After the Lord Mayor’s show

Manchester United roll into Aston. Try not to get too excited.

If you’re old enough you’ll know the saying, and never has it been more appropriate. We’ve just had one of the most glorious nights ever, made even more special by the behaviour of the opposition supporters. They’ve seen their team win more trophies than almost any other club in the world but were still gracious enough to accept that they were guests in our city before the match and that they were beaten by the better team afterwards. On Sunday we’ve got this lot.

They’ll be doing what they always do, which is whatever they like, because rules don’t apply where they’re concerned. At least we’ve tightened up on them sitting wherever they want, although it’ll be interesting to see how tight it’s been to get tickets in the posh seats. Then again, the more gloryhunterish elements of their support are long gone, off to follow more glamorous Champions League teams such as Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa.

They’ve got that new bloke in who’s bought a chunk of the club only to find that what he was told was a classic British limo was a 25 year-old XJ with 200,000 miles on the clock and knackered brakes. He’s still demanding that somebody builds them a new stadium; maybe he should have a word with David Sullivan. In the meantime they’re in the bottom half of the table.

If he’s lucky and we’re even luckier, they’ll still have the same manager they had last week. They’ve got a mid-table squad and their captain got sent off last week then to no-one’s surprise it got overturned. Then again, it was more surprising than Villa getting another injury in the week.

We haven’t got the best of records against them, but that was then and this is now. We’re better than them, we’ve got better players, a manager on a different dimension and quality will out. That’s another old saying.