Scholes' Century Sends United Back Top

Wolves 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Scholes (71)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Brown (Neville 45), Evra, Carrick, Scholes, Gibson (Diouf 61), Nani (Park 74), Valencia, Berbatov

Aren't we lucky to have Scholes on our side? Our play today was simply rubbish. Ferguson opted to rest a few players and our play was affected as a result. The good thing was that the gamble paid off when Scholes kept his composure and scored at a time when the game looked like it was going to be a dull draw.

Things off the pitch didn't help matters much either. As everyone should know by now, Owen's hamstring problem has ruled him out for the season. Rooney's probably being saved for the midweek clash against the Italian giants AC Milan, despite officially ruled out with some knee problems. And the Glazers have come out with guns blazing, firmly confirming their rule over our club, and rejecting outright all overtures from unwelcome bidders. So as you can see, things don't seem that rosy afterall. At least we're top of the table albeit until Chelsea plays their game in hand.

And speaking of Chelsea, after they were hammered by our 'friendly' neighbours, Shitty, the FA decided to level the playing field by sending in their thug referee, Peter Walton. If you all recall, he was the same arse who engineered our draw against Villa some weeks back. It wasn't as blatant as that other game, but Walton somehow managed to get in the way of our players as we were countering, not once, not twice, but a whooping three times! He's positioning was simple questionable to be extremely polite.

Yet, as much as I would love to play the blame game, we're our own worst enemies for much of the game. We lacked energy and thrust, something Rooney would have provided in abundance. Recently we're been dancing to the tune of Rooney's flute and without him on the pitch, we honestly never looked like scoring. Berbatov leading the frontline alone is painful to watch. He lacks the speed when we go on the counters, and when he perceives that the players around him are not running to where he wants them to, or make the passes he requires, he openly shows his frustration and displeasure. It brings the morale of the affected player down. In short, as brilliant as he can be on occasion, he's also equally disruptive to the term harmony on the pitch. It's a little like having Ronaldo back, but at least Ronaldo is so effective that we mostly tend to overlook his little tantrums.

Additional observations:
- My word, Diouf looked terrible today. He had a couple of chances to really put the game away, but missed terribly on both occasions. It's probably still early to pass judgement on him, but it's really not looking good when he misses chances that I'd probably be able to put in.

- When we take the foot off the paddle, we REALLY take the foot off the paddle. Wolves could have and really should have punished us, not once but freaking twice in injury time. The team needs to be able to concentrate for, not only the full 90 minutes, when whatever the referee and his cronies add on. This period used to be owned by us, and today we were nearly shown our own medicine.

- Just wanna make a comment on the Red Knights, we've all be reading about in the news. Where is the money to buy out the Glazers coming from? It's a helluva lot of money. Pardon me for being skeptical, but after spending all that money, the club's coming back to us? I don't get it, I really don't. Are there people out there who are really so generous? And what's going to happen when it comes back to us, supporters? We get to vote like how they do with Barcelona and that circus of a club, Real Madrid? Wouldn't that mean a turnstile charade of managers when things don't go right? Don't get me wrong, I'm terribly cynical of Ferguson's decisions, but at the end of the day, I'm glad he's making them instead of some blogger who really knows nuts. All I know right now is that the situation is not ideal when the club being saddled in ridiculous debts, yet I'm not sure I'm inclined to like the alternative either. In short, I'm just clueless and maybe I should just shut my mouth and let the powers that be do what they do best.

Couple Of Good Interviews

Been meaning to post this last week, but got really caught up else where.

Paul Scholes Interview, 23rd Mar

Anderson Interview, 30 Mar

The Anderson interview, in particular, was an eye opener. The thing that worries me is that, given his material needs, he might bolt when/if a better offer comes in.

FIFA Passes The Buck

Tevez Saga Goes To Court - There are more twists and turns to the Tevez saga than the latest Harry Potter book. The latest twist comes from FIFA 'recommending' that the whole affair should go straight to the Courts of Arbitration for Sports.

What this effectively means is that Tevez and West Ham are involved, and we're effectively out of the picture. If the courts rule that Tevez has only a one year contract with West Ham, then Tevez is free to join Manchester United. Otherwise, we have to deal with West Ham. Either way, depending on the fee involved in the latter scenerio, we're probably still going to get Tevez. Although it sounds tedious, it's probably still good news to me. The journey maybe long, but we'd get there eventually.

