(team) (before/after champions league exit) (year) (points on average in that period)

Man Utd before 11/12 2.36
Man Utd after 11/12 2.33
Man City before 11/12 2.71 was 1st in league at time of exit
Man City after 11/12 2.13 went on to become domestic champions
Man Utd before 05/06 2.14 finished 4th in champions league group
Man Utd after 05/06 2.21
Liverpool before 09/10 1.6
Liverpool after 09/10 1.7
Juventus before 09/10 2
Juventus after 09/10 1.09
Valencia before 04/05 1.79
Valencia after 04/05 1.38
Inter before 03/04 2.08
Inter after 03/04 1.31
Liverpool before 02/03 1.82
Liverpool after 02/03 1.57
Bayern Munich before 02/03 2.38 finished 4th in champions league group/was 1st in league at time of exit
Bayern Munich after 02/03 2.06 went on to become domestic champions
Borussia Dortmund 01/02 2.31 was 2nd in the league at time of exit
Borussia Dortmund 01/02 1.83 went on to become domestic champions

There have only been 2 instances in the past 10 seasons where such a team has finished 4th in their champions league group. Only on one of those instances has that team gone on to become domestic champions. Bayern Munich in 02/03 did that but still averaged 0.32 points less per game.

There have been 2 other instances where such a team has gone on to win their domestic league despite not progressing in the champions league. This happened with Man City last season where they averaged 0.58 points less per game after elimination from the champions league, though they did go into the Europa League. Borussia Dortmund also won their domestic league in 01/02. Even though they went on to become domestic champions they still recorded on average 0.48 points per game less after being knocked out of the champions league.

Man Utd, the only other such team finishing 4th in the group besides Bayern Munich in 05/06 did not win a domestic title however went on to record 0.07 points more per game after elimination.

Don’t know if we can make many conclusions from this data. Obviously it doesn’t tell the whole story for these teams. The safe conclusion that can be made however is that Man City’s exit from the Champions League and even Europe altogether does not necessarily mean that they will score on average more points per game domestically. Taking the data at face value, some teams have done worse, some have continued at the same rate, none have really done dramatically better. Due to the lack of occasions that such a situation as Man City’s has occurred, there isn’t really much we can go off. There isn’t much precedence set for good teams being eliminated early in the Champions League so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of grammar in this piece and for putting this totally ‘irrelevant to Man Utd’ piece on my seemingly inactive blog but more of my random quick ramblings will probably end up here. Thanks!

Could Darron Gibson be key?

The return of Darron Gibson. Well it may not be too far off. Having made his return from a lengthy injury sustained in August just this week for the Manchester United reserve team, could Darron Gibson finally make the kind of meaningful impact that he had once hoped he would? 

It wouldn’t be too surprising to know that Darron Gibson isn’t particularly a fans favourite. This is highlighted by the fact that he was hounded off twitter following the abuse that he recieved, hours after creating an account on it earlier this year. More supporters of Manchester United probably have Bébé’s name on their replica shirts than Gibson’s. Having made only 58 appearances for Manchester United by the age of 24 it is safe to say that he has never really been considered as a regular. Darron Gibson has never really had a decent run in the first team. With Tom Cleverley’s injury which has ruled him out until Christmas and Anderson’s dip in form coinciding with Darron Gibson’s return from injury, could Darron Gibson finally get a decent run in the first team?

It is not really news that Darron Gibson could have left Manchester United this summer. In fact, Sunderland had a bid accepted for Darron Gibson however this transfer eventually fell through. The manager santioning such a deal hints that Darron Gibson was seen as surplus to requirements but with recent deficiencies in the centre of midfield, will Sir Alex Ferguson see the availability of Darron Gibson as a godsend?

