Newcastle victories in the league at Old Trafford are as rare as snowflakes in the Sahara but, hey, has there ever been a better opportunity to buck a trend? Manchester United are united in name only - a sad shadow of that once mighty club ran so efficiently by Sir Alex Ferguson.

We descend upon them on Monday evening in good fettle scoring goals for fun while Man U are in the middle of a major crisis. Not only is the roof of their stand leaking so is the whole team.

Before this current set of matches got under way on Sunday they trailed Newcastle back in 14th seven points and nine places below us with a record under Ruben Amorim which hardly portrays him as their saviour. Plus skipper Bruno Fernandes is suspended after yet another red card and Manuel Ugarte is also out having accumulated five yellows. Yeah, it never rains but it pours at Old Trafford these frightening days!

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The Portuguese who strode into town with glistening halo after caretaker and local hero Ruud van Nistelrooy was deemed not up to the job has managed to change nought results-wise. It is four defeats in five league matches and five defeats in 10. And still counting. Amorim is a record breaker all right - the first Red Devils manager to lose five of his first 10 matches since Walter Crickmer in January 1932. Way beyond living memory for virtually all of us.

One of Man U's prime weaknesses is defending set pieces where they are as resilient as a chocolate fireguard. They have conceded 10 goals from free-kicks or corners in the league this season and 18 times in total during 2024 which is a club record and has not improved one jot on the watch of the new manager.

Fernandes is another example of how far standards have dropped. He sets a really good example doesn't he, sent off for the third time this season in their last match though one red card was later rescinded. A fine technician but a man who plays with a face like a well-smacked backside and the waywardness that comes from a lack of self responsibility and leadership.

The once-mighty football centre of Manchester has had its comeuppance big time of late with champions Man City dropping below Newcastle in the table after the last completed round of games to join one-time habitual champs Man U.

The Magpies have scored an astonishing 19 goals in their last six league and cup ties which means the Red Devils ought to fear Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon, Bruno, big Joelinton and the relentless probing of Sandro Tonali from deep more than Geordies fear their big-priced flops.

Let us just take the case of Isak. He has piled up 24 goals this calendar year and 42 in 68 PL games for the Mags which is a magnificent set of figures. Is there a more effective all-round centre-forward in the whole of the league?

Surely we have the advantage in the crucial midfield area too with Bruno, Tonali and Joelinton due to be on the park while Fernandes and Ugarte are not. If any of the NUFC blue chip players felt the grass might be greener elsewhere during a recent patchy spell let them look at where the likes of Man City, Spurs and Man U are now and realise sometimes it is better where you are.

Still let us, in the interest of caution before we get too carried away, remind ourselves how history is against us in this particular match. There have been exactly 30 such confrontations in the PL era and the Mags have only won one of them. Nine have been draws and a whopping 20 have ended in Man U victories.

Of course NUFC famously won at the so-called Theatre of Dreams 3-0 in the Carabao Cup as recently as 2023-24 to go alongside the Yohan Cabaye league winner exactly a decade earlier.

Beyond the arrival of the PL it was just as barren for the black and whites though I was sitting in the Press box when our United sensationally beat theirs of Charlton, Law and Best exactly a week after non-league part-timers Hereford knocked us out of the FA Cup in 1972.

So the bottom line I guess is that we owe them one on their patch. They can get duffed up here all right but not down there. However this is a much more vulnerable version of the Red Devils. Bournemouth won 3-0 last time Old Trafford staged a match and Eddie Howe once managed them in the fourth tier when non-league football beckoned.

History may be against our United but this game will not unfold amid the reassurance of the past for the hosts but the vulnerability and humiliation of what they are currently undergoing. As I've said before, play the team not the badge. Play what is in front of you not the club's considerable reputation and honours board.

Let Newcastle ruthlessly take advantage and spare no mercy. It is about time it was our turn.