United Loses Ground (West Ham 1 - Manchester United 0)

In a blink of an eye, what was once an 8 point lead is now only 2 points. With the way Chelsea is playing (boring but effective) it's only a matter of time before they catch up or overtake us. It was a disappointing effort by our boys today.

One thing we established today is that we should never...I mean NEVER watch a late Sunday kickoff at Cow's house again. It jinxed us with the Arsenal game, and today, it jinxed us again. Kentona, I hope you're reading this!

We never looked comfortable in the game today. Other than taking long shots, which Green did well to keep out, we never really got our game going. Whether it was down to West Ham trying to impress new boss, Curbishley, or packing men in front of the back four, they managed to put us off our flowing style.

It obviously didn't help that we had no support from the flanks. Whenever Giggs or Ronaldo had the ball, they cut in instead of going down the byline and crossing the ball. To be frank, no one really had a good game.

Rooney was visibly off his game. He looked off form and tired. Looks like that trip to New York did more harm than good. Why he was not taken off still remains a mystery to me. To add to that, after West Ham scored in the 75th minute, Rooney looked like a man possessed. He was losing his composure and ratting off at the referee. I was half afraid he would get himself sent off. To put it mildly, he was like a mad man frothing from the mouth. While I love his passion for the game, it could also be detrimental to the team.....in a really bad way.

My favourite whipping boy in this blog, Carrick, put on yet another solid impersonation of the InvisibleMan. I hardly knew he was in the game until he was substituted off. At least you can't complain he's inconsistent.

As for the rest of the team, well, they could all have gone on that trip with Rooney and we couldn't have seen the difference.

One thing pretty apparent to me is that we lost our intensity this week. Perhaps the break of 8 days without a game gave the lads too much time to actually take stock of the situation and the league table. We seemed to have lost that seige mentality which has worked so well for us this season so far, and the result showed.

They had better start getting their act together before the lead slips any further in the packed Christmas fixtures. In January, you can be sure Chelsea will be adding to their already strong squad, and strengthening in the areas which they look terrible in (which is everywhere but central midfield based on today's win against Everton).