Manchester United v Chelsea

United's breakout game. Ronaldo will finally be on top form, as will Rooney and Berbatov. United will surprise everyone and win convincingly.

Thoughts?

I'm not sure...kinda nervous for this game given united's recent form. of course i would love a break out game but i can't see one from ronaldo...all we need is carrick to play though and we will win as we've talked about before he's a machine

Personally, I can see a boring 0-0 draw happening.

I really hope I am wrong but let's just say it wouldn't surprise me if both teams cancelled each other out!

As a City supporter who are you rooting for?

United 2-0, or something very close to that. Like I've said in another thread, I can't believe I have to miss this game. If it's anything like the other big 4 matches this season it should be extremely entertaining end-to-end stuff (mostly in Chelsea's end).

I'm going with Chelsea. Should be a great game.

As predicted, a convincing victory for United.

Completely outclassed Chelsea from the starting whistle, and Ronaldo is finally beginning to regain form.

Evra once again proved how crucial he is to the side, and I hope his injury isn't too serious.

Vidic is a monster. Quality.

AMAZING match to watch! very entertaining...howard webb and co. were horrible though...completely agree though that chelsea was just outclassed the entire game. i hope ronaldo keeps his form up and i really really hope that evra will be fine.

United should have had another goal, too, as Ronaldo's onside goal was incorrectly called back.

If you haven't seen or heard about United's brilliant corner kick play, check this out: http://www.premiershiptalk.com/2009/01/11/refs-spoil-a-brilliant-goal/

The linesman said he flagged it "because Wayne didn't tell me what he was doing."

Since when do you need to tell the linesman, "hey mate, I think I might take this corner now." Haha, a win nonetheless.

ya the linesman should've been doing his job. I'm pretty sure that's what they pay him to do...I could be wrong though. I'll take a 3-0 victory any day in United's favor though

The Sun is reporting that Chelsea fans were singing "you should've died in that tunnel" to Ronaldo. Pretty tasteless and classless.

Fans who were at the game said United fans immediately started singing "you only came to see Ronaldo" right back.

It was a solid game. I was expecting a bit more excitment but solid nonetheless.

Chelsea couldn't get anything going in the final third. Where were Ballack and Lampard? These two didn't do anything the entire game.

I think Drogba should've come off at the half. He still isn't fit and shouldn't be playing.

Did anyone else notice how straight up and lazily Bosingwa played Ronaldo on the wing on Rooney's goal? He stood straight up, almost mocking Ronaldo. Of course we all know what happened next...Ronaldo to Evra, Evra to Rooney, GOAL! I laughed at Bosingwa's posture because earlier in the week, Soccernet reported that Bosingwa said he held the answer to shutting down Ronaldo. Apparently that's standing straight up.

That corner kick was a blatant copy of what Liverpool tried to do a couple of season ago. It was genius then, but got called back and had to be retaken as well. Still is a good idea, and if linesman actually paid attention then i would be an excellent trick to use every now and then.

bosingwa was fantastic to watch...seemed like he was just trying to stare down ronaldo so he'd get distracted by the uni-brow...didn't seem to work though because ronaldo was on top of his game...so much for insider information bosingwa...nice try

Crouchie wrote:Did anyone else notice how straight up and lazily Bosingwa played Ronaldo on the wing on Rooney's goal? He stood straight up, almost mocking Ronaldo. Of course we all know what happened next...Ronaldo to Evra, Evra to Rooney, GOAL! I laughed at Bosingwa's posture because earlier in the week, Soccernet reported that Bosingwa said he held the answer to shutting down Ronaldo. Apparently that's standing straight up.

Haha, yes, I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. It did indeed seem like Bosingwa was mocking Ronnie.

Andy wrote:That corner kick was a blatant copy of what Liverpool tried to do a couple of season ago. It was genius then, but got called back and had to be retaken as well. Still is a good idea, and if linesman actually paid attention then i would be an excellent trick to use every now and then.

I wouldn't call it copying Liverpool...a billion clubs have pulled it off down the years...Roma even did it against United in the CL a few years back. Bayern Munich have also done it successfully, and lucky for them the refs noticed it and the goal stood.