Back In The Hunt

Manchester United 3 - Chelsea 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Vidic (45), Rooney (63), Berbatov (87)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans, Neville, Evra (O'Shea 66), Fletcher, Giggs (Carrick 80), Park, Ronaldo, Berbatov, Rooney

There's been little to cheer about since the turn of the year and our results lately has been some binary code that probably reads 'we can't score' when strung together. But today, we changed all that. In a crucial game against fellow contenders, Chelsea, we signalled our intentions loud and clear, putting 3 past a stout and stingy defence.

This was the performance we've been waiting for. We're still nowhere near our potential, but on this night, we showed the hunger and the spirit that has been missing for the last few months. Park was outstanding, along with Giggs and Evra deserving honourable mentions. Rooney had that mean streak in him and Ronaldo actually looked a little like the Ronaldo of last season.

Rio's presence wasn't missed at all with Evans proving to be a more than able deputy. Vidic, as usual was a man-mountain. And not to spoil my own mood, I wouldn't even rant on Berbatov, who was still in Carrick mode. Strangely enough, even he turned up for the party before the end of the game and scored a pretty good goal late in the game.

The great thing about this result is that we've closed the gap to Liverpool to within 5 points with 2 games in hand. For once I feel we have our destiny in our own hands. What makes this result sweeter is that I personally think that our two closest rivals, Liverpool and Chelsea, are nowhere near our playing standards. Pretty evidently from today's result Chelsea is not in the same class this year.

As for our other dreaded rivals, Liverpool, they have a manager who will lose them the title. Yesterday against a physical Stoke team, he threw out a feather weight team which lost all the physical contests, while setting his top goal-getters, Torres and Keane on the bench. And add to the fact he's kinda lost the plot this early in the season with a Keegan-patented Fergie rant to the media. Gotta luv it when opponents lose the plot in a mega way.

I doubt we're good enough nor deep enough to compete on all fronts at the moment, but retaining the Premiership title looks like an attainable goal. We just need to keep up the hunger and the aggression. Time for the other teams to quiver in our wake.