Scholes And Park Injuries - Scholes was sent back to Manchester before the kickoff to yesterday's friendly against Shenzhen. Apparently he sustained some knee injury playing against FC Seoul and is set to be out for a month.

Park, on the other hand, has more serious knee injuries. He's already been ruled out till the next calender year.

Heinze Needs History Lesson - Great commentary on the whole Heinze saga. Until I see Heinze actually quoted that he wants to join Liverpool, I refuse to believe he's stupid enough to want to play for Liverpool. Then again, footballers are not exactly the brightest lot around.

What makes this taste particularly bad is that Heinze was voted the fans' player of the year in 05. If he forces his way to Liverpool, it adds injury to insult.

Cup Concerns, Ronaldo Wins More Awards

FA Cup
We are probably going to field a strong side for this Saturday's showpiece, while Chelsea are facing trouble putting together a full complement on the subs bench. Yet, I feel somewhat uneasy going into the finals.

Has anyone taken notice of scoring in the last 4 games? We've not scored a goal from open play and the only goal we got is a penalty against a hapless Shitty. Granted 2 of the 4 were meaningless games, but it didn't hide the fact that we struggled to score. My biggest fear is a repeat of the Cup Finals 2 years back against Arsenal. We did everything but score on that day. We eventually lost that one on penalties.

I'm just hoping for abit of luck this Saturday.

Ronaldo Wins More Personal Accolades

The Latest Win

That brings his personal tally to :
Barclays Player of the Month (November, December)
PFA Fans' Player of the Month (October, February)
PFA Player of the Year
PFA Young Player of the Year
PFA Fans' Player of the Year
PFA Premiership Team of the Year
Football Writers' Footballer of the Year
Barclays Player of the Season
Portuguese Footballer of the Year
Portuguese Sports Personality
Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year
Players' Player of the Year

Club Awards
Academy Player of the Year - Craig Cathcart
Reserves Player of the Year - Kieran Lee
Goal of the Season - Paul Scholes v Aston Villa
Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year - Cristiano Ronaldo
Players' Player of the Year - Cristiano Ronaldo

Tevez Steals The Show (Manchester United 0 - West Ham United 1)

There were celebrations all round when the final whistle blew. West Ham had staved off relegation and Manchester United were crown champions of England.

Despite being almost overwhelmingly outplayed by United, Tevez willed West Ham to an unlikely victory. On paper, the United team that started lacked star names like Giggs, Scoles or Ronaldo, but they played like stars yet somehow the West Ham goal led a charmed life. Even when the trio were introduced in the second half, the West Ham defence could not be breached.

Ultimately, it was a Tevez goal in the first half that settled the match. A fitting end to the season for a West Ham team that looked doomed only two months ago, only for Tevez to claw and inspire them to safety on the last day.

(In my best Keegan impersonsation) I would have loved to see West Ham relegated to ease the pain of 95. But it was not to be.

Based on his sheer determination, Ferguson will find it very difficult to resist a move for Tevez, should he be offered again to United. He showed skill, grit, courage and a 'never say die' attitude, an attribute you can never lack when building a team. I would love to see him in our colours 'again'.

Anyway it was good to see Alan Smith get his Permiership medal and the lads celebrating wildly after the game.

Before I end this entry, here's an interview with Eric Cantona. Just thought it's a fitting end to a great season.

Poor, Gutless Performance United Falter in Europe Yet Again (AC Milan 3 - Manchester United 0)

From top to bottom, from the manager to the fans to the bloggers to the mailing lists, everyone was to blamed for this one. The only exception being Scholes who played his heart out, and probably the only one to deserve any sympathy from anyone. Everyone else was counting their chickens. All around the blogs were people getting ready for the showdown with Liverpool, the mailing lists that I was involved in were debating who to support for last night's semis, Pool or Chelsea, to eventually meet in the finals.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz were major culprits, playing scared again away in Europe by playing one up front. Time and time again we've failed to get the result desired by going away from what the players are familar with. As long as we go in with that mindset, we're simply going to be outplayed and outclassed by teams like AC Milan.

We also took a gamble and played a semi-fit Vidic in the centre of defence and right from the kickoff he's lack of fitness and sharpness was nearly exposed by Kaka. 3 minutes into the game, Seedorf hit a screamer and Van der Sar did well to push it over his bar. Milan were out of the blocks fast and we struggled to cope.