Probably not, but the option is there for him should he wish to use it. Personally, I’ve never thought that he was a particularly bad player. It is worth noting that with 10 goals in his 58 appearances for Manchester United, Darron Gibson does actually have the best goals per game ratio out of all the central midfielders. He has had some average performances for Manchester United, as have other central midfielders, but he has also had some stand-out games. The game vs Schalke in the Champions league semi final 2nd leg last season comes to mind. A brilliantly productive game for Darron Gibson, who scored 1 and assisted 1.

Another that comes to my mind is that game against Bayern Munich the season before when he opened the scoring. He has shown glimpses of what he is capable of against equally capable opposition and so if he is given a chance to show it on a more regular basis, is it too far-fetched to imagine that he will flourish?

Although admittedly I am not his biggest fan, I do believe that should he be given a chance, he will indeed flourish. As a player who has come up through the Manchester United youth system, I do not think that leaving Manchester United would be something that will appeal to him. The realisation of how close he came to leaving last summer may be somewhat of a wake-up call for Darron Gibson. I can’t envisige anything will spur him on more and so I do believe that, given the chance, Darron Gibson will make a meaningful impact at Manchester United.

Do you agree? Should Darron Gibson be given a run in the first team? Would it be better to give youth a chance ahead of him? Should Darron Gibson be sold as soon as possible? Feel free to comment below.

For more far-fetched Manchester United views, follow me on twitter @RedMancunia.

Manchester United now go into the Manchester derby on Sunday, having hit this indifferent patch of form, with a  pretty large group of the fans on social networking sites (such as twitter) believing that it is solely down to the absence of Tom Cleverley from injury as to why our team have been playing the way that they have.

Although he is oblivious to this chatter since, as the club maintains, he is not in possession of a social networking account, the pressure really has been put onto Tom Cleverley since he burst onto the scene in the Community Shield helping Manchester United overturn a half time defecit of 2-0 into a 3-2 victory. He was undoubtably one of the stand out performers that afternoon and before his injury he continued that form into almost every game that he played in. Since his absence has coincided with some indifferent performances, it has led some people to believe that this is the reason. Is it really though?

This season there have been a lot of first team players missing with various different injuries of various different lengths; Antonio Valencia, Darren Fletcher, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick, Rio Ferdinand, Rafael, Fabio, Chris Smalling, Javier Hernandez, Patrice Evra, Danny Welbeck as well as Tom Cleverley and Darron Gibson whose injury looks like it could be long term. Most of these players have had a couple of weeks out because of injury. Is it reasonable to expect them to perform to their very best as soon as they come back? A lot the players above who have returned from injury have been eased back into the team in recent weeks. Couldn’t that explain the indifferent bunch of performances?

In addition to the returns from injuries, there have also been a few players who did not play much in the first few matches of the season since Sir Alex Ferguson regularly named similar teams to that which played in the second half of the Community Shield victory over Manchester City. These players did not get much game time at the start of the season and are probably not as sharp as the players who were playing regularly? Understandably so I suppose.

Whatever the reason, many people have almost come to expect Tom Cleverley to return to the first team and play just as he was earlier in the season, performances which meritted him an England call up. Maybe he will, it is yet to be seen, however to put hopes on a youngster who is relatively new to the first team setup to come back straight into the first team and make an immediate game-changing impact is just unrealistic. In some cases he has been billed as almost the saviour for our apparently ‘deficient’ and ‘suspect’ midfield and that is just unreasonable.

I like many others hope that his return from injury will come as soon as possible. He possesses all of the technical attributes to play as a centre midfielder at Manchester United for years. He is a wonderful player and possesses a great first touch as well as being a very good passer of the ball. His return will come as a boost to the whole Manchester United squad, however to expect him to come in and hope everything will just instantly tick on his reinstatement to the first team is just purely unrealistic.

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In recent years Barcelona have raised the bar, set it and dared the rest of Europe and the rest of the World to catch them if they can. It is a challenge that Sir Alex Ferguson is certainly not taking lightly. It is one that Sir Alex Ferguson has attempted to address this summer through the aquisitions made as well the youthful exuberance and depth of the squad. How exactly has he addressed it and has he undertook this challenge in the correct way?

