Manchester United to Be Crowned Champions on Saturday

Manchester United require just 1 point or a Chelsea slip up in their remaining two Premier League fixtures to be crowned Premier League champions for the 12th time, and Champions of England of a record 19th.

Not expecting Manchester United to settle for 1 point in this game, I’m expecting them to take all 3, and lift the Premier League trophy at the same ground Blackburn Rovers did 16 years ago.

On that day, Manchester United had an opportunity to become the first team to win the Premier League from second position going into the final fixture, a feat that is still yet to be achieved. They drew 1-1 at West Ham, when victory would have been enough following Blackburn’s 2-1 loss at Liverpool (imagine the red half of Merseyside trying to help Manchester United win the Premier League title these days!). Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes were apart of that squad back then and have the opportunity to remind Blackburn Rovers fans what the Premier League trophy looks like on Saturday.

Despite picking up a 1-0 victory over Bolton and then going to West Ham and taking a point home with them, Blackburn aren’t as good as their last two results show. Bolton didn’t show up on the day and have a poor away record under Owen Coyle, while West Ham are propping up the Premier League table and had opportunities to win the game in the second half, most notably a miss inside the 6 yard box from Robbie Keane.

Manchester United won’t be so forgiving on their opponents, and I expect them to put in a strong performance on Saturday, two weeks ahead of their Champions League final with Barcelona at Wembley, allowing Sir Alex Ferguson to play his reserve players against Blackpool on the final day of the season.

Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez are forming a solid partnership up front, and they can really hurt this Blackburn defence, especially the movement of the little Mexican who simply will find himself open against Chris Samba. I am surprised Nani has only completed 90 minutes once in his last 6 league games; not even featuring last weekend against Chelsea. His last Premier League goal came on February 12th against Manchester City. The return of Antonio Valencia seems to have limited his chances of late, or is he still recovering from being snubbed for the PFA Player of the Year nominees?

Blackburn Rovers lack a goalscorer up front; Nikola Kalinic leads the way with just 5 goals to his name. Centre back Christopher Samba even has 4. Set pieces look likely to be Blackburn’s best hope of a goal in this game because I don’t see them causing many problems against the likes of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand from open play.

Betfair are being generous with the odds currently at 1.77 for a Manchester United win on Saturday. I see the Red Devils producing another top performance in this game to seal the title before they look forward to the Champions League final.

Written by Premiership Tips.