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This was once one of the 2 biggest fixtures in the English football calendar, the other being the game at Anfield. We’ve had a stuttering start to 2022/23 as the squad copes with inconsistency, significant changes to our attacking options, and an unwelcome injury list that has hit us in all areas of the team, but most noticeably in midfield. United by contrast are on their umpteenth new manager since the evil overlord stepped down in 2013, and the subsequent decade has seen them return to their 1980s ways of extreme hubris and lavish spending culminating in a squad that has some talent but a chronic lack of consistency and togetherness. Oh, and Adidas kits. Their dickhead fanbase and cheerleader-in-chief Gary Neville still like to think the Glazers are tightfisted cunts who are only interested in the bottom line and lining their pockets with dividends, despite the fact the owners have sanctioned a fortune (is it more than £1bn on transfers since 2013?) on new signings and salaries. Quite what they would say if their club was run like how FSG run Liverpool you can only wonder. Anyway: Nerve. Audacity. Skill. Authorit-ah. Luck. Drive. Ruthlessness. Organisation. Nous. Effectiveness. I don’t ask for much. In the last 2 meetings in this fixture, the Reds have absolutely dismantled the hosts on their own patch. The first in 2020/21 was played in front of an empty stadium in a game originally postponed because the United fans had decided to stage a protest and break into their own stadium on matchday, the entitled gobshites. Before facing us, the team had laid down at home to Leicester, in the belief that it further reduced our chances of closing the gap between ourselves and the Champions League places. The Mancs were pretty much secure for the top 4 already and were looking to win the Europa League. We went there and turned them over, going a long way towards getting ourselves back in with a shout. And they fucked up in the Europa League anyway so there's that! The game I want to go over was played on 24th October 2021. And what a game it was. It was more comprehensive than anything they’d dished out to us in their heyday when we were bumming around in 8th while they were going for the Treble. We were so superior that most of their fans had fucked off home by half time. Naby got us under way, racing clear through the middle and confidently placing the ball past de Gea. We were pressing them like fuck, they were second to every ball and looking utterly clueless when they did have it. Diogo slid in at the far post for number two just ahead of Milly, and both our players had acres of space when Trent’s ball flew across the six yard box. Mo made it 3 with a fine first-time fine after the Mancs yet again dropped a bollock when trying to defend. This time it was Slabhead and the walking Greggs pasty that collided with one another trying to clear the same ball. Right on half time, Mo then pounced to hammer a low left footed effort in at the near post past a bewildered de Gea. It’s fair to say we took our foot off the gas in the second half, but oddly enough for a 45 minutes that mostly resembled a training ground match, it contained the game’s most memorable moments. Firstly, a pass of pure filth by Hendo sent Mo away to fire past de Gea and claim a hat-trick. The Egyptian looked like the world’s best player in those months up to AFCON. Ronaldo thought he’d scored a consolation only for VAR to surprising chalk it off. It was tight, and it was them against us, and Manchester’s Anthony Taylor was the ref so it was definitely a surprise. Still funny though. The last talking point was Pogba’s reckless studs-up lunge at Naby after United had fucked up their own corner routine. The Guinean had to go off on a stretcher. 5-0 at the end, and it could have been a lot more had we really gone for it. Oleh wouldn’t be at the wheel for very long after that. You want a vid? Well here you go! The big box office smash in October 2021 was the latest big-screen adaptation of the Frank Herbert classic Dune. I’ve watched this but barely paid attention to it, and I’ve never read the book either. I know it’s set in a sort of dystopian future and has a very Game of Thrones-y vibe to it in places. It also looks visually spectacular. I struggled with The Lord of the Rings trilogy for much the same reasons as why I struggled to focus with Dune, and I’ve never bothered with The Hobbit because of it. I would need to read the books to see the full descriptions of character, place, time and motive to visualise what the author is trying to say. Just going into it via someone else’s vision doesn’t work for me. I need my mind to set a scene rather than have someone else set it for me. Film-wise, have I missed out on a real treat with Dune? What say you? Another fairly slow news day on 24th October 2021. The big-ish discussion point was the government’s idea to bring in a “Plan B” of Covid measures to slow down the infection rate in England, amid warnings from health chiefs that doctors, nurses and the NHS as a whole was likely to take an absolute kicking over the winter as an increase in the Covid infection rate would combine with a spike in the usual winter ailments like flu. There was talk about vaccine passports for people to gain entry to large-scale events, and making the wearing of masks mandatory again in some places. A strain on the NHS and further complications for those in urgent need of other treatment, who would have to put up with yet more delay. If I recall correctly, some parts of England still had local lockdowns in force back then. Erik Ten Hag has had a bastard of a start in the Premier League, and we haven’t exactly been pulling up any trees ourselves thus far. The bookies will have us down as favourites and see United as looking likely to implode once again, and that would be a fair assessment if our squad was fully fit and firing. It’s not though. Darwin’s stupidity sees him miss this one as the first of 3 games serving a suspension, and Diogo isn’t back yet, so we need Bobby to be available for this one, whether from the start or otherwise. We also need our midfield to be durable and effective, and you could say the same for our defence. We still have the tools for the job but it’s whether we can put them to good use that’s the key. Attitude, application and ruthless intent are required. We’ve done it to this ragtag bunch twice in recent years. Let’s go and do it again.