Although the season only began last month, Manchester United have put in some very impressive performances. The one thing that stands out when compared to previous seasons is the work put into developing or bringing in defenders that are comfortable on the ball. This season the defenders have very much been involved in the attacking phases of play.

To highlight the previous point I shall compare Manchester United’s home fixtures vs Chelsea in 2010/11 with 2011/12. I am comparing these two specific fixtures since 10 of the 11 players who played in the 2010/11 league fixture started against Barcelona in that Champions League final last season.  Note that the result in the 2010/11 fixture finished a 2-1 victory to Manchester United with goals from Javier Hernandez and Nemanja Vidic and the 2011/12 fixture finished a 3-1 victory to Manchester United with goals from Chris Smalling, Nani and Wayne Rooney. Both games saw a goal coming from defence and a goal from attack.

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Defensive Chalkboards v Chelsea on 08/05/11

Name (Position): (Passes Completed/Attempted/Completion rate)

O’Shea (LB): (19/26/73%) – Vidic (LCB): (16/23/70%) – Ferdinand (RCB): (19/22/86%) – Fabio (RB): (15/20/75%)

Defensive Chalkboards v Chelsea on 18/09/11

Evra (LB): (43/48/90%) – Evans (LCB): (43/47/91%) – Jones (RCB): (45/51/88%) – Smalling (RB): (22/25/88%)

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What’s most striking about these two sets of chalkboards is that the back four that played v Chelsea in Manchester United’s 3-1 victory in September seemed to be a vast improvement on the ball when compared with that of the 2-1 victory in May. Both games finished with the same end result; 3 points, however the style and the way in which the result was achieved appears to contrast each other. The back 4 in the September fixture both attempted and completed many more passes; 91 attempted, 69 completed with 75.8% completion rate in May and 171 attempted, 153 completed with 89.5% completion rate in September. Like I said, noticeable.

This change in style of the way that the defensive back line plays has become key to the way that Manchester United have been playing so far this season. It is one of a number of contributing factors as to why we have played very impressive attacking football; a feat that has seen us score 20 goals in 6 league games. Having said this, I do believe that the new style is also contributing towards what has been seen as a weakness.

In the 6 league games so far this season, the opposition has averaged 19 shots against us. When so many shots are being conceded, it is natural that goals will also be conceded. It has so far been an underlying problem, however one that hasn’t particularly been highlighted. Comparing just the two fixtures v Chelsea, in May Chelsea had 20 shots, 6 from outside the box whereas in September Chelsea had 22 shots, and again 6 from outside the box. One statistic that should be noted when comparing the shots count is that in May, Chelsea had the lions share of the possession with 52.5% however in September they had a meagre 43.4% meaning that they did get their shots and chances in more often for the amount of possession they had. David De Gea is ‘thought’ to be suspect from long range but Chelsea have faced both Van Der Sar and David De Gea and have had the same amount of shots from long range. So can this statistic really be put solely down to David De Gea?

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Passing Chalkboards

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The passing chalkboards themselves demonstrate how the style of play has evolved since last season. It is apparent to see how much more dominant Manchester United are this season, both in this fixture and in every other. Manchester United have enjoyed the lions share of possession in every single match they’ve played so far this season. The passing statistics have also all been around the 500 mark, which is a drastic increase on last season. The tendency to play long balls forward to the front line has also decreased. With the defenders more assured in possession of the ball, they are always making themselves available for the pass  more often and the team-mates around them also feel more comfortable giving them the ball.

Another facet that tactically impresses me about Manchester United this season is our summer acquisition Ashley Young, not only for how effective he has been, scoring 2 goals and assisting 5 in 6 appearances, but the way that he himself has changed the way that that we’ve been playing. Because he is predominantly a right footed player playing on the left side of midfield, Ashley Young usually cuts inside and when an opportunity for a cross or a shot is not available, more often than not he chooses to pass the ball. In essence, his presence and role in the team is very much suited for ball retention. As can be seen on the chalkboard below, there is a large concentration of passes on the advanced left side of the pitch. In addition to this, his pass completion rate this season has been extremely impressive this season (86%, 88%, 87%, 74%, 91%, 81%).

