Alpha Beaten By Omega

Wolves 2 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Wolves: Elokobi (10), Doyle (40)
Manchester United: Nani (3)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans (Smalling 65), Rafael, Evra, Carrick (Scholes 46), Fletcher, Giggs, Nani, Rooney, Berbatov (Hernandez 65)

I had the strangest feeling while watching the earlier thriller between Newcastle and Arsenal, that this would be a really bad night for us. After seeing Arsenal collapse after taking a 4-goal cushion, I was pretty darn sure we were going to do one up on them. I even dropped Kentona an sms before the game to register my fears.

It's been a strange night of sorts. There were an insane number of goals scored and a couple of hattricks to go around. And when Tissue Boy (Saha) grabs 4 goals in a game, you just have to check if the moon was really blue. Sadly the only thing blue right now is my mood.

We started the game brilliantly. Nani pulled off a stunner in the opening minutes and it looked like we could very well be heading for a good night. But it was not to be. It didn't take Wolves long to find an equalizer. Elokobi rose and headed Jarvis' cross powerfully into the net.

We tried to regain the lead but were quite frankly terrible. The awful state of the pitch didn't help matters. Wolves grabbed the lead when we went to sleep from another set-piece.

Did I mention that we were really terrible? I can't remember having a shot on target in the second half when we were chasing the game and going for a record 30th game unbeaten in the league. Tempers were heated and stupid fouls were made, but we came nowhere close to finding the net.

Our terrible away form has finally come back to bite us in the arse. The only silver lining I can take from this defeat is that we can finally put to bed the whole notion of going thru the season unbeaten and emulating that fantastic Arsenal team. To put it simply, we didn't deserve it.

Now, let's just go on and fucking win the league.

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.