Ronaldo Smashes Bestie's Record!

Manchester United 2 - Bolton 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Ronaldo (9, 19)

Team: Kuszczak, Vidic (Brown 58), Pique, O'Shea, Hargreaves, Fletcher, Anderson (Scholes 70), Nani, Ronaldo, Tevez, Saha (Rooney)

Ronaldo celebrated his acension to captaincy in style. Two early goals by our captain for the day enabled him to not only equal Bestie's goal record for a season, but surpass it.

Goal no. 32 was a result of a scramble in the Bolton box. The Bolton defence failed to clear the ball and it fell kindly to Ronaldo, who needed no invitation to scoop it over the motley crew scrambling to reach it.

Goal no. 33 was a beauty. It was a trademark Ronaldo freekick that flew sweetly and dipped wickedly into the net. I have grown to stop complaining about his freekicks. There are still occasions he would send it to row Z, but that is fast becoming the exception instead of the norm. Practice and dedication to the art has paid off handsomely for Ronaldo.

Apart from the two early goals, there was really little to cheer about. Fergie had rung in the changes in poor impression of his Liverpool counterpart. The team didn't click and the normal fluency associated with United simply wasn't there. We played in starts and stops. A certain degree was probably due to the fact we were already 2 up and had shifted a gear or two down.

On the other hand, Bolton didn't help their cause too much either. They rarely threatened, and when they did, our makeshift defence stood up well. With stiff competition for the spot, Kuszczak did well enough to put his name in the hat when Fergie eventually chooses a successor.

Despite a less than stellar performance, we won the game comfortably and pulled ourselves 3 points clear of Arsenal with only 24 left up for grabs. We face Liverpool on 'super sunday' and it's imperative we win that game. It's not only a matter of pride to beat one of the hottest teams in the league, but to put pressure on both Chelsea and Arsenal, who play later that same day.

Talking Points

Hargreaves - He played leftback today and did a pretty commendable job in that position. My concern here is that Fergie might be tempted to use him there more often, especially when/if injuries occur. I'm not a huge fan of playing players out of position unless the situation warrants. We've already seen how Fergie practically ruined John O'Shea's and Phil Neville's careers by shifting them all over the shop.

Nani - He's a top player, no doubts about that. However, he's getting way too desperate to impress. Whenever he gets the ball, his first instinct is the shoot, irregardless of the options around him. There is still a long way to go in his development into a player of Ronaldo's calibre. The good thing here is that he doesn't have Ronaldo's piss poor attitude when he first arrvived.

Saha - Wtf is wrong with him? He got injured today (what's new?). He was given a starring role today and he fluffed it big time. I can't remember a telling contribution he made, except for the part where he injures himself again. I mean he hardly broke a sweat the entire game and yet ended up being substituted due to a self-inflicted injury. I want him to succeed so badly, but this entire season, it's just been one disappointment after another.

Chelsea vs Spurs - How the hell Chelsea escaped this game with the full compliment of players on the pitch is beyond me. Ashley Cole's tackle on Alan Hutton was disgraceful. But what made it worse was the conduct of the Chelsea players who surrounded the referee. Possibly intimidated, Mike Riley's balls shrunk to the size of peanuts and he only issued a yellow instead of a red.