West Ham Returns The Favour

Manchester United 4 - West Ham 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Ronaldo (3, 24), Tevez (26), Carrick (59)
West Ham: Ashton (28)

Red Cards
Manchester United: Nani (37)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Brown, Hargreaves, Evra, Scholes (O'Shea 72), Carrick, Park (Giggs 61), Nani, Ronaldo (Flectcher 64), Tevez

We played well, in fact we played very well but make no bones about it, West Ham were simply not interested in this game. This was similar to the same fixture at the end of last season when they visited us, needing a win to secure Premiership status, while we slept-walked thru the 90.

This time round the roles were reversed. West Ham had nothing to play for and it showed. They didn't exactly lie down for us, but they didn't pressure us as they had last year.

In fact they were so lackadaisical that Ronaldo shimmied and found a route thru goal as early as the 3rd minute and took his chance, albeit with the aid of a deflection. Before even Kentona and I had warmed our seats over at Queens Country Club, we were already one up. It certainly was a good way to start the night.

West Ham made a token attack and our made-shift defense had to clear off the line. But that was all West Ham provided in terms of attacking strength before we got our second.

Hargreaves floated a nice cross into the area that sailed past all the West Ham defenders and Ronaldo gleefully twisted his body goalwards, redirecting the ball into the net with his thighs.

A minute later, Tevez found time and space in midfield and fired a rocket in beyond the flailing arms of our ex-custodian, Carroll. It was a magnificent goal that even had the West Ham supporters applauding. Yup, they just weren't interested in the points. And we provided them with a style of attacking football that was, quite frankly, missing for quite sometime.

On a rare West Ham counter, Dean Ashton held off Rio and struck a spectacular overhead kick to really give the West Ham faithful plenty of cheer about. In the space of 5 minutes, 3 goals were scored and the atomsphere was just brilliant, not only at OT, but at Queens Country Club as well. Everyone was enjoying the game.

There was even time for some comedy, when Carlton Cole, who was supposed to replace Ashton, left his jersey in the locker room.

Then it all turned sour. Nani head-butted Lucas Neill and was promptly sent off. United was down to ten men and suddenly the game didn't seem as easy as the scoreline would suggest. From then till half time, we were in sixes and sevens, unable to hold on to the ball and the half time whistle just couldn't come quick enough. The only silverlining was that West Ham just weren't interested in anything. Their players were probably dreaming of a holiday at some exotic island.

The team reorganised and played with increasing stability after half time. We played well and extended the lead when Carrick found himself with acres of space. His shot was deflected into the net as were restored our 3 goal cushion.

It possibly could have been more, with Fletcher unluckily hitting the post.

Except for a brief period after the sending off, this was probably one of the best team performances in a long long time. For long parts of this season, we've been playing like a group of uncoordinated, individual players, but today, we actually looked like a team playing for one another. Although the goals today came from bits of individual inspiration, the bulk of the approach play and hassle was gratifying to watch.

All we need now to secure our first piece of silverware this season is to beat Wigan next Sunday. Hopefully Wigan will play like West Ham, since their status in the Premiership has been secured with an unlikely 2-0 victory against Villa. Alternatively, old nemesis, Keegan could do us a favour and take points from Chelsea. In any case, unless there is a major fuck up, it all looks good....really good.

Nani
One of the reasons why I'm so late writing this is because I really don't know what and how to think about Nani's sending off. Nani headbutted Lucas Neill and then fell over clutching his head in agony for quite sometime. It was disgusting and shameful. The headbutt was probably a spur of the moment reaction but the play acting was not.

I know Kentona is utterly pissed off at Nani, yet somehow I don't exactly share his feelings.

The truth is that I'm angry with Nani's play acting after the sending off more than the sending off itself. Spur of the moment actions can be understood, not saying that they should be accepted. But the play acting is on a whole different level. It's cheating, plain and simple.

I really do hope it's one aspect of his game that would be eliminated in time to come. I'm sure Fergie has in mind what punish to dish out and how to prevent it from surfacing again.

United Unveils New Jersey

United has officially unveiled the new home jersey for the upcoming season. I'm personally not too overwhelmed with the design. Call me old school, but jerseys without collars to flip up just doesn't work for me. Moreover the back just doesn't seem asethetic enough. Maybe with the names and numbers printed, it might actually look pleasing to the eye. In any case, I'm not adding any money into the Glazers' pockets.


In other news, we've offically signed Owen Hargreaves.

Nani and Anderson both signed 5-year deals. And we've made the Kuszczak loan deal a permanent one.

Ferguson In Rare Interview With Local Manchester Radio Station

As you may have already been reading in the sports sections of the various dailies, excerpts from Alex Ferguson's interviews with local Manchester station, Key 103 have been making their rounds. The topics vary from cooking to his CD collection to ultimately football, giving an insight to his life outside of running Manchester United.

You can download and hear the interview here.

In other news:
Knee Surgery Delays Foster's Return - Edwin Van der Sar looks to remain the no.1 when the new season starts. Pretty bad news for Ben Foster.