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Ashley Young Chalkboard v Chelsea 18/09/11

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I felt that Ashley Young’s best game so far in a Manchester United shirt was in the match against Chelsea at Old Trafford. As seen above, he was very effective in possession. That game he created 3 chances and assisted a goal (Smalling) which came about due to a free kick cross. A large proportion of his passes have been short give and goes which have increased the tempo at which the team have been playing.  He also creates a lot of space for the overlapping full back to run into and often finds him, spawning another avenue in which Manchester United can get a goal. For a potential fixture against Barcelona, it is quite reasonable to regard Ashley Young to be key, possibly playing in a similar kind of role to that of his opposing counterpart, David Villa.

And so we go back to the question of whether Sir Alex Ferguson has addressed the challenge set by Barcelona in the right kind of way. Personally I believe so. If Manchester United inevitably meet Barcelona in the Champions League this season, can we really say that we have closed the gap to Barcelona? I honestly don’t know. We are only 6 league games into the season, we are only just entering the month of October. It is too early to say however the signs are encouraging. Sir Alex Ferguson is trying to develop a team that can go toe to toe with this current, one off, Barcelona team. A question that does intrigue me is that if we do meet them this year, would playing Javier Hernandez be wise?

Javier Hernandez is the kind of player who likes to play off the last defender. It is a kind of system that Barcelona does not use, hence their ability to dominate games is aided further. The way he plays for Manchester United means that he is not involved much in the build up to the goals that we score, though he is extremely efficient at getting a goal when given the chance. Manchester United can get away with playing Javier Hernandez against most teams however I do not think that Barcelona is one of them. Casting my mind back to the 2011 Champions League final, Javier Hernandez was more or less ineffectual. That night he was barely involved. He only had the 1 attempt on goal and his passing figures were the lowest of the starters hinting that his link-up play isn’t as good as can be. However hard it is to comprehend that he actually has a weakness,  his link-up play with the midfield would be just that. I believe that this is the one thing that he needs to improve upon the most. When Ruud Van Nistelrooy joined Manchester United, his only criticism was also one similar to that of Javier Hernandez however after working on it and improving that aspect of his game, he became probably the most fearsome striker in the world.

Do you think that Manchester United are any closer to Barcelona? Has our chances of beating Barcelona in a one off game increased? Do you prefer the way that Manchester United are playing this season? Feel free to comment below.

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When the 2008 final came about, Darren Fletcher had not really established himself as a first team regular. That season he made a meagre 11 starts and a further 13 appearances from the substitutes bench and so it was understandable to see him left out of the team to play Chelsea that year. The 2008/09 season saw Darren Fletcher appearing much more regularly for Manchester United where he made 37 starts and 5 more sub appearances. He had been an important player that year and was the mainstay in the centre of midfield. Only Michael Carrick had appeared more times than he had in the centre of the Manchester United midfield.

Unfortunately for Darren, his hopes of playing in the 2009 final crumbled after a perfectly legal challenge to win the ball from Cesc Fabregas was deemed by the referee to be a foul and consequently he was sent off by the referee Roberto Rosetti 16 minutes from time in Manchester United’s Champions League semi final 2nd leg victory over Arsenal. That season Manchester United went on to lose in the final to a very good Barcelona team, leaving people with the question of what could have been if Darren Fletcher played in place of the Brazilian, Anderson.

Even more bad luck struck Darren Fletcher as his mysterious illness prevented him from taking part in the second half of the last season which saw Manchester United win their 19th title and reach the final of the Champions League yet again. As with the previous occasion, Manchester United went on to lose again to Barcelona in a very entertaining yet disappointing fixture.

