Aston Villa at Old Trafford: Trying not to write myself into something

Two fairly significant things could be confirmed tonight; Manchester United win the Premier League or QPR and Reading are relegated. But I have a feeling that neither of these will be confirmed tonight.

So how about that for playing safe? It's not a prediction and there is a massive chance I'm going to be wrong but I'm playing an optimistic card and you're right, you could even call it blind optimism.

But there has to be hope and we can not hope that if it comes down to the last game of the season that we beat Wigan at Wigan, or don't lose at Wigan. If it comes to the last game of the season the result will be in the hands of the footballing Gods and they can be cruel.

The prediction game

And even though I predicted we'd lose tonight when I did the BBC predictor at the weekend, match day optimism has gotten the best of me early on and I have little doubt that with an hour or three to kick off, I'll start believing we can win and I'll even Tweet some largely massaged view that Manchester United will have taken their eye off the prize, in the knowledge that they only have to win one more game this season and even if they don't win tonight, Manchester City must still win every game they have left and that we all know that isn't going to happen.

You see, I've even started rambling on. I'm trying to convince myself. But you never know. there you go again. I'm leaving it now.

Some stats, thanks to the BBC

• We have taken 10 points out of the last available 15 and won their last two away matches.
• We've also conceded in each of our last 17 league games, the longest top-flight run without a clean sheet this season. We've also set a club record of 61 goals against us in a Premier League season.
• We've also conceded more goals after half time (41) than any other club.
• Gabby needs one goal to eclipse Dwight Yorke's club record of 60 in the Premier League.
• Christian Benteke has scored 10 goals in his last 13 league appearances. He is two goals away from equalling Yorke's club record Premier League tally of 17 in a single season.

Updates and team news

So, with all that written I'm going to walk round the office and tell anyone that is willing to listen why we could get something from this match tonight and as soon as the team news is out, just after 7pm, it will be added.

Updates throughout the day, from links, images and you never know what else because truth be told; a win tonight would have us all believing we are staying up but a point would be a fantastic result.