United Rues Missed Penalty (West Ham United 2 - Manchester United 1)

Upton Park has been a poor hunting ground for United in recent years and today's result just adds to the mystic. For some unknown reason we're just not able to beat the Hammers.

West Ham started the brighter of the two teams and should have had the lead in the opening 10 minutes. Mullins struck the post and Noble could not put the rebound into the empty net. It could have proven fatal as minutes later Ronaldo opened the scoring from a quick counter on the 14th minute.

A good pass from Saha allowed Giggs the time and space to pick a surging Ronaldo from the left flank. Ronaldo flew in and header the ball into the goal giving United the lead.

Given the quality United had put on the pitch, it should have been an easy victory, but neither Fletcher nor Hargreaves could stamp their authority in the centre of the park. Mullins, Parker and Noble were outstanding and West Ham controlled a good portion of the midfield and 50/50 balls. The truth was that West Ham should have drawn level on a number of occasions had it not been for some inspired keeping from Kuszczak to keep Solano's thunderbolt out and some poor finishing from Charlton Cole.

In the second half, United won a penalty when ex-United player, Spector handled the ball in the area. Ronaldo, who has been in fine goal-scoring form, fired the ball wide. It was a pivotal moment in the game. A 2-0 lead would have completely taken the air off West Ham. Instead the miss inspired West Ham to come forward in search for an equalizer.

And equalize they did. On the 77th minute, substitute Anton Ferdinard climbed above the United defenders to head home the equalizer. 5 minutes later, Matthew Upson completed the come from behind victory with yet another header.

The truth was that West Ham deserved the victory. They fought harder and had wanted the win more. It was a lacklustre and disappointing display from our lads. We simply had no answer as the Hammers dominated midfield. They were the better team on the day.

Looks like Fergie will not be having a very happy birthday this year, especially if Arsenal manage to bring home 3 points against Everton later in the night. One thing's for sure, I won't wanna be Birmingham come New Year's Day. They are going to be facing a very pissed off United.

United Hands Black Cats A Sound Drubbing (Sunderland 0 - Manchester United 4)

The game was as easy as the scoreline suggests. I had expected a tougher fight from Keano's men, especially after the last minute goals from two previous matches robbed them of crucial points.

Kentona and I met at the kopitiam near my place to watch the game. Both of us were prepared for a rough night, half expecting our makeshift side to wilt under some intense pressure from Sunderland. Instead it was Sunderland that wilted in front of their home crowd, many of whom didn't even stay till the final whistle.

The gulf in class between the two sides was apparent, and by the half, United were already 3-0 up, without even a telling attack from the Black Cats.

Rooney sprung the offside trap on 20 minutes to open United's account, clinically finishing a good pass from Wes Brown.

He turned provider on the half hour, when Saha met his cross to put United 2-0 ahead. Ronaldo continued with his fine scoring form to add a three before the half from a wonderfully struck freekick.

And all this despite not having Giggs, Anderson nor Tevez on the pitch. Even with a seemingly 'weaken' midfield pairing of Carrick and Fletcher, we were running rings around whatever Sunderland could offer.

United significantly took the foot off the pedal in the second half, yet Sunderland could not muster a meaningful attack. Such of United's dominance, that we could afford to give Ronaldo a rest with over 30 minutes to go, giving Park his first game of the season.

Even at half pace, United could have added a couple more.

In the 85th minute, Nani earned United a penalty. Perhaps he was the only guy who didn't get the memo from Fergie not to embarass Keano, since he was the only guy in a United jersey who was still running his socks off.

Saha converted from the spot to score his second and United's fourth to complete the drubbing.

You can feel for the Sunderland players and the wrath they are going to face from Keano. I suppose in all honesty, Keano must know that his squad of players are simply not good enough at this level. They were given a footballing lesson today. Unless there is drastic improvement, Sunderland are in for a quick return to the Championship.

With this win, we are once again perched at the top of the Premiership table, pending Arsenal's game with Portsmouth.

Ronaldo Snatches A Lucky Win (Manchester United 2 - Everton 1)

Looks like Everton's dismal record against us will have to continue to the next campaign. Visiting OT on the back of a 13 game unbeaten run, this was probably Everton's best chance of taking a victory away in 15 yrs.

