capriccioso

Look, I used to loathe United with a passion, but one of my best mates is a United fan and he slowly swung me around to grudgingly respecting them, and even preferring them to most of the bigger teams in England. I didn't watch the 08/09 final, the pain of Ovrebo was still too much for me, I didn't watch any football after that up to the FA Cup final. In any case, by the time said friend had turned me around, it was deep in the 09/10 season when United didn't win anything of import. I don't appreciate being called a disgrace for preferring United to Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Man City; or the clubs from the continent like Juventus (sorry, Steve), Barcelona et al. Personal abuse is unnecessary, United are not a direct rival and many of their fans don't harbour an intense hatred for us when compared to the three clubs I mentioned earlier. Probably because they have been more successful than us. You'll still get the odd Red talking shit like "Plastic flag plastic club" but by and large they don't think as lowly of us as other fans. Take a look at Redcafe if you don't believe me, United fans are some of the most balanced fans in the world, that website is probably the best football forum in the world. I'm not denying that they're biased, I'm not denying that many if not most of them dislike us, but they are a much better club with much more intelligent fans than the rest of our 'rivals'.

I'm not English, but I still support English teams in Europe if Chelsea aren't involved. With the exception of "Super Tottenham from the Lane", Arsenal and the Scousers.

It has to do with the disrespect of the minute's silence, and Torres.

I don't understand this. Who lives in Brighton?

Hilarious, in a way. First they accuse us of not singing anything at all. Then we sing the Liquidator, and they get pissed off because it's not 'original' enough Make up your minds. If you have any between you, that is.

Only 72 days until he becomes a free agent. I can't take it anymore . Please, one more year Didier! Anyway, I love it when we're hated by other clubs, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest if Drogba chooses to spend 89 minutes a game on the grass- and uses the other minute to score.

Hasselbaink-Drogba-Lukaku?

The bitterness is just, so, so gratifying http://www.redandwhi...pic=292356.1760

Fans of all the teams who desperately do not want to see us get through- in particular Liverpool, United and Arsenal are much, much worse. Barcelona fans are gentlemen compared to them. Arsenal I can understand but we have little to no traditional rivalry with the others, just mutual hatred between the fans. It's fear on the part of the Scousers (they don't want to admit that they are the sole laughingstock of England- they want to include us), and envy on the part of the Mancs. I did, I said he was great with his team selection. Don't get me wrong, I have really taken to the idea of Di Matteo as manager.

Well said. We can't afford to let it be 10 attackers v 10 defenders like what Inter did in 2009, we'll definitely concede. We have to have something at the other end for them to think about and at least leave 2-3 back. Drogba/Sturridge or Drogba/Torres would do just that.

His right arm is twice the size of his left. must have done it

Sanchez bouncing off Terry like he was a slab of concrete was hilarious

Midfield battle more or less won then

Probably

I found him to be incredibly comic, actually. I haven't laughed that hard when watching football in a long time. And to be fair, a couple of those 'dives' involved contact with the testicles, and contact there, no matter how slight means all bets are off. Just about every male should know that

If he was a woman he'd be playing for Chelsea Ladies and he probably wouldn't be known to most posters, myself included.

If I was gay, certainly

I did too! Woke up at 5:10, still early enough to see Drogba's goal

This is a vital match, we absolutely must send out a full strength team, with the exception of Mata perhaps as the lad drops hugely in his performances when tired. Anyway Barcelona will be sending out a full strength team as well, so they'll be just as tired as us.

I hope everything's ok now Welcome back

And a Kalou tap in! I can just imagine the conversation: Puyol- Hey John take a look at my hand it hur...OW!

We paid 24 million for a relatively unknown guy and he's given us 19.625 goals a season on average for 8 years: 04/05- 16 05/06- 16 06/07- 33 07/08- 15 08/09- 14 09/10- 37 10/11- 13 (+17 assists) 11/12- 13 and counting. That doesn't make us a one man team/attack by any stretch of the imagination. Wayne Rooney has averaged 22 goals a season in 8 years, you wouldn't say United had one striker for the past decade.

Terry, Cech or Ramires. Mata deserves a shout as well. If Drogba can keep up this form all the way to seasons end and finish with 20 goals or more (he's on 13 now, isn't he?) I think he should win it.

One striker, one chance, one shot, one goal. Problem? More seriously, our reliance on him is still nothing compared to how much other teams, e.g. Arsenal, rely on one player.

I'll beat all of you to 30k posts! @SHM: