Oops, We Did It Again

Birmingham 1 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Birmingham: Bowyer (90)
Manchester United: Berbatov (58)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Anderson (Fletcher 73), Gibson (Hernandez 90), Giggs, Rooney, Berbatov

We still can't keep leads away from home. This game was a huge downer, especially how we got the lead then proceeded to give it away at the last minute of regulation time.

It wasn't a pretty game. Birmingham, mired at the bottom of the table, set up shop to frustrate the living hell outta us. We never got our passing game going, and barely 48hrs after the last game, we faced up to a fresh Birmingham team that was determined to spoil the festivities. And if that wasn't bad enough, we came in with a reputation of giving games away late when we're not at our favourite hunting ground. Everything pointed to a draw and we didn't help by living up to our reputation.

With the exception of an fabulous strike by Berbatov, there really weren't many bright spots in the game. Instead of pressing on for the kill, we sat back too deep and invited Birmingham to come forward and by doing that, the inevitable happened. Although it was a blantant handball by Zigic and a hint of offside by Bowyer, the bulk of the blame had to fall on ourselves. Spoilt by the pretty play of the past few games, we let ourselves down by not doing enough.

I suppose that on the bright side, we're still top of the heap come 2011, but barely. Our noisy neighbours have crept up and are sitting pretty alongside us, as the top gets uncomfortably crowded as a bunch of teams are within striking distance. Yet given how we're started our campaign, I suppose this is still a good position to be in. Looks like we have to pull up our socks and do what we traditionally do, and that is to finish strong into the second half of the season.

Strolling Past Sunderland

Manchester United 2 - Sunderland 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Berbatov (5, 57)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Anderson (Gibson 64), Park, Giggs (Macheda 64), Berbatov (Hernandez 82), Rooney

Firstly, I'm absolutely gushing over Anderson. He's been the outstanding player for me in the last four games. Maybe it's because he's playing along side Carrick, or maybe he's finally gotten it at long last. Whichever the case is, he's passing, tenacity and powerful runs forward are exactly what we've been missing at United for quite sometime. If he carries on in this fine form, it's just a matter of time before the goals come as well. Then we'd be talking about him along side some of the great midfielders currently playing for Barcelona.

Today Berbatov stepped up to the plate with a fine brace. Steve Bruce's side found it hard to cope with the power and pace at Old Trafford today. Our play was so good that after the first 15 or so minutes, you just have the feeling another Blackburn-type scoreline was on the cards. In that brief opening sequence, Berbatov scored, we hit the woodwork twice and Rooney had an exqusite chip narrowly miss the target. In short, we were all over Sunderland. It unfortunately fettered away. Although we only scored two, the defense was never really threatened.

It's just quite astonishing just how much we've accomplished with this team. On paper we look terribly average, yet on Boxing Day, we're leading the pack by two points with two games in hand. I think it's a combination of both the league being super competitive this season and all the title challengers not playing up to par. The fact we top the table by not playing up to par is a superb achievement.

As of right now, we're just beginning to play the kind of football the fans have come to recognise all these years. Alot of the credit has to go to Ferguson. He has somehow brought out the best from these players, managing the expectations, stroking the egos and nurturing the youth. There is still a long long way to go, but things looking up despite the hectic schedule that Mother Nature has thrown up.

Park Takes United Back To The Top

Manchester United 1 - Arsenal 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Park (41)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Anderson (Giggs 85), Park, Nani, Rooney

Mesmerizing game, brilliant result. Going to do a really short one here. It's 6am in the morning and I haven't slept a wink for quite sometime.

- We completely dominated the first half. Arsenal were chasing shadows for most part of the game.

- The five men midfield total controlled the ball and kept Arsenal from playing their usual game. Park, Anderson and Nani were particularly effective. The downside with 5 in midfield was that besides Rooney, no one else was in the box when the crosses came in.

- On the occasion where Park got into the box, we scored. Good goal, highly difficult to direct the deflected cross into the box.

- The defense was immense. The Rio and Vidic partnership kept the Gunners firing blanks. Evra was at the end of some poor challenges, probably due to his unfriendly comments in midweek. Rafael is slowly but surely making his mark. Defensively, this is probably Rafael's best game.

- Rooney missed a penalty around the 70th odd minute. He could have sealed the game but blasted the spot kick way over the bar. Personally I'm glad he missed and we still won. His body language was very Berbatovish. While he did run his socks off, he was also guilty of berating his teammates frequently for not finding him.

- Particularly impressed with the bench and Berbatov. Berbatov should have felt hard done by, especially after the kind of form he's showed, but instead of sulking on the bench, he was intensely following the team on the pitch and focusing. In fact all the bench players were intensely concentrating on the game which is a good sign. It shows that everyone is ready and focused when called upon by the manager.

- I've already mentioned Anderson, but am going to do it again. He was just absolutely brilliant once again. He ran so hard up and down the pitch that by the time Giggs came on to replace him, he barely had the strength to walk off. His fitness still needs abit of work, but my word, he's been the best player on the pitch the last 3 times he's on it.

- 3 points clear at the top of the table and the team is coming together and playing some really good football. Next week we face a back-against-the-wall Chelsea, who is rapidly going in the opposite direction after an incredible start to the season. Potentially this one could get really ugly for us. Chelsea needs a win in the worst way possible and they are finally getting their best players back in the shape of Lampard, Terry and Essien. As always, let's enjoy the win and let next week worry about itself

United Avoids Big Guns

Manchester United 1 - Valencia 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Anderson (62)
Valencia: Hernandez (32)

Team: Amos, Vidic, Rio (Smalling 50), Rafael, Fabio, Carrick, Anderson (Fletcher 90), Park, Nani (Giggs 80), Berbatov, Rooney

We drew a game we largely dominated. Practically everything went thru Anderson today. The last couple of games he's played absolutely brilliantly and it was most deserving that he grabbed the equalizer.

Ferguson kept to his word and the starting lineup was pretty much the strongest side we could have put out with the exception of Ben Amos. Felt kinda sorry for Kuz though. It looks like his time at Old Trafford is up. We've already signed Lindegaard and now Amos is apparently ahead in the packing order.

There was also a slight concern at our midfield pairing of Carrick and Anderson. Neither has featured much this season and with Fletcher on the bench, you'd think that this might not be the strongest we have at the moment. Anderson certainly blew that concern out of the water. He's energy, endeavour and enterprise was just fabulous and a breath of fresh air given how we've played much of this season. The only worry is if he can keep this up for the rest of the season. Shortly after the equalizer, Anderson was practically playing at walking pace and it was no wonder that Valencia came back into the game and could have stolen the lead back.

Carrick, on the other hand, didn't play too badly, but his mistaken in front of the back four was disasterous. His sloppiness cost United the win and it came at a time when we were completely in control of the game. He spent the rest of the game making amends and luckily for him, he did a credible job.

Upfront, both Rooney and Berbatov were quite brilliant, yet at the same time very wasteful. Berbatov seems to have used up all his scoring in the game against Blackburn. He did everything but put the ball into the net tonight. The damning statistic is that he hasn't scored in the Champions League for 17 consecutive games....and I'm not sure that statistic includes tonight's game. Some shocking stats!

At the end of the night, we got the result we needed. We've now successfully avoided the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Once tomorrow's results come in, we'd have a clearer picture of who we've avoided and who we're more likely to face.

And more importantly, we can put the Champions League aside for a long while and focus on the bread and butter topic of the Premiership proper. It doesn't bigger than this weekend against Arsenal, who leapfrogged us in the standings over the last weekend. After that, we have Chelsea, before the fixture logjam of the holiday period. Should make an interesting month to come.

United Comes Crashing Down To Earth

West Ham 4 - Manchester United 0
Scorers
West Ham: Spector (22, 37), Cole (56, 66)

Team: Kuszczak, Smalling, Evans (Brown 72), O'Shea, Fabio (Rafael 65), Fletcher, Anderson, Obertan, Bebe (Macheda 46), Giggs, Hernandez

Sobbering experience for the kids on show today. After the high achieved over the weekend by the senior side, Ferguson threw in 10 changes with a mixture of youth and experience against an injury plagued West Ham, and the result was a hammering...pardon the pun.

Jonathan Spector, formerly from United, opened the scoring after 22 minutes. He earlier had a goal disallowed for offside. He added a second as the half closed after some poor marking. Cole doubled the score in the second half with a brace to send United tumbling from the Mickey Mouse cup with our first defeat of the season.

We didn't really play badly, but we weren't any good either. I suppose the only thing that I can say about our overall performance today is probably 'meh'. However one thing's for sure, David May is absolutely right when he said that our youngster are falling short. Our squad is simply not good enough to compete.

Kus probably has seen his last game in a United shirt. Can't possibly see him in the starting lineup after letting in 4 today.With the signing of Anders Lindegaard, I'm pretty sure he's going to be our first casualty. It's sad in a way. There was precious little he could have done on all 4 goals. Our defense was miserable in the London snow.

Evans in particular was just woeful. There was a time I thought he would make it, but apparently we let the wrong one go. He's hardly progressed since Pique left for Barcelona. At least his current partner in crime today, Smalling, didn't do too badly. I'd be hardpressed to see Evans play any major part in the next few years. At best, he's going to be a bit part player like O'Shea or Brown.

I wonder what we're going to do with Obertan. I think I've come to the conclusion that Obertan is never going to get it....ever. He's got all the skills in the world, but something's just not doing it for me. Maybe it's his confidence or lack of it, or just his lack of killer instincts and desire to win. Whatever the case is, it's time to cut our losses and move on. He's ceiling is not at the Nani or Giggs level, and since we have so many holes to fill, we can ill afford to take on this deadweight. There are better prospects that deserve the time and experience.

