United Beats West Ham

Manchester United 1 - West Ham United 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Van Persie (1)

Team: Lindegaarde, Evans, Smalling, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Anderson (Jones 84), Cleverley (Young 66), Rooney (Welbeck 78), Van Persie, Hernandez

Van Persie's hugely deflected goal right from the kickoff was the difference between the two teams. We controlled much of the game but could not comfortably put the Hammers away.

There were moments where West Ham had their shot, but frankly without Noble in midfield, they looked rather toothless. Even then, Diame looked like a world-beater out there. But I really can't have many complaints. Anderson and Cleverley starting really helped speed up the game, even though it was Carrick who supplied the pass for the goal.

All in all, it was a good win. We kept a very rare clean sheet and kept up with the appearance of challenging for the title. It's looking like a two-horse race with Chelsea drawing blanks at home. Despite maintaining the top spot, we are really the underdogs. Shitty has a deeper squad and they do not have any European commitments. At least having Van Persie fit, healthy and scoring goals makes things interesting.

Never Write United Off

West Ham 2 - Manchester United 4
Scorer
West Ham: Noble (pen 11, pen 25)
Manchester United: Rooney (65, 73, pen 79), Hernandez (84)


Team: Kuszczak, Vidic, Smalling, Fabio, Evra (Hernandez 46), Carrick, Gibson, Park (Berbatov 64), Giggs, Valencia, Rooney (Nani 88)

We almost threw this game away. In fact at half time, both Kentona and I had conceded that we had allowed Arsenal back into the hunt. Our defending was diabolical, giving away two penalties to West Ham by the half.

Evra was the culprit for the first when he handled Charlton Cole's flick and Noble gave the Hammers an early lead. It was piss poor defending, allowing Cole to run thru.

15 minutes later, we found ourselves two down, when Vidic fouled Cole in the box. Once again Noble found himself at the spot and although Kuszczak dived the right way this time, the shot was too powerful.

Our response, although spirited, never really threatened Robert Green's goal. We were in fact lucky to enter the break with the full compliment of players. Just before the break, Vidic fouled Demba Ba on route to goal and as the last defender, should have been sent off. Instead he only got a yellow, avoiding the second league game in a row which we would have played with 10 men.

Hernandez was introduced in the second half in place of a poor Evra, and almost found himself on the scoresheet but his first touch of the ball sent the ball high and wide with the goal at his mercy. The chance probably came too early but certainly signalled the intent.

Vidic must have been wearing his lucky horseshoe when he once again fouled Ba and referee Lee Mason took a very very lenient view. On any other day, it would have been a second yellow and a suspension for our talismanic defender.

We continued to press hard and West Ham was resolute and frankly, we really never looked like scoring. That was until Rooney finally got his act together after a poor afternoon so far.

We were awarded a freekick and Rooney curled it beautifully beyond the outstretched arms of Green. It was a superb freekick worthy to win any game, but in this instance, we were glad for a fighting chance.

It didn't take long before Rooney produced a second piece of magic with Valencia's pass he received at the edge of the box. His first touch took the ball beyond the West Ham defense and with his second, smacked the  ball across the goal and into the net. Vintage Rooney.

The comeback was complete in the 79th minute when Berbatov wiggled his way in , out and around West Ham's defense before Upson finally handled the ball. Mason pointed to the spot and Rooney took up the challenge for his hattrick and an unlikely comeback.

Hernandez piled on West Ham's misery with a typical poacher's goal when he reacted quickest to Gigg's deflected pass.

It's a fabulous result and a tremendous comeback. It was particularly pleasing to see us play with 3 upfront and gratifying to see them play unselfishly, looking for the extra pass to take a better shot.

Even Carrick and Gibson had pretty good games. And Smalling was probably my man of the match, breaking up whatever West Ham threw at us. This was a team and championship performance.

Year Of The Berbatov

Manchester United 3 - West Ham 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 33), Nani (49), Berbatov (70)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans (Smalling 74), O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Scholes (Carrick 74), Giggs, Nani, Rooney, Berbatov (Owen 74)

Superb performance at Old Trafford today. Scholes and Giggs were simply awesome, and Nani didn't show any side-effects from last week's missed penalty. In fact it was a penalty that decided today's game.

Scholes has been magnificent with his passing this season, and his one of his searching crossfield passes found Giggs facing Spector on his favoured left wing. Turning back the clock, Giggs did his mazy dance and was about to run riot inside the box before Spector clumsily brought him down. The referee had no choice but to award United a penalty.

Desperate for a goal, Rooney stepped up and blasted the ball into the net. From then on, it was one way traffic. The gulf in class was huge and with a goal advantage, the best West Ham could do was to stem the red tide.

The second goal came shortly after the break with a fine individual effort from Nani. He took Rooney's pass and sliced his way through an incredibly porous West Ham defence and smashed home the second goal. It's defending like this that leaves West Ham rooted to the foot of the table, even at this early stage of the season.

