Got Away With One

Tottenham 0 - Manchester United 0
Red Cards
Manchester United: Rafael (74)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Nani (Anderson 62), Giggs, Rooney, Berbatov (Hernandez 78)

Phew, gotta say we escaped with a point. This was never going to be an easy fixture, facing a Spurs side filled with attacking talent.

As usual, our away malaise persisted and we continue to play like fuck. The going got more difficult in the 74th minute when Rafael was sent for an early shower after a rather harsh second yellow card, but it wasn't unexpected. Rafael was totally immersed in the game and was rather rash with some of his tackles throughout the game and after some persistent rough play probably left the referee with little choice but to brandish the red card.

The game itself was a drab and dull affair. Both sides failed to control any semblance of a passing game, although Spurs was slightly better with Modric pulling the strings. They, however, failed to make any telling contributions in the final third.

We were no better. Barring a Rooney strike in the second half that somewhat troubled Gomez, we were absolutely horrid for a tabletopping side. The draw was probably the best result for two unconvincing sides. Spurs proved that they could stand toe to toe with the big sides, and while we topped the table and kept our unbeaten record. The sending off made things slightly more uncomfortable but we managed well in the final 16 or so minutes.

Once again, I must stress that we must improve on our level of play. Besides the defense that kept an unlikely cleansheet, everyone else must improve. Our away form is shocking and could very well be our achilles heel. And when Nani is not performing, nothing seems to work for us. Once again, we're left too reliant on one player.

It seems that Ferguson is finding it hard to motivate the players to perform at a high level. I, too, am at a loss of how to improve the team barring an injection of new blood. That said, Ferguson seems confident that this is the squad to take us to the end of the season. I suppose we can only trust Ferguson to know what he's doing. Hopefully Valencia and Park returning in the near future will give us more options to shuffle a stale looking deck.