To put the disappointment of missing out in previous years behind him, Darren Fletcher is really hoping to correct his past absences: “I’ve just had a bit of bad luck when it comes to Champions League finals. We’ve made it to three and I’ve not played in any of them. It’s a massive goal to not only play, but to win a Champions League final.”

“I think the English teams have become a lot more dominant. That’s been fairly noticeable in the last few years. We’ve (United) built up experience playing in Europe, especially the team we have now. A lot of us have been playing together for four or five years. We’ve found a way and a style of playing.”

“We know how important it is to keep the ball. It is different to the Premier League – you give the ball away in Europe and foreign teams can keep the ball for long periods. We have learnt to adapt, we’ve got used to the travel, coming back and playing games. All that experience we’ve built up has really helped us over the years.”

Hopefully Darren Fletcher can make amends this season and maybe this can become another historic year for Manchester United.

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The victim of scapegoatism?

It seems the common trend nowadays for a large number of Manchester United fans on social networking sites (ie twitter) is to criticise players when we fail to win or fail to win by at least a 3 goal margin.  And the blame always falls on the few individuals who had once upon a time hit a bad patch of form which lives in the memory long term and suddenly makes them the worst player in Manchester United history and unfit to wear the shirt ever again. 

I suppose by now you’ve figured out which players I’m talking about as I’m sure most of you have either witnessed or joined in with the ‘Carrick,’ ‘Evans’ or ‘Gibson’ bashing after we fail to win. After Manchester United’s 1-1 away draw to Benfica, surprise surprise, the critics came out in force and who was to blame for the failure to win? Mainly Carrick with a hint of Evans. Personally I felt that, although they did not have a stormer, they didn’t play particularly bad either. In fact I thought both of them were amongst our better performers on the night. Both were very assured on the ball, displayed by the 86 passes Carrick made and the 92% completion rate and Jonny Evans’ 58 passes and 98% completion rate.

Michael Carrick also made 8 interceptions against Benfica and 4 tackles. It could be argued that he was in fact our best player on the night, yet as expected, the Carrick haters came out in force. Some comments sent to me when defending Carrick on twitter:

“Passing sideways, backwards, to opposing players, NO PACE & contributing sod all going forward, is why many fans hate Carrick.”

“That’s because both of them are shit the whole midfield tonight was shit and not one of them should play for united again.”

“Carrick is fuckin pony.”

“How many passes did carrick make that actually did anything? He was shite nowhere near best player that goes to Giggs & anders.”

“This doesn’t mean anything when your passing is without taking any risks,he passed sideways,and back,no offensive passes… carrick is really useless,he does nothing,can’t defend,and can’t attack,he passes the ball and never ask it back,TC (Tom Cleverley) any day.”

“Michael Carrick is STILL shite.”

“We all watched the game. Carrick sucked. period.”

“Best #Mufc performers last night were A. Lindergaard. P. Evra. C Smaling. R. Giggs. Worst was M. Carrick and J. Evens.”

“Carrick is just not United material.”

Michael Carrick in his new role

The above image shows the position that Michael Carrick now regularly operates in. It is a much deeper role than any other midfielder at Manchester United plays in. Michael Carrick doesn’t go forward often, he chooses, or is more likely instructed by the manager, to sit deep and limit the opportunities in which he goes forwards. Tactically this kind of position has to be a disciplined one. He “contibutes sod all going forward.” I think from his position, he isn’t directly supposed to.

If Michael Carrick loses the ball from such a position attempting to complete a risky pass which is unlikely to actually reach it’s destination then possession is lost cheaply and it may also eventually lead to a chance on goal for the opposing team. Regardless, Michael Carrick did in fact attempt 14 long passes last night against Benfica and completed 12 of them, a stat that was very noticeable as he often switched the play to the other side of the pitch.

Now as the passing chalkboard for Michael Carrick v Benfica isn’t readily available at my disposal, I shall instead use his chalkboard from the Bolton v Manchester United game from last Saturday.