And speaking of prospects, Bebe is still raw as hell. I have no idea what to make of him. He's done ok in the reserves and showed raw power when he gets to play. If we're patient with him, we may get to reap the rewards. Right now he has to ply his trade in the reserves for a long while more before he can make it. Still too early to make a judgement. At least he shows a hunger for the game.

As far as hunger goes, Macheda's hungry like a wolf. The problem here is that that's all he's showing. Sorry, but he's another one that's not doing it for me. As I've mentioned a few weeks back, he needs the games. Look at how much Welbeck has achieve in his short stint with Sunderland. I used to place Welbeck much lower on the packing order from Macheda, but right now I think he's become one the better players in the league. He's positioning and passing has improved leaps and bounds, and his predatory instincts seemed to have heightened playing alongside Bent. Macheda needs to play more competitive games to horn his skills. As of right now, he's just not good enough to make a team like ours.

Sadly we're out of the Mickey Mouse cup. What this means is that we're not going to see some of our young players much. In a way it's also a good defeat. At least now we won't get hung up over the 'undefeated' tag. With that silly monkey off our backs, maybe we can continue to build on the result over Blackburn. Hope springs eternal and our season starts right now.

United Romps To The Top In Emphatic Fashion

Manchester United 7 - Blackburn 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (2, 27, 47, 62, 70), Park (23), Nani (48)
Blackburn: Samba (83)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic (Evans 64), Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Anderson, Park (Obertan 72), Nani, Berbatov, Rooney

Shocking stuff! Given how we've played the entire season, this is the last thing you'd imgaine possible, yet we smashed 7 past a hapless Blackburn team. Berbatov was in sensational form, almost grabbing his hands on a double hattrick.

There's a marked difference between this game and the rest before this - we started actually playing football right from the kickoff. There was a urgency and a desperation that's been sorely lacking in previous games that finally reared its head today. Getting the early goal from normally goal-shy Berbatov helped kicked things off.

It gave the lads confidence and there was no let up. Berbatov was outstanding, grabbing 5 of the 7 and the team as a whole played probably their best game in eons. We probably could have had more but that's just me being greedy. We've erased Chelsea's superior goal-difference in one fell swoop and took pole position in the most emphatic and unimginable fasion.

It's still too early to announce that we've arrived. There's still alot of work to do and a whole lot of games to be played, especially when you consider we have to face both Arsenal and Chelsea back to back in the next few weeks. But this result will signal to the rest of the league that we're possibly back to our best, and playing with our best front two.

All we need now is consistency, especially from Berbatov and in a smaller way, Rooney. This feast or famine act is growing old and all we want is some consistency over a sustainable period of time. 5 goals from Berbatov is a mighty achievement, but the last time he scored was a hatrick in Sept against Liverpool. He needs to bring it on every game.

In any case, it was an outstanding game, not only by Berbatov, but by the entire team. Bring on the big boys.

Rooney's Late Penalty Sees Off Stubborn Rangers

Rangers 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 87)

Team: Van der Sar, Smalling, Evans, O'Shea, Fabio, Carrick, Scholes (Anderson 67), Giggs, Nani (Obertan 76), Berbatov (Hernandez 76), Rooney

Pretty good game considering the circumstances. Rangers parked the bus for most of the game and despite some quality chances spurned by our misfiring front pairing, we eventually prevailed when Fabio was caught by a high boot late in the game to earn a penalty. Rooney put it away to give us a well deserved victory and thru into the next round of the Champions League.

This game was particularly sweet in that practically everyone in a red jersey had an outstanding game. It's hard to find fault with anyone on the pitch today. Van der Sar had some nervy moments early in the game with his wayward kicks, but redeemed himself with a couple of good saves.

Berbatov brought his A game today and was rather unfortunate not to find his name on the scoresheet. Maybe all the rumours of him leaving are starting to get to him. He was running his socks off and his first touch was absolutely brilliant. Even the much maligned Carrick was outstanding besides Scholes.....a rarity, but much appreciated.

But the man of the moment has to be Fabio. Right from the kickoff, his boundless energy stood out. He was up and down the left flank, supporting Giggs. It's a pity the guy ahead of him in the squad is Evra. In my book, Fabio is heads and shoulders above his brother Rafael. He times his tackles well and whips in a wicked cross. I think he would make a good left winger should the need arises.

United Beat Nine Men Wigan

Manchester United 2 - Wigan 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Evra (45), Hernandez (77)

Red Cards
Wigan: Alcaraz (59), Rodallega (62)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick (Hernandez 65), Park (Scholes 56), Obertan, Nani, Macheda (Rooney 56)

Life doesn't get easier when you're at the wrong end of the table. Wigan started the brighter of the two teams but found themselves 2 men and 2 goals down when the final whistle blew. With the result, we suddenly found ourselves sharing top spot with Chelsea in a strange weekend that saw both Chelsea and Arsenal lose. Both losses come in surprising fashion. Chelsea hardly loses, but they've lost twice in successive weeks. And Arsenal lost at home against hated rivals Spurs after going 2-zip up at half time.

Meanwhile we struggled against unfancied Wigan at home and were a tad bit fortunate to be up at half time with a well taken header by Evra right at the stroke of half time. Up to that point, we never looked like scoring. It was a poor poor performance and we struggled to string a couple of passes together. The team was disjointed and unmotivated. Yet Park somehow found space on the right side of the pitch to swing in a cross for his best friend in a United jersey to head home the lead.

The half time team talk didn't improve the way we played. Ferguson's team talk in the dressing room did nothing to spur the players to a higher level of play. Martin Atkinson decided to give the men in red an advantage and sent Alcaraz for a second bookable offense on Fletcher. On hindsight, it was a poor poor decision that decided the fate of Wigan. Alcaraz barely touched Fletcher, but the decision stood.

To compound matters, Rodallega jumped into a two-footed challenge on Rafael barely three minutes later that saw Wigan reduced to 9 men. Surely now with a two man advantage and almost half an hour to go, we'd be seeing a red tide rise to overwhelm the Wigan defense.

But our play was so poor and so laboured that the avalanche of goals we were expecting didn't materialize. Even with a 2-men advantage, we were, quite frankly, awful. The United of the past would have passed Wigan to death...and then somemore. This version of the United was just terrible.

We did eventually kill the game off late, but that was mostly due to Wigan's overworked defense finally falling apart and not really our killer instinct taking over. We were just so shockingly poor, spurning chance after chance. There is just no creativity, no killer pass to beat our opponents anymore. The never-say-die spirit is still there, but it's about the only thing left.

That said, we're somehow sitting pretty, unbeaten, with Chelsea at the summit of the table. This has been one crazy season so far.

Oh and Rooney's back in the team. Ho hum.

United Fails To Win Thriller

Aston Villa 2 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Aston Villa: Young (pen 72), Albrighton (76)
Manchester United: Macheda (81), Vidic (85)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Brown, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Park (Smalling 86), Nani, Berbatov (Macheda 73), Hernandez ( Obertan 73)

My word, what a thriller. Don't let the scoreline fool you. We were terrible for 80 minutes and only came alive in the final ten. Against a fairly depleted Villa side, this should count as a poor result, yet the comeback in the final 10 minutes is something to savour. It's a pity we couldn't have done it earlier in the game, but our front players were so poor that I didn't think they had a shot on target the entire game.

Villa were value for their lead. Ashley Young earned a penalty which he took himself. Prior to that, Villa had come close twice, both efforts hitting the woodwork.

In response to Villa taking the lead, Ferguson replaced both his strikers with Macheda and Obertan. Berbatov was back to his usual self. Sorry, he was worse than his usual self, he was trying hard to be Carrick. Hernandez wasn't much better either. He was on a one man mission to maim every Villa defender.

Promptly after the subsitutions, Villa went 2 up with a United-styled counter attack. Albrighton was on the end of the attack and he made no mistake to put ball into the net. Things looked really bleak. 2 goals down with less than 15 minutes left on the clock.

Cue Macheda. Having made his name against Villa, Macheda popped up to rifle Fletcher's backheel to pull one back for us. And only minutes later, Vidic made it a grandstand finish when he met Nani's cross to head home from an acute angle. Villa were stunned, while we pressed on for the winner.

It was an action-packed finale as we even threw Smalling on as another striker. But in the end, our away woes continued. We drew another away game, but this one didn't have such a bad taste in our mouths. We showed our mettle, albeit coming only in the final minutes of the game. And that only came after our subsitutes came on. Both Macheda and Obertan were pretty effective after coming on.

Berbatov and Hernandez weren't the only poor ones in the game. Park had an awful time. He was guilty giving the ball on numerous occasions and totally clueless going forward. Nani wasn't any better. He plays exactly like a teammate of mine, who falls at the slightest touch. If it's a genuine injury, it's understandable, but usually it isn't. Nani has a nasty streak of trying to dive for freekicks and get opponents into trouble. It's alot like Ronaldo when he first arrived. Nani needs to stamp that habit out. It's unsportsman-like and very un-United.

That said, it is a good result given the circumstances. I probably wouldn't have liked the result against a depleted Villa team at the start of the game, but considering just how poor we were and how hard we fought with the youngsters in the last 15 or so minutes, I'll gladly take this result and look ahead to the next game. I only have one request....when/if Rooney returns, can we bench Berbatov for good?

