I like everything that AVB is saying here. From an earlier article posted about the Europa league, the great Bill Nicholson once said,

"It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high that even failure will have in it an echo of glory."

...and that is exactly what AVB is doing here. I think too many people have a defeated attitude before the first kick when they travel to Old Trafford. AVB wants to reverse that, instill confidence and take it to them. If we fail, at least we will go down fighting.

AVB said, "That is the way I like my teams to play," Villas-Boas said.

"We obviously know that it is extremely difficult there, but that doesn't mean that you might not be given a chance when you play that (attacking) way.

"In the end it's about taking your opportunities. Had (Chelsea) scored (when I was their manager) then maybe the result would have been different, so to try to get a result against United will be excellent for us."

"It would make us very proud to go there and get a win that would shorten the distance to the top," Villas-Boas said.

"That would hopefully help us profit in some way from the clash between Arsenal and Chelsea.

"We can't run away from our responsibilities. The statistics are there.

"We hope to break them one day and hopefully it will be on Saturday."