That's not to say West Ham was that poor in any way. When they could, the did muster up a number of credible efforts, one of which was a beautiful passing sequence that resulted in Dyer striking the post. But such passing fluency was few and far between.

United on the other hand, were playing some superb football. After some intricate passing, Nani faked a shot and lifted the ball into the path of Berbatov and he volleyed home spectacularly from close range. It was a well deserved goal, especially after a really hardworking performance by the normally lacklustre Bulgarian. In fact, he seems to have pulled up his socks and finally started putting in much more effort into the games he's played and the crowd and teammates seem to have responded as well. It's a vicious cycle sometimes. The harder the player works, the better the response and in turn, he works harder for the adulation.

With the result, we've kept pace with Chelsea and Arsenal, who won their respective games as well. It's vital to keep the distance close while we can fully concentrate without the cup distractions. Last week was an unfortunate loss of 2 points.

United Back In Business

Manchester United 3 - West Ham United 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (38, 55), Owen (80)

Team: Foster, Vidic, Brown, Neville, Evra, Scholes, Gibson, Anderson (Park 18), Valencia, Berbatov (Owen 77), Rooney (Diouf 77)

With the weekend cup final looming, Ferguson made some crucial changes to the tired team that played on the weekend, ringing a few key changes. And what a difference it made. We were more energetic, quicker and hungrier to the challenges put forth by the Hammers.

Take nothing away from the Hammers. They are a resurgent side that recent put in a string of good results to pull away from the relegation zone. They gave a good account of themselves, but on this bitterly cold night, even with the snow falling, we were simply too hot to handle.

Our approach play tonight was simply superb. Both Rooney goals came from succulent passes from Berbatov who set Valencia free to cross the ball. Rooney nodded in both the crosses giving us a 2-0 lead. In between both Rooney's efforts, Park hit the post with a great effort.

Scholes and Gibson were impeccable in midfield and had chances from longer range but both failed to hit the back of the net. Park, on as a replacement for Anderson early in the game, was industrious as well as imaginative on the left. And just for the hell of it, Carrick had a brilliant game too....from the stands!

Owen got on the act when Scholes' brilliant thru ball allowed him a one on one chance that he rarely misses and didn't.

Overall, it was an exquisite performance. We were literally murdering West Ham with sheer brilliant passing. It's one of those days where everything fell into place. We just need to replicate this form all the way till the end of the season. As for now, I'll settle for a similar game at Wembley on Sunday.

Scholes Inspires Romp

West Ham 0 - Manchester United 4
Scorers
Manchester United: Scholes (45), Gibson (61), Valencia (70), Rooney (72)

Team: Kuszczak, Brown, Neville (Carrick 34), Evra, Fletcher, Anderson, Gibson (Berbatov 67), Scholes, Valencia, Giggs, Rooney (Owen 73)

This is the second week in a row that I've gotta say just how terrible we are. Don't let the scoreline fool you. Similar to last week, we practically slept-walked thru the game and some hope came away with an outstanding result.

The entire first half was a bore. We were terrible in so many areas it was unreal. Vidic was pulled out at the last minute and Neville replaced him in the centre. Fletcher played at rightback and Gibson was rewarded a starting place in the centre of the park for his two goals at midweek. The changes showed as everyone was reacting to their new teammates and positions.

The Hammers were by far the better team in the half but failed to take any of their chances. An opportunistic strike by Scholes at the end of the half give us an undeserved lead going into the break. By that time, I was almost asleep, bored to death by our misplaced passes and general piss poor approach to the game.

There was not much improvement in the second half until Gibson's incredible strike to put us two up. It was a fantastic long ranged missile that almost blew a hole in the West Ham net. The goal broke West Ham's spirit and we fired two quickfire goals via Valencia and Rooney to complete the route.

The rest was the same boring crap as both teams played out the game.

It's hard to criticize the team when the scoreline reads 4-0, but we're simply not clicking. The formation looked dodgy as well, with Rooney up on his own, while Valencia and Giggs giving as much support as humanly possible. We probably fluked out with the Scholes and Gibson long range efforts. Their goals forced West Ham forward, opening the game up for quick counters.

Let's hope we play less conservatively in the Champions League during the week.

Same 'O Same 'O

West Ham 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Giggs (62)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Rafael, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo, Berbatov, Tevez (Park 88)

If we win the league this year, it wouldn't be by style points. We went up against an in-form West Ham team who matched up well against us.

Right from the kickoff, West Ham came at us hard and we matched the pace in an exhausting first half that neither side produced anything note-worthy, except for sweat drenched jerseys. Considering how hard the Hammers played, I thought we played well and made intelligent use of the ball when we had it.

The second half was more of the same bar a stroke of genius from Giggs that produced the winner and yet another 1-0 scoreline. Giggs turned back the clock and shimmied his way past two West Hammer defenders before unleashing a low shot into the back of the net. It was the only piece of play that was really worth typing. Ronaldo probably had a legitimate claim for a penalty towards the end of the game, but the referee was never going to give it.

