United Keeps Pace With The Leaders

Aston Villa 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Jones (20)


Team: Lindegaard, Rio (Giggs 64), Vidic, Smalling, Evra, Jones, Carrick, Young (Welbeck 79), Nani, Rooney, Hernandez (Valencia 12)

Strange game this. We dominated most of the possession and really kept Villa out of the game the entire time, yet despite our fine play, we hardly created any chances. For all our labours the past few weeks, or months indeed, we really came out and played some fine football and really should have hammered Villa, but we faltered at the end of almost every move.

We're desperately in need of some spark up front, or even some form of luck. The good thing is that our shyness in front of goal did not hurt us today. Villa are as incompetent as they come.

Besides the inability to score tonight, the other concern was the injury to Hernandez early in the game. He seemed to have hurt his ankle and the agony in his frantic waves for assistence probably doesn't bold well. With Owen already out, Berbatov injured in the last game, it seems our striking options are down to Rooney and Welbeck (Macheda and Diouf are just too raw). For a good bit, Nani was drafted upfront and did a credible job, he's too mercurial to be relied on fulltime in that position.

Jones was plied in midfield early on and he scored his first official United goal with a darting run into the box to connect with Nani's wonderful cross. He's partnership with Carrick was solid without giving up possession. It seems Ferguson is right in his assessment that Carrick seems to come alive at the end of the year. He's certainly put in a good shift. While not being spectacular, he's putting in a credible job while Cleverley and Anderson are on the injury table (who says I don't give Carrick any credit?).

This win allowed us to retain the 2nd spot, keeping pace with City, as Spurs and Chelsea look ominously on. Our next few Premiership fixtures look easy on paper, and we better take advantage of it to narrow the gap.