Neighbours To Settle Row Another Day

Manchester City 0 - Manchester United 0

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael (Brown 49), Evra (O'Shea 69), Scholes, Carrick, Fletcher, Park, Nani, Berbatov (Hernandez 78)

Don't really see what's so special about City this season. They were playing at home and were so defensive, packing the box. We weren't much better formation-wise, but at least we looked threatening going forward. The second half was probably some of the best football we've played all year, not that it says much considering how generally poor we've been all season.

What was outstanding in this game is that for once we never looked like conceeding. Our defence was super on the ball. I don't think I've seen the players concentrate so hard on the defensive end all year. All the midfielders did their part, coming back when needed, snuffing out the danger from Silva and Tevez. On the other side, the Toures brothers were outstanding.

At the end the negativity of Shitty won the day. At least it looks like we've finally woken up from our slumber and playing the type of football we've come to know and enjoy. We may have lost gound to Chelsea on this night, but if we continue to play this type of football, I'm sure we could give them a run for the money.

Park Wins It For United

Manchester United 2 - Wolves 1

Scorers

Manchester United: Park (45, 90)

Wolves: Ebanks-Blake (66)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Brown, Evra, Fletcher, O'Shea (75_, Hargreaves (Bebe 10, Macheda 75), Obertan, Park, Hernandez

My problems with my computer are an on going problem that's hopefully going to end by the end of the following week. Since I'm still writing on borrowed time, I'll try to keep this one short and sweet.

We didn't deserve the points, we really didn't. Yet somehow how Park willed his way to a goal into injury time to win us the 3 points. He scored both our goals at the ends of either half to seal the victory after former United reserve player, Ebanks equalized late in the game.

We're playing some really dreadful football and it's been going on for sometime. The problem largely lies with the midfield. We're playing well until the final third of the pitch where it all breaks down. We simply lack the creativity to crack a stubborn defense and it's hurting us more than Ferguson would like to admit. Without Valencia or Nani, I thought we were fully exposed for what we really are.....a very ordinary side. If not for Park's incredible endeavour, we would have been staring at another draw.

United's Turkish Delight

Bursaspor 0 - Manchester United 3

Scorers

Manchester United: Fletcher (47), Obertan (73), Bebe (77)

Team: Van der Sar, Smalling, Vidic, Rafael, Evra (Fabio 80), Scholes, Carrick, Fletcher (Bebe 63), Nani (Park 29), Berbatov

Superb result from Turkey, especially given the very blunt lineup we put upfront. We struggled in the first half but eventually the midfield made up the difference. Once we started to get a grip on the midfield, the game came easy and so did the goals.

The introduction of Park in place for the injury to Nani was huge. He provided the industry needed for the midfield engine and unleashed Scholes and Fletcher higher up the midfield.

Carrick also had a brilliant game, doing all the little things, and on a rare occasion was actually instrumental for many of our furores upfront. He also had huge hand in the first goal. His pass opened up the Turkish defence and created a wonderful opportunity for Fletcher to pass the ball across the keeper and into the bottom corner of the net.

Obertan did his confidence wonders, after Park played him in, with a stunning net buster that no keeper in the world could stop.

And Bebe continues to baffle critics with a poachers goal when Scholes played him in. What's worth mentioning is that when Scholes got the ball, everyone in the world expected him to shoot, but only Bebe was prepared for the pass. And of course he took the goal well with the outside of his right foot. Again I'm going to say this: he's raw, pure power and pace, but today he's shown a little more to his game. Towards the end ofthe game, he showed the power and pace aspect of his game, brushing off his defender and running down the right flank to whip in a perfect ball to Berbatov, too bad it resulted in nothing.

Speaking of Berbatov, well, he's back to his old hopeless self. It's terribly disappointing to see how poor Berbatov is. After anointing this year as his year on this blog, he goes on to being the player we've always known him to be the past couple of years. He's shoulders were slumped whenever he loses the ball, and he's beginning to berate his teammates for poor passes, most of which occur with his own inability to go for the ball. It's as if someone pat him so hard on the back after the Liverpool game that his footballing brain was dislodged.

Special mention to Smalling here. The defense on the whole played a superb game. Much of it due to Smalling being a man-mountain and the other part due to Bursaspor's poor finishing. Smalling looks superbly confident. At the rate he's going, Rio's going to have to be worried for his place. He doesn't look like someone for the future, with abit more experience, he looks ready to step in anytime.

Manchester United 2 - Tottenham 0

Scorers

Manchester United: Vidic (30), Nani (84)

Team: Rio, Vidic, Rafael (Brown 64), Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Park, Nani, Berbatov (Scholes 64), Hernandez (Obertan 87)

Not at all a good game yet again, but what's important is that we kept pace with Chelsea and even more importantly, we kept a clean sheet. It's been a while we actually prevented someone from scoring.

The match however would be remembered for Nani's ungentlemanly goal near the end of regulation time. I was watching with absolutely no commentary, hence am still clueless at this stage how the hell the goal stood.

It happened like this, Nani fell in the penalty area, used his hands to handle the ball thinking he earned a penalty. The referee said otherwise. In this instance I thought a freekick was awarded to Spurs. Yet when Gomes placed the ball, Nani took a swipe and scored. From where I was watching, it really shouldn't have been a goal, however the referee Mark Clattenburg consulted his linesman and awarded a cruel goal to end all of Spurs resistance.

While I think Nani wasn't really at fault, his celebrations for such a controversial goal leaves plenty to be desired. I suppose it shows his true nature. Whatever the case is, I kinda feel sorry for Spurs, but luckily for us, we were already one up at that late stage in the game and the goal would have matter little in the final analysis.

My computer has crashed and I'll be taking a break from blogging until I get a new one. I'm currently using a friend's laptop to work on and it's a pain to type full sentences without the screen jumping off to another page.

Hernandez Rounds Off A Brilliant Week

Manchester United 3 - Wolves 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Bebe (56), Park (70), Hernandez (90)
Wolves: Elokobi (60), Foley (75)

Team: Amos, Smalling, Evans, Rafael (Neville 74), Brown, Gibson, Carrick, Park (Morrison), Obertan, Bebe (Hernandez 81), Macheda

Scintillating end after a horrible first half. As expected, Ferguson threw out a youthfully looking team against Wolves in the Carling Cup. There a sense of deja vu since we met Wolves around the same period in the same competition en route to lifting the cup. Hopefully with this result it would spell the same outcome this season.

The first half was a bona fide bore-fest in the truest sense of the word. Neither team could string anything together that is even worth a mention. Thankfully the second half was a completely different affair altogether.

Bebe opened the scoring with a fortunate goal. It looked like a cross that went over the line before a Wolves defender cleared it. On the replay it clearly went over the line. No dispute there.

Our lead was short-lived. Wolves responded in frantic fashion and were soon level from a corner, with defender Elokobi heading it home. No one was marking him.

The goal spurred Wolves on and we were lucky to withstand some nervy moments before Park restored order with a deadly strike after Wolves failed to clear their lines. This time to shore up the defence, Ferguson threw on a calcified Gary Neville in place of the attacking-mind Rafael. Brown went into the centre to pair up with Smalling, while Evans, who was shaky in defence all night, went into left-back.

Immediately that proved to be a major mistake. Neville simply does not have the legs left in the game. It only took a minute for him to be exposed as Wolves worked their way to a rare Kevin Foley goal. It was definitely folly on Ferguson's part.

Wolves continued to exploit Neville on the right but were unlucky not to snatch a winner. The footballing gods were definitely on United's side. On a break-away, substitute Hernandez was released by Gibson and he had the confidence to take on his defenders, ignore support on both sides to fire home the winner as time wore out.

Can't exactly say we were deserved winners, but Hernandez definitely deserved it. He was on the pitch for only 10 minutes, but every touch was pure class.

Going give comments on some of the players we rarely see:

Neville - He's been a great servant and captain to the club. He bleeds red and there shouldn't be any doubts about it. But from the last couple of games, I think it's becoming crystal clear that he no longer has the legs to play at the top level. Over the weekend, he was completely exposed by Etherington and today it's the same story with Jarvis. If he gets on the pitch on Saturday against Spurs, Bale will eat him alive. As much as I hate to say this, it's time for the legend to retire gracefully.

Macheda - He needs games and he's not getting it regularly at Old Trafford. And probably because of that, he's not getting any better. Alot of grunt work and nothing really positive to show. Maybe it's time he gets loaned out to horn his skills.

Obertan - Really skilful player but seems to lack the confidence. He took an ill-advised shot from a narrow angle in the second half when centring to an open Macheda seemed like the right choice. I'm sure many would blame him for being selfish, but to me it looked like he didn't even have the confidence to make the pass. The entire game prior to the shot, he was simply not making that final pass. Very disappointing to see him have the same problems as he had while in Bordeaux.

Bebe - After watching a full game, you can understand why he's so highly-rated. He has an incredible work-rate, both going forward and coming back to defend. There were flashes of brilliance but it's going to take a while before we even see some semblance of a football player. As of right now, he's just so damn raw. He's idea of playing on the right flank is to take on his defender, run down the right byline and cross. From the few reserve games I've caught, he does the same on the left wing. It will take a while before he truly understands the game. We need to give him the kind of time we gave Ronaldo and Nani. Remember when they both joined, both were pretty raw and took awhile before they came good. I'm not saying Bebe will reach the same level, but you simply cannot deny the potential. Right now he's way rawer that Ronaldo or Nani when they first joined.

Smalling - Simply the best player out there. Of all the youngsters on show today, he's the most ready to step into the first team. And when I say youngsters, I'm including 'veterans' like Evans and Gibson.