10 minutes into the game and Milan took the lead thru Kaka with a precise strike into the bottom left corner. Nothing more than Milan had deserved. They were hungrier and significantly better in every department on the pitch. I was surprised it took them till the 30th minute to add a second thru Seedorf. Again it was a sweet strike into the same corner of the goal. Quite frankly, they should've been at least another couple of goals ahead. The gulf in class was apparent for all to see.

We were no better in the second half. Although we showed abit more urgency trying to win the ball, Milan were still by far the better team. I can't remember a save that Dida had to make in the second half. That was how bad we were. It wasn't a surprise that Milan added a third via a counter attack thru Gilardino in the 79th minute. That knocked away whatever fighting spirit we had left, not that we had much to offer in the first place.

On a night when we needed to bring out our best, we produced our worst. Key players like Ronaldo and Carrick played like they were in awe of the Italians, totally gutless and disgusting. The entire defence was poor as well, giving the ball away cheaply. Heinze and Vidic combined to gift Milan their second goal. Rooney and Giggs squandered away possession. Brown and O'Shea were pumping long balls upfield to no one. All in all this was a pathetic performance. At least it gives us a taste how we play a division 2 side, except this time round, we were the division 2 side.

Only Scholes, and probably Fletcher, had average games. They were the only 2 United players who showed any semblance hunger.

Well, looks like AC Milan has gotten their wish to face Liverpool in a grudge match. It would sicken me if Pool were to win, not to mention, we're probably going to get it shoved down our throats again if they do. And it's probably going to make me puke in my mouth if Milan wins, considering they shouldn't even be in the competition in the first place. Shameful that someone has to win it.

I hope we go on to whip that 'massive' club in the weekend and take another step closer to the title. And for fucks sake, let's stop counting our chickens!

ROOONEY!!!!!!! (Manchester United 3 - AC Milan 2)

My god, what a game! Actually it wasn't much of a game.....but what an ending! It's not over, we still have to face Milan at the San Siro, but we're going there with a slender lead.

We started off with a fluke goal by Ronaldo in the opening 5 minutes. He headed a corner right at Dida and it carromed off him upwards and subsequently into the empty net. It was a fluke goal, not that we're complaining here.

Despite going a goal up, Milan looked comfortable. They passed the ball around efficiently and did not panick, slowly building up the play. It was much like when we faced them 2 years ago. They eventually equalised with a superb goal by Kaka in the 22nd minute. He ran past Carrick and Gabby and slotted the ball past Van der Sar to score.

15 minutes later it got worse. Evra who made a 'timely' return to the team in defence, ran into Gabby and exposed Van der Sar to Kaka. Kaka didn't need a second invitation to score his second of the night. Evra has been give a free pass and sometimes generously given a couple of praises in this blog. But on this occasion, he was simply awful! I cringed everytime he got close to the ball, and cringed again when he was making passes to the Italians.

Speaking of awful, the Greek referee was awful as well. He seemed to be doing his darnest to keep United away from Athens next month. He was on a one-man mission to keep his capital safe from the marauding United fans who have been creating 'havoc' in other lands. He booked Evra for a seemingly innocent challenge ruling him out of the second leg. Given our defensive deficiencies, it should have been a great blow, but in the context of today's performance, there couldn't have been a better gift. I rather have Fletcher in defence than Evra screwing it up again. There are some things that you do not leave to chance.

United came out of half time playing like the way they did in the first half....being dictated by a very composed Milan side. To put things simply, there was no movement whenever we got the ball. We passed the ball, but we were not moving. It made defending against us very easy. Needless to say, Kaka should have gotten his hattrick. At this point in time, I had given up on the cause. Damage limitation seemed like a good thing.

Rooney and Scholesy, however, had other ideas. Right on the hour, Scholes flicked a brilliant ball which caught the Milan defence napping and Rooney was on hand to level the scores.

Suddenly the team woke up. They began passing the ball and running into spaces. On a couple of occasions, they put Milan on the backfoot. The Italians, unable to cope against wave after wave of the Red tide pounding on their defensive walls, started to give away freekicks at the edge of the penalty area. Strangely enough, some of the tackles put in were pretty cynical and yet the referee from Greece did not book anyone. Despite the number of freekicks given, Giggs and Ronaldo combined to miss all of them.

Just when all look lost, Giggs threaded a superb pass to Rooney in the box and Rooney unleashed a thunderbolt from a narrow angle into the goal in injury time. It suddenly felt like Gigg's goal against Juve that drew us level at OT in 95!

