Another great night for Utd.

Which explains why Darren Fletcher is pretty much an ever present for Man United who in turn are not interested in a return for Beckham I guess??

Indeed.

I cant make my mind up about United. The conventional wisdom is that they go from strength to strength at this time of the season. They've remained unbeaten without being at their best and have ridden out a poor spell, returning to form whilst still top of the league. If that is the case then clearly they will stroll to the title. And they have a well established system and some good players so they could easily do that.

If I were a United fan, the only nagging doubt I'd have is whether their performances rather than results so far really are an accurate reflection of their ability, whether they've been a tad fortunate to remain unbeaten, and whether there might be a bad run of results lurking on the horizon, particularly when the CL hots up. It might be a case of lose one, lose three or four. In which case this could be Arsenal's year.

i think all the United fans i know wonder how the h3ll they are unbeaten, but accept there is a good mentality within the squad to not lose, it really is a strange PL this year, 2 points is it from 14th - 20th.

Many of the United teams of the past 20 years would presumably destroy this team, but they are getting results, i often think fergie picks teams that are strong enough to get the next result, and that is working usually, but some of them have been really tight games.

If & buts, but if Rooney kicks on after a decent showing against the baggies, Anderson builds on the recent promise, Nani continues to deliver and hopefully Valencia should be in contention from Feb (which you would assume would help Rooney in particular), it could be an exciting 2nd half of the season, but as the cup match at WHU shows, it's very easy to just have one of those days.

Utd have had some luck during the first half of the season but people say you make your own luck, take Villa away for example it looked like we would lose but the desire and spirit of the side came through and we salvaged a point, WBA away was the same, got a winner in a game we should never have won. Utd can't go on just edging games and need to start playing better, hopefully Rooney will only get better and the likes of Berba, Nani, Anderson and Scholes etc will continue to play well plus Valencia coming back will be a big boost.

There are some huge games to come Chelsea twice, Arsenal away, City at home, Liverpool away (which is always tough) and Spurs away. It's far from over but should Utd win their games in hand they would be 12 clear of Chelsea, 8 clear of City and 7 clear of Arsenal so it's a good position to be in.

To paraphrase an old RL term, Fergie instills great belief in his teams which is why they don't crumble in the say way other title contenders can and do. His track record, in the Premier League, demands more respect from everyone. The Champions League is usually a better indicator of how well they're playing and they might find Mille a tougher nut to crack particularly if they don't get an away goal in France. It has all the markings of another Porto type tie.

United do have a tough run in when it comes to away games, and Arsenal could get a slight advantage if, as is likely, they get knocked out of the CL and don't have the extra games to play.

I was reading somewhere a few weeks ago that United's much fabled amazing post-xmas form is a bit of a myth, and their average points per game is only minimally different from the first halves of seasons - It's just that other teams usually can't keep up their own form.

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/james-lawton-stop-the-insanity-harry-beckham-will-be-only-beneficiary-of-a-move-to-spurs-2175212.htmlIts main service would be to the fantasy life of Beckham, who advances on his 36th birthday believing that he can go on piling up the most gratuitous heap of international caps in the history of the game.[/url

I know a lot of people dont like him, but Joey Barton has been absolutely brilliant for us so far this season.

So pleased he has turned it around. In recent seasons, he hasn't been anywhere near as good as he has been this season.

He is playing so well at the moment, take note Fabio.

Did ol' Stevie G miss that pen on purpose? He looked very casual about it, he usually drills his penno's too. Or am i just being mischievious

I think there would be several heart attacks at the FA if Fabio even mentioned the idea of picking Barton.

I simply don't follow very much football outside of CFC enough to even begin to consider who will be brought in when Ancelotti is finally removed.

I think being our manager is a pretty much impossible job. The power of the players, the ridiculous standards Abramovich seemingly demands, the achievements of Jose and Guus to live up to. We're in a dreadful position when it comes to who manages us.

For me this all goes back to the removal of Jose. I've said it ever since Jose left. Getting rid of Mourinho is the dumbest decision in the history of football. There's simply no way that Jose should have left Stamford Bridge without CFC doing everything and more to keep him. If we'd wanted him to stay and he'd walked to go to Real Madrid, it would have been easier because it would have been a move that made sense. But sacking Mourinho??? WTFF???

Hiddink came in and proved himself worthy of the job, but for whatever reason decided not to take the job permanently. That's made the situation even worse, because not only does any new manager have to live up to Jose they've got to live up to Guus as well. We've got two ghosts hovering over SB instead of one.

People say that managing Chelsea and Citeh would be so easy because you've got so much money to spend and such talented players. But especially our lot are impossible to manage unless you're Shanks/Paisley/Clough/Ferguson rolled into one.

In a way I really do think we're screwed for the next few years. We need Hiddink to come back, but I think he's too smart to come back and ruin the great record he had with us.

Decent point at Bolton last night with two HUGE home 6 pointers against Fulham and Villa

If his name wasn't Joey Barton, he would walk into the next squad.

Of course he would!

Toon seem to have had an £1.5m bid for Seb Larsson accepted.

That would be a very good buy for us.

As a complete neutral on this issue, I have to say you are 100% spot on. Joey is no angel but the FA seem desperate to ensure that he is never given a fair crack of the whip.

And he is a cracking player too.

I dont think it helps when people like Graham Poll come out and publically criticise Barton, like Poll has done in recent days.

You dont hear that when other players make mistakes.

Graham Poll has slagged off John Terry many times in print. He even sent him off for a reason only he knows.

But I'm sure when it's John Terry getting slagged off, when it's John Terry getting stripped of the captaincy, you fully approve.

But when it's a player in black and white you whine like a 8itch.

I'll never feel sorry for Joey Barton, but if Capello includes Andy Carroll in his squad there is no reason he can keep the rat faced little get out on off the field matters. It could only be the vast choice of class central midfielders he has

Barton won't play for England because he's a complete 110% utter bleedy bleeding w@anker. And rightly so.

Warren Barton for England was laughable enough thanks.

There's a load of shining lights in the England squad isn't there... all paragons of virtue...

To play in Barton's position.