And 1 point more...

With the derby against Manchester City emphatically taken care off as well as the trip down to the JJB Stadium, Manchester United need 1 point from their remaining two games to win the Premier league for the 11th time and the English First Division championship for the 18th time, equaling the record of rivals Liverpool in the process.

A convincing 2-0 win over City on Sunday and a come from behind 2-1 win against Steve Bruce's Wigan on Wednesday night, mean that United could be champions on Saturday with at least a draw against Arsenal at Old Trafford. If they were to achieve this it will only be the second time in all of their 11 BPL championships when they have won the league playing in front of their home fans. The last time they did this was in the record breaking season of '99. With this season looking to be a repeat of the Treble performance from '99, that feat looks set to be achieved again.

With Carlos Tevez being linked with a move away from United in the summer because of the Red Devils' apparent hesitancy to cough up around 30 million pounds to make his loan deal permanent, the two crucial goals he scored in these 2 games increases the pressure on Sir Alex Ferguson to keep this fan favourite at Old Trafford. If Tevez were to score another goal in Saturday's game against Arsenal, the striker's form might also pose Ferguson with a dilemma heading into the Champions League final at Rome on May 28th against Barcelona. Does he leave out record signing Dimitar Berbatov and deploy Tevez, the talismanic Wayne Rooney and the world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo up front? Or does he leave both Tevez and Berbatov out and go for a more conservative approach? At the end of this long winding season I'm just glad that its someone like Sir Alex who is at the helm to make such a crucial decision.

Arsenal game preview:

The two embarrassing defeats in the Champions League semis will still be fresh in the minds of the Arsenal players and fans. United should take advantage of the shell shocked Arsenal players who also lost at home to Chelsea last weekend. Ferguson would not also want his team to
loose their current rich vein of form ahead of the mouth watering clash against Barcelona in less than 2 weeks time. Wrapping up the championship against Arsenal also means that Ferguson will be able to rest all his stars at Hull next Sunday, 3 days ahead of the Champions League final. Given all this impetus plus the joy of winning in front of their home fans against old rivals Arsenal, I would expect United to go looking for a win and get just that!

Barcelona hit by injuries:

Already missing Daniel Alves and Abidal due to suspension and Gabby Milito and Rafael Marquez due to injury, Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola got an added scare as Andres Iniesta, who scored the valuable goal deep into extra time against Chelsea in the 2nd leg of the semis, limped off with what appears to be a recurrence of an earlier thigh injury in the weekend game against Villareal. Iniesta and Thierry Henry, who picked up a ligament injury against Real Madrid a week earlier, both face a tough battle to be ready for the Champions League final. This could largely hamper Barcelona's challenge for the Champions League title.