West Ham did look threatening without really threatening Van der Sar (right, I know that sounds confusing). And speaking of Van der Sar, apparently he now holds the record for the longest clean sheet in Britain. I wonder what record they would dig up if we get another clean sheet next week.

Anyway, the important thing is that we've maintained the momentum. I have to say that Liverpool's luck is incredible. Last week they got two late goals against Chelsea and this week they hit another against Pompey. Not to mention the late ones they've hit in the beginning of the season. They are chalking up some ridiculous points and it's beginning to worry me.

We're not much better ourselves. We're unable to put away opponents. While we have the points in the bag, I'm worried our style of play will come back to bite us in the final reckoning. That said, I'll contradict myself here: I'm still pretty sure we're going to edge out everyone here and that's only because after watching Chelsea and Pool play, I conclue that they are utterly crap. Now I only wait for Villa to sneak up from behind and bite me in the arse.

Ronaldo's Double Nails Hammers

Manchester United 2 - West Ham 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Ronaldo (13, 30)

Team: Kuszczak, Rio, Vidic, Rafael (Neville 80), Evra, Fletcher (Carrick 70) , Anderson, Nani (Rooney 70), Tevez, Berbatov

Feguson rung in the changes, bringing in Kuszczak (damn...that's one of the hardest names to spell), Rafael, Anderson, Nani and Tevez into the starting lineup. Notthat the previous lineup in the weekend was playing poorly, it's just part of the rotation process to keep the players on their toes and keep them involved.

Before the game started, Ronaldo and Rio received their awards for being in FifPro's team of the year. Ronaldo was honoured with a ridiculously gleaming trophy for being the player of the year. I have to admit it's really a sweet piece of silverware and I couldn't take my eyes off it. I wonder if there's any place selling a replica of it.....

Anyway the newly crowned FifPro player of the year struck twice in the first half to give United the win. This time there was no let down in the second half.

Right from the off, Nani was proving himself a constant threat down the left flank. Everything good that came in the first half was provided by him.

He provided the telling pass to Ronaldo to open the scoring in the 13th minute.

Berbatov then created the second with a piece of outrageous magic, turning his defender on the byline, then flicking the ball past the same defender, before squaring it for Ronaldo to add the second. The goal was a simple tap in but the build up was simply marvelous.

As the story goes, it could have been more. Tevez was rusty as hell from sitting on the bench for the past few games, and it showed. He could have added a couple but lacked the sharpness. It may take a few games to regain it, but with Rooney, Ronaldo and Berbatov in splendid form, he might not have the time.

We did somewhat take the foot off the pedal in the second half. Partly was due to West Ham playing much better and partly was from complacency on our part. I was particularly disappointed with Anderson. He was sloppy with possession and gave the ball away a few times trying to pick teammates with difficult passes.

Nani too had faded after he switched flanks with Ronaldo and Tevez continued trying without really shaking the rust off. Despite all that, we were mostly coping with what West Ham could throw at us.

In the end it was more comfortable than the scoreline suggested. We had already won the game in the first half.

I expect the rotations to continue at the weekend when we entertain the surprise package Hull City. I fully expect another victory to leapfrog them.

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 Rues Missed Penalty (West Ham United 2 - Manchester United 1)

Upton Park has been a poor hunting ground for United in recent years and today's result just adds to the mystic. For some unknown reason we're just not able to beat the Hammers.

West Ham started the brighter of the two teams and should have had the lead in the opening 10 minutes. Mullins struck the post and Noble could not put the rebound into the empty net. It could have proven fatal as minutes later Ronaldo opened the scoring from a quick counter on the 14th minute.

A good pass from Saha allowed Giggs the time and space to pick a surging Ronaldo from the left flank. Ronaldo flew in and header the ball into the goal giving United the lead.

Given the quality United had put on the pitch, it should have been an easy victory, but neither Fletcher nor Hargreaves could stamp their authority in the centre of the park. Mullins, Parker and Noble were outstanding and West Ham controlled a good portion of the midfield and 50/50 balls. The truth was that West Ham should have drawn level on a number of occasions had it not been for some inspired keeping from Kuszczak to keep Solano's thunderbolt out and some poor finishing from Charlton Cole.

In the second half, United won a penalty when ex-United player, Spector handled the ball in the area. Ronaldo, who has been in fine goal-scoring form, fired the ball wide. It was a pivotal moment in the game. A 2-0 lead would have completely taken the air off West Ham. Instead the miss inspired West Ham to come forward in search for an equalizer.

And equalize they did. On the 77th minute, substitute Anton Ferdinard climbed above the United defenders to head home the equalizer. 5 minutes later, Matthew Upson completed the come from behind victory with yet another header.

The truth was that West Ham deserved the victory. They fought harder and had wanted the win more. It was a lacklustre and disappointing display from our lads. We simply had no answer as the Hammers dominated midfield. They were the better team on the day.

Looks like Fergie will not be having a very happy birthday this year, especially if Arsenal manage to bring home 3 points against Everton later in the night. One thing's for sure, I won't wanna be Birmingham come New Year's Day. They are going to be facing a very pissed off United.