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.