Like I mentioned, the job's not done yet. We must not let our guard down next week. If we played like anything in the first half, we're doomed. We need to take the game to Milan and let them adjust to our style.

Man of the Match : Rooney. Had he not scored that last minute goal, I would have given it to Fletcher, who was outstanding in midifeld again. He must love playing against the Italians, having done the job against Roma and for Scotland against Italy.

Fuckin' Late Kickoff (Manchester United 1 - Middlesbrough 1)

I can't emphasize how fucking irritated I am with our performance in late kickoffs. We were trying to be what Fergie and Giggs had said in midweek....efficient. Unfortunately it all turned out wrong as we tried to play like Chelsea. Now the cushion has almost been completely swept from under our buttocks. Chelsea now holds their own destiny in their hands. All they need to do is to win their remaining premiership games, including the one with us.

The game started brightly for us. Richardson gave us the lead after a superb pass from Scholes and some brilliant running from Rooney in the 3rd minute. Just as Chelsea has been making a habit of scoring late in games, we've been doing the same with early goals.

The difference is when you score late goals, the other hasn't a chance of hitting back. And Boro did just that at the stroke of half time. It was also partly due to Rio hurting his groin again and was practically immobile when Viduka scored the equalizer.

Our tactics after going one goal ahead early was probably to blame as the team took heed from SAR and Giggs suggestions to play 'efficiently'. We allowed Boro plenty of possession and allowed them to come at us. Although until the goal, we had been able to contain Boro somewhat comfortably. We should have gone out and tried to nick a second goal, and play the way that had worked so well for us the entire season. Of course there were other considerations like injuries and more importantly, fatigue, but we should have treated each game like it was a cup final.

SAR rang in the changes at half time bringing on Giggs as an attacking punch and Fetcher to replace the injuried Rio. Yet it was Van der Sar who was called into action, denying both Viduka and Yakubu. Perhaps our first half rhythm had set in and our attacking play just wasn't effective. We could hardly penetrate the last third of the pitch with Boro defending resolutely and hitting us on the counter, a tactic which we made almost exclusively our own throughout the season.

Ole was sent on in a desperate push forward to seek the winning goal with a quarter of the game left, which in fairness to Ole, just wasn't enough. To put things into perspective on how ineffective we were, I don't think Schwarzer was troubled to make a single save in the second half. The tension in the stadium was intense and it probably got to the United players on the pitch.

In the dying minutes, what was a already bad situation almost got worse. John O'Shea brought down a Boro player in injury time and a penalty wasn't given. It could have made a bad day turn really sour.

Despite not winning this game, things aren't dire yet. Just as Chelsea has their destiny in their hands, so do we and it always has been. The only difference is that the margin of error now is minimal. Nerves will play an important part to both teams and how they perform under that pressure will separate the men from the boys.

I don't like the situation we're in, especially after having had a 6 point cushion, but I'll take what we have considering I never gave us a lick of hope at the beginning of the season. And with all the fucking late kickoffs out of the bloody way, the only thing that worries me is facing West Ham in the last game. I believe we probably would draw Chelsea to bring the race down to the wire.

If anyone cares to remember back in 95, we faced West Ham in the last game for the title and a certain Andy Cole missed 7825 shots on goal. We drew that game as Blackburn edged us to the title. Had we won then, the title would have been ours.

Comfortable (Manchester United 2 - Sheffield United 0)

Two early goals, one in each half settled the game. We never really gotten our engine started when Carrick took on a beautiful pass from Ronaldo and lifted it deftly past Kenny in the 3rd minute of the game.

Rob Styles, as usual, was ridiculously inconsistant with his yellow card decisions. For most parts of the first half, he let Sheffied United get away with murder. The tackle on Evra which resulted in his substitution was horrendous. It could have broken a leg, yet Styles let the perpetrator off with a warning.

Smith too got a huge kick in the buttocks and his perpetrator got off with a warning. His shorts was almost ripped off in that tackle. Yet almost comically, Ronaldo's marker Geary was booked for a foul that looked really innocent. I never understand Rob Styles when he referees.

Anyway, early in the second half, Giggs made a sublime pass to Rooney and he swept it into the goal. Sheffield United, quite truthfully, never really looked like threatening our goal. They looked like they spent the entire game in a damage limitation exercise.

