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.