It is do-or-die time already for Moyes

Defining matches in a football season are normally played during what somebody once described as “squeaky-bum time.”

It’s when winter has gone, the finishing line is in sight and the pressure needle is in the red.

But the most important game of this campaign could take place this afternoon.

It’s just the 11th fixture of a 38-match season but it will tell us everything we need to know about Manchester United and Arsenal.

If United lose, they will not win the title. They would be 11 points behind the Gunners and that gulf is just too big.

United would have already lost four League games. Last season they only lost five all told. It’s generally accepted that the team that wins the Premier League cannot afford to lose more than five times.

Arsenal, on the other hand, could lose and still argue that they are potential champions.

However, this is their first real test of the season and those of us who have observed Arsene Wenger’s teams over the last nine years suspect that they may be a bubble waiting to burst.

A United win would reduce the gap to five points between the two of them and that’s eminently bridgeable, given what we know about the DNA of the two squads.

Arsenal, by and large, don’t have winners, United certainly do.

Victory for the Londoners at Old Trafford would go a long way towards eliminating doubt typified by the fact that they still trail Manchester City and Chelsea as bookies’ favourites.

For David Moyes, this is make or break as far as the Premier League is concerned.

Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t always win the title but nobody ever dared to write him off in November. That will happen if United lose.

Ferguson’s teams despatched the Gunners very comfortably in recent meetings at Old Trafford. And after failing to beat Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool, Moyes can undo some of that damage if he can tap into the psychological advantage Fergie had over Wenger.

That controversial autobiography was in Moyes’ luggage en route to Spain in midweek. Maybe there were clues in the pages?

If Moyes continues the tradition of making Wenger’s life miserable at Old Trafford, then maybe reports of the death of United’s title challenge have been greatly exaggerated.

If not, tomorrow’s papers will be writing the obituary.