United Thrashes Ten Men West Brom

WBA 0 - Manchester United 5
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (22), Tevez (44), Vidic (60), Ronaldo (65, 73)

Red Card
WBA: Robinson (40)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Rio (Brown 70), Neville (Eckersley 70), O'Shea, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Ronaldo, Berbatov (Tosic 77), Tevez

There were plenty of talking points in this match, most of which circled around referee, Rob Styles, but one thing that cannot be denied was that United's class shown thru. In a season where we've coughed, stuttered and generally been clueless beyond the defence, today was a statement game to all our closest rivals that we're finding our form and a reminder of just how devastating it can be.

The day couldn't have started off worse. Due to traffic issues, the game was delayed by 30 minutes. Already suffering from a severe lack of sleep due to the Chinese New Year celebrations, I was practically nodding off while waiting for the game to start. I was quite expecting another dull 1-0 bore-fest that has plagued our season so far, but on hindsight, it was worth the wait.

Unlike the game at Old Trafford in October, West Brom started brightly and threatened to run riot before surprise inclusion, Rio, and his partner, Vidic, stamped the flow. Slowly United crept into the game and began to impose our superiority and class. Carrick seemed to have found a phonebooth at the Hawthorns and dorned his Superman cape, spraying exquisite passes all over the pitch.

It wasn't a surprise that Carrick's passing ripped the West Brom defense apart, setting Berbatov free to score the opener. West Brom couldn't cope with United's pace and guile off the ball.

Neville had a legitimate shout at a penalty, but Rob Styles, being the utterly useless referee he is, waved play on, while the replays showed clearly that Neville was upended. To compound matters, he reduced West Brom to ten men, sending their skipper off for a bad foul on Park. It looked a little harsh, and by the way we were playing, we hardly needed any advantage.

The game threatened to boil over as the West Brom players were starting to lose their heads. The heat of the moment probably got to Carson most, when he dropped a routine catch, allowing Tevez to slam the ball home. Luckily half time came before Styles got into serious trouble with the West Brom players.

West Brom came out from the break a determined side to right the wrongs and could jolly well have pulled one back had it not been for the woodwork. We didn't do ourselves any favours either by getting complacent and sloppy with the ball.

Vidic, perhaps sensing that the game was getting away from us, took matters into his own hands and set us on the right path by scoring from a corner, casting all doubts away. He's our best player this season so far. An unmoveable rock.

We were back in our stride and Ronaldo added a brace to comprehensively put West Brom away.

There could've been more United goals, but it would have been rather harsh on a feisty West Brom side. While I acknowledge they lack the pedigree of a Premiership side, I would hate to see a hardworking underdog go down over some other bigger names like Spurs, Newcastle or Boro.

As for us, we're sitting pretty at the top of the table. We boostered our goal difference and broke Chelsea's premiership record of clean sheets. More importantly, we're starting to really play good football and the confidence is slowly returning to the side. And if Carrick and reproduce a few more performances like this (pretty doubtful though), we might be in for a treat the remainder of the season.