Chicarito Saves United's Blushes

Stoke City 1 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Stoke City: Tuncay (80)
Manchester United: Hernandez (27, 86)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Neville (Brown 46), O'Shea (Carrick 70), Scholes (Obertan 87), Fletcher, Evra, Nani, Berbatov, Hernandez

Another week of Rooney headlines and the strange U-turn decision he made to stay with the team after dissing the entire organisation from head to toe. Of course at the end of the day he got what he wanted and is currently reportedly receiving anywhere from 250k to 180k pounds a week. Personally I think it's ridiculous to be paying this crazy money to a so-called superstar who can't find the net, while he's peers, namely Messi and Ronaldo are scoring goals for fun. Thankfully we have Scholes, who did what any decent United fan wanted to do, to injure him in training.

Whatever dog and pony show that was on display over the last week or so, one thing's for sure, it's going to take alot of badge kissing and sucking up to us fans before he even comes close to getting back into our good books. The massive amount of greed and self righteousness is hard to stomach for the ordinary fan. I know I'll be finding it tremendously hard to root for this dick again.

Today in his absence, I think we've found a new hero in the form of the Little Pea. Against the odds, Hernandez snatched a late winner to end our away blues. For a moment there, it looked like we had thrown away another lead when Tuncay cancelled out Hernandez's opener as time wound down. Hernandez was at the right place and the right time to poke home Evra's deflect shot to give us a frankly undeserved winner. It broke the duck and hopefully we move on from here to capture a few more away wins.

Stoke were probably rather unlucky to find themselves one down after dominating most of the first half. Hernandez contorted rather unorthodoxly to flick his head back to score the first goal. It was a thing of beauty, ballerina-like, yet at the same time difficult, almost impossible to produce. The bottomline is that the ball went into the net. We spend the rest of the half defending like crazy as Stoke pressed for the equalizer.

After a pulsating first half, the second half was a non-starter until both Scholes and Evra made mistakes to allow substitute Tuncay to score a brilliant effort. It looked like we had to settle for a point yet again until Hernandez's instinct took over.

Currently at this point in time, I'm hoping the club does the right thing and boot Rooney off sometime in the near future. In Hernandez, I believe we've found a true goal-poacher.

Backs Against The Wall Time

Manchester United 1 - Bursaspor 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Nani (7)

Team: Kuszczak, Vidic, Smalling, Rafael, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Park (Obertan 70), Anderson, Nani, Macheda

Should have been a good victory, but the shadow of Rooney's impending departure puts a dampener to the celebrations.

Determined to put our worries about the immediate future aside, Ferguson opted to put up a youthful looking team to A) blood them and to B) show the Old Trafford faithful that our young players can stand on their own on Europe's largest stage.

Well, apart from Nani's screamer in the 7th minute, we really had little to show. On the flip side, the Turkish champions hardly threatened either. Their best chance came in the first half when Vidic slipped, but Rafael recovered his captain's error superbly. Both sides played to a dull finale in the second half. Bursaspor were happy to come away with a one-nil loss, and I suppose we were happy just to win amidst all the furore surrounding a want-away star.

Personally I don't see what the entire fuss is all about. The past two days have been filled with Rooney headline after Rooney headline. It's almost having a life of its own. To make matters worse, we're probably going to have to live with it until Rooney finally leaves, either in January when the transfer window opens or next summer, by which time we'd probably have gotten peanuts for him.

At the end of the day, the most disappointed person at United is probably Ferguson. Having watched his interview, you can tell he's terribly disappointed that he's been unable to turn Rooney's thinking around.

Granted on his day, Rooney is a special player, however he's more of a feast or famine player. When he's on form, he's unstoppable, but as seen throughout his career with us and Everton, when he's off, he goes on long stretches without scoring.

Since he's expressed his desire to bugger off, we really should milk him for whatever we can get, even though the value would no longer be at it's peak. It's all about cutting losses, unless by some miracle Ferguson manages to keep him around. Whichever the case is, I think he's lost alot of ground with the supporters and with bridges burnt, it's never going to be the same. In this aspect, I have alot more respect for someone like Ronaldo. Hell, I'm even growing some grudging respect for Invisible Man and Berbatov.

Hopefully with all the negative news surrounding the club, the players would close ranks and consolidate. With threats coming externally from wealthy clubs and the media, and internally from our owners and Rooney, it's about time to have that siege mentality back, the us-against-the-world attitude back. Time for Ferguson to work his magic again.

Mistake Costs United

Manchester United 2 - WBA 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Hernandez (5), Nani (25)
WBA: Evra (og 50), Tchoyi (55)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Anderson (Rooney 72), Carrick (Scholes 72), Giggs (Gibson 42), Nani, Berbatov, Hernandez

I'm utterly speechless. This looked like an easy fixture on paper but somehow we managed to screw it up.

Alot has been happening this week with the Liverpool saga that threatens to be a long drawn soap opera. Even though new owners have take the reins, I'm sure that's not the end of the story. It could trump the latest slew of Korea drama that have been capturing the hearts and minds of most Singaporeans. As a United fan, I would love to rib all my Pool loving mates, but am constantly reminded that over here at United, we're not so far off from our own Korean drama. All it takes is for us not to finish with Champions League football for the wheels to completely come off. And my I remind all the United fans reading here that our fall will be even more spectacular that what we've witnessed over the last couple of years from our most hated rivals. It doesn't make easy reading that despite record revenue last year, we still ended up in the red. Sooner or later, we're going to rue the deep shit we're trying to cover.

With that off my chest, today's the first step towards that reality. Slowly but surely we're heading that direction. The inability to take 3 points could be the difference between Champions League football or it's lesser sister in Europe. While I don't think we'd fall towards no European football next year, but the revenue between the Champions League and that other league should be pretty significant.

Having an eye on the midweek game against the Turkish team, Fergie opted to field a less than satisfactory team. While we looked really good in the first half, we were shambolic in the second.

It couldn't have started any better. Nani's freekick was spilled by Carson and Hernandez, sharp as a fiddle, gleefully poked it home to put us one up. Nani combined well with Berbatov later in the half to score the second. We could have had more....alot more, but Berbatov criminally missed from 6 yards out after Carrick whipped in the perfect ball. It should have been the icing on the cake for a superb first half display, despite resting a number of key players.

Then the horror show started. Giggs picked up an injury and was replaced by an ineffective Gibson. Anderson was pushed to the left where he completely disappeared into the black hole known as the left wing. Not to be outshown by Anderson, Carrick did his own disappearing act. Suddenly we were playing with 9 men.

Then Evra was perhaps a little unlucky to score an own goal that he hardly knew about. The goal gave West Brom a glimmer of hope but that should have been all they had to hang on to. Let's be honest, how many teams come to Old Trafford, get behind by 2 and still manage to claw their way back? If you have an answer to that, I'd like to know. Whatever the case is, you can add West Brom to that number.

If Berbatov's miss in the first half was criminal, then Van der Sar's error was almost unforgivable. He appeared to have his hands on a cross (which incidentally wasn't even struck properly) yet somehow managed to let it slip from his grasp. Tochyi was on hand to pounce on the error and bring West Brom level.

We never recovered from that error. As the game wore on, West Brom looked the more likely team to take all 3 points as they threatened to punish us for throwing bodies forward. In the end, fair play to West Brom. They didn't just sit back to defend the point, but bravely went forward whenever they had the ball to take all 3.

After today's result, I think I need to re-adjust my own expectations. I no longer think we have a shadow of a chance of tipping Chelsea to the title. We might not even end up as runners up. I'm just content to have Champions League football next season, even if it's just to prolong the inevitable collapse the Glazers have saddled us with. I know it's damning, but like it or not, it's a reality that can't be too far away.

Away Struggles Continue

Sunderland 0 - Manchester United 0

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, O'Shea, Scholes, Fletcher, Anderson (Bebe 80), Nani, Macheda (Hernandez 65), Owen (Berbatov 46)

Still can't seem to find an away win. Ferguson shuffled the starting lineups again, this time probably to 'reward' the excellent victory at midweek without taking into consideration how poorly we actually performed. And it backfired spectacularly in our faces to leave us waiting for another away fixture to take all 3 points.

And if we're really honest with ourselves, we didn't even deserve one this week. For the entire first half, we were second best. Owen and Macheda were given rare starts and neither did anything worthwhile. So sad was Owen's start that he was replaced by Berbatov by the start of the second. Berbatov has been bringing in the bacon in the Premiership so far this season and I found it strange he was left on the bench for this game. It's not like he's going to be involved with the Bulgarian national team thus would be resting for the next couple of weeks anyway. If anything, we should have milked him while we can in the absence of Rooney.

Scholes was also a surprised inclusion despite reports of an injury which should have taken him out for this game, and Bebe made an absolutely forgettable debut.

After a first half where Sunderland completely dominated, we made inroads in the second with the introduction of Berbatov. Hernandez also replaced the ineffective Anderson later in the game and made solid contributions but to no avail. The game was dominated by both sets of defenders. Having Rio back clearly shored up our leaky defence. Having said that, we still look incredibly vulnerable to crosses.

As the game wore on, we started to get a better feel of Sunderland, but there was too little time to make it count. Had the game gone on for another 15 or so minutes, we could have nicked a winner, but it was not to be. Given just how brutal things were for us in the beginning, I suppose we ought to consider ourselves lucky to come away with a point. It should have been game over even before we started playing significantly better.

We take another international break and hopefully our players will return healthy from their endeavours on the 16th against a relatively easy opponent on paper back at our fortress. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

Chicharito Opens European Account

Valencia 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Hernandez (85)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael (O'Shea 90), Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson (Hernandez 77), Park, Nani, Berbatov (Macheda 85)

Utterly horrible game to watch. Let's be honest, both sides were terrible and really neither side should have had any points, not even for a draw. UEFA should refund the tickets the supporters paid. This game brought about more negatives than positives.

