[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Bobby Cram and Denis Law go head to head as Albion face Man Utd on the opening day of the season; 20th August 1966

Our little blizzard of Christmas fixtures continues unabated on Saturday evening with the televised visit of Manchester United to the Hawthorns, hot on the heels of a midweek win for both sides. After Big Sal scored Albion's first league hat-trick since Romelu Lukaku (which came, oddly enough, against Manchester United at home) and the pundits lavished praise on an increasingly entertaining Albion side, spirits are fairly high.

While I'm all for cautious optimism, the chances are that we won't face a more inept and demoralised defence at the Shrine this season than Swansea's, and it goes without saying that Man Utd will, as always, be a different proposition entirely. Not an invincible one by any means, but a mere three league defeats this season and a seven-week unbeaten run somewhat papers over the fact that United tend to struggle for goals - going into this match Albion have scored more than them - and more than once they've found themselves with backs to the wall in the dying minutes trying to preserve a 1-0 lead, or else a point from a fragile stalemate. Though we haven't had a full-on Mourinho Meltdown just yet, you can't help but feel that it's only a matter of time.

There's no doubt that they have the players to cause us problems, and I can only hope that Jonny Evans will be fit again, because if we have to leave Zlatan Ibrahimovich to the custody of Jonas then things are going to go badly. Likewise Yacob and Fletcher will need to be alert to handle Pogba, and Pulis faces a tough decision on whether to go back to having Nyom on the left and Dawson on the right, or whether to stick with Wednesday's set-up which vastly benefits Nyom at the cost of leaving Brunt a bit vulnerable. Rondon almost certainly won't enjoy the same number of chances he had in midweek, so it's up to him to be ruthless and clinical if or when they come.

Whatever the outcome, I hope this won't lapse into being a cautious or cagey encounter, and that we can really bring the fireworks. Let's give the nation a dose of the new-look Albion.