Manchester United is going to face arch-rival Manchester City at Old Trafford on Sunday (10 May 2009) with a view to going another step ahead towards their hat-trick of premier league titles. Manchester City may not be in the title race, but Mark Hughes boys would be looking for 3 points from the match in their bid to clinch a place in the qualifying round of UEFA Europa League next season. Moreover, a Manchester derby can never be short of excitement as the fans of both sides consider it as a matter of prestige.
Match: Manchester United vs Manchester City; English Premier League 2008-2009
Date: 10 May 2009, Sunday
Venue: City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester
Kick off: 13:30 BST (British Standard Time)
Manchester United just needs 7 points from their remaining 4 games to ensure their third premier league title in a row. After the confidence-booster 3-1 win over Arsenal away from home in the second leg of Champions League semi final last week, Manchester Untied is expected to be full of confident going in to the Manchester City match. United would also be gearing up to take revenge of their 1-0 home defeat to Manchester City in February 2008.
Manchester City would also be full of confident after 3 successive wins in premier league recently. So, City is now in search of their fourth straight premier league win, a feat that they last achieved in November 1992. Manchester City’s new owners spent lots of money for bringing star footballers like Robinho in the team this season, but the club failed to live up to the expectation. However, striker Robinho has returned to his scoring form recently, scoring in each of his last three premier league outings. Since their home defeat to Manchester City last season, Manchester United has been in excellent form at home, winning 20, losing 1 and drawing 1 international match. Manchester City has problems in defense as they conceded nine goals in their last five matches without keeping any clean sheet. Manchester City might have some good memories at Old Trafford recently, but they have been in a bad patch of form on the road so far this season.
Since losing to Liverpool and Fulham, Manchester United has won five out of their last five games in premier league. In their last 18 premier league matches, Manchester United has won on 16 occasions. Moreover, the kind of dominance Manchester United displayed in both legs of Champions league semi final against Arsenal, it seems that Manchester United should not have any problem in winning the derby match. Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney have been in excellent scoring form at home. Ronaldo hit 36 goals in 31 premier league matches at home, while Rooney scored 7 goals in his last 7 premier league outings.
Manchester City will most probably miss Shaun-Wright Phillips who is yet to recover fully from his ankle injury. However, Pablo Zabaleta is expected to be available for the Manchester United showdown after recovering from a hamstring injury. City would be looking to continue their success at the Old Trafford.
Online Live Score and Updates
Here, I am giving some website names from where you can get the live score and updates of the match:
Live Score
Goalzz
Live Football Scores
Goal.com
Footie Scorez
Well, Manchester United seems to be too strong for Manchester City. Given their big squad, Sir Alex Ferguson can afford to rest some of his key players and can rotate the squad. As it is a Manchester derby, both sides would like to win it as it is also a matter of prestige and pride. Now, I just hope to see a hard-fought match in twent20 version of the game.
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