In fact other than a nice goal coming late in the game, there's nothing to write about so I'll go along with some observations, starting with the negatives.

Negatives
- Outside of Scholes, we have no central midfielders. Not going to win anything unless Scholes goes the distance.

- Carrick is utterly rubbish. Everyone who reads this blog knows I already not a very big fan of Carrick and his standing with me is somewhat rock bottom. Yet somehow he went alot lower after today. Granted it's his first game back, it's still hard to cut him some slack with the abysmal first touch he showed today. Not only that, he was guilty of giving the ball away with every other touch. I'd very much rather have Invisible Man back, at least that guy wouldn't/couldn't do much damage.

- We can't defend crosses. Valencia was utterly horrible at the end of crosses, and we benefited from their wastefulness.

- Knew it wouldn't last. Berbatov is back. Sulky, lazy Berbatov is back. At least with him, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and just put it down to him playing up front alone without support. Yet somehow I feel it's not the end of this version of Berbatov I'm going to see this season.

- Alright own up, who took Evra's soul?

- Owen must feel so fucked. After scoring 3 goals last week, he ends up behind Hernandez and Macheda. And because Macheda created the goal that Hernandez scored, no one is really going to notice this. Can't help but feel sorry for Owen.

- Had I known they were going to play this badly, I would have gone to sleep or watched some porn. The only consolation was that we somehow won, just was Valencia was gaining some foothold in the game. To be honest, both teams were just terrible.

Positives
+ Chicharito has a beautiful first touch. Hit a post and scored a goal in a short short period of time he played.

+ Macheda didn't do too badly either. Did well to pass to Hernandez. Showed more life than most of the zombies on the pitch.

+ Nani was immense. Top notch work-rate today. Was everywhere on the pitch and made some crucial blocks, covering Rafael. Was tremendous going forward, but never got the support he deserved. Easily the best player on the pitch by a long long margin.

Still Finding Their Feet Away

Bolton 2 - Manchester United 2

Scorers

Bolton: Knight (6), Petrov (67)

Manchester: Nani (23), Owen (74)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans, O'Shea, Evra, Scholes, Fletcher (Owen 71), Giggs (Park 53), Nani, Rooney (Macheda 61), Berbatov

Nail biting stuff. I'm just glad we didn't lose. Given that Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs all lost and Liverpool couldn't find their feet at Anfield, it's almost scripted for us to falter. We NEVER take advantage of such opportunities. I'm just glad we took something from the game. A point gained is better than one lost.

Under Owen Coyle, this Bolton team is actually watchable compared to the rubbish that was dished out week in week out under Fat Sam. For once Kevin Davis is not that physical forward you'd hate to play against. He hasn't lost that physical aspect of his game, but there is at least a decent level of finesse to his play now. Same goes for the entire Bolton team. Truly quite entertaining to watch.

It all started badly for us. As mentioned, Bolton are a decent outfit nowadays, and they got into an early lead when Zed Knight scored from a corner. The Reebok used to be a pleasant hunting ground for us in past seasons where we'd hammer them, but without Ronaldo and without Fat Sam, it's turning out to be a different prospect, as we found out today.

It took sometime for us to find our rhythm and when we did, it came thru Nani. He took the ball off Rooney from the centre of the pitch and weaved his way past 5 defenders before taking a low pinpoint shot into the bottom left-hand corner of the net. It was a scintillating run that was rewarded with a wonderful individual goal, one that even the greasy haired one who left for Spain would have been proud of. Sensational goal by the young Portuguese who is finally having a great season (not going to last for long since I've just jinxed him, like I jinxed the Bulgarian).

We pressed hard for the lead, while having to endure Bolton's quick and inventive counter attacks. Elmander's also having a great season, and should have punished us on a number of occasions.

They eventually did punish us with Petrov's shot deflecting off a hapless Fletcher beyond the flapping Van der Sar. It was a little bitter-sweet for me. While I really enjoyed the way Bolton played the game, I just wished it wasn't against us.

Owen was thrown on and it was he who rescued us when he rose amongst the trees and deftly flicked his header into the net. For the remaining time, we pushed forward for the winner, while putting our backline under pressure from Kevin Davies and company on their counters.

The game ended as a draw and it was probably the best result for 2 teams who went out not only to entertain the crowd, but in a genuine attempt to collect all 3 points. As a United fan, I'm slightly disappointed, yet having to heave a sigh of relief that we only have to visit the Reebok once.

Perhaps a little more disconcerting is that for the 3rd away fixture on the trot, we've conceded at least 2 goals. The rot simply has to stop somewhere. I don't believe I'm going to type this, but I can't wait for Rio to replace Evans. Evans hasn't been performing well under pressure. The experience will do him wonders further down the road, but right now he's just not doing justice to the manager's selection. In short, he's rubbish right now. If Rio's not available, maybe it's time to partner O'Shea with Vidic. Something's gotta change before we continue letting in more goals this season. Already we're way way behind Chelsea and Arsenal in goal difference, and in a tight season like this, it maybe the difference between winning and not winning.

Fringe Players Too Hot For Championship Side

Scunthorpe 2 - Manchester United 5
Scorers
Scunthorpe: Wright (19), Woolford (90)
Manchester United: Gidson (23), Smalling (36), Owen (49, 71), Park (54)

Team: Kuszczak, Rio, Smalling, Rafael, Brown, Gibson, Anderson, Park (Bebe 74), Macheda, Hernandez (Obertan 68), Owen

Pretty superb game that had everything, including a streaker....too bad it was a 'he'. As expected, we fielded most of our second teamers. Ferguson was in Spain scouting next week's Valencia game and Mike Phelan took over the reigns for this one, which probably accounted for the relaxed approach the players took to the field.

Right from the whistle, Scunthorpe were the hungrier side and Kuszczak was made to make a number of fingertip saves. Eventually, Scunthorpe went into the lead with a stinging strike from Josh Wright.

The lead somewhat galvanised the team into action. Smalling's long punt was well met by Gibson. He out-sprinted the Scunthorpe defenders and lobbed the ball exquisitely over the keeper from a narrow angle. It was a touch of class and sheer brilliance from the United midfielder.

Smalling got on the end of a cross to put United into the lead in the 36th min with a deft touch to direct the ball into the net.

To be honest, Scunthorpe were the better side in the first half. Kuszczak had a torrid time in goal and our defenders were having a hard time with Scunthorpe's shoot-on-sight policy. All throughout the game, we were unable to close them down, resulting in 19 shots on target. Kuszczak was an incredibly busy man. While he did do well for most of them, he did fumble a number too. Kinda hard to take the Pole's threat to quit the club seriously based on today's performance. Way too uneasy for my liking.

Whatever Mike Phelan did at half time worked. We came out from the locker room a significantly different team. Macheda lead a counter attack and fed Owen, who seems to have regained some of his speed from yesteryear as he raced straight down the throat of the Scunthorpe defence to score United's third.

The fourth came quickly via a mad scramble with Park firing it hard and low into the bottom right corner. Despite Scunthorpe's valiant attempts to make a game out of it, it was United who added a fifth when the keeper spilled Park's thunderbolt, only for Owen to prod it home.

The goal killed off whatever remaining resistance from the home crowd until a streaker decided to take matters into his own hand/leg to entertain the crowd. Sadly the camera could not follow the exploits of the streaker, but Mike Phelan and his counter-part on the Scunthorpe bench had a good giggle over it.

Bebe was subsequently introduced and Scunthorpe found a consolation into injury time. Overall an eventful game and a good workout for the lads who rarely got a game.

Bebe is everything I think he is. Big, powerful, fast but incredibly raw. I caught him in against the Aston Villa reserves a week back and thought he has a pretty good right leg, especially those crosses when he was playing on the right wing. While the crosses were of good quality, he didn't take the time to look up to see if anyone was on the end of them. I suppose the potential is there, but it would probably be a couple of years at the minimum before he finds his 'ball-sense'. 7 million may be a bit rich for now, but it'd be sometime before he realises his potential and then we can fully evaluate.

United Rides On The Red Hot Wings Of Berbatov

Manchester United 3 - Liverpool 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (42, 60, 84)
Liverpool: Gerrard (pen 64, 70)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans, O'Shea, Evra, Scholes, Fletchers, Giggs (Macheda 82), Nani (Gibson 88), Berbatov (Anderson 88), Rooney

Definitely the year of Berbatov. After a torrid start to his United career, he's finally become the player we paid an obscene amount for. His sensational strikes today brought home the 3 points against a horrible Liverpool side.

We were the better team throughout the entire game, applying sustained pressure on a piss poor Pool side. They are indeed a team in turmoil and rarely looked to threaten. The first half was exclusively United's and when it looked like the half would end in a nil all draw, Berbatov popped up to put United into a deserved lead.

The second half was more of the same and Berbatov doubled his tally with a sensational bicycle kick that sent the Old Trafford faithful into a frenzy. We were all over Liverpool and a route looked on the cards until Howard Webb decided to stamp his influence on the game. He was Liverpool's single most important player, awarding a dubious penalty against Evans, while ignoring our own claims much earlier in the game. Gerrard scored from the spot to pull on back for the Scousers.

Webb, then went on penalise O'Shea for an innocuous challenge on the edge of the penalty area. Once again Gerrard stepped up and whipped the freekick home, drawing level against the run of play.

