Here we go!

What a time to be starting a blog!

The bad run of late, and it is a bad run by Man United's standards, is probably not the best of times to be starting a blog. Of course, there are worse times to start, but this is still not a good time.

No matter! I am a Man United fan and will remain so in "good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, until death do us part"!!

So this weekend we see the Red Devils hosting Burnley in the hopes of getting back on track in the race for a record fourth successive title. The way things have been going lately, there are those who believe Burnley may just be able to steal a point from the champions. And, I'm not just talking about the "Anything But United", or ABU, members. There are some United fans who have expressed that opinion as well.

Perhaps these people have a point. It's well recorded that teams who have new managers tend to play well. Why? Well, if you have a new manager, you're probably going to want to prove to him that you can play. So it is that the Burnley players are going to be playing their hearts out for their new boss, Brian Laws.

But Laws himself doesn't have high hopes for his team this weekend, judging from an interview he gave which was posted by Reuters yesterday.

"We all know that Burnley are not going to be matching a lot of the teams in the Premier League, the likes of Manchester United, we know that," he was quoted as saying.

Can you blame the man? Burnley is currently lying 14th in the league, having won only five of their 20 games so far. What makes matters even worse is that they have an abysmal away record. From 10 games on the road, the team has only managed to garner one point. So meeting a team the likes of Manchester United, even when the Devils are on a "bad run", would be a daunting task for sure.

There is always that factor that when the chips are down, quality teams like MU are going to bounce back, and bounce back with a vengeance! As they say, beware the wounded tiger. And if United players know what's good for them, they'll avoid irritating Sir Alex again with a lacklustre performance.

Darren Fletcher, who won't be featuring in the Burnley game since he is suspended after that sending off last week, was quoted as saying MU will bounce back. Resilience, apparently, is something senior squad members like Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs have handed down to the younger lads.

As for team news, there doesn't seem to be any coming out of Old Trafford yet. All I know is that Fletcher is suspended, Nemanja Vidic is injured, Owen Hargreaves is still on the mend, as is Rio Ferdinand, and Dimitar Berbatov has to go for surgery. Who plays is still anyone's guess, but I hope Sir Alex doesn't op for the 4-5-1 formation he used against Birmingham. Rooney CANNOT be the only man up front!

I am eagerly awaiting the match. All said and done, I believe the Burnley players will go all out for their new boss so it will be an exciting game, but I still think MU have too much firepower.

My prediction: MU 3-1