SUNDERLAND VS MANCHESTER UNITED- PREVIEW
Manchester united will go into the game either with the good news that Liverpool has beaten Chelsea and paved their way to go on and win the title, or with the acceptance of the fact that, the title race is all but over with Chelsea on op with one more game to play, whatever be the situation Red Devils will have one thing on their mind when they step on the field, that is to win the match because one can never be too sure, as even if Chelsea manage to beat Liverpool then on the last day of the season Wigan might pull a rabbit out of the bag and take something away from the blues handing United a chance to win the title.
Following the Red Devils' defeat against Chelsea and goalless draw at Blackburn, they have won back-to-back games against fierce rivals Manchester City and high flying Tottenham Hotspur last weekend. While Sunderland have collected three wins from four with a defeat at West Ham United their only blemish in the month of April.
As far as the team news is concerned Sunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole and full-back George McCartney will face late fitness tests ahead of the Stadium of Light meeting, while John Mensah and Andy Reid will miss the final two games of the season.
United must do without Danny Welbeck , Michael Owen and Anderson .Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney both are suffering from Groin injuries and Gary Neville has a calf troubling him. And long-term absentee Owen Hargreaves is unlikely to make a return to the starting line up, although he could be on the bench again.
At Old Trafford earlier this season, United were moments away from crashing to a highly unlikely defeat but an Anton Ferdinand own goal deep into injury-time tied the scores up at 2-2. Visiting striker Bent opened the scoring after just seven minutes but Dimitar Berbatov equalized soon after the interval. However, Bruce's plucky outfit regained the advantage thanks to a header from Bent's towering strike partner Kenwyne Jones. With all three points on their way to Wearside, disaster struck as Patrice Evra's low drive was inadvertently deflected beyond Craig Gordon by the unfortunate Ferdinand at the death to restore parity.
Manchester united at the start of the season were written off by most of the pundits for retaining the title, given the exits of Ronaldo and Tevez, while Rooney was expected to step up to the plate and take on the goal scoring prowess and fill the void that the two had left, the England striker did just that and virtually carried the team on his shoulders throughout the season with 34 goals in all competitions, but all feared that what if he gets injured and that inevitable fear came true.
When Rooney suffered an ankle injury in Munich and uniteds season since then has taken a turn for the worse, exit form the champions league, losing to Chelsea, Drawing at Rovers which leaves them with their fate not in their own hands and hoping that their age old rivals will do them a favor, and if that is to be the case, and Red devils do manage to win the league, it will not only be an unprecedented 4th consecutive and 19th title in total for Manchester United , it will also be a testimony to Sir Alex Ferguson who has always said no player is bigger then the club and regardless of who goes and stays, old Trafford will always be the theatre of dreams.
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