Giggs Still The Man

Stoke 0 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (62), O'Shea (77)

Team: Foster, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Scholes (Carrick 81), Nani (Giggs 56), Valencia, Berbatov, Rooney (Owen 80)

For a full hour, we looked really blunt on the field until Giggs came on. He announced his arrival with a superb cross and even Berbatov couldn't screw up the tap-in. It was the cutting edge that had been missing the entire night.

I like Nani and Valencia, but the honest truth is that they are good, really good until the final pass. For some reason, their brains switch off at the crucial moment when it comes to delivering in that final third of the field. And for the second consecutive weekend, we needed the brilliance of Giggs to save our blushes.

The second goal was more of Gigg's handiwork. His floated freekick invited O'Shea to head the ball home, sinking whatever resistance Stoke had left.

With this victory, we climbed to the top of the league in a bizarre weekend. Pool dumped 6 on Hull, Spurs hit Burnley with 5, Birmingham levelled against Bolton in the dying minutes only to lose it all again. Villa couldn't overcome a ten men Blackburn and even lost the game late. And the most important result of them all, Wigan beat Chelsea to send us top. Strange weekend, but let's relish it while it lasts.

Welbeck Sends United Thru

Manchester United 1 - Wolves 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Welbeck (66)

Red Card: Fabio (30)

Team: Kuszczak, Evans, Brown, Neville, Fabio, Carrick, Gibson, Welbeck (King 81), Nani, Macheda (De Laet 30), Owen (Valencia 69)

Ferguson made wholesale changes from the team that beat Shitty at the weekend. Owen was rewarded with a starting lineup and he played a pivotal role in the only goal scored in the game. His smart one-two allowed Welbeck to spin free of the Wolves defense and send the ball wide of the keeper and into the net.

It was not an easy game with 11 new faces and the going got tougher when Fabio was sent off for a professional foul half an hour into the game. It was a smart foul as the Wolves player was running in on goal, but it left us with 10 men for the entire duration of the game. Macheda was sacrificed for De Laet to fill in the gap at left back.

Large portions of the game was played in our half and outstanding performances from our defenders and poor finishing from Wolves kept the game level. Brown, De Laet and Evans had incredible games, working their socks off the keep the opponents at bay.

Nani is beginning to realise his potential. He had oodles of skill but still lacks the crucial-decision making to make it count. Once he gains that, hopefully, thru experience, we could very be looking at the second coming of the departed Ronaldo.

I thought Gibson outshone Carrick today. I've always felt Gibson doesn't have what it takes to make the cut at Old Trafford and I'm officially going to take it all back. He's a fighter and never gives up on anything. It's pleasing to know that we have quality and talent on the bench when we need it.

I'm also pleased with the progress of Welbeck. He's matured since returning from the Euro U19 tournament during the summer. The debutant, Joshua Kings, looks like a good prospect too. He was a little too selfish on a couple of occasions, but generally looked like a pretty good player.

It's a bit of a shame that we didn't see many youngsters unlike previous years. Looks like we're giving this cup a decent run with many familar names. With a bit of luck we may just retain it for another season.

What An Incredible Game!

Manchester United 4 - Manchester City 3
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (2), Fletcher (48, 80), Owen (90+5)
Manchester City: Barry (16), Bellamy (52, 90)

Team: Foster, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Anderson (Carrick 90), Park (Valencia 62), Giggs, Berbatov (Owen 78), Rooney

Awesome awesome game. It had practically everything a neutral would want in a football game.

We opened the game with an early goal from Rooney. Shitty were caught napping and Rooney made the most of it scoring from an Evra pass.

Unfortunately we stopped playing after that. Despite the demoralising start, Shitty grew in strength and Foster probably took pity on them and gifted one back. Instead of clearing the ball, Foster decided to show his dribbling skills and was promptly stripped by Tevez who instinctively passed the ball to Barry to slot the ball into the empty net.

Shitty grew into the ascendancy and started to control the game. Tevez came close to giving Shitty the lead, but his effort hit the post. Just when it seems inevidable that Shitty would take the lead, the half time whistle came to our rescue.

I would have liked to have whatever they had as the half time refreshment. It was a totally different team that came out of the locker room. We gave Shitty no room and started bombarding their penalty area with crosses. And it took less then 3 minutes into the half before Fletcher rose and headed one of those into the net.

As Old Trafford roared it's approval of the new scoreline, Bellamy had other ideas. He single-handedly brought Shitty level again with a rasping shot beyond the flapping Foster. It was back to the drawing board again for the lads. This time, instead of crumbling, there was a huge sense of urgency and we continued to hammer the Shitty defense with pin-point crosses from the irresistable Giggs.

The addition of Valencia in the place of Park added more crossing prowess. This time we rained in the crosses from both the left and the right. Howver, Shay Given was in outstanding form. Berbatov was extremely unlucky to have two headers saved at point blank range.

In the 80th minute, Fletcher scored his second header of the day to give United the lead for the third time. We took the foot off the peddle and paid the consequences.

This time it was Rio who made the error. Only god knows what he was thinking when he gifted the ball to Bellamy. Bellamy ran the length of the pitch and poked the ball beyond Foster who could've done more to cover his angles instead of sprawling on the ground at the first sign of danger. The the third time, Shitty had found an equalizer.

Time was running out, and running out quick. We looked at a loss and just when it seemed that we would have to settle for a draw, Shitty's rushed clearance found Giggs and he in turn found Owen in acres of space in the Shitty box. And right at the death, Owen did what he's done best all his professional career, and that was to beat his former teammate, Shay Given.

United 4 - Shitty 3. Pandemonium.

It was an utterly satisfactory victory. Giggs is god. In all my years of watching Giggs play, this is possibly his best performance. Everyone in red had an outstanding game, possibly with the exception of Foster and Rio.

I'm beginning to worry for Foster. He's proving to be a liability and if this carries on, the players in front of him would start losing confidence as well. So far his mistakes haven't cost us anything yet. We've been lucky that Rooney and gang have been finding the goals to save his blushes.

Whatever the case is, Ferguson needs to start looking around, either from within or in the market for a suitable and long term replacement for Van der Sar. We could jolly well end up in the same situation when we lose Smikes. The inability to replace him properly probably costs us a number of years in limbo.

Poor Game But United Wins

Besiktas 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer: Scholes (77)

Team: Foster, Evans, Vidic, Evra, Neville, Carrick (Berbatov 64), Scholes, Anderson, Nani, Valencia (Park 84), Rooney (Owen 64)

This is one of those games you'd dig your eyes out if you had to sit thru another 90mins of it. Both sides were piss poor and goal scoring opportunities were almost non-existent.

We clearly came into this game with a plan, and that was to bore the stockings off the Turkish fans. To their credit, they were loud....really loud. Had a lesser team played instead of us, I'd have no doubts the crowd would have intimidated them. But we're made of sterner stuff and having the experience to cope and calm the crowd down (or bore them shitless in this case).

After doing almost absolutely nothing of note for the first 65 minutes, Ferguson finally changed the 4-5-1 formation to a more adventurous 4-4-2 by bringing Owen and Berbatov into the fray. Rooney, to his frustration, was taken off and probaby saved for the big derby at the weekend.

The game opened up abit and before long we had our first goal courtesy of Scholes. Nani's shot was blocked but fell kindly to Scholes who headed it into the net. All that was left was to bore the socks off everyone, which we did magnificiently.

In short, this was a dull, drab game, but in the end, that little bit of class showed and we scampered away with 3 valuable points. A good start to our champions league campaign under difficult conditions.