Look Away Now At The Big Game

This week, Look Away Now has decided to focus its attention on one match in particular; namely Tottenham’s Saturday teatime visit to Manchester United, a fixture close to the hearts of your humble writers. It’s an intriguing clash – the recent top-four crashers pitting their wits against the most successful English club side of the past twenty years, but one which, if you believe the current swathe of popular opinion, is in a state of decline. With players like Bale, Berbatov, van der Vaart and Hernandez in thrilling form, and with the league positions of the two sides more closely aligned than any time in recent memory, we think this one could be a real mouth-waterer.

Have no fear, we’ll be doing our usual trick of predicting our way through all of the weekend’s Premier League encounters too, but for now it is to Old Trafford that we head…

Saturday 30^th October

Manchester United v Tottenham, 5:30pm

Questions. Not the kind of thing Manchester United are regularly charged with answering, but this season they’ve been on the receiving end of far more than usual. And they’ve not just been nice, easy-to-pad-away dot balls either – they’ve received some real bouncers (excuse me going all Clive Tyldesley, it’s just that I love a good cricketing metaphor). Is Ferguson finally losing the battle of player power? Has he got the necessary talent to replace the aging limbs of Scholes, Giggs and Neville? Are Manchester City about to go from ‘noisy neighbours’ to fully-fledged title rivals? Will Sir Alex hire Carlos Quieroz again?

The lingering issue of replacing the old-guard is a curious one. Over the past five or so years, a raft of young upstarts have found themselves on the fringes of the team – Welbeck, Bellion, Miller, Richardson, Obertan, Campbell – without ever truly establishing themselves in the first team reckoning. Of the current squad, many supporters argue that there’s simply too much dead wood (Carrick, Park, Evans: I’m looking at you), players with undoubted talent but who, for one reason or another, have failed to kick on and reach that sacred ‘next level’. Unfortunately for these supporters, the aforementioned old-timers won’t be able to hang on much longer and soon enough the feeding tube will have to be pulled.

In terms of their opening form, United find themselves in a confusingly contradictory position: undefeated in nine games for the first time since the autumn of 1999, but lying five points off the leaders and found guilty of throwing away late points with astonishing frequency, a situation which must perplex as much as infuriate the manager. The Wayne Rooney affair (I mean the contract-related one, of course), coupled with those ever-looming shadows of ownership and debt, has helped only to up the pressure even further. Having said all that, United have not exactly become a bad side, just one unable to slip out of second gear, and this is a fixture that has been kind to United throughout the Premier League era. But then the Tottenham of today are a different proposition entirely.

Most Tottenham fans will be heading up the M1 hoping to snatch a draw from a Manchester United side that many consider to be on a downward trajectory. The optimistic among the travellers will be coveting all three points and the first win in the Theatre of Dreams^TM in 18 games. The history books tell a sad story for Tottenham: only two draws to be had in all those visits to compensate for the hours spent gridlocked on the M6, the service station Ginsters pasties and 20p a piss toilet stops. This fixture has left most Spurs fans feeling like the layer of scraped-off stubble that clings to the basin after a shave – it’s all over now, no more face time, just wash me down the sink…

Could this be the year to change that, with a depleted United looking to establish themselves again as title contenders just as everyone has begun to dismiss them as old nags, only good for glue? Hernandez has released some of the mounting pressure with his flurry of goals, and will certainly be the danger man on Saturday as he is prepared to fling his body any which way at any loose ball in the box.

Van der Vaart, Bale and Lennon will be instructed to get at the United defenders from the start and it is key to Spurs chances that they don’t let United slip into a rhythm and dictate the play. It will be interesting to see who dominates in the centre of the pitch; United lack flair in Scholes’ absence, and should Huddlestone get a grip on the game his passing could be key to Spurs’ attacking endeavours.

United will need no reminding of the damage that Van der Vaart and Bale can cause given space and it will be up to them to close them down, get the ball to Nani and let him run at Tottenham’s revolving back four. The history books suggest a United win, while the form book hints that this might be tighter now than any time in the last decade.

Ed’s prediction: 2-3

Matt’s prediction: 2-1

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And now for the rest. Our apologies if you feel a little left out by the focus on Old Trafford – but then we never claimed this blog would shy away from blatant partisanship. If it did, exactly what kind of football fans would that make us?

Saturday 30^th October

Arsenal 2 - 0 West Ham, 3pm

Blackburn 0 - 1 Chelsea, 3pm

Everton 2 - 0 Stoke, 3pm   

Fulham 1 - 1 Wigan, 3pm   

Wolves 1 - 2 Man City, 3pm

Sunday 31^st October

Aston Villa 2 - 1 Birmingham, 12pm

Newcastle 1 - 1 Sunderland, 1:30pm

Bolton 1 - 2 Liverpool, 4pm     

Monday 1^st November

Blackpool 3 - 4 West Brom, 8pm      

~ Ed & Matt