Nigeria Content Online

The
“noisy neighbours” have been generally a bit quieter in recent weeks
and should Manchester United beat Manchester City at Old Trafford on
Saturday (12.45GMT), their title claims will be just about silenced.

United lost their
first league game of the season last week to bottom club, Wolverhampton
Wanderers; but with Arsenal drawing, and Chelsea losing, their position
at the top of the Premier League was barely affected. City produced a
3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion but they remain in third place on 49
points, one behind Arsenal and five behind United having played a game
more than the top two. Since Ferguson made his “noisy neighbours”
comment in September 2009, in the wake of United’s last-gasp 4-3 league
win, City have continued to invest heavily in their playing squad but
are still somewhat on the outside looking up.

Most successful

City’s wait for a
first title since 1968 looks certain to go on for at least another year
while United are closing in on a record 19th – the tally Ferguson has
long targeted to “knock Liverpool off their perch” as the country’s
most successful club in its domestic league. United still have to play
Chelsea home and away, and visit Arsenal; so the title is far from in
the bag, but three points on Saturday brings it a little closer. “It’s
a terrific game for us now,” Ferguson told MUTV. “It’s a massive game
that we’ve got to look forward to. Unfortunately we have got
international matches in midweek which in my view is crazy, but we have
to get on with it. We have got plenty of players who will not be
involved in internationals and will play. The ones that travel we have
to give consideration to the fact that they have been travelling before
they play at lunchtime on Saturday.”

Wayne Rooney,
starting to look more like the player who tore up the league a year
ago, came through unscathed from his 45 minutes’ duty in England’s 2-1
win in Denmark, but Ferguson will wait nervously by the phone for any
other negative reports. City, of course, face similar demands on their
multinational squad, though Carlos Tevez should be fresh having been
left out of Argentina’s game against Portugal in Geneva because of
“attitude problems.”

Other matches

After their
remarkable 2-1 win over United last week, Wolves could hardly have had
a tougher follow-up game than an away to Arsenal. Having blown a 4-0
first-half lead to draw 4-4 at Newcastle United last week Arsene
Wenger’s team are unlikely to be anything like as generous a second
time.

Chelsea are not in
action until Monday when they visit Fulham, giving Tottenham the chance
to climb three points ahead of them into fourth place if they can win
at Sunderland.

Sixth-placed Liverpool, on a run of four wins and four clean sheets,
have a good chance of making it five of both at home to Wigan Athletic.
Should they do so, the team who were 12th and three points above the
relegation zone when Kenny Dalglish took over just a month ago, could
move within three points of Chelsea.