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.