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These
are surely not the best of times for Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney
who has locked himself on a collision course with his manager, Alex
Ferguson on the gaffer’s injury claims. Rooney has come out publicly to
refute claims by Ferguson that the England man is not fully fit and is
suffering from an ankle injury.

United fans will be
hoping that this incident does not follow the paths of David Beckham,
Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who had such encounters and were eventually sold.
As the new boys of West Brom come calling, it will be pertinent to see
whether Rooney will start or be benched. “During the World Cup I
trained in every session and had no problems fitness wise,” said
Rooney. “I’ve been training for the last two months. I haven’t missed a
training session. So I’ve got no problems with my fitness.”

Ferguson’s ego at stake

If he is benched,
then there might problems in Ferguson’s relationship with United’s
highest goal scorer for last season. Owen Hargreaves could make his
long-awaited return from a two-year injury on Saturday. West Brom are
however on a roll; and after defeating Arsenal at the Emirates, what
better ground to test the new found status. They sit sixth, and Coach
Roberto Di Matteo has called on his players to use the Emirates’
triumph to boost their confidence ahead of Saturday’s game. Nigerian
player, Osaze Odemwingie, September’s player of the month, and the
team’s creative fulcrum, Jerome Thomas, are both battling to be fit for
the trip to Old Trafford.

In three trips to
the ‘Big 4’, of Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal – they have lost two and
won one. Di Matteo also added that: “Is the Arsenal win going to change
our attitude? No, because the attitude has always been very good, very
positive and very committed from the players’ point of view. But it’s
another game and we treat it like one single game, and then we’ll think
about the next one after that.” Di Matteo was unbeaten in the three
top-flight occasions he played at the Theatre of Dreams for Chelsea;
winning 2-1 on his first visit there and drawing 1-1 and 3-3.

Another Chelsea trip to Villa Park

Villa Park is not
one of the grounds that holds fond memories for Chelsea, especially the
departed Jose Mourinho, whose days as manager of Chelsea got short
circuited at Villa Park. Last season, Chelsea were defeated 2-1, even
though they scored first. One player hoping the status quo stays is a
former Blues’ player, Steve Sidwell, and he is counting on the fans to
raise the roof as they welcome the defending champions. “It’s going to
be a tough game,” he said. “They are doing really well but we have got
a good record against them apart from last year away. Hopefully we can
put that to one side and go into it confident and get a result. I
personally think they will win the league. The way they have started
this year and on the evidence shown they should do really well but it’s
a long season and a lot of ups and downs happen. At home the fans are
great, especially against the big teams. They really do get behind the
players, which is really important because sometimes when it’s 0-0, or
if you’re 1-0 down, when you need that extra push, it does come from
the fans.” There are injury concerns for John Terry for Chelsea and
Ashley Young for Aston Villa.

Wilshere hopes Arsenal will remain focussed

When Arsenal lost
last season in the league, they lost in pairs. This season, they have
lost to West Brom and Chelsea in successive match days so it should be
safe to assume that the Gunners will be getting a victory over
Birmingham on Saturday. Arsene Wenger will be glad that he can call on
the return of the duo of Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott. Birmingham
City have looked solid defensively, apart from their loss to Everton,
and will seek to put up a similarly well organised defence like West
Brom and hope to catch the Gunners on the break.

Youngster, Jack
Wilshere, hopes that Arsenal will be patient in breaking up teams that
set up ultra defensively and keep their shape. “Teams come to Arsenal
and hope to catch us on the counter-attack,” he said. “It worked that
day (against West Brom) and we have to learn from that day. We have to
show we can deal with that and get a result on Saturday. I think we
learned from it straight after because we went out to Serbia and got a
good win and then we played well against Chelsea. So I think we learned
from it and hopefully we can get a result against Birmingham. It’s an
important game because you have to get three points in every game.” The
three points are very important if they are not to be set adrift from
the top of the table.

Villa may miss Valencia match

The $40 million buy
from Valencia, David Villa, is a major doubt for Saturday’s game
against Valencia as he sustained a knee injury on duty for Spain
against Scotland on Tuesday. Villa scored a record breaking 45th goal
for Spain in the match against Scotland, taking him above Raul Gonzalez
in the all-time record books.

Xavi has been told
that he will take no part in the match against the league leaders on
Saturday. Xavi’s poise in possession and creation of chances for the
strikers was clearly missing in the last match at the Nou Camp, where
with 78% possession, Mallorca ran away with a 1-1 draw. Xavi has had an
Achilles tendon problem and has been missing from the Barcelona lineup
since the end of September.

Barcelona doctor,
Dr. Cugat said: “Xavi is getting better and better, so that one side
does not have any pain and the other still has a little bit. He wants
to play on Saturday, but I have told him he has to wait a bit because
he still has trouble on the other side. It is too early for him to
play.”

Valencia winger,
Joaquin Sanchez, is also set to be sidelined with a damaged left ankle
and it is estimated that he will be out for ten to 15 days. Valencia
are top of the Primera Division with 16 points from a possible 18,
three more than fourth-placed Catalan side.