No New Contract for Smith - Another bummer for Alan Smith. After all the trials and tribulations he has had to endure since joining us and, more importantly, winning fans and teammates over, it sounds like a bad PR move for the club. Will see how this develops. Moreover this is reported by the Sun, not exactly the seagull you look to when searching for the trawler.

Nani Passes Medical - Nani and Anderson both passed medicals. No doubts in my mind here.

No Work Permit for Anderson - Yet another news bummer today. It's a pretty damn silly rule, given the circumstances. For goodness sake, he's only 19 years old! How many caps does the immigration department want him to have??? He's played for Brazil at numerous levels (just not for the senior side yet). Alternatively, we could actually have some use for Richardson. Since his cousin, Charley Uchea, wants to be a WAG so badly, he can introduce Anderson to her. The marriage will kill off three birds with one stone. Anderson will get a British passport, Charley gets the fame she so undeservedly wants, and Richardson gets some love from United fans. Of course the loser in the deal is Anderson, but we don't really care as along as he get to play. ;)

Goalmouth Scramble - Not entirely United related, but thought this was a pretty thought provoking read. Below are some quotes from Platini and I find it hard to disagree with him:

"If your laws allow a US [citizen] or Saudi to buy a club he can do, but I'm not in favour of that," he said. "Chelsea, Arsenal or West Ham, they are part of the patrimony of England. They are part of the English heritage. It is not just a problem of football, it is a problem of society, of the government and the minister of sport. I like the identity."

Mr Platini's preference is for national leagues to be as national as possible, extending from the owner to the youngest player: "If you have a [club] president from Russia, a coach from Portugal and 15 players from France, why do you play in the Premier League?"

A Glimpse of What We're Getting in Anderson and Nani

Spent the last couple of hours scouring youtube.com for clips of Anderson since I'm absolutely clueless on how he plays, what his strengths and weaknesses are and frankly, I've come away none too impressed (will elaborate further later). Nani, on the other hand, is a known entity, and I've spent the last year convincing myself that he's the right guy on the left side for us (what a mouthful). It's going to take time to convince myself that Anderson is worth his weight in gold.

Anyway, I think this video's one of the best on youtube.com. It comprises of combined clips of both Anderson and Nani, and more importantly, it has the least crappy music. The rest all had some very angry hip-hop music. The downside is that it's too bloody long at almost 10 minutes, and the Nani portions only start around the 7th minute. Too bad I don't have the know-how to make my own crappy clips to post on youtube.com.

Anyway, enjoy this rather long montage.



Now that you've seen the video, here's what I think of the two newest signings:

Anderson
He's insanely skilful and super fast. Looks like a clinical finisher as well, but that remains to be seen. Since we haven't seen his ratio of misses yet, we can't really establish what a good finisher he is. I'm sure the clips of Andy Cole will all show he's a fabulous finisher as well, but we all know otherwise.

Also where he plays for us will also determine the number of goals he's going to bang in for us. Seems like he's the likely heir to Scholes midfield throne. The thing here is I've yet to see how well he involves the other players around him, and how well he finds them. If he's indeed going to be Scholesy eventual replacement, he's going to have to show alot more of those playmaking skills, rather than just using speed and skill to get past the defence.

The other thing here that is glaring to me is his stature. Looks like a really small but speedy guy. I hope he can stand up to the defenders in the Premiership. It's going to be a whole different ballpark in the EPL, where the defenders aim to maim. I'm not sure he can handle the punishment dished out week in week out. Already he's been a victim of some horrible tackling in the Portguese league, and had broken his leg in a challenge in Oct.

Nani
Looks like a speedy and skilful player (notice the similarities?). He's touted to be the long term replacement for Giggs and I think he looks the part. From what I've seen this season, he's a more mature version of Ronaldo when he first joined us. He's also a big strong lad, able to take physical punishment like Ronaldo. I'm really high on Nani.

The most glaring weakness so far is that he's still very under-developed as a player. He's unable to involve teammates, but if he's anything like Ronaldo, he's going to improve in that area when given the time. The other thing that utterly gets to me is his goal celebrations. All the summersaults and extravagant unneccessaries have to go. I can envisage him hurting himself big time celebrating one of those goals. I suppose, on the bright side, there would be the Tony Adams comparisons, sad but funny.....and always a good conversation topic.

United Splashes Over £30 million On Two Teenagers

Woke up to some pretty amazing news today. I'm still reeling over it, not too sure what to make of it. There are conflicting reports over how much is spent exactly, but one thing's for sure, it's over the £30m mark for 19-year-old Brazilian, Anderson Luis de Abreu Oliveira (more commonly known as just Anderson) and 20-year-old Portugese, Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha (commonly known as Nani).

That's alot to spend on kids. Let's hope they live up to the price tags.

Anyway here are the reports:

Times - United launch £35m spending spree to leave rivals standing
Manchester Evening News - United in double swoop
The Sun - United splash £31m on whizkids
The Daily Mail - Champions splash £30 million on Anderson and Nani
Guardian - United to splash £35m on Nani and Anderson
Telegraph - United spend £34m in Portugal spree