A SEASON DEFINING WEEK AHEAD

It was a decent performance away from home at Villa Park, a place that we had not won for the past two seasons. Well if you look at our woeful away form from last season than endless stats of these type will pop up and we will keep them away for some other day as of now.

Victory was thoroughly well deserved after a solid performance defensively, Carrick is looking like a decent player again as he knew he had the reliable Phil Jones by his side who did all of the running for him. It was his trademark performance as he sat back, made interceptions and dictated the flow of the play to his liking. With each passing week its now turning into some sort of a habit to praise Jones as the lad keeps surprising me time and time again. No one had expected  him to play the no.of games he has at this point of the season but with injuries to players at crucial junctures and his versatality has prevented Sir Alex from a selection headache. It was a well taken goal by the lad who finally opened his account in the against column for the club.

Chicharito's injury is a big worry for the side as his goals will be seriously missed and to what extent will it jeopardize the sides chances as they navigate their way through the fixture calendar is a concern. Lindegaard capped a promising display with his 4th cleansheet in 5 games but he continues to be overlooked for the bigger games as Sir Alex has his eye set on starting the ever so improving David De Gea between  the goal in Basel.
Coming on to the tie in midweek, never has a game in recent memory been so much more important than the trip to Basel on matchday 6. Its been a highly error-strewn immature United display in Europe so far. Costly mistakes time and time again have been worrying. Fletcher is expected to return and may start alongside Carrick, just feel that he could get the nod ahead of Jones because of a better know-how of the conditions. Welbeck could start with Rooney upfront and the back four is expected to pretty much stay the same, dont be surprised though if Sir Alex opts for the youthful Jones alongside the midfield general Fletcher.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AND WHILE WE ARE AT IT

I still cannot believe for the life of me how David Luiz did not get sent off at the weekend in the game at Newcastle. In two weeks time we could well be saying that that was the decision that turned around Chelsea's fortunes. Full credit to John Terry for a lion of a display at the back and for the manager for having the balls to sub Lampard after 60 mins though it could well be said that he was saving him for the Valencia game in midweek.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was over the moon when I learnt that we had drawn City at the Etihad in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. I just would not have been able to wait till last week of April for derby day humiliation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------