Taking the cue from Bolton's victory a month back, Everton came into the game with a robust presence, with the full intent to bully us into submission. Everton's hopes must have been heightened when Edwin Van der Sar (possibly dropped for his performance at Anfield), Rio (possibly dropped for his disgraceful part in the midweek Christmas celebrations) and Hargreaves (probably just rested) were missing completely from the teamsheet.

I missed the first 20 minutes of the game buying food for our own mini Christmas celebrations at Cow's place. The 'party' was a tame affair and the guys and I could really have used a Rio in our midst, even though the WAGs were present.

Thankfully, the presents were not opened during my absence. As soon as I arrived, the opening goal was scored from a pretty good individual effort from Ronaldo. It was a shot from outside the penalty area that left Tim Howard flapping.

Everton hit back barely 5 minutes later with a Tim Cahill header. United's defense just wasn't good enough to keep the lead.

Much of the game was played in Everton's half thereafter without much headway. In truth, Everton defended stoutly and looked good for a draw.

Just when it looked like a draw with Everton packing numbers in the defense and United failing to create clear cut chances, Steve Pienaar decided to send a gift our way. In the spirit of giving, he tripped Giggs in the area with 2 minutes remaining, leaving the referee with no choice but to point to the spot. It was harsh on Everton, who I felt really deserved a point, given the way they fought today. To add injury to insult, Giggs was going absolutely nowhere with the ball.

Ronaldo stepped up and clinically put the ball into the net, grabbing all three points. The honest truth was that this was a lucky victory against a quality side. Irregardless, I'm not complaining about the win. We need all the help we can get to catch Arsenal.

A couple of game notes:

• Anderson's surprised me this season. He's been superb. He's caught up to the English game faster than many have predicted and is quite possibly one of the best midfielders playing in the country right now. And he's only 19! However, if there is one down side to his game is the flashing of imaginary yellow cards to the opponents. I'm glad Howard Webb booked him for ungentlemanly conduct in today's game.
• O'Shea needs a shot of confidence in the worst way possible. When he came on for Danny Simpson in right back after half time, he kept giving the ball away. Luckily Everton had already set up stall to defend or the consequences could have been dire.
• Is it just me? Evra can't jump. Don't get me wrong, Evra's been brilliant this season. I know I have a history of ragging on him relentlessly, but since Heinze's betrayal, I've taken him as one of my binkies. His defence is still somewhat dodgy, but he makes it up with a huge dose of heart. Not to mention he's been great doubling up as a second left winger. However he still seems to get out-jumped by any and everyone. Cahill's goal was a prime example of Evra getting out-jumped again. It's really getting quite embarassing for a man of African descent.
  

Christmas Parties, Champions League Draw and Manucho

Stupid Spoilt Whores
I've been dreading to write about this, but having received a grand total of a whooping 2 emails on the subject (over 66.6% of my readership), I've decided to put my unpopular 2 cents worth on the subject.

As we all know, the news in the past week have been all about our blotched Christmas party organised by our resident party animal, Rio, and the alleged rape by Johnny Evans. What's perhaps more disturbing were the raunchy details that have found their way into the news.

Firstly, I'd just like to say I'm not surprised that Rio was the ring leader of it all, given his legendary 'roasting' stories that have made the news in various forms and different times. While it was probably not his fault that things came to the state that they are now, I still hold him responsible for the aftermath and ultimately tainting the image of Manchester United....once again.

Ferguson reading him the riot act does little to alleviate the tense situation. Rio is a first class dick and has always been. Time and time again, he puts his brain into reverse mode and undoes all the good he has done. Despite his good performances, he somehow manages to find a way to get himself into the negative side of both the news and the fans. I bet, if not for the fact we paid a record fee for him, he'd be shown the door faster that Ruud or Stam. Fucking wanker!

I just wish that the club would have the balls to do the right thing with Rio. I'd rather have a defence that is leaking goals than have this piece of human trash lying around.

As for Johnny Evans, I'll keep my opinions until the evidence finds him guilty. The truth is that it's a matter for the police and the courts to decide based on the evidence gathered. If he's found guilty, by all means throw him to the lions. Rape is a serious crime and the guilty should be punished.

And for the rest of the players, I'll just have to say I'm sorely disappointed, but I understand. I was young once (although no where near as rich). Hopefully they learnt their lesson. Like it or not, they are ambassadors of the club, whether they wear the jersey or not and such behaviour is unbecoming of players of the greatest club on the planet.

Human Trash
And while I'm on the topic of stupid spoilt whores, I might as well add my 2 cents worth to this. Judas extraodinaire, Sol Campbell has been urging the FA to put a stop to abuses against players and managers.