The last 20 minutes were horrible to watch. Shades of Fulham and Everton were on the cards, and we very nearly added Liverpool to that growing list. After 70 minutes of really superb football, we suddenly displayed a severe lack of confidence and probably would have been happy to see the game end in a stalemate. But Berbatov had other ideas. Refusing to let his two goals go to waste, he lept highest to meet a O'Shea's cross to seal victory for a manager who has shown tremendous faith in him.

While Berbatov was utterly brilliant, there is a worrying trend going on with our team. There is a sudden fallibility at the back that is hard to swallow and even harder to digest given the stingy diet we've been fed on in past seasons. We have been throwing away leads in recent times and that needs to stop if we're to challenge Chelsea for the top spot. As of right now, we're looking alot like Arsenal, playing good football without that steel to see thru it. Hopefully today's game is a step in the right direction for what is a long long season ahead of us.

United's Poor Week Continues

Manchester United 0 - Rangers 0

Team: Kuszczak, Rio, Smalling, Brown, Fabio (Evans 76), Fletcher, Gibson, Park (Owen 76), Valencia (Giggs 63), Hernandez, Rooney

Ferguson took a gamble, changing 10 players from Saturdays incredible melt-down, in part sending a message that for the horrible way we defended and in part to save our best players for the up and coming game against Liverpool.

I wouldn't exactly said his intentions backfired, but it would have been nice to have been able to bring on a Nani or a Berbatov to refresh a very stale looking attack. We were woeful going forward and our only threat was from Gibson's long range efforts. Nothing we did came thru.

To compound matters, we should be looking a long long injury for Valencia who probably broke his leg midway in the second half. The injury was so bad that there were no replays and, with the exception of Rooney, everyone looked away in horror. That being said, Rooney is the kind of guy you'd want in a Dungeon and Dragon party with that incredibly high constitution. At this point in time, we can only hope for the best for Valencia and wish he has a speedy recovery, but in any case, we're also looking at a huge downtime.

Good thing that this is only the start of the group stages of the Champions League and in two weeks time, we'd have a more settled starting 11 to take on Valencia. What's more urgent to me right now is this weekend's game against Liverpool. Granted that they are a fading force, it would still be nice to ram it down their throats to remind them of that fact. Oh and 3 points would be a nice welcome too, especially after the way we're been throwing points.

United Away = Fail

Everton 3 - Manchester United 3
Scorers
Everton: Pienaar (39), Cahill (90), Arteta (90)
Manchester United: Fletcher (43), Vidic (47), Berbatov (66)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans, Neville, Evra (Park 81), O'Shea, Fletcher, Scholes, Nani, Giggs, Berbatov

I'm so livid! Can't believe we collapsed again. Screw it, I'm so pissed I'm not going to continue this week's post.

Year Of The Berbatov

Manchester United 3 - West Ham 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 33), Nani (49), Berbatov (70)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans (Smalling 74), O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Scholes (Carrick 74), Giggs, Nani, Rooney, Berbatov (Owen 74)

Superb performance at Old Trafford today. Scholes and Giggs were simply awesome, and Nani didn't show any side-effects from last week's missed penalty. In fact it was a penalty that decided today's game.

Scholes has been magnificent with his passing this season, and his one of his searching crossfield passes found Giggs facing Spector on his favoured left wing. Turning back the clock, Giggs did his mazy dance and was about to run riot inside the box before Spector clumsily brought him down. The referee had no choice but to award United a penalty.

Desperate for a goal, Rooney stepped up and blasted the ball into the net. From then on, it was one way traffic. The gulf in class was huge and with a goal advantage, the best West Ham could do was to stem the red tide.

The second goal came shortly after the break with a fine individual effort from Nani. He took Rooney's pass and sliced his way through an incredibly porous West Ham defence and smashed home the second goal. It's defending like this that leaves West Ham rooted to the foot of the table, even at this early stage of the season.

That's not to say West Ham was that poor in any way. When they could, the did muster up a number of credible efforts, one of which was a beautiful passing sequence that resulted in Dyer striking the post. But such passing fluency was few and far between.

United on the other hand, were playing some superb football. After some intricate passing, Nani faked a shot and lifted the ball into the path of Berbatov and he volleyed home spectacularly from close range. It was a well deserved goal, especially after a really hardworking performance by the normally lacklustre Bulgarian. In fact, he seems to have pulled up his socks and finally started putting in much more effort into the games he's played and the crowd and teammates seem to have responded as well. It's a vicious cycle sometimes. The harder the player works, the better the response and in turn, he works harder for the adulation.

With the result, we've kept pace with Chelsea and Arsenal, who won their respective games as well. It's vital to keep the distance close while we can fully concentrate without the cup distractions. Last week was an unfortunate loss of 2 points.

Craven Collapse

Fulham 2 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Fulham: Davies (57), Hangeland (89)
Manchester United: Scholes (11), Hangeland (og 84)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Scholes, Valencia (Giggs 74), Park (Nani 67), Bebatov, Hernandez (Owen 74)

Sigh, we just can't win at Craven Cottage. I suppose this is a marked improvement from our last 2 visits. This time we took the lead twice, and even with the intervention of Mr OwnGoal, we still couldn't take all three points.

Nani missed a crucial penalty when we were 2-1 up at the 87th minute and all hell broke loose after. To be really fair to Fulham, it was never a penalty to begin with. The ball struck Duff on the arm while he was trying to clear it. It wa a handball, but with absolutely no intent, nor did he even know about it. It's about as harsh a penalty given. Yet given the opportunity to seal the victory for United, Nani fluffed his lines and his penalty was driven away by the outstanding stand-in keeper for Schwarzer, David Stockdale.

On the other end, Hangeland made amends for his own goal and rose the highest to head home the equalizer, robbing us of 2 points. Credit to Fulham, who made a real fight out of it, especially from the way we started this game.

Right from the off, we came out blazing, before Scholes broke the deadlock with his 150th for the club. Berbatov could have had a brace but Stockdale was simply outstanding, making two almost point blank saves.

The game then mired into a bit of to and fro-ing with Fulham causing problems with Zamora really troubling Evand and Vidic. And on the other end, we always looked like scoring.

Fulham's first equalizer came from Simon Davies after some really good play from Duff. Van der Sar would be really disappointed that the ball still managed it's journey into the net after he had a good amount of palm to Davies' strike.

As the game wore into the final third, United started to pile on the pressure. Nani's introduction gave United the extra width and we exploited it to devastating effect, bombarding a stretched Fulham defence with crosses. Nani's 84th corner finally found the breakthru that we were so desperately craving. Hangeland was at the wrong place at the wrong time when the ball struck him and bisected both Davies and Stockdale on the line and into the net.

Then Duff 'handled' the ball and Nani missed the spotkick. Hangeland then scored the equalizer.

It's a bit disappointing to come away with a draw, especially with our rivals smashing their opponents. Then again, they have to visit Craven Cottage. We can only hope that Fulham will show the same amount of tenacity they showed today. But we shouldn't be doubting any team managed by Mark Hughes. Like the man himself, I'm sure Fulham's going to make things difficult for anyone on their day.

Just a couple of comments I wanna make:

Gallas
From my well chronicle hatred of Sol Campbell, this one seems mild to me. Actually there's only apathy for me in this instance. Sol is a different animal altogether. Sol is born and bred Spurs, and he knowingly joined Arsenal having lived in England all his life and knowing the deep resentment between both sets of fans, especially the Spurs fans, who honestly haven't got much to cheer about until recently. Even then, they are the petty sort, just the type of fans you generally love to hate, coz they are so damn knowledgeable too (I should know, I have a Spurs-loving cousin).

Whereas for Gallas, I never really viewed him as an Arsenal player. He never really fit into Arsenal. His teammates hate him. He hates his teammates. Hell, the only reason he signed for Arsenal, besides being deadweight in the Assly Cole deal, was to spike Chelsea. Total dick in my opinion, but a totally different dick from Sol.

Goals
Wtf? Has the Premiership gone goal crazy? More importantly even at this early stage, can anyone stop Chelsea? Granted their opponents are relegation fodder, still 6 goals twice is nothing to sneeze at. Then there's six for Arsenal and more inexplicably 6 for Newcastle, a team we comprehensively beat last week. And more astonishingly, they did it against Villa! These couple of weeks are pretty weird. Wonder when our turn in the sun will happen.

We Missed Newcastle

Manchester United 3 - Newcastle 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (32), Fletcher (41), Giggs (85)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans, O'Shea, Evra (Rafael 87), Fletcher, Scholes, Nani (Giggs 70), Valencia, Berbatov, Rooney (Hernandez 62)

Glad to have Newcastle back in the Premiership. We sorely missed this hopeless bunch. Could have been a different story last season had we had this sorry group to play against. Well, it's a new season and new aspirations to aim for. And for once we didn't fuck up the opener.

Nothing much to say about this game. We controlled practically every aspect of the game right from the kickoff till the final whistle. Barring a couple of scares, none of which looked really threatening, it was as comfortable as it could get. At times, our biggest enemy on the pitch were ourselves. We spent too much time passing the ball around instead of breaking Newcastle down. For brief moments in the game in the second half, it almost looked as if we were too bored being 2-0 up and decided to murk around trying to add some spice for the capacity crowd. But Newcastle were not buying into it. They stuck to being hopeless and boring. Someone else with more adventure would have made thing more interesting.

Just a couple of things to add:

- Berbatov looks very much like finally justifying that ridiculous transfer fee. He had a pretty good game and probably should have been more selfish, but after scoring the opener, he was trying to set everyone up. Get the feeling this could finally be the year Berbatov sets the stage alight. From the goal celebrations last week and tonight, you could tell that the entire team is rooting for him too.

