Manchester United were held to yet another disappointing draw in the Premier League after they failed to beat Stoke City at the Britannia stadium.

United have been enjoying a great run of form in recent months, but this appears to be stuttering of late with the club’s third draw in the last four league matches. United could only manage a 0-0 draw against Tottenham in the previous match. Manager Louis van Gaal blamed the fixture congestion for the ineffective second-half performance against the North London outfit. The poor performance continued against Stoke after United created little opportunities throughout the 90 minutes.

Even with the substantially large amount of cash that Manchester United spent in the previous transfer window in order to bring stars to Old Trafford such as: Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao, Daley Blind and others, United are still struggling trying to get into the top 5 spots of the Premier League.

A few weeks ago it was confirmed that Louis van Gaal was going to be given another huge transfer budget so the Dutchman can sign new players and not have to worry about the price or the financial terms of bringing yet another performer to the team and increase the chances of the club of securing a Champions League spot for the upcoming season.

Manchester United are preparing for their second big game in the space of a week when they take on Manchester City at the Etihad stadium on Sunday.

This follows after the 1-1 draw with Chelsea last week. It could have easily been the first defeat for the club since the 5-3 thrashing against Leicester City a few weeks ago. As it was, Robin van Persie’s late equaliser has given United real belief that they can continue their unbeaten run despite coming up against the reigning champions. City come into the match on the back of a very poor run of form that is threatening to disrupt their league title aspirations.

Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley, who moved to Aston Villa on a season-long loan, has been enjoying a regular spell of first-team action in the last few weeks. This coupled with support from the fans has improved his morale significantly. He has been playing much better for Villa than he did for United last season. The England international was subjected to heavy criticism from his own supporters at United, while he felt that he was vindicated for the performances of the team as a whole. He is widely expected to make the move to Villa permanent with his contract at United set to expire in the summer.

The possibility of Cristiano Ronaldo returning to Manchester United has once again occupied the back pages over the last few weeks. This is after the Spanish club made a very poor start to the league campaign by suffering two defeats in the opening three matches. Those defeats have raised questions about Madrid’s decision to sell Angel di Maria and Xabi Alonso just a few weeks before the start of the season. Ronaldo is thought to have questioned president Florentino Perez over this issue and it has sparked rumours that he will finally decide to leave the Santiago Bernabeu.

Manchester United has planned to place a huge bid of over 40 million Pounds to Juventus for the Chilean playmaker Arturo Vidal.
Actually, there were reports that the Red Devils have already reached an agreement with Vidal about the weekly wages and now, it’s all up to Juventus to decide if they want to accept the bid or not.
But, it’s made clear from United’s side that there has been no agreement with the player.
One thing that United would want to be absolutely sure about in Vidal’s case is that he doesn’t carry any injury issues to the club.

Manchester United have once again proved that their standing in the game has not diminished despite a very poor campaign last season. United finished seventh in the table last season and will be without any form of European football this campaign. Despite this, they have managed to sign a record-breaking sponsorship deal with Adidas. The German sportswear giant will be taking over as the new kit supplier for United after Nike decided to drop out in the last few weeks.

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand thinks that England manager Roy Hodgson decided not to take Michael Carrick to the World Cup 2014 simply because of the poor form shown by United as a club. United finished in a lowly seventh place – the first time they finished in this position in the Premier League history – last season. This poor performance was largely the result of an underperforming midfield, although Carrick was one of the standout players.

Dutch national team manager Louis van Gaal has to the first time expressed his interest in becoming the Manchester United manager. He has become the firm favourite to take over from Ryan Giggs, who has been appointed on an interim basis. The experienced coach has seen success at various clubs in the past, but more importantly, he has managed top clubs like Barcelona and Bayern Munich. The lack of top-level experience was seen as one of the major reasons for the failure of David Moyes, who has sacked towards the end of the season.

Manchester United have given themselves a fighting chance of reaching the semifinals of the Champions League after a 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich in the first leg. In fact, United could have won the match had they been more clinical in finishing. Danny Welbeck had the best opportunity of the match, but his effort was saved by the Bayern Munich goalkeeper. In the absence of Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney continues to remain as the importance centre forward for United. However, he missed the weekend action due to a toe injury.