)

2. Manchester United 4-0 Arsenal (FA Cup)
Sir Alex Ferguson left some experienced players on the bench , fielding some youngsters for this match. However, the youngsters did a brilliant job by trashing Arsenal at Old Trafford. Goals from Wayne Rooney, Darren Fletcher and Luis Nani during the first half (3-0) confirmed the victory to send United to the next round of the FA Cup. During the second half, Eboue was sent off by the referee after tackling Patrice Evra which left Evra in pain. Darren Fletcher then scored the fourth goal pass Arsenal Goalkeeper Jens Lehmann to give United a healthy lead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5XaRvBbF_c&feature=related (Match highlights)

3. Arsenal 2-2 Manchester United (Barclays Premier League)
William Gallas’s late late equalizer rescued a point for Arsenal. Wayne Rooney scored the opener for United at the Emirates Stadium before half time but was canceled out by Fabregas after the restart. Cristiano Ronaldo took the lead again in the 80th minute and it looked that United will get their first win at the Emirates before William Gallas scored the equalizer.

Match highlights can be found here:

Pictures :

"Lets go and get the equaliser and get the winning goal!"

Wayne Rooney scores the second and the forth goal for Manchester United. He's the man of the match.

Cristiano Ronaldo was booked after he threw his jersey towards the fans. But, its worth the booking as he scored the winning goal.

Dimitar Berbatov celebrated cooly after he scored United's 5th goal

Full Time : Manchester United 5-2 Tottenham Hotspur
(Manchester United : C.Ronaldo (pen) 57', Rooney 67', C.Ronaldo 68', Rooney 71', Berbatov 79')
(Tottenham : Bent 29' , Modric 32')

Manchester United did it again ! What a comeback ! This match is more entertaining comparing to the Everton match at Goddison Park 2 seasons ago. During the second half, the team morale is very high, good inspiration from Fergie i think (during the half time team talk). 5 goals in 22 minutes, what a game it is.... Tottenham players were shocked and lost after Rooney scored the equaliser for Man United. Manchester United players and then took the advantage and scored 3 more goals ! This will apply more pressure to Liverpool as their fans were smiling during the half time break and ended up closing their television with full of frustration after Ronaldo scored the third goal !

Every United player performed very very well! I will choose Wayne Rooney for the man of the match as he scored 2 important goals and assisted 2 goals to Cristiano Ronaldo and to Dimitar Berbatov. His dangerous crossings are great. Everytime Rooney has the ball, he'll create havocs for the Tottenham defence.




"The best strikers in Europe make Manchester United stronger", I took this last year when i was visiting Old Trafford. This advertisement board is located at the Old Trafford tramp station. It really suits the theme of this game !

My prediction for this game ended up 50% correct as i said that Man United will win 3-0 just now. 3 goal margin (Actual score : 5-2) :D . Glory Glory Man United !

Half Time : Manchester United 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur
(Tottenham : Bent 29' , Modric 32')

Will Manchester United do it again like what they did 2 seasons ago by coming from behind against everton?
Flashback : Manchester United was down 2-0 at Goddison Park during the second half but goals from O'Shea, Phil Neville(OG), Wayne Rooney and Chris Eagles made it 4-2 for United. 4 goals in 30minutes. Will they repeat this again?

Manchester United played well but they're just very unlucky. Tottenham did not conceed any goals to Manchester United when Gomes is playing. So, is 4-2 or 3-2 at least possible? We will see...

The correct formation :

90% predicted correctly...

Manchester United will take on the “stubborn” Tottenham Hotspurs today at Old Trafford. Will Manchester United get a win tonight?

Form Guide: Spurs are one place and one point above United in the form table, based on the last six results in the Barclays Premier League. Harry Redknapp’s side have gleaned 13 points in that time, despite scoring only seven goals – best explained by 1-0 home wins over Chelsea, West Ham and Newcastle. They've scored in every league away match since Wigan on 11 January; most recently 1-1 at Sunderland and 1-2 (loss) at Blackburn. (Source : Manchester United official website)

Injury list:
Manchester United : Gary Neville, John O'Shea(could be fit in time), Owen Hargreaves
Tottenham Hotspurs : (Jermaine Jenas , Roman Pavlyuchenko)(Both have a chance to play tonight), Michael Dawson (confirmed that he will miss the match), Ledley King(have a chance to play)

From my point of view, the partnership of Ferdinand and Vidic will keep a clean sheet for Manchester United, ending Tottenham's "scoring away from home" streak. As for Manchester United, they drew 0-0 with Tottenham Hotspurs twice and won them narrowly in the FA cup, its time for them to win this game in style. Furthermore, Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov did not play at mid-week (against Portsmouth), im sure that they have enough rest and preparation for this game. Ryan Giggs is also expected to make his 800th appearance tonight. Michael Carrick also had enough rest as he came up from the bench in mid-week and played for 20minutes only.
It is also a must-win game for Manchester United if they want to retain the Premier League throphy for the third season running...

Referee : Howard Webb

Prediction for tonight : Manchester United 3-0 Tottenham Hotspurs

Formation Prediction :

Previous results against Tottenham Hotspurs this season :
1. Tottenham Hotspurs 0-0 Manchester United (Barclays Premier League)
The veteran Dutchman Edwin van der Sar made some fine saves to claim a point at White Hart Lane. Dimitar Berbatov’s performance was very bad during the first half as tottenham fans jeered at Berbatov loudly. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal during the 60th minute but it was disallowed by the refree, claiming that Ronaldo handed the ball before shooting it in.

2. Manchester United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspurs (FA Cup)
Roman Pavlyuchenko scored for Tottenham early in the game. Ben Foster made an error causing United to go 0-1 down. Manchester United fought hard as Tevez tries his luck and hit the post. Minutes later, Paul Scholes scored the equalizer by volleying the ball into the net (Assisted by Michael Carrick, corner) (Manchester United 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur). 2 minutes later, Michael Carrick again, supplies a long ball to Dimitar Berbatov and scored the goal. (Manchester United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspurs). The second half was very quiet with less chances. Zoran Tosic also made his debut by coming up from the bench. Besides the goals, Berbatov was jeered once again at Old Trafford by a small portion of Tottenham fans but this time, his performance was not affected by the jeer.

3. Manchester United 0-0 Tottenham Hotspurs (Carling Cup Final)
(Manchester United won Tottenham on Penalties)
Sir Alex Ferguson fielded youngsters at the Wembly Stadium to win the Carling Cup. Ben Foster was the man of the match by making some fine saves and saved the first tottenham penalty during the penalty shootout. Tottenham Hotspurs fielded a much stronger side but failed to find the back of the net.

Conclusion : Manchester United eliminated Tottenham Hotspurs out of the Carling Cup and the FA cup. 2 draws and 1 win doesnt look good for United. Will Manchester United beat Tottenham Hotspurs tonight?