After going two goals up, we were also conserving our energy passing the ball around. It wasn't much of a spectacle, just a convincing win. Both sides knew there were more important games to expand their strength in the coming weeks.

Oh, and Rob Styles probably stole the show again in the second half when he denied a penalty to Sheffield United. Their chief striker, Luton Shelton, was blatantly brought down by Heinze, but Styles swallowed his whistle. Shelton's really impressed me. He gave our make-shift central defenders, Heinze and Brown a torrid time whenever he had the ball. Thankfully there weren't many opportunities for him to get the ball.

We've put the pressure back on Chelsea who faces relegation threatened West Ham tomorrow. Let's hope West Ham are desperate enough to make a fight out of it. It would be really sweet if they could do what they did to us to Chelsea.

And in the weekend, we face Boro in another late kickoff. Let's hope we fare better this time round.

FA Youth Cup
We beat Liverpool at Anfield 2-1. Couldn't catch the game yesterday. No torrents available either, so it kinda sucks all round.

PFA Awards
Ronaldo, Giggs and Scholes are in contention for the main award and Rooney and Ronaldo are in for the young player award. Quite frankly this year's awards are farcical at best.

I can't freaking believe Gerrard and Fabregas were even nominated. Gerrard isn't even the best player for Liverpool this season, and Fabregas was much better last season. Not to mention it's a travesty that Michael Essien isn't even nominated. And I haven't even mentioned players like Berbatov or Carragher, who have been outstanding for their respective clubs.

And don't even get me started on the young player award. Kevin Doyle!?!?!??! I would expect someone nominated in this category to be at least 21 or younger at the start of the season. I just don't get it.

FWIW, Ronaldo should sweep both awards. It's not a given, although the voting is done by fellow professionals, and they ain't exactly rocket scientists either. But I'm not expecting any surprises here.

Scholes' Moment of Madness Costs United (Roma 2 - Manchester United 1)

The bad news is that we lost the game, and lost Scholes for the second leg. The good news is that we're still in with a shout. Given the circumstances, we were lucky to come away from this fixture with an away goal and only one goal down.

Roma were by far the better team right from the go get. They were inventive and vibrant, often catching our make-shift defence off guard. Even with 11 men on the pitch, it was just a matter of time before Roma scored. They were that much hungrier.

Of course the turning point happened when Scholes was booked a second time in the 33th minute, and was sent off. Already playing badly, it just made things so much worst for United. To be fair, Scholes was utterly horrendous in his tackles today. Hard the referee been much stricter, he should have gone for an earlier shower. His timing today was just so off that it was painful to watch.

Roma scored right at the break, making their man advantage count. To be honest, given the way Roma approached the game, they deserved it. It didn't matter if we had the full complement on the pitch. They simply outplayed us in every department.

Th second half was more of the same. Then right on the hour mark, Ronaldo took the ball from our half, dribbled past a couple of Roma players and fed the ball to Ole on the right edge of the Roma penalty area. A peek up, and a delightful cross found Rooney on the other side of the area. And all that was left to do was to shoot the ball past the keeper which Rooney did with both power and precision. It was a magificient goal. Counter-attack at it's best.

Much has been said about Rooney's and Ronaldo's lack of goals in Europe. While Rooney has answered his critics somewhat, I don't really give a shit what they say about Ronaldo. He has learnt to create for his teammates. There's absolutely no doubts in my mind that he's the best player on the planet, bar none.

Our equaliser stunned the Rome crowd into silence, but the parity was shortlived. 7 minutes later, Roma edged into the lead again. Again, nothing more than they deserved. A long goal-bound shot was parried weakly by Van der Sar into the path of Roma substitute Vucinic, who shot home the rebound. It wasn't an easy shot, but he did it with such class.

For the rest of the game, we were constantly under seige but somehow managed to keep the scoreline manageable for the second leg. At least we managed to dig deep after the piss poor showing in the first half to make a game out of it in the second.

We need to win the second leg and keep a clean sheet at OT. If we play anything like we did today, you can be sure we're going to make our exit from the Champions League.....which quite frankly isn't such a bad thing. Given the fixture congestion and the fact we're been piss poor in Europe anyway, it could very well be a good kick up our collective backsides.

