Weekend Outlook (04 Oct 2008)

Blackburn Rovers vs Manchester United

"...A great relief for Bubba to finally open account with a brace of goals to score us our first win of the ECL...."

- JayWalk, 04 Oct 2008

A great relief for Bubba to finally open account with a brace of goals to score us our first win of the ECL.

ManUtd is never known to dominate in terms of possession but if they ever did, it can only indicate how one-sidedness the game was.

And very much so against Aalborg BK where we took 60% control of the ball in their own back yard.

They never had a chance considering the fact that our goalie only had to entertain one save in the entire 90 minutes.

Looks like it's another 3 points when they come to Old Trafford further down the calendar.

That would leave us with 2 games against Celtic and 1 more against Villarreal where we need just another 3 points from any of these 3 games to proceed to the next round.

JayWalk The Talk: We have quite a few casualties this week as Rooney, Scholes are set to join Carrick and Hargreaves in the sick bay.

Up front, we will be playing Tevez and Berbatov with Ronaldo behind, playing his 200th game for ManUtd. Fletcher should expect a call up to fill in the void left by Scholes while we have Nani, Andersen, Park and Giggs to fight for the remaining midfield spots.

Rafael was simply brilliant in midweek but I think Fergie will be resting him today. In his place, Neville will have dips on the starting sheet if he can pass a fitness test today. Otherwise, it will be Brown finally getting off the bench into the starting lineup.

Robinson, Dunn, Grella and McCarthy will not be available to start for Blackburn Rovers today due to injury and Simpson is on load from ManUtd where the EPL rules stipulates that on-loan players will not be allowed to play against their parent club.

JayWalk The Walk: Here's the thing. ManUtd has only won once at Ewood Park since 1999. Call it a jinx or a hoodoo but Ewood Park has always been a tricky place to be.

Hence it explains why ManUtd are made to give a 1-ball handicap but a difficult 2.025 decimal odds to clear it.

Although Blackburn is sitting higher up on the league table, we all know that ManUtd is the much stronger team. Still, I believed that the hoodoo jinx was factored into the odds to reflect as such.

I, on the other hand, have a different theory. It is not the grounds superstition that helped Blackburn lose only 1 in 8 games. It's really the managers behind. Since 1999, we have Graeme Souness and subsequently Mark Sparky Hughes. Both were excellent managers at Blackburn and I attributed the team's good record to them.

But now that Hughes is gone, we have a fellow ManUtd graduate at the helm. Paul Ince who was England first black captain and is now the first black Briton to manage an Premiership club. Problem is that this is his maiden season at the top flight and he is about to be schooled by the best manager in the Premiership.

Punter's wagers skewed heavily in favour of ManUtd to beat the 1-ball handicap by a ratio of 83 to 17.

I say we go ahead and give the 1-ball handicap. We have no game in the coming midweek and as such, there will be no reason to hold back. It is definitely going to be a victory for ManUtd which means that even if we win by 1 goal, we still get our money back.

Disclaimer: The above views are purely my own two-cents' worth. In other words, I cannot and will not guarantee that my predictions are accurate. If you want to bet on the game, do so at your own risk. Also, please bet responsibly and within your means regardless of how "sure thing" that game may appear to be. As the old saying goes, "The Ball Is Round". Good luck.