United Survive Early Scares To Take Points (Liverpool 0 - Manchester United 1)

Whilst it's still too early in the season to dub this game as a title decider, we did fairly well to stamp our authority in the standings by wrestling top stop from Arsenal, albeit for a couple of hours. What's more important with this 1-0 victory was the psychological edge we have over Liverpool, whom I deemed since the start of the season as our closest rivals to the title challenge.

Not to take anything from Arsenal's fine run till now, but they are quite frankly a team that's out performing themselves. I'm not dismissing Arsenal's title credentials, but they will only go as far as that kid, Fabregas will carry them. Chelsea's the last to form the quartet, but both themselves and Arsenal will have to contend with losing crucial players to the Africans Cup of Nations. Thus I fully expect them to fall off the pace during that period.

As for today's game, we rode out luck early this game after Van der Sar made two uncharacteristic errors to almost gift Liverpool with a couple of goals. Had it not been for Anderson's and Evra's timely goal mouth clearances, we would have been staring down the barrel of a gun.

Neither side played to their potential as the game was played at a frenzy pace, leading to an error-filled game in the middle of the park. Neither side could hold on to possession for any sustainable period of time, with both sets of midfielders cancelling one another out.

The game took abit of ingenuity from a set piece to open the scoring. 2 minutes before the whistle signalling the end of the first half, United won a corner. Insteading of whipping the ball into the box, Giggs found Rooney at the edge of the box (ala Sheringham).

Failing to pick up Rooney from the box, almost the entire Liverpool defense panicked and collapsed on Rooney. Rooney, on the other hand, was no Sheringham, and he scuffed the shot. The ball fell to the ever alert Tevez and he needed no invitation to scoop it into the empty net. 1-0 to the good guys!

Liverpool tried to storm back in the second half with a good amount of possession, but without a creative influence in midfield, were easy pickings for the United defenders. Our midfielders, Anderson, Hargreaves and the entire back four played their hearts out, holding Liverpools ineffective attacks at bay.

Such was Liverpool's ineffectiveness upfront that we could even afford to go a man down by bringing Mr Invisible, Carrick, on to the pick with almost 10 minutes to go. ;o)

It was nothing more than we deserved. Besides the scares Van der Sar had given us in the first half, it was apparent that Liverpool had failed yet again to meet our standards.

The squad should be well rested by next week when we face Everton at OT in a fixture-packed Christmas program.

United Holds Roma (Roma 1 - Manchester United 1)

Not much to say really. Given the circumstances, I was expecting a boring game with both sides resting players for the weekend fixtures.

With the exception of Rooney, United fielded a team which consisted of fringe players and kids. Roma, too, shuffled the pack and took the chance to field a couple of reserves and a couple of youth players. Despite that, Roma still looked more like their first team.

The first half lived up to expectation with neither side really showing up to play football. Roma, in particular, was awful. For large periods of the half, United enjoyed possession in midfield.

Slightly after 30 minutes, Pique headed home from a corner. From the way the game was played, it was fitting that the goal came from a set piece. Roma did look menacing for a while after the goal, but had nothing to show for it.

The second half was a much better affair as Roma chased the game. There were good chances from both sides.

On the 71st minute, Mancini scored a beautiful individual goal to level the score. Roma pressed on for the winner, while United hit back with the counters. There were chances aplenty for both sides but neither could add to the scoreline.

What started off as a boring game ended decently and above my expectation. No doubt, we were probably more pleased with the result than Roma, especially considering our lineup.

Just a couple of notes:

• Good to see Eagles playing. He's been somewhat of a forgotten man, after playing a couple of games at the beginning of the season.
• Simpson started the game at right back and switched to left back when Wes Brown came on. Had a decent game, however if there was a criticism of his game, it was that he tends to hold on to the ball too long in his own half. He was caught in possession a couple of times by the Roma players.
• Is it just me or is something up with Saha? He just isn't the same player this season. Mentally he just doesn't seem up for it.
  
• Pique and Johnny Evans did a credible job in the heart of defence. There is still a long way to go for them in terms of getting to the top.
• Token appearance from Dong, who basically contributed nothing to the game. Would have preferred to see Febian Brandy instead, but there was a need to cater to the millions of Chinese fans who would be sleepwalking at work tomorrow.
  

Giggs Century Leads The Way (Manchester United 4 - Derby 1)

Before I begin proper on this game, I did manage to catch the Fulham game whilst in Korea. The commentary was in Korean but a few things stood out from that game.

1. Offsides. There were plenty of offsides and most of it undeserved.

2. Ronaldo's yellow for diving. It probably didn't look like a penalty, yet at the same time didn't look like a dive. Either way, a yellow card didn't look like the right decision. If anything, Ronaldo did more diving in today's game.

Today's Game
It was a wet and heavy pitch and the passing just wasn't as crisp as expected from Manchester United. But we did dominate the game without really putting in our best effort. It was against a woeful Derby County and for large periods in the game you just get the feeling that the lads felt that by just turning up in a red jersey, victory was guaranteed.

I would have preferred to see alot more effort, but in truth, Derby are a really awful team. We could have really embarassed them if we really went for it.

After toying around with Derby for a good 40 minutes, Giggss opened the scoring, pouncing on Ronaldo's rebound. It was his 100th league goal for the club. Moments later, Tevez added a second. It was some seriously woeful defending from Derby, failing to clear the ball after Tevez had initially missed kicking the ball. At the second bite of the cherry, Tevez fired home.

On the hour mark, Tevez gave us a 3-0 lead with a superb strike. Derby should have been dead and buried. But as mentioned, we never did really turn up to play football today.

Derby managed to get a consolation goal when Evra allowed his man to run past him on the left and Van der Sar was caught in no-man's land. The cross was met by Steve Howard who managed to somehow poke it in despite some last grasp defending by Brown. This was Derby's first away goal. Probably gives some notion of just how out of depth Derby are playing in this league.

Given the way we played this game in the wet and cold, I would have gladly taken a victory. However, Ronaldo had different ideas. Right at the end of the game, he earned a penalty. Waving away Tevez, Ronaldo went on to slot home the penalty.

It was possibly be the right result at the end of the day, given just how woeful Derby was. There were probably only 3 United players who turned up today in their soccer boots. Tevez, Giggs and Rooney were outstanding. Everyone else was a shell of their former self.

In midweek, we should be sending a shadow squad to Rome and the lads should be well rested against Liverpool. Given the amount of rest we have, we had better get a good result against the grannystabbers.