Never Underestimate The Heart Of A Champion

Aston Villa 1 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Aston Villa: Cuellar (19)
Manchester United: Collins (23 og)

Red Card
Manchester United: Nani (29)

Team: Van der Sar, Evans, Brown, Rafael, Evra, Scholes (Valencia 45), Fletcher, Carrick, Giggs (Berbatov 74), Nani, Rooney

Damn heart of a champion. We were down to ten men early in the game, yet we played like it was Villa who were down to ten. Damn, if we had shown half the grit, determination and desire in some of our games early in the season, we would be running away with the title by this time. At least it's never too late to find that now. Too bad we couldn't muster enough against the odds tonight.

By now everyone who follows this blog should know just how utterly I hate Rob Styles, but after tonight's game, there is a new boogie man. And it's in the form of Peter Walton, who in my opinion, is the most biased piece of shit on the pitch. At least for Styles, he's just plain incompetent. Walton is a master piece.

The red card on Nani was simply ridiculous. Sure it was a reckless tackle, but it probably only warranted a yellow at best. The red card means one of our most influential players gets an immediate 3 game ban and would miss the games against Everton, West Ham and most importantly, the mickey mouse cup finals against tonight's opponents. To exacerbate matters, he allowed the Villa players to get away with blue murder on the pitch without even a single card. He also blantantly denied Rooney a freekick outside the box as well as refusing to award anything in our favour, even obvious handballs. Hell, even the normally biased commentators were questioning his decisions, or lack of it. It seems to me that after Ferguson's comments on the referees earlier in the season, the referee's association finally sent in their hatchet man to screw us royally, just as we look to sweep all before us.

As for the game itself, we were partially our own worst enemies. We failed to clear the ball and Cuellar's header looped agonizingly over the outstretched hands of Van der Sar. It was a feeling of dejavu that Villa were ahead again for the second time against us this season.

Thankfully the script was different this time around, despite plenty of outside interference from a supposedly neutral party. As it has happened so many times this season, Mr Own Goal came to our rescue. Nani's wonderful cross was met by Giggs, but his wayward volley was smashed into the net by Villa defender James Collins. It was nothing more than we deserved. We were by far the better team.

Nani, then, got his marching orders for an overly enthusiastic challenge. As I've mentioned, it was a piss poor decision that threatened to change the face of the game. But to our credit, the lads rose to the occasion and literally plummet the Villa defense.

In the end, we could only come away with a draw having played a superb game. The odds were stacked too highly against us. On a lighter and more happy note, old boy Saha did us a favour by beating Chelsea on his own, and leaving us just one point behind the league leaders.

We wouldn't get a chance to play again until the 16th this month due to the FA Cup weekend. The lads would get week to rest and to prepare against the Champions League tie against Beckham and AC Milan. Just a month ago, I would have written off our chances completely, but since, we've seem to have found our swagger and self-believe again. It promises to be a cracking game.

Finally, to all my Chinese readers, have a happy and super prosperous Lunar New Year. This year we can celebrate without any United games to distract us.