· Last Year's Game - 1-0 to United
· Last Year's Spursometer - 59%
· This season's away Game - 1-1
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 35 2004-5
· Spurs lost at Highbury. United beat Newcastle
Prem Pl W D L For-Ag Pts
Home 13 3 2 8 18 -21 11
Away 14 0 3 11 5 -27 3
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Total (Prem) 27 4 5 19 23 -49 14
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Football Lge
Home (Div 1) 51 20 19 12 89 -64 63
Away (Div 1) 51 9 9 33 55 -101 28
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Total(Div 1) 102 29 28 45 144 -165 91
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Football Lge
Home (Div 2) 4 2 1 1 10 - 3 5
Away (Div 2) 4 1 2 1 3 - 3 4
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Total(Div 2) 8 3 3 2 13 - 6 9
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Total (Prem) 27 4 5 19 23 -49 14
Total (Div 1) 102 29 28 45 144 -165 91
Total (Div 2) 8 3 3 2 13 - 6 9
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Grand Total 137 35 36 66 180 -220 114
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Last Six Premiership results:-
Spurs
Chelsea 2-1 Spurs
B'mingham 0-2 Spurs
Spurs 2-1 West Brom
Newcastle 3-1 Spurs
Spurs 2-1 Man City
Everton 0-1 Spurs
Man Utd
West Brom 1-2 Man Utd
Man Utd 3-0 B'mingham
Man Utd 1-0 West Ham
Bolton 1-2 Man Utd
Man Utd 2-0 Arsenal
Man Utd 0-0 S'derland
Pos P W D L F -A GD Pts
2 Man Utd 34 23 7 4 66-30 36 76
4 Spurs 34 17 10 7 49-33 16 61
Spurs last played Manchester United at home in September, 2004. The game was decided by a penalty awarded against Edman for a foul upon O'Shea. Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored the decisive goal from the spot. Since then we have played and drawn two away games. One last January, when Pedro Mendes scored "that" goal, but we had to settle for a 0-0, and the other in October this season, when Jermaine Jenas sensationally equalised Silvestre's early goal, with a great Beckhamesque free kick.
With that record in recent games, and in our current form, we have no reason to fear United, but any thoughts that Good Friday's surprising 0-0 draw at home to Sunderland will put paid to seeing a United performance in today's game should be dismissed out of hand.
Mathematically, United will not have given up hope of beating Chelsea to the title, but more realistically, they will be just as keen to beat us in order to secure the valuable second place and an automatic Champions' League berth. No doubt Sir Alex will have given the necessary kick up the backside for good measure!
United have had to improvise in midfield this season, with the transfer out of Roy Keane, and the long-term injury to Alan Smith. Paul Scholes is also out for the rest of this season. These absences have led to Ryan Giggs playing in a central midfield role in recent games, alongside O'Shea, but their run of 9 consecutive Premiership wins before Friday says enough about the ability of the midfield and the team as a whole. When you bear in mind that for most of the season, United have had to do without Heinze at left back, you have to realise that they do still have strength in depth. Incidentally, Heinze was on the bench on Friday, as was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Wayne Rooney is one of those opposition players that I feel you have to admire, but he has been in and out of form recently, perhaps due to his off-field problems with the bookies! We were thankful to him for his performance at Old Trafford against the gooners though, and he must not be discunted at any cost!
I like to think of Robbie Keane as our own version of Rooney. Not only has Robbie demonstrated similar goal-scoring prowess, but Keane tackles back and chases back to assist in all departments.
Spurs will most likely be missing Ledley King and Teemu Tainio, both of whom took knocks on Saturday. Never fear though, as Michael Dawson is back, and Gardner is back in form. Danny Murphy will be relishing the chance to start, but he might have to battle for that left-side place with Edgar Davids. In my opinion, Carrick and Jenas should be left alone in the centre of midfield for this game, where I feel flair, rather than grit will be required. We can leave the grit till next Saturday!
It should be a really entertaining game, and I would be happy with a draw. I daren't predict a better result than that, and I'll guess at a score-line of 2-2.
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