United should say bye to title with defeat at City

The last meeting was the best game of the season Craig Bellamy hit what he thought to be the match-defining goals only for Michael Owen to give his only telling contribution to win the game 4-3. I doubt we will get a 7-goal thriller but it should be a humdinger. Both are playing for their lives, Man U need a win after their recent draw which saw them lose ground. City needs to justify their money by qualifying for Champions league, one man could make the difference – Carlos Tevez. When you think Sir Alex let him go because he wasn’t “worth 22m” and yet he kept Berbatov, who is a worthless as a sack of beans because his lack of commitment. One thing Tevez never lacks is commitment and hard work on the pitch, he has almost matched Rooney for goals per game. Rooney is back and even though he isn’t fit, he beats having a comatose Berbatov in the team. If only Ferguson had bought a striker, but English football is in a dire way especially at the top. The Glazers at Man U borrowed heavily, Abramovich has also been hit financially by oil prices dropping, the board at Arsenal needs to pay back $700m for the new stadium and the Liverpool owners are also nearly bankrupt. So Man City is the only club flashing the cash, over $320m and counting. They have bought a wealth of over-the-hill players to help them step up to the next level. Man City has a hard run-in as well, United, Arsenal and Spurs will define their season. Adebayor is understandably not at his best after events in Cabinda in January. Man U are at home so you have to fancy them, the usual 4-5-1 with Rooney supported by two wide men and loads of hard work in the middle. The loss of Anderson this season has lost them the advantage of fast passing from deep, Carrick is measured and Scholes needs a fast pass to be creative. The back-line at Man U is stable now, after having been injury-prone for so long. For City to win they have to be as physical as Chelsea and as slick as Arsenal, one player City don’t have is that world-class creative player like Fabregas, Scholes, Arteta or Modric. Neither do they have a powerful box-to-box player like Essien or the Vieira of old. So city is a mismatch of players cobbled together just to get in Champions league. I see an away win, at least I hope Man U do us Spurs fans a favour and beat them handsomely. Spurs play Chelsea on the same day and the title could be decided by Saturday, if Man U lose then they could be 7 points behind provided Chelsea beat Spurs. 2-0 to Man U ramaisibo@hotmail.com