The best teams in Europe impose their will and style in the games they play. We're obviously not anything near there yet. Our performances in Europe have been tame so far, and there's a clear sign from the management team that they do not trust the players to play the way we do in the EPL. How many times have we seen a tactical change in our style of play when we play European games in the past few years? Until we do stick with our style of play, it's going to take a momentous effort to lift the trophy again. Personally I'm hoping it would be this season given the route we've been shown, but hope and reality are poles apart here. That being said, I've my ketchup and chilli sauces on standby to eat some serious crow.

Talking Points:

• Crowd trouble at half time. There were some horrible scene of the Italian police using batons on United fans. Not too sure what exactly happened, except the unsavoury scenes happened right after Roma scored their first goal. My guesss is that there was a clash between the fans that got out of hand.
• Offical protest by United against the first Roma goal. Apparently when the corner was taken, prior to the goal, there was another ball on the pitch. Having seen the replay, it was really much ado over nothing. A weak protest at best.
• Hero at the weekend, zero today. Scholes really needs to stop thinking he's Keano. Some of the challeges out there were obscene. I'm glad the referee took him out. He was giving away freekicks at the edge of the area, and it would have been a matter of time before Roma actually made one count, having come close.
  

I Believe! (Manchester United 4 - Blackburn 1)

What a performance! What a show of true character! I never really believed we would win the title even after beating Liverpool, but after today's performance, I truely believe we can and we will. We have a squad of winners and the level of desire they've shown on the pitch today was just astounding.

To be fair, we started off the game pretty tame and for most parts were sloppy on the ball. We did have a larger share of the possession, but didn't really create many chances. Then tragedy struck on the half hour when Vidic fell awkwardly going for a corner and broke his collar bone. He's by far the main guy in our defence. Chances are that the season's pretty much over for him.

O'Shea came in for him and while the defence was still readjusting to the shuffle, Blackburn struck. Morten Gambst Pedersen whipped in a delightful cross that Carrick could only deflect goalwards. Van der Sar could only parry it into the path of Derbyshire and he scored easily. Double whammy.

The game a contest almost ended there. Blackburn refused to play football. They resorted to time-wasting with the usual fake injuries, roughhouse tackling and taking forever to take freekicks and throw-ins. And this was all done in the first half!

The second half was no better. In fact the tactics got worse. The Blackburn players started to play dirty, by fouling unnecesssarily. The referee, in my opinion, was weak and did not take action. Credit to our boys, we not only weathered the storm, but we continued to play our brand of attacking and positive soccer, bringing out countless superb saves from Friedel. He single-handedly stood between the actual scoreline and what could have been a cricket scoreline.

On the half mark, we got what we deserved....the equaliser. And my word, what a brilliantly taken goal! Scholes won the ball at the edge of the penalty area and with a few herky-jerky moves, jingled his way past 2 Blackburn defenders and as calmly as a cucumber, slotted the ball beyond Friedel and into the net.

After a hail of United barrages, the Blackburn defence caved-in again at the 73rd minute. This time it was Carrick who scored after Ronaldo had taken on the entire Blackburn defence on the left byline. It was truly nothing more than we deserved. It was just a relentless onslaught of United attacks, knowing that a draw would do us no favours. Not to mention the treatment given to us by the Blackburn players.

The floodgates truly opened up in the 82nd minute when Park joined in the scoring. Ronaldo's freekick could only be parried and Park was on hand to score from the rebound, just as he had done in the Bolton game.

Ole came on as a substitute and rounded off the scoring in injury time. And, it was nothing more than we deserved. Glory Glory Man United! It was truely a gutsy performance by everyone on the pitch. You can hear the crowd singing, 'The Trophy's Coming Back' (it sounded something like that).

Special mention must go to both Scholes and Carrick. They were fabulous in the centre of the park. I know I don't say this enough (in fact I often do the opposite), but Michael Carrick was brilliant. This could easily be his best performance in a Red shirt.

Also worthy to note that Rio is lucky to be playing in England. In a rare show of emotion when we were 1-0 down, Rio kicked the ball into the stands on a referee's decision not to play the advantage and decked an elderly lady. If it happened in USA, you can be sure the lawsuits would come flying in thick and fast. Rio, being the gentleman that he is, went over a number of times to apologise and to check on the elderly fan. As you guys know, I've always wanted Rio to show more emotion in a game but after today, I'm hoping he plays it 'cool' from now on. An emotional Rio isn't exactly worth the trouble, as we already know, he's not the brightest person around.

Now let's not waste this effort and go on to win the freaking Premiership.