The 'Theatre of Dreams' seems to get a little bigger every time Portsmouth visits and not for the first time Old Trafford broke another Premier League attendance record in the recent home victory against Liverpool. Neither does the trip seem to get any less daunting with the passing of years. We are now amidst a cluster of tough away fixtures with Chelsea just behind us and Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal after this.
Manchester United have come charging out of the blocks ever since their opening day 5-1 thrashing of Fulham and already they are becoming many people's favourites to take the title from Chelsea.
Wayne Rooney celebrates after completing his hat-trick against Bolton
If the 4-0 demolition of Bolton at the Reebok Stadium was anything to go by then it is not a bad bet and it was led by a striker who has only just become a man, despite seeming to have been finishing off teams for an eternity. Wayne Rooney came out of an indifferent spell and to celebrate the coming of his 21st birthday he downed Bolton with a classic hat-trick.
However it went from high to low for United, when they were brought crashing back down to earth four days later when they slipped to only their second defeat of the season in all competitions by going down 1-0 to FC Copenhagen in the Champions League.
Manchester United are fighting hard to bring domestic domination back to Old Trafford. Their last Premier League championship was lifted in 2003 and quite simply for a club this big that is too long. Now firmly in the control of American tycoon Malcolm Glazier perhaps this could be the season.
Sir Alex Ferguson
Sir Alex Ferguson is determined that unlike last season his side would not be trailing the leading pack after the first ten games. This time last year his side lay in 6th place already 13 points adrift of Chelsea. This season they have topped the table for most of the time, save for the odd overtaking by Chelsea and of course Pompey.
Even when Wayne Rooney was failing to fire on all cylinders there were plenty of others to meet the challenge. With the sale of Ruud Van Nistelrooy in the summer the chance for Louis Saha to stake his claim has been taken greedily. And with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also starting to have an impact after an Old Trafford career blighted with injury the side are barely missing the departure of the Dutchman. Of course when all is said and done they still have the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick and Rio Ferdinand as yet more reasons why they expect to pick up trophies.
After Manchester United made their intentions clear on the opening day with that five star performance against Fulham they went on to beat Spurs 1-0, Newcastle 2-0 and Liverpool 2-0. On the road the only points dropped were 1-1 at Reading whilst a 3-0 victory at Charlton, a 2-1 win at Watford and a 3-1 defeat of Wigan along with the 4-0 slaying of Bolton has kept the pot boiling.
Ryan Giggs tussles with Wigan Athletic's Paul Scharner at the JJB Stadium
For a club steeped in European tradition the UEFA Champions League is just as important to Manchester United and they had made a 100% start with home wins against Celtic 3-2, FC Copenhagen (3-0) and a 1-0 win in Benfica. But just as United seem to have peaked they were surprisingly sunk in Copenhagen 1-0 in the return so it just shows that nothing can be taken for granted in this game.
United do have a number of injury concerns in the lead up to this game with Ryan Giggs, Louis Saha and Gary Neville all missing the midweek match against FC Copenhagen. But then such is the talent at their disposal that this will be an inconvenience rather than any kind of major upheaval.
Last year's meeting with Manchester United at Old Trafford was a sad occasion coming as it did on the day of the funeral of one of football's most famous and eloquent performers George Best. Not that it affected United on the field as they strolled to a 3-0 victory with an early strike from Paul Scholes ending a personal goal drought and two goals in the last ten minutes from Van Nistelrooy and Rooney. The previous season two Rooney strikes gave the home side a 2-1 victory whilst in Pompey's first season in the Premier League another comprehensive 3-0 victory was inflicted on them with goals by Forlan, Ronaldo and Keene. Currently Gary O'Neil is the only player to breach the rearguard at Old Trafford for Portsmouth in the Premier League scoring in that previous 2-1 defeat.
For Pompey it is an awesome task following hot on the heels of their last Premier League visit to Chelsea. Yet they go there in their own strongest ever position in decades believing anything is possible in the ever growing 'Theatre of Dreams'.
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發表於 2006-11-4 13:26:15
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發表於 2006-11-4 23:12:08