United visit Everton after a very long international break – which really seemed to go on for ages – and face a tough game at Goodison Park. The Blues are having a very good season, even on points with Liverpool. A win for us would send us to the top of the table – for exactly 45 minutes (at least!) – before Liverpool play Portsmouth.
For us, Fletcher and O’Shea appear certain injury casualties. Both picked them up on international duty. Otherwise, the return of Ronaldo and Saha to our starting line-up would be the best thing to happen to our side in a long while. Tevez should start alongside Saha but I wonder if the long trip from Australia – where the Argies played them in a friendly – would have any bearing on his fitness. We’ll have to wait and see.
Gary Neville continues his rehabilitation as he hopes to return for the Chelsea game, while Rooney would want to be back, at least on the bench, by then.
Goodison Park promises to be a tricky venue for us and in Yakubu lies a familiar tormentor. The Nigerian has managed to nick goals past us for Boro. Him and Andrew Johnson would keep our defence quite busy. Arteta would be their creative influence, and in Joleon Lescott, they have an in-form player.
We have an early kick off, while Rafa Benitez has shot his mouth off about overhauling the schedule and complaining about early kick-offs, especially after international games. To be fair, he does have a point though. The international games are a major evil during a season and surely FIFA could do something about their scheduling. Although I am not really well-placed to suggest a concrete alternative. At the moment though, clubs have to deal with it and stop complaining.
Back to the game, we expect a pretty well-fought game.
Prediction: United to win 2-1 (Saha and Ronaldo to score.) United to just nick the win.
Anyway, it’s nice to see the lads back in action, and hopefully those of you hibernating during the break would be back to our comment threads in full swing with your rants! 🙂 Keep them coming. And while you are ranting away, if you thought our site was worth your time you might find it reasonable of us to expect you to vote for Red Rants. We promise you it wouldn’t take you more than 2 minutes to register and vote. (Seriously, just 30 votes so far? Surely there are more readers here!) Hurry up!
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