I have nothing against the message. It is a sound and timely one. And about time someone had the balls to bring it up. Racist chants in particular are the most vicious and reflects the type of people attending these games. And Sol Campbell is absolutely right when he says that 'animals don't behave like that'.

Unfortunately, it was the right message, by the wrong person. Of all the people in the world, Sol should be the last person complaining. We're talking about a guy who betrayed his club to join the enemy on a free transfer. And we're not even talking about normal rivals but possibly the greatest rivalry in English football....that of Arsenal and Spurs!

I'm sorry, but Sol deserves every bit of abuse he gets, coz he JUST DOESN'T GET IT! What he did was worse than what animals would do. He bit the hand that fed him and even the most foul of beasts in the animal kingdom wouldn't do it. If there is one piece of human trash that is worst than our own Rio, it's gotta be Sol Campbell. He is the reason the term 'Judas' was coined over 2000 years ago.

Champions League Draw
Now that we're gotta the whole hate-filled venom off my chest, let's move on to more pleasant stuff like the champions league draw which was done a couple of hours ago.

We got picked to face Lyon. Lyon is probably no longer the force they were a few seasons back, but they are still no pushovers. I have every bit of confidence that we will beat them handily and move into the quarters, if we have our heads screwed on correctly.

The other interesting draws are that Liverpool and Arsenal got to face Inter and AC milan respectively. I'll probably be rooting for both Pool and Arse to make it past their Italian opponents only for the sole reason that it should keep them distracted from the Premiership race. Either way, it's good to get two strong clubs out of the way, whichever sides win.

United Signs Manucho
United just signed 24 year old Angolan, Manucho.

Who? Exactly. I'm as clueless as you.

Searches on youtube for 'Manucho' and 'Mateus Alberto Contreiras Goncalves' have drawn up a blank. Maybe when the news gets around, someone would put something up, if only just to tease us.

I can only assume that at his age, he's going to be a player for the present and possibly going to be our fourth striker. The not so good news is that he wouldn't be around in January since he's going to be involved in the African Nations Cup.

I personally would have preferred to have Anelka as the fourth option (or even the third, displacing Saha), but I'll defer to Ferguson's judgement. ;o)

United Survive Early Scares To Take Points (Liverpool 0 - Manchester United 1)

Whilst it's still too early in the season to dub this game as a title decider, we did fairly well to stamp our authority in the standings by wrestling top stop from Arsenal, albeit for a couple of hours. What's more important with this 1-0 victory was the psychological edge we have over Liverpool, whom I deemed since the start of the season as our closest rivals to the title challenge.

Not to take anything from Arsenal's fine run till now, but they are quite frankly a team that's out performing themselves. I'm not dismissing Arsenal's title credentials, but they will only go as far as that kid, Fabregas will carry them. Chelsea's the last to form the quartet, but both themselves and Arsenal will have to contend with losing crucial players to the Africans Cup of Nations. Thus I fully expect them to fall off the pace during that period.

As for today's game, we rode out luck early this game after Van der Sar made two uncharacteristic errors to almost gift Liverpool with a couple of goals. Had it not been for Anderson's and Evra's timely goal mouth clearances, we would have been staring down the barrel of a gun.

Neither side played to their potential as the game was played at a frenzy pace, leading to an error-filled game in the middle of the park. Neither side could hold on to possession for any sustainable period of time, with both sets of midfielders cancelling one another out.

The game took abit of ingenuity from a set piece to open the scoring. 2 minutes before the whistle signalling the end of the first half, United won a corner. Insteading of whipping the ball into the box, Giggs found Rooney at the edge of the box (ala Sheringham).

Failing to pick up Rooney from the box, almost the entire Liverpool defense panicked and collapsed on Rooney. Rooney, on the other hand, was no Sheringham, and he scuffed the shot. The ball fell to the ever alert Tevez and he needed no invitation to scoop it into the empty net. 1-0 to the good guys!

Liverpool tried to storm back in the second half with a good amount of possession, but without a creative influence in midfield, were easy pickings for the United defenders. Our midfielders, Anderson, Hargreaves and the entire back four played their hearts out, holding Liverpools ineffective attacks at bay.

