Who will hold their nerve the longest?
Posted on by Martin @ thegoonblog.com

Morning all, I finally have a day off today.

The results over the weekend were OK, Chelsea dropped a point so we now sit in 2nd even though they have a game in hand, whilst United beat Liverpool at Old Trafford in one of the games we hoped they would drop a couple of points – but it wasn’t to be.

I think what people have to remember after writing Chelsea out of the title race is that they will overtake us if they win their game in hand. Its also worth noting that they dropped points away to a team we are yet to play, one of our old bogey teams, to coin a phrase, and a manager that has given us consistent problems down the years. We won’t have an advantage over Chelsea until we have played, and won at Blackburn.

You do wonder if United will drop anymore points and if they beat Chelsea I think the title could be heading to Old Trafford once again. Will the fact its a record breaking title play on their minds? Its a possibility but its not like they have not won it before is it… So far we have won in the potential banana skin game which was Hull, we were the only team out of the three playing away from home, then the weekend just gone, we were the only team at home and Chelsea dropped two points. First blood Arsenal? Possibly.

The key for me is for United to lose to Chelsea – I believe Chelsea will drop the most points out of all the teams. That would put us top, a draw for United against Chelsea might not be enough. There is one game that nobody has really mentioned so far, the North London derby. The game has even more riding on it than that game at Highbury when we were both chasing that 4th spot, with a title and the 4th place again up for grabs – its a straight shoot out, they win – we don’t get the title, we win – they won’t get 4th. It will be nervy and stack pull of passionate football.

I just can’t call it. One part of me doesn’t want to make a bold statement and be full of belief about is winning the league because being disappointed yet again is not tremendously appealing, but I know we can do it, if our players hold out long enough and there are not anymore injuries.

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Its a strange decision to appeal Vermaelen’s red card – not because it was a red card (it plainly wasn’t), but because the FA are known to be erratic, useless muppets. On the other hand, is losing Vermaelen for Birmingham and Wolves a big deal? I can see where they are coming from but we need all the help we can get in defence at the moment and the last thing we need is to be missing our best defender. Lets hope we win the appeal later on. I doubt the FA will back down – and if they use Vermaelen’s lack of protest against him, I will dispear.

There have been some mixed messages about Robin van Persie’s fitness, he seems to think he is going to be playing quite a few games right at the end of the season, whereas on the official site, the boss makes it sound forutnate if we see him at all, saying he is at least a month off playing… Its best to write him off to be honest, he is a notoriously slow starter anyway and whilst it would be great to see him in the red and white against this season, the chances of it are slim, and the chances of him making the massive impact people seem to think he will, are even slimmer. Sorry.

Its all set to be another quiet week but expect some uproar if Vermaelen is given an extra game’s ban, after this week we will have loads more midweek games – and at the moment, it looks like something will be getting in the way of seeing the second leg against Barca. Not good.

Til tomorrow.

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