Rooney Out 4 Weeks

Rooney injured his ankle in training and is ruled out for 4 weeks.

Looks like we're going to see plenty of Tevez and Saha together upfront. There are a couple of things that worry me here.

Firstly, neither Tevez nor Saha has really played together. Their chemistry together has not been tested. And it comes as a bad time especially given how well both Tevez and Rooney are clicking, slowly but surely.

Secondly, I'm terribly afraid of pinning our hopes on Saha. No doubt he's a good striker, but when we begin to rely on him, he's just going to let us down by getting himself injured.

With this injury, suddenly the sale of Rossi and Smith (to a lesser extent) seems to have come back to haunt us. Things may not be as dire as this post suggests, it's still nonetheless a cause for concern.

At least in desperation, we can still use Ronaldo or Giggs as an auxiliary striker to partner Tevez or Saha, although I honestly rather not see Giggs in that position. In the worst case scenerio, we still have Brandy or Dong to fill the role. I hope it wouldn't come to that. Brandy is obviously not ready and Dong is really doing well selling shirts in China so let's not spoil his image.

United Sweeps Aside Kiev to Progress (Manchester United 4 - Dynamo Kiev 0)

It was a convincing 4-0 victory to see United into the knockout stages. And it was well worth it braving the rain in the middle of the night to catch the game with Kentona at the kopitiam near where I live.

The first half was a pretty dormant affair with little excitement, but somehow we managed to get a 2-0 lead.

Pique, who had his first start in the CL in place of Rio, opened the scoring in the 30th min with a rather fortuitious goal. The ball had rebounding off a blatantly off-side Tevez before he headed it into the Kiev net. While the build up was lucky, take nothing away from Pique's header which was well placed past the keeper.

The second goal 7 mins later brought back memories of when the soul brothers played together. Tevez stripped a Kiev midfielder of the ball and received a give-and-go from Tevez to find himself one on one with the keeper. He had the simple task of blasting the ball to give us a 2-0 lead going into the half time break. We didn't create many chances in the half, but the lead was well deserved since we had almost complete control of the game.

The second half was a much better affair. Kiev came out of the blocks with a purpose and had it not been for substitute, Kuszczak's brilliant saves, we would have had a hard battle on our hands.

Instead it was United who went further in front thru Rooney in the 76th minute. And Ronaldo finished off a demoralised Kiev with a brilliant individual goal.

Personally, I felt Ronaldo had a pretty piss poor game. He spent too much time trying to showboat when we were 2-0 up, which I thought was unnecessary and rather insulting to the opponents. We had beaten them rather comprehensively and there was no need to add insult to injury. I suppose if there is one thing I would love to see him improve on is this.

Overall it was a competent display and the scoreline reflected our dorminance although Kiev did threaten in very short spurts.

With Roma and Sporting drawing in the other game in this group, we've progressed into the knockout stage.

Knowing Fergie, I'm pretty sure he's going to start using this opportunity to start resting players. I would rather we go all out to win at least one of the next two games to ensure that we qualify as the top dog from the group. I remember vividly that we were in a similar position a few years back and we went on to fuck up the next two matches, and more importantly, lost the top spot in the group, thus facing a stronger than expected opponent in the next stage. I believe it was the season where we faced Real Madrid and lost out to a brilliant Ronaldo (the fat one) hat-trick. That one was a fucking nightmare.

Let's hope someone has learnt his lesson and not start taking things for granted.

Just Shut Up Fergie (Arsenal 2 - Manchester United 2)

Seriously, Fergie should just keep his bloody mouth shut sometimes. His tirade over the Sports Ministers comments were way out of line. Albeit that it was probably a jest, it was in poor taste. I'm sure the 'mob' that supports FC United didn't see the funny side of it. Sadly, I actually think off the pitch, our debt-ridden club will be in for a hard time in the near future. The recent sub-prime woes have exposed the dangerous ground we're walking on building a club based on debt.

But that's another topic for another day.

And just to keep with the title, Fergie issued another tirade after our 2-2 draw at the Emirates. Quite honestly, I don't even know what he's ranting about. We were our own worst enemies today, throwing away the lead twice. Fergie, try looking at our own backyard first.

As for the game proper, the first half was quite honestly a dry affair. Both teams were reluctant to take risks, hence contributed to a drab half. Gallas own goal was the only highlight, and it happened in the dying seconds of the half.

The Gooners came out of the second half firing on all cylinders and it only took them 2 minutes from the restart to draw level. Some comical defending on our part led to Fabregas placing the ball into an almost empty net. Vidic did his best Crocodile Dundee impression when he went on his walkabout, leaving the marking job of Adebayor to Hargreaves. Adebayor out-muscled and out-paced Hargeaves to run riot in the box and the ball fell to Fabregas with both Vidic, and EVS stranded. Rio decided the best course of action was to stand at the goal line instead of staying in front of the Spaniard, and Brown was day-dreaming. In short, it was a fucking comedy of errors by everyone involved.

With their tails up, Arsenal were coming forth in droves without actually threatening. Eventually we managed to regain our composure and matched whatever Arsenal had to throw at us. Fergie threw on Saha in place of an ineffective Tevez and Tissueboy conjured up a beautiful reverse pass into the path of Evra who ran straight thru the heart of the Arsenal defence, causing panic. While the entire defence converged on Evra, he had the presence of mind to lay it a wide open Ronaldo, who promptly took the gift.

It was a wonderfully crafted goal that should have won United the 3 points, but it was not to be. After taking the lead, both Anderson and Hargreaves sat deep, allowing Arsenal to draw level once again. Perhaps fittingly, it was Gallas who scored, rounding off the goals after he had put one into his own net to start it all off.

For the neutrals, it was probably a fitting results since both teams contributed to an entertaining game, but as a United fan, it was probably 2 points lost, both due to our own mistakes. At least we didn't lose ground to.

After watching Arsenal play the last few games, I'm confident that it's just a matter of time before we overtake them in the table. I personally feel that Arsenal is playing the best that they can with the personnel at their disposal.

At the same time, we're just barely scratching our potential. And when we do, we're going to beat them in the next meeting.