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.