United Somehow Reclaims Top Spot

Manchester United 2 - Bolton 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Knight (5 og), Valencia (33)
Bolton: Taylor (75)

Team: Van der Sar, Evans, Rio, Evra (O'Shea 84), Neville, Anderson (Scholes 86), Carrick, Valencia, Giggs, Berbatov, Owen (Welbeck 84)

With other results in the league going our way, I should be a happy camper, but after watching us dominated for 75 minutes, then go thru a total collapse makes you take things into perspective. Mentally, we're just not there yet. For a good last 15 minutes or so, you might even be forgiven if you think that team was afraid of taking the top spot after Chelsea's loss earlier.

It started really well for us. Owen's wayward header was deflected into the net for an early lead. We could even have gone up by more seconds later but Evans header was pushed onto the post. Bolton were in a mess, and it seems like we were going to give them another hiding at Old Trafford.

We were horribly wasteful and coupled with Jaaskelainen's superb saves, kept the scoreline respectable. Valencia did double our lead at the half hour after a superb counter attacking play involving Gary Neville.

We entered the half with a healthy two goal cushion and feeling really good about ourselves. We were on top of our game and Bolton had rarely threatened. Giggs, Valencia and Berbatov were in outstanding form and really punishing the hapless Trotters.

It was much more of the same in the second half. We had most of the possession and had we been more clinical, we could have raked up a rugby score.

It was all going so well that the lads started to have mental lapses. Mistakes started to creep into our play and in the 75th minute, a collection of such mistakes resulted in Matthew Taylor leaping over Evra to head Bolton back into the game.

The rest of the game was terribly nerve-wrecking to watch. We were in shambles, inviting Bolton to come at us. All the good work put into the previous 75 minutes, threatened to come undone in the last 15.

Not trying to sound arrogant, but lucky for us, Bolton are a limited team. Had it been another team with a more potent attack, we could very well have lost points in this fixture. Like the rest of us, Ferguson must have breathed a sigh of relief when the final whistle blew, and not before a last gasp save made by Van der Sar to maintain the lead.

It's disappointing to have dominated huge parts of the game only to barely win it by the skin of our teeth.

The silverlining here is that despite an almost total collapse, we still got the 3 points and are at the top of the league. And we got there without playing our best. There in lies our problem as well. I have no idea what our best looks like, or if we're even able to reach that standard. And to further that thought, even if we do reach our peak, I'm not sure if we can sustain it for any meaningful period to make it count.

To make matters worse, the next couple of games are no walk in the park. We get an early game in the Champions League in Russia in midweek. And at the weekend, we get a cornered animal in the form of Liverpool, and you can be sure that beach balls will be banned at Anfield.