Macheda - The New Ole

Sunderland 1 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Sunderland: Jones (55)
Manchester United: Scholes (19), Macheda (76)

Team: Foster, Vidic, Evans, Neville, O'Shea, Carrick, Scholes, Park (70), Rooney, Berbatov (Macheda 75), Tevez (Anderson 82)

He's only 17 but if we win the title this season, he's name will live on in the minds of United fans around the world. In a space of 7 days, the Italian has emerged as an unlikely hero.

United were unbelievably poor in defense, yet again and should have been punished harder. Thankfully their counter-parts on the opposite side of the pitch were equally poor.

United started the brighter of the 2 sides with Scholes scoring in the 18th minute from a Rooney cross. It looked like a routine day at the office and a customary routing of another opponent. But our midfield and defense had other ideas.

We started to lose possession with increasing frequency and we were leaving gaps all over the place for the Sunderland attackers to exploit. Lucky for us, they had their tactics all wrong. The were so afraid of the counter-attack that they refused to commit men forward when attacking. Had they done so, we would have been staring at a defeat.

As it were, only Cisse and Jones were left to fend for themselves upfront. Still they made life extremely difficult and we barely coped with their strength and pace.

We've been playing some shitty football in the first half of games and have been able to turn it around in the latter halves. Unfortunately, today we decided to be utterly crap for the full 90 minutes.

Sundeland found the equalizer in the second half when the defense collapsed and Foster was left flapping in the box when Jones poked it home.

We tried to regain the lead but our front guys were either misfiring or simply missing. It didn't help that there was no support from midfield. We were definitely dropping the points. Even the presence of Ronaldo, who came on for Park, didn't help the situation. Instead of providing the killer punch, Ronaldo was more interested in his stepovers and basically clowning around.

As an almost last resort, Ferguson sent on Macheda. Barely seconds after his introduction, Macheda redirected a Carrick shot into the net. He single-handedly changed the complexion of the game. We've found our supersub, we've found our Ole.

We held on to the final whistle and gathered a much needed 3 points to leapfrog Liverpool in the standings. It was definitely not deserved but we'll take what Macheda gives us.

I'm not as confident as before that we'd win the title, although we'd still probably will. Liverpool's form is incredible. Pound for pound, I believe their starting 11 is way better than ours. And they definitely are showing much more desire right now.

We have no midfielders and our defense is in shambles. Even our front guys are looking shaky. Only Rooney is performing up to par. Tevez can't hit the side of the barn and Berbatov looks like a terrible waste of money. Ditto Carrick.

The only things that set us apart from Liverpool is that we have the experience of performing under pressure and we have a deeper squad. That said, if we continually use players like O'Shea week in week out, our squad depth's pretty shitty too. Least we have the new Ole to count on.

United Faces Uphill Task To Semis

Manchester United 2 - Porto 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (15), Tevez (85)
Porto: Rodriguez (4), Mariano (89)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans (Neville 72), O'Shea, Evra, Carrick, Scholes (Tevez 72), Fletcher, Park (Giggs 59), Ronaldo, Rooney

Our form is just terrible. Nothing seems to come easy and we're letting everyone come have a go at us. Once again we've found it difficult to get our engines warmed up before Porto hit an early goal.

To our credit, despite being completely outplayed in the first half, Rooney managed an equalizer to draw level going into the break.

Thankfully I hardly caught the second half. It's been an exhausting week and I kept drifiting off to sleep while pinching myself to keep awake. It's probably a good thing too considering just how pathetic we've been playing.

The game ended 2-2 and we now have to beat Porto in Portugal. Ferguson has to somehow wake this team up. Since the loss to Liverpool, we've lost our swagger and have been playing absolutely terrible football. The defense in particular has been abysmal. We're letting in all kinds of goals. If we're to win anymore silverware, there needs to be drastic improvement in all departments.

United Digs Deep For Victory

Manchester United 3 - Aston Villa 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Ronaldo (14,80), Macheda (90)
Aston Villa: Carew (30), Agbonlahor (58)

Team: Van der Sar, Evans, Neville, O'Shea, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Nani (Macheda 61), Ronaldo, Giggs, Tevez (Welback 87)

We were down to bare bones today and it showed. Vidic, Scholes and Rooney were all serving suspensions and were terribly missed. Berbatov and Rio, normally first team players, were out with injuries, although I personally didn't miss them terribly.

Villa showed absolutely no sympathy to our plight and were determined to make the most of their annual donation to Old Trafford. The opening moments of the game were totally dominated by Agbonlahor running circles around Gary Neville. They created so many chances that it was Fulham all over again.

I was watching the game with a few mates at a Clementi kopitiam, hoping to break the jinx which had followed me the last couple of games by pulling our collective karma together. And it didn't look at all good. In fact, we were hoping that we didn't dig ourselves too deep a hole before the team decided to play football.

This time it looked like our collective karma worked wonders. Friedel gifted us a freekick when he handled a backpass. Giggs rolled the ball to Ronaldo who whacked it into the top right corner giving us an undeserved lead.

Despite their good work, Villa were one down and their confidence started to fade. We couldn't exploit their brief moment of weakness and it wasn't long before Carew found himself being marked by Neville. Neville had neither the strength, pace nor height for such a tough and one-side appointment. And on the half hour mark, Carew easily lost Neville and headed a cross into the net. That was Neville's last meaningful contribution as a centre-back. He was returned to his normal position as right-back. Not that it made much difference. He continually was left huffing and puffing after speedy wingers like Agbonlahor and Ashley Young.

Villa had the upper hand and the half time whistle was just what was needed for us to regroup.

Sadly, half time was also what Villa needed to refocus and this time it was Agbonlahor who headed home Petrov's cross giving Villa the lead in a see-saw contest. Well, actually to called it a see-saw contest was giving United too much credit. We never really looked like scoring despite having a good portion of the possession.

2-1 down in a crucial game, it looked like Liverpool's season. Ferguson's response was to bring on 17-year old Italian Fedrico Macheda into the fray. Remember the name.

We still played like crap and Villa probably had the better chances until Ronaldo took over the game. With ten minutes left in the game, he took a wonderful shot that curled past Friedel to level the scores.

Tevez was sacrificed for Welback and he nearly made an immediate impact with a shot stopped point blank. Then in injury time, Macheda happened.

The young 17-year old twisted and turned in the Villa box before curling a beauty to crash Villa's dreams. It was a coolly taken goal. Huge emphasis on coolly.

It's been sometime since we've had a young player come in with such an impact. He plays hard, and more importantly he seems to have loads of confidence and spunk. I know this is probably abit premature, but I think we can afford to let Tevez go at the end of the season, as much as I hate it. But damn, Macheda's impact in this game reminds me of Ole's debut.

If he continues to get opportunites to perform like this, we may have a winner on our hands.

And to all the Liverpool fans who were crooning over their result yesterday, eat this!

Lastly, collective karma rules! The only downside is that everyone's gonna really unproductive at work in the morning.