just two points off the pace from where we finished last season...things don't look so gloomy after all!

ooney "making perfect recovery" Wayne Rooney Rooney will undergo a vital scan on Thursday England's team doctor says Wayne Rooney is making a "perfect recovery" from his broken foot and has every chance of playing at next month's World Cup. The Manchester United striker will have a scan on the injury on 25 May to check its progress but Leif Sward told The Sun everything was looking encouraging. "Everything points to a perfect recovery. I have the highest hopes for Rooney and the World Cup," he said. "I hope I can give a perfect answer after the next MRI scan on Thursday." I hope everything has healed good - everything points in that direction Dr Leif Sward Rooney's World Cup place was put in doubt when he suffered the broken bone playing for United at Chelsea on 24 April, and initial reports said he would be out for at least six weeks. Since then, he has spent time in an oxygen chamber to encourage the bone to heal more quickly, and has been named in coach Sven-Goran Eriksson's 23-man World Cup squad. He has not kicked a ball since suffering the injury and Sward said this would remain the rule until it was entirely safe. "He is not allowed to do that or anything else that could make his foot worse before Thursday's examination," he said. "But he can put pressure on his foot now with the special protection he is wearing. "I hope everything has healed good and I can say everything points in that direction. "This healing process has been very, very good." =================== thats from the BBC website, lets wait till thursday. i'd like to see him get a run out against sweden, as the earlier he can get a run out the earlier he will be not just playing, but playing well. if he's back for the last group match then should we get to the semis he should be pretty close to his best by then.

yeah i'm going to be providing medical assistance at both so im seeing them for free, pitchside

on the BBCs daily gossip column it says the sun says rooney will be fit for the first game as he's making a stunning recovery. usually i wouldnt wipe my arse with this 'newspaper', which is why i'm not willing to buy it...but then they had the news about rooney having more than one break in his foot before anyone else, if i'm not mistaken. so yeah, was wondering what the article said.

henry without a doubt. shearer was amazing but henry does a lot more than just score goals.

trust me, that doesn't mean anything.

we're not out of the woods yet. bolton could still pip us to that spot... hopefully we can steal a point vs chelsea though.

i don't wanna come out with worst case scenario, but if we finish 7th we're only one two-legged intertoto tie away from europe too...think i read its most likely gonna be vs a norweigian team, lillestrom or someone similar. not ideal at all but lets not come out with end of the world etc just yet.

i think the side is just plain running out of steam.

i feel more of the blame should lie at FIFA and not the hapless linesman/ref. granted it wasnt the best of decisions, but something as ambigious as 'whether the player is active' will ALWAYS be open to interpretation. sure we all thought that cissé was active, but it's not watertight. arguments can be made that cissé wasnt. sure, IMO they would be erroneous, but it is mostly fifa's fault for not addressing this key issue. i'm not saying we would go onto win it, but you're still talking rubbish. the champions league isnt just made up of your real madrids and chelseas and barcelonas, theres plenty of teams, especially from eastern europe etc, that we could easily get past. if we progressed to the group stages and got all the money from that (and the pulling power) then it would have been our best chance of improving this team so they could push on and at least be some kind of a force, obviously we'll never be a chelsea or a barca. sadly that dream for this season at least is over.

spurs 1-0 up champions league is looking less and less likely, unless arsenal are somehow held by west brom and then go on to beat spurs AND we beat one of chelsea or liverpool.

2-2 draw. rovers to take an early lead, liverpool to hit back on 20 minutes, take the lead just after the break but rovers will get an equaliser on 80 mins and miss at least one great chance to snatch a win at the end.

yes.

it's becoming increasingly obvious arsenal will finish 4th. to be fair, worse things happen at sea. they are worthy of that 4th champions league spot, let's be honest. on their day they are much better than us, bolton or spurs. i would have loved to have seen us finish in 4th...to see us on the biggest stage and not to mention the extra revenue we'd recieve which may have made the playing field between us and the big city clubs that bit more fair. what would have irked me is if bolton or spurs got that 4th place, as we're at least the equal of spurs and a better side than bolton, as i'm sure will be proved next season.

if we lose tomorrow though, i think 4th is pretty unlikely. even if we draw we're really up against it.

these were my predictions after the sunderland game. this is my basis for how the season will go in my eyes, i had all four teams finishing pretty much neck and neck, so anything which strays from here will now either be beneficial or harmful towards our chances depending. i tried to be fair with rovers...but now i feel we could get points at home to liverpool and/or chelsea, however we will do very well to win both the brum and portsmouth games...so it just about levels out. still, spurs' projected total for me goes down to 64 points and bolton's to 63 points (after the boro loss), while arsenal's 5-0 thrashing was neither good or bad according to my predictions.

arsenal have produced the goods in quite a few matches this season though, which is why their goal difference is so high. however they are prone to slip up, especially away from highbury, and we just have to make sure we're there to pounce if and when they do. i'd like to think milan and/or barca will stand between them, the european cup and us having literally zero chance of chamions league qualification due to there only being three spots. hopefully theyll face one of those teams and they should run them ragged over two legs.

the best we could've realistically hoped for from today was a bolton loss and a spurs loss. arsenal are superb at home, it's only away from highbury where they tend to lose their way. here's hoping they do in forthcoming matches. come on man u!

i wouldn't say winning two away games at relegation sides and winning quite an easy run of home games is anything too special, and we arguably have the easiest run in out of any of the teams. plus bolton are hopefully gonna lose vs boro. but the away games at birmingham and portsmouth are the key ones i think. if we even get 4 points from those 2 games we're in with a fighting chance.

i think rovers have a great chance of getting 4th place.. looking at the run-in... rovers: wigan (H) win - 3pts portsmouth (A) win - 6pts liverpool (H) lose - 6pts birmingham (A) win - 9pts chelsea (H) lose - 9pts charlton (A) draw - 10 pts man city (H) win - 13 pts add to current total 65 pts spurs: west brom (h) win - 3pts newcastle (a) draw - 4pts man city (h) win - 7pts everton (a) draw - 8pts man u (h) lose - 8pts arsenal (a) draw - 9pts bolton (h) win - 12pts west ham (a) draw - 13pts add to current total 65 pts bolton: middlesbrough (a) draw - 1pt man u (h) lose - 1pt birmingham (a) - win 4pts liverpool (a) - lose 4pts chelsea (h) - lose 4pts WBA (a) - win 7pts charlton (h) - win 10pts spurs (a) - lose 10pts birmingham (h) - win 13 pts boro (h) - win 16 pts add to current total 64 pts .... but the number of games could take its toll... arsenal: villa (h) win - 3pts man u (a) lose - 3pts WBA (h) win - 6pts man city (a) - draw 7pts spurs (h) - draw 8pts sunderland (a) - win 11 pts wigan (h) - win 14 pts portsmouth (a) - draw (due to champions league involvement resting players etc) 15 pts add to current total 65pts so going on expected results, rovers and spurs will be neck and neck on points there, although if thats the exact prediction we would be 6th on goal diff most likely. however i have, for example, said we would lose at home to both liverpool and chelsea, when in fact we could beat liverpool at home (looking at how we perform vs the big teams), and maybe draw with chelsea too. of course we could lose those away bankers too against battling sides so i think its about even. but hopefully spurs and arsenal will drop points at home or lose some of those predicted drawn matches...and arsenal have champions league to wear them out. either way right now it looks wide open....but i'm backing us for 6th at least. bolton may have games in hand but theres some tough games.