The chalkboard itself highlights the area in which Michael Carrick currently plays in with most of his passes being made from deep. It was a role in which I felt bought out the best in Anderson who had the freedom to do almost anything he wanted in the midfield. That match he attempted 51 passes and completed 46, which is a completion rate of 90%. Here is a breakdown of his passing stats: (Completed/Attempted). Backward: (17/17), Square (or sideways as people like to call it): (10/11). Forward: (19/23). It’s clear to see why Michael Carrick is known for his lack of passes forward(!). Note that this is the only league game that he has played in so far this season.

The league game that he played in before Bolton away was Blackburn away last season. That day Michael Carrick attempted 108 passes and completed 97 of them which is a completion rate, again, of 90%.

A breakdown of his stats from that day: Backward: (20/20). Square: (30/32). FORWARD: (47/56). A clear conclusion from the stats of both of these games would be that this “Carrick only passes backwards and sideways” mindset of some fans is just a pure and simple myth. If that can’t convince you, Michael Carrick also completed more forward passes in last season’s Champions League than Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta. Michael Carrick made 417, Andres Iniesta made 384. That stat does it for me.

So why do people single out and make a scapegoat out of one or two players? I can’t really say for sure since I’m not someone who does that sort of thing. The direct criticism of one player for an overall below par team performance is just wrong in itself. It seems to me that people are just jumping on the bandwagon, that it has somehow become fashionable to blame the same players over and over again because that player started ahead of or isn’t really their favourite. Nevertheless, the blame of the same player every time Man Utd fail to win is wholly unwarranted.

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Will He Feature In The Carling Cup This Season?

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has hinted that 18 year old Paul Pogba may be in line to make his Manchester United debut in the Carling Cup trip to Leeds United.

After making a solitary appearance for the first team in pre-season in Paul Scholes’ testimonial, coming on as a substitute for Manchester United’s legendary number 18, he could be about to step up his progress by appearing in a competitive first-team game for the very first time.

“Pogba’s in the first-team training set-up now. So that’s the first step.”

“After that, it’ll likely depend on when we decide to make changes. He’ll probably be involved in the League Cup and that’ll be his chance to establish himself in the squad.”

When speaking to French magazine 10 foot whilst on International duty with the French U19′s side Paul Pogba said:

“Every day I’m aiming for the first team. Sir Alex gave me confidence by picking me for the pre-season game against Marseille in August. So I know I’m on the right track.”

“Everyone at the club is great – they look after young players well. We have a laugh and there’s a special atmosphere.”

I for one am eagerly anticipating the day that Paul Pogba makes his Manchester United debut. He’s been tipped as a future star and first team regular for Manchester United and having seen him playing for the reserves and academy on countless occasions, I’m starting to feel quite excited about his potential involvement.

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The Key To Success?

Manchester United have announced their Champions League squad for this season’s campaign. The following were included:  

David De Gea
Thomasz Kuszczak
Anders Lindegaard
Ben Amos*
Samuel Johnstone*

Patrice Evra
Phil Jones
Rio Ferdinand
Jonny Evans
Chris Smalling
Nemanja Vidic
Fabio*
Rafael*
Sean McGinty*

Anderson
Ryan Giggs
Park Ji-Sung
Michael Carrick
Nani
Ashley Young
Thomas Cleverley
Darren Fletcher
Antonio Valencia
Darron Gibson
Matthew James*
Davide Petrucci*

Michael Owen
Dimitar Berbatov
Wayne Rooney
Javier Hernandez
Danny Welbeck*
Federico Macheda*
Mame Diouf
William Keane*

* = Players who do not need to be registered due to age however, were included on the Manchester United champions league squad list on the UEFA website.

The squad list on the UEFA website can be seen here.

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A squad player?

Football is a squad game now. It is what every team with a realistic chance of winning anything throughout the course of a whole season needs in order to compete. So is this current Manchester United squad the strongest ever?