- Rooney seems out of sorts. Really not at his sharpest. I'm just worried that a poor World Cup campaign could have played into his psyche. Let's hope he snaps out of his funk soon.

- Evra started today, which was pretty incredible. Having been out the entire pre-season, Fergie opted to start him. Didn't do too badly, but didn't light up the stage either. I'm just surprised he got picked to start after a no-show at pre-season.

- What can you say about that man Scholes? Best player on the pitch by a wide wide margin. His tackling is still his achilles heel, but his passing is out of this world. I was surprised and yet glad that Fergie played him the full 90 mins. You would expect that at 2-0 up, you'd be resting those old legs as much as possible. Nevertheless, another great great performance by Scholes.

United Draws First Blood

Chelsea 1 - Manchester United 3
Scorers
Chelsea: Kalou (83)
Manchester United: Valencia (41), Hernandez (76), Berbatov (90)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans, Fabio (Smalling 71), O'Shea, Scholes (Fletcher 79), Carrick (Giggs 79), Park (Nani 46), Valencia, Rooney (Berbatov 46), Owen (Hernandez 46)

Life is good. We did well, really well, to take the game to a Chelsea side that looked completely out of sorts. With the exception of Essien, Chelsea looked jaded and at times, rather mundane. If today's game is any indication of the season to come, we look like genuine title contenders. As Kentona mentioned while we were watching the game, it looks like we have two first teams, with equal cover in every single position.

Both teams started the game with attacking flair and either side could have taken the lead. But it was United who drew first blood with a fine combination of Scholes and Rooney, finding Valencia alone and unmarked to fire home. Scholes pass was utterly exquisite he seems to have found a new dimension to his game. We all know Scholes is good when he's not tackling, but from the game's I've seem so far, he seems to have brought it to a higher level. The question is if he can keep it up for the entire season. Both in preseason and today's game, Scholes has been our top performer so far.

Wholesale changes were made at the start of the second half and United's entire strikeforce was replaced. Berbatov seems to link well upfront with Chicharito. His little flicks and Chicarito's runs behind the backline of Chelsea's seemed to be giving the defenders a harder time than expected.

The game was played at the right spirit with neither team parking the bus and both willing to throw men forward. Eventually it was United who scored again. This time Valencia was the provider and Chicharito opened his United account with a goal that was truely comical. His shot ricochetted off his face and into the net. It didn't matter to the lad nor everyone in the team. I'm pretty sure it's the first of many in his United career. At some point in the distant future, we're all going to remember his first United goal, much like the way we always remember Ole's first against Blackburn.

To Chelsea's credit, they came back strong and pulled one back with Kalou. Their onslaught to find the equalizer eventually left them exposed and Berbatov finished them off with a delightful lob. It was an immensely entertaining game and we signalled our intent to carry the fight to the champions.

Every season, I can't help but be bearish over the team's chances, but this season looks and feels different. For once in a long long time, I actually think we have a really good chance of taking the Premiership title back. Chelsea is our main rival, and I don't really rate the rest of the chasing pack. City looks good on paper, but the title isn't won on paper. They have too many new plays and a manager who does seem clueless. As we've seen with Chelsea's rise, it takes a few seasons before the team finds the maturity and chemistry wrestle control for the big boys.

Wenger is a brilliant manager, someone I rate as highly as our own SAR. But Arsenal is Arsenal. You just get the feeling at some point in the season, their lack of depth/funds is going to haunt them like the previous seasons.

Liverpool is the dark horse here. Hodgeson is no pushover but their inability to bring in new blood to replace the junk they inherited from my all time favourite manager, Benitez, will hamper their chances. Yet they are the dark horses for a reason. A change in regime, and an influx of funds could change their season completely. With a manager at the helm who knows the English game, Pool could be a force to reckon with.

Everyone else, ie Everton, Spurs and Villa, are simply not good nor deep enough. There is still a gap in talented personale between them and the top 5.

Damn it, I think I've just convinced myself to place a bet on us to win it all.

United Scores Seven In Exhibition Game

Airtricity League XI 1 - Manchester United 7

Scorers
Manchester United: Park (13, 63), Owen (25), Hernandez (47), Valencia (60), Evans (69), Nani (pen 82)

We welcomed back a host of players who were in South Africa. Rooney, Valencia, Park, Vidic and Carrick all returned after their extended break to start in an exhibition game against the Irish league's own version of 'Allstars'. Owen, seemingly, fully fit, was also given a runout.

Despite the poor competition provided, there were alot of encouraging signs. Valencia is pretty awesome, as was Park. They dominated their respective flanks. I was rather surprised at how sharp Park is in front of goal.

The more I see Smalling, the better he gets. He seems to be growing in confidence with more games under his belt. Today he looked superb paired with the ever-present Vidic.

I paid special attention to Hernandez and I gotta say he looks like a gem. Besides his pace and scoring prowess, I was mightily impressed with his range of passing. There were a couple of Scholes-like long passes that were pretty accurate. His off-the-ball movement was fantastic, not to mention the timing in making those darting runs. Of course all these observations are made in pre-season games. The litmus test is when he faces the physical defenders opponents will throw at him in real games. So far he's been very sharp and very impressive.

And what's the deal with Evra? With all the regulars back in the fold, Evra was missing from the party. As far as I know, he's not injured. It would seem he's being punished for his extra activities in the whole France fiasco. Or maybe he's just been given a longer break than the rest. Let's hope he gets some games before the season starts.

United Rounds Up Tour With A Loss

Chivas de Guadalajara 3 - Manchester United 2

Am down with a pretty bad flu, so will try to make this as brief as humanly possible. If the last game's atmosphere was good, this one blew it out of the water. The atmosphere was simply superb. There was a parade before the game to open the new stadium and the fans were all given either a red or white t-shirt in Chivas' home colours. It resulted in an explosion of red and white in the stadium, a feast for the eyes.

As for the game itself, Chivas was clearly the better team. Chicharito played in their colours in the first half and he scored a brilliant volley to open the scoring. Smalling levelled the scores almost immediately thru a corner, but Chivas closed the stronger team in the half and went into the lead with a well-deserved goal, albeit miles offside.

In the second half, Hernandez switched jerseys but was no where near as effective. We were hardly able to find him the ball. In truth we were pretty woeful at creating chances throughout the game. It wasn't a surprise that Chivas found the net again, before Nani pulled one back to make the scoreline respectable.

The results in this preseason tour is no where near what or how we would perform when the season starts proper. A whole host of players will be returning from their World Cup exertions, and preseason is going to start proper back in England.

However from this tour, we get a good gauge of the youngsters in the team. While most of them are as we expected, some probably have exceeded our expectation, there are a couple that have me worried. Players like Diouf and Rafael seemed to have played themselves out of the team. Ok, Rafael isn't that bad, but I can't possibly see how Diouf is going to fight for a place in the team. With the addition of Hernandez, and the upcoming talents of Welbeck and Macheda, I simply cannot see Diouf breaking into the team. Berbatov, Rooney and Owen are far too established, while the 3 young ones are just more talented. Diouf definitely has to be the first casualty of this tour.

United Thrashes MLS Allstars

MLS Allstars 2 - Manchester United 5

As expected, there was a carnival atmosphere with the crowds packing in. And in the first minute, the MLS allstars gave Macheda a gift he gleefully accepted. The opener was well taken. Before the Allstars could get into gear, Macheda struck again with a centre forward's header from a corner. Fletcher could have made it 3 before half time, but his effort shook the crossbar.

A slew of substitutions in the second half galvanized the Allstars and after a few close brushes, pulled one back with Brian Ching's header. It didn't look good for United. Fergie sent on Chicharito for his debut. Hernandez got fouled in a dangerous position and Gibson hammered home the jambulani, slamming the door firmly shut in the faces of the Allstars.

Cleverley cleverly danced his way into the box and added the fourth (always wanted to write that). And Chicharito lobbed the keeper for United's fifth. The Allstars were outplayed by our kids most of the game and only in the dying minutes managed to take hold of the game but it was too little too late. They did however get another goal.

All in all, I was pleased with the way we played today. Especially pleased for Macheda and Rafael. In all honesty, both had a terrible preseason todate, but they managed to redeem themselves in a huge huge way with their performances.

Cleverley was fantastic too. He came on for Obertan who left the field injured in the middle of the first half. He was mainly anonymous until his absolutely brilliant goal. But after the goal, he just grew in stature and was probably the best player on the pitch by a far margin in the last 20 or so minutes. I think his problem in the initial preseason games is confidence. But once that goal went in, he just began to feel at ease and let his feet do the talking, the walking and the dancing. If he can keep that level of confidence, my word, he's going to be a player. To think I was almost writing him off. I supposed the problem with all these young players, as I've mentioned before, is consistency.

Lastly, Chicharito is brilliant. I'm really excited to see him play when the season starts. He's speedy Gonzalez wrapped in taco-flavoured kissed. The only foreseeable problem is how he's going to cope with the physical nature of the EPL.

Watching the youngsters play to their potential and more importantly, in the right spirit, albeit for one game, lifts my spirits for the upcoming season.

These MLS Teams Are Good!

Kansas City Wizards 2 - Manchester United 1

The title says it all. The result is a little bit disappointing, but take nothing away from the Wizards. It's a huge victory for them, especially having to deal with 10 men for the entire second half.

As with the previous couple of games, we started with a youthful backline and they were given a torrid time against a very physical and fit Wizards team. Rafael and De Laet were given the run around the entire first half. Evans and Smalling did better but couldn't prevent both the Wizards goals.

