Thank You, Gazza

Gary Neville announces his retirement today, with immediate effect.

Rooney Comes Good

Manchester United 3 - Aston Villa 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (1, 45), Vidic (63)
Aston Villa: Bent (58)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher (Anderson 33), Carrick, Giggs, Nani, Rooney, Berbatov

Ferguson fielded his first team and it showed. Murmurings that Hernandez would soon displace Rooney in the starting lineup were quickly dispelled by the man in question.

Rooney superbly collected Van der Sar's long punt and smashed it past Freidel in the first minute of the game to quickly remind all doubters that his desmise was wildly exaggerated as he once again proved all doubters, including myself wrong. What was most encouraging from the goal were that the celebrations were directed at Van der Sar, whose punt was controlled by Rooney. It's a stark reminder that how much the players and fans love and trust our soon-to-be-retired custodian.

The goal gave United the platform to play their normal cool and collected game against a strong Aston Villa side. To even suggest this Aston Villa side was 'strong' was abit of an overstatement despite their recent successes. We completely dominated proceedings. The floodgates should have been opened but for wasteful opportunities all round the pitch.

Rooney made no mistake in injury time in the first half when he tapped in Nani's incredible cross to double the scoreline at the break. Villa were nowhere to be seen at this point in time.

The second half saw a brief Villa enjoyed a brief renaissance in the second half that saw the deficit sliced in half with a wonderful breakaway goal by new boy, Bent, and could have levelled when Ashley Young's cross cum shot clipped the crossbay, but that was as close as Villa came.

Normal service was resumed when Vidic volleyed home after some good work by Rooney to etch out some space in the box. The two goal advantage was quickly restored with some flair and United went on to completely play Villa off the park.

Rooney could have ended the night with a hattrick but was unlucky on two more occasions.

This was one of the rarer performances where we played well for almost the entire 90 minutes, with Rooney standing heads and shoulders above his peers. For once since his debacle, he was worth his salary. For anyone wondering, he's still a long way from getting into my good books. For now, it's forgiven, but not forgotten.

Both Arsenal and Chelsea had come-from-behind victories to keep the status quo, but we're still standing pretty with a commanding lead. If we can maintain our current form and our feet grounded, we stand a good chance for the prize at the end of the season. This could very well turn out to be a good season despite my misgivings at the start of it.

Comeback Kings

Southampton 1 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Southampton: Chaplow (45)
Manchester United: Owen (65), Hernandez (75)

Team: Lindegaard, Smalling, Evans, O'Shea, Rafael (Brown 46), Scholes, Anderson (Nani 58), Gibson (Giggs 58), Obertan, Owen, Hernandez

That's twice in a week we came back from a deficit at the half to win the game. Once again we had to endure an uninspired. And once again, it was probably Giggs who made the difference when he came on for Gibson midway in the second half.

This time round, the first half performance was somewhat forgivable. In light of the packed fixture ahead, Ferguson decided to field a team largely made of reserves and second stringers.

Andes Lindegaard also made his debut and did a credible job. Didn't look like he has any weaknesses in his game, but it's still early to tell. At the moment it looks like a straight fight between him and Kuz for the position in between the posts until some of the rumours surrounding that spot do materialize.

Like midweek, we took advantage of Southamton's fatigue of closing us down all game and hit them with 2 goals to win the tie. Owen scored a poacher's header after good work by Obertan, and Hernandez sealed the win after a truly incisive pass from Giggs set him free.

With the win, we avoided adding another game to an already packed looking fixture in the next couple of weeks. More importantly, it also gave the reserves and second stringers some much needed game time, not that many did well though. Still it allowed our mainstays some rest as the next game comes on Tuesday in the form of a resurgent Villa side that has won their last 3 games.