I only recently went through the Manchester United squad list and I was pleasantly shocked. So far this season there has been a settled team of 11 which has started; De Gea, Smalling, Jones, Evans, Evra, Nani, Cleverley, Anderson, Young, Rooney, Welbeck. This was the starting 11 for both of the Tottenham and Arsenal matches at Old Trafford this season, both of whom we managed to beat quite comfortably. In fact, from this team of 11, only 2 players (Evra and Rooney) started vs Barcelona in the Champions League final.

Now think of the outfield players that are missing. For various reasons there was no Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Fabio; a back four that could easily have played in any of Manchester United’s games so far this season and played just as well, if not better.

In midfield it was clear to see that there were 6 players who have regularly featured for Manchester United left out of the starting 11 to face two of the so called top 6 teams; Giggs, Park, Carrick, Fletcher, Valencia and Gibson. I suppose I do not have to tell you how strong a midfield with a combination of 4 of these players would be. As it happens, Valencia, Carrick, Giggs and Park were the starting midfield against Barcelona in the Champions League final at Wembley last season, the biggest testament as to how this curent Manchester United squad is made up. On top of that there is also Paul Pogba who has been tipped by Sir Alex Ferguson to break through into the Manchester United team this season.

I don’t particularly think that it is necessary to tell you how much depth we have in attacking options. At times it almost seems excessive. Only 2 strikers; Rooney and Welbeck started yesterday with another 5 in reserve; Chicharito, Berbatov, Owen, Macheda and Diouf. So I ask again. Is this the strongest ever Manchester United squad?

I believe that it is. Any combination of any of these non-starting players have the ability and know how to win a league match. The previously mentioned non-starters has ammased a total of 42 Premier League winning medals, 5 FA Cup winning medals, 26 League Cup winning medals, 7 Champions League winning medals, 37 Community Shield winners medals as well as 9 FIFA Club World Cup winners medals. In addition to this there are also the solitary UEFA Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup winning medals which Ryan Giggs is in possession of.

These players have been there, done that and with the mixture of the youth and the energy, with this current crop of players, I honestly believe that winning every competition that we are involved in this season can be a reality.

Do you agree with this view? Has there ever been a stronger Manchester United squad than this? Feel free to comment below.

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Will he play on Sunday?

Ahead of Sunday’s showdown with an injury hit Arsenal, here is an update on the fitness of the Manchester United squad.

The Manchester United v Tottenham match at Old Trafford saw the return of both Patrice Evra and Chicharito from injury. Both looked quite sharp with no sign of injury. With Javier Hernandez’s return it gives the manager Sir Alex Ferguson a massive selection headache with the great form of both Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck at the start of the season.

Darren Fletcher’s road to recovery from his mysterious ‘virus’ continued to go smoothly as he came through his second reserve team game completing the full 90 minutes in a 6-0 win over Swansea. It was a match which saw Macheda, Pogba, Lingard, Keane and Diouf find the back of the net.

Sir Alex Ferguson earlier this morning talked about Darren Fletcher: “I think the boy is back now. He’s had a terrible time but now he’s looking terrific and he’ll be in the squad for Sunday.” It looks likely that he will be involved in the match against Arsenal on Sunday.

Rio Ferdinand and Antonio Valencia have been training well with the first team however with Valencia having been pencilled in to the reserve team game a week ago without featuring, it isn’t too far fetched to expect his return to be after the September international break.

Nemanja Vidic and Rafael are still out injured with a calf and shoulder injury respectively. Vidic’s return is expected to be 5 weeks away while the timeframe on Rafael’s return seems to be longer.

Although he is not currently with the first team, it was widely rumoured last night that Darron Gibson had broken his foot and would be out for a few months. Subsequently the press released a story that Darron Gibson has actually damaged ankle ligaments and will be out for at least 4 weeks, hence scuppering any move thst he was hoping to make this summer.

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