Wizards opened the scoring early after beating the offside trap. They then got into abit of a bother when defender Conrad got his marching orders for a foul on Berbatov in the box. Berbatov equalized from the spot but Wizards went back into the lead before our celebrations were over.

We couldn't prise open the Wizards defense in the second half despite having the lion's share of the possession. All in all, we didn't have a good game, but once again Wizards impressed me, and we're not even talking about a top MLS team.

Our next game is on Thursday against the MLS Allstars. I expect a much easier game. These last two games had a very competitive feel to them, with both teams in mid-season form and playing for pride. Thursday game will have an exhibition feel towards it, and it may work to our favour with so many youngsters in the team.

Personally, I can't wait for all the remaining players return. From what I've seen so far, this is not the 95-96 season. This current crop of youngster are good, but not that good, partly due to the fact that most of the teams in the EPL have improved by leaps and bounds since then. Secondly, most of our play so far involving our youngsters has been rather immature. That group of Scholes, Butt, Becks and the Neville brothers had veteran heads on their then young shoulders.

And on a ending note, Carrick would look sweet on the Kansas City Wizards. Plenty of opportunities to don his superman costume. Wonder if they can afford him....

United Takes Second Tour Win

Philadelphia Union 0 - Manchester United 1

This was definitely a better workout than the Celtic game. Union is a team in mid-season and their fitness levels certainly gave us a larger challenge than the Scots. Although they hardly troubled us, they certainly made things difficult for our very youthful strike partnership of Welbeck and Macheda.

Ultimately, Obertan broke the deadlock when Union's backline made a mistake and gifted Welbeck the ball. Welbeck's thru ball found Obertan and he gleefully slotted home for the narrow victory. It really should've been more but our very young team was selfish. I suppose that's the problem with youth. The only consistent thing about their game is the level of inconsistency. With that in mind, it was still disappointing to see the kids make a mess of good possession. I'm not too sure we can rely on a large number of them when the real games begin. There is still a whole lot to learn.

United Opens Preseason With A Win

Manchester United 3 - Celtics 1

Good to have some real football action at last. This was our first game in pre-season and I was expecting alot of broken plays and players getting back to fitness. But what transpired was pleasantly surprising. I'll not go into detail since it's the friendlies, instead I'll go into little snips on what I observed.

Scholes - Outstanding. England missed him terribly. He was spraying passes all over the pitch and when he left at half time, the quality of United's play dropped significantly.

Berbatov - Scored the opener and created the other 2. He started like the way he played last season, but as the game wore one, he just got better and better. Maybe, just maybe, this could be his breakout season with us. I'm not holding my hopes too high....

Fabio - Outstanding on the left. Great energy going forward and, unlike his brother on the other side of the pitch, showed great patience in defense, not committing into rash challengers.

Smalling - Had a credible first half. Nothing could get past him. He was comfortable on the ball, and would be compared to Rio with his reading of the game. Unfortunately, just like Rio, he was caught in no-man's land and gave away a penalty that allowed Celtic to equalize. Withered like a flower after that.

Obertan - Looks great going down the right flank. Plenty of speed and trickery. Contributed to the opener. However, very similar to what he showed last season. Not enough footballing brains to pick out teammates. I suppose that will eventually come with more experience and maturity. Actually the same can be said for all the youngsters on display today....Cleverly, Diouf, Macheda. At times it's just painful to see them squander good chances when they go for personal glory.

Without the players who played in the World Cup, this was a really good display for the first game after a long layoff. Hopefully I'm able to catch the rest of the friendlies played in North America. The timing's just awful over here in Singapore.

Thank God It's Fucking Over

Plenty has happened since the last time I post anything useful, partly due to being really busy and partly due to me forgetting, yet again, my password. But this post isn't about me. I'm just going to use this post to rave and rant over, what I feel, is one of the worst World Cups I've ever witness in my short life span on this earth.

The first round was a wash. Utterly unwatchable. The games to goals ratio was utterly pathetic and every team was simply just boring. There were times it seemed like no one knew how to play attacking football. There were times it seemed like no one cared. All the big guns were clueless on how to breakdown the stubborn defenses thrown at them resulting in some abysmal scorelines. Of course me losing money in the process just reinforced my point....ahem.

The second round onwards were only marginally better. But the end result of Spain winning it with their brand of putting everyone to sleep with a million passes sideways would bore everyone to sleep. They ended up the winners with the least goals scored on route. It's a travesty that such a team even deserved to win. Not to mention all the whining, imaginary card waving to the referee and the fake injuries just leaves a bitter taste in everyone's mouth. Deserved champions? My ass. If anything, it only reinforces my utter disdain for the Spanish brand of football and teams that hold out for 1-0 scorelines. World Cups in the past were so much better with the Spaniards going home in the second round. So much better.

The other finalists, the Dutch were no better. Their brand of football in the finals was only good for Mortal Kombat. If I wanted to watch some good fighting, I'd watch Ultimate Fighter or the good'o WWE. Instead I spend the night watching a bunch of unskilled kickers chasing a bunch of pansies around a football pitch. As bad as the last finals were, at least it had Zidane actually hurting someone. As much as I hate Zidane, he suddenly went up considerably in my book. Horrible conclusion to a horrible tournament.

Just to make my experience even worse, the vuvuzelas ringing in every game is a buzz kill. It's gotta be one of the most irritating sounds on the face of the earth, next to my singing. It's akin to entering a swamp and being attacked by a million mosquitoes. Reminds me too much of my days when I was serving in the army. Too many bad memories.

Then there was THAT ball called the jambulani. With the exception of Forlan, not a single player seems to know how to use it. Everyone had trouble reading its bounce and more trouble trying to strike it. It made for awful viewing and as a result, awful games with strikers ballooning their shots.

And once again video technology would have cleared up so much of the controversial decisions made. At least after all the boo-boos made by the men in black, Sepp Blatter finally took time off to take his enlarged head out of his ass and admitted that it could be reviewed. All that's lacking is video evidence that he's managed to remove it completely.

Not to mention that the world media agrees with me completely that this is the most boring World Cup ever. Instead of covering the games, midway thru the tournament, most print and internet media focused their attention on an octopus.....seriously an octopus! Paul was the most interesting piece of news that's come out of this World Cup. Our local propaganda print media even tried to make things more interesting with our own version of a psychic parrot. That's just how bad the World Cup was, or how utterly devoid of journalistic integrity our local reporters have. The least anyone could have done was to tell how bad it was and not spin it completely out of whack.

To round off the rant, the only unbeaten team from this tournament is.....New Zealand. That's right....NEW ZEALAND. Eat your fucking heart out, I rest my case.

Ending The Season With A Flourish

Manchester United 4 - Stoke City 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Fletcher (31), Giggs (38), Higginbotham (og 54), Park (84)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Neville, Evra, Fletcher, Scholes (Gibson 62), Giggs, Nani, Berbatov (Macheda 62), Rooney (Park 77)

This entry took a while to materialize. Was out on Sunday trying to catch the game, but apparently every wateringhole was showing the Chelsea game instead, and we all knew how that one went. Eventually, I had to resort to downloading the game and from past experience, it takes a while to get done, hence the delay. The most tedious was avoiding all the news outlets and reports on the game the past few days. It was a news embargo at my place.

We were pretty damn good in the game. It helped that the pressure was practically over in the opening minutes when word of Chelsea taking an early lead filtered down to the players. We played a good flowing game of football and went 2-0 up at the half thru Fletcher and Giggs.

The second half was an exhibition by both sides. Stoke came out and tried to make a game of it, opening space at the back for us to exploit. An own goal by ex-United player, Higginbotham, gave us a 3 goal advantage, before Van der Sar made two incredible saves to deny Stoke a consolation.

Park's header completed the scoring and resulted in an emphatic 4-0 win to round up a season filled with highs and lows. Sadly on this occasion, it was bittersweet. But credit to Chelsea. Smashing 8 goals past Wigan to stamp their authority on the title.

I probably wouldn't be doing a report card this season. There's abit too much on my plate from now till the World Cup, so this might just be the last post until the season starts. Cheers.

It's Over, Right?

Sunderland 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Nani (28)

Team: Van der Sar, Evans, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Scholes, Fletcher (Rio 87), Nani (Hargreaves 90), Giggs, Berbatov (Carrick 71), Rooney

Let's face it, the title chase should realistically be over. I can't see Chelsea fucking it up against Wigan. Of course it could all be so different is Liverpool even showed up today. There was a time there was actually pride at Anfield, but that no longer holds true. At least the only thing good that came out of the Liverpool-Chelsea game is that Liverpool is a has-been. Seriously go fuck yourselves, you bloody cunts.

I'm glad there's still plenty of alcohol in me. Something needs to numb my senses after that horrible performance. To be honest, we're rather terrible ourselves. Nani kept the dream alive for another week with a well taken goal. We weren't any good today, but at the same time, we weren't exactly terrible either.

The Choker missed a host of chances that even I could have put away. I just pray really hard that his days are numbered and the Milan rumours are true. At this point in time, I'll trade that worthless, whining cunt for a bag of chips, and that's actually demeaning to the bag of chips. Sometimes I swear he's a closet ABU (anything but united). Shameful. If anyone thinks otherwise, you can kiss my big, fat butt.

On another note, it's good to see Hargreaves get a run-out. We all know thru experience, that's it's just a matter of time he gets sidelined by some injury again. Still good to know that bodies are returning, albeit too little too late.

While hope springs eternal, we should be realistic that the title hunt is all but over. Let's hope for better reinforcements next season as we go on a tear. Here's looking forward to next season. May the bag of chips score a boatload.