Manchester United will take on Middlesbrough on Saturday afternoon and Jose Mourinho’s side will enter the contest on the back of some great form.
The Red Devils have won eight and drawn three of their last 11 matches – but even that kind of run is nothing compared to United side’s of just a few years ago.
Indeed, it is just over nine years since Sir Alex Ferguson’s won the Premier League and Champions League in the 2007/08 campaign.
And during that incredible season, after a slow start, the Red Devils went on a scintillating run of form. Their October triumph over Boro that term was their eighth in succession in league action.
There were an array of stars in the United side that day, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, both subject of bids from Chinese Super League sides in recent times, in the home attack.
The former was showing the early signs of a sensational partnership with Wayne Rooney, and the two combined fantastically well in this game, but it was the heir apparent to Ronaldo’s throne – Nani – who broke the deadlock just three minutes in.
The winger, now of Valencia, fired a wonderful strike into top corner from distance after regaining possession from deep.
YouTube: Man Utd VS Middlesbrough
Jeremie Alliadiere glanced in an equaliser only three minutes later for Boro, then managed by current England chief Gareth Southgate, before United went back in front just after the half hour.
Nani was instrumental again, his pressure in the final third causing a Boro defender to clear straight to Rooney – a simple finish by the Englishman’s standards.
Tevez then got on the scoresheet ten minutes after the half-time break, the Argentine slotting in from a Rooney backheel following some magnificent build-up play between the new strike partnership.
Now of Shanghai Shenhua, Tevez finished things off with five minutes to go. Then United’s number 32, he again benefited from a Rooney pass before turning a defender inside out in the area and placing into the far right corner.
A run-of-the-mill win for that United side – perhaps one of the best in Sir Alex’s reign as boss. But even in their current form, will it be quite as simple for Mourinho’s men come Saturday afternoon?