Such was Liverpool's ineffectiveness upfront that we could even afford to go a man down by bringing Mr Invisible, Carrick, on to the pick with almost 10 minutes to go. ;o)

It was nothing more than we deserved. Besides the scares Van der Sar had given us in the first half, it was apparent that Liverpool had failed yet again to meet our standards.

The squad should be well rested by next week when we face Everton at OT in a fixture-packed Christmas program.

United Holds Roma (Roma 1 - Manchester United 1)

Not much to say really. Given the circumstances, I was expecting a boring game with both sides resting players for the weekend fixtures.

With the exception of Rooney, United fielded a team which consisted of fringe players and kids. Roma, too, shuffled the pack and took the chance to field a couple of reserves and a couple of youth players. Despite that, Roma still looked more like their first team.

The first half lived up to expectation with neither side really showing up to play football. Roma, in particular, was awful. For large periods of the half, United enjoyed possession in midfield.

Slightly after 30 minutes, Pique headed home from a corner. From the way the game was played, it was fitting that the goal came from a set piece. Roma did look menacing for a while after the goal, but had nothing to show for it.

The second half was a much better affair as Roma chased the game. There were good chances from both sides.

On the 71st minute, Mancini scored a beautiful individual goal to level the score. Roma pressed on for the winner, while United hit back with the counters. There were chances aplenty for both sides but neither could add to the scoreline.

What started off as a boring game ended decently and above my expectation. No doubt, we were probably more pleased with the result than Roma, especially considering our lineup.

Just a couple of notes:

• Good to see Eagles playing. He's been somewhat of a forgotten man, after playing a couple of games at the beginning of the season.
• Simpson started the game at right back and switched to left back when Wes Brown came on. Had a decent game, however if there was a criticism of his game, it was that he tends to hold on to the ball too long in his own half. He was caught in possession a couple of times by the Roma players.
• Is it just me or is something up with Saha? He just isn't the same player this season. Mentally he just doesn't seem up for it.
  
• Pique and Johnny Evans did a credible job in the heart of defence. There is still a long way to go for them in terms of getting to the top.
• Token appearance from Dong, who basically contributed nothing to the game. Would have preferred to see Febian Brandy instead, but there was a need to cater to the millions of Chinese fans who would be sleepwalking at work tomorrow.
  

Giggs Century Leads The Way (Manchester United 4 - Derby 1)

Before I begin proper on this game, I did manage to catch the Fulham game whilst in Korea. The commentary was in Korean but a few things stood out from that game.

1. Offsides. There were plenty of offsides and most of it undeserved.

2. Ronaldo's yellow for diving. It probably didn't look like a penalty, yet at the same time didn't look like a dive. Either way, a yellow card didn't look like the right decision. If anything, Ronaldo did more diving in today's game.

Today's Game
It was a wet and heavy pitch and the passing just wasn't as crisp as expected from Manchester United. But we did dominate the game without really putting in our best effort. It was against a woeful Derby County and for large periods in the game you just get the feeling that the lads felt that by just turning up in a red jersey, victory was guaranteed.

I would have preferred to see alot more effort, but in truth, Derby are a really awful team. We could have really embarassed them if we really went for it.

After toying around with Derby for a good 40 minutes, Giggss opened the scoring, pouncing on Ronaldo's rebound. It was his 100th league goal for the club. Moments later, Tevez added a second. It was some seriously woeful defending from Derby, failing to clear the ball after Tevez had initially missed kicking the ball. At the second bite of the cherry, Tevez fired home.

On the hour mark, Tevez gave us a 3-0 lead with a superb strike. Derby should have been dead and buried. But as mentioned, we never did really turn up to play football today.

Derby managed to get a consolation goal when Evra allowed his man to run past him on the left and Van der Sar was caught in no-man's land. The cross was met by Steve Howard who managed to somehow poke it in despite some last grasp defending by Brown. This was Derby's first away goal. Probably gives some notion of just how out of depth Derby are playing in this league.

Given the way we played this game in the wet and cold, I would have gladly taken a victory. However, Ronaldo had different ideas. Right at the end of the game, he earned a penalty. Waving away Tevez, Ronaldo went on to slot home the penalty.

It was possibly be the right result at the end of the day, given just how woeful Derby was. There were probably only 3 United players who turned up today in their soccer boots. Tevez, Giggs and Rooney were outstanding. Everyone else was a shell of their former self.

In midweek, we should be sending a shadow squad to Rome and the lads should be well rested against Liverpool. Given the amount of rest we have, we had better get a good result against the grannystabbers.