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.

Jaded

Everton 3 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Everton: Bilyaletdinov (19), Gosling (76), Rodwell (90)
Manchester United: Berbatov (16)

Team: Van der Sar, Brown, Evans, Neville, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Park (Obertan 66), Valencia (Owen 80), Barbatov (Scholes 66), Rooney

Terrible result, but considering just how jaded we looked, you can be thankful that we didn't lose by a larger margin. We were second best on the pitch for practically the entire game. Everton was just hungrier, as simple as that.

We didn't have the brightest start but yet took the lead thru Berbatov who reacted the fastest to a deflected Valencia cross from the right. Yet almost immediately, Bilyaletdinov levelled the score with a wonder strike that left Van der Sar stranded.

The match at midweek against Milan took it's toil on our players. Ferguson probably did his best to rotate the squad, but you could tell our key players like Rooney, Fletcher, Evans and Evra probably looked exhausted. The normal energy level was severely lacking and it was a matter of time before Everton took the initiative.

Midway thru the second half, I was commenting to Kentona that we'd be lucky to come away with a point. Everton were just the better team, and looked more dangerous. Their counters had more purpose and more direct, compared to our laboured effort just to break their backline. It wasn't that we didn't try, we just weren't up to the task. Our normal movement in the box was lacking. Partly due to Berbatov's lack of effort, partly due to Carrick having one of those games where he decides to be Mr Invisible. Fletcher and Rooney were doing double time and towards the last third of the game, they looked visibly knackered.

As a result, Gosling scored from a quick counter and Rodwell iced it for Everton in the dying minutes to seal an unlikely but well-deserved victory for the Toffeemen.

It's hard to blame the men in red on such a day. Just in my previous post, I was worrying about the lack of rest for our players and today, it's come to fruitation. Too many games in too short a period, and to make matters worse, we just didn't have to quality to rely on from the bench. At the time of writing this, Chelsea is already 2 up against Wolves and look likely victors.

Things are going to get alittle worse for us as we have another game coming up on Tuesday against West Ham, followed by the mickey mouse cup final against Villa at the weekend. Thick and fast, that's how our schedule looks. We can't afford to lose more ground, yet at the same time, we need to find time to rest our key players to prevent anther game like this from happening. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not Ferguson. While he's probably having headaches finding a solution, I'm having migraines just thinking of it.

Pretty Epic, Huh?

AC Milan 2 - Manchester United 3
Scorers
AC Milan: Ronaldinho (3), Seedorf (85)
Manchester United: Scholes (36), Rooney (66, 74)

Red Card
Manchester United: Carrick (90)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Evans, Rafael (Brown 90), Evra, Scholes, Carrick, Fletcher, Park, Nani (Valencia 64), Rooney

You gonna have to kick yourself in the balls if you missed this one. I almost did. All the Chinese New Year celebrations/gambling/happee times left me barely enough energy to hang on for the full 90 minutes. But at the end of it, I'm glad I spent the last 30 or so minutes literally pinching myself to stay awake to see the game out.

This is one helluva superb result to bring back to Old Trafford in 3 weeks time. The result could have been sweeter if we hadn't fallen asleep towards the end of the game. At the same time, it was what kept the game interesting.

Milan started the game extremely brightly. Ronaldinho scored in the 3rd minute via a heavily deflected shot off Carrick. Our defense was caught napping early in the game and were punished accordingly. Milan could have sealed the game before our equalizer. They had about 3-4 excellent chances to score, but Van der Sar stood in their way.

Scholes marked United's ascendancy with a fluke goal in the 36th minute. Up to that point, we were just flattering to deceive. We haven't had a shot on target and Milan were threatening to kill us off with the counter-attack. Scholes swung to meet the cross but the ball hit him on the standing leg and spun into the bottom corner of the net. It was a bizarre and fortunate goal, but at that point we were happy to take anything from the game.

We grew from strength to strength as the game wore on and the introduction of Valencia in place of Nani paid immediate dividends. With his first cross, he found Rooney who headed the ball into the net. Minutes later, Fletcher floated a beautiful ball for the man of the moment, Rooney, to head home his second and United's third.

We were in cruise control and winning everything on the pitch. It almost looked too easy until Seedorf was brought on. The wily old veteran scored late on with a cheeky flick that galvanized Milan into a frenzy looking for the equalizer. In the midst of all the helter skelter, Carrick was shown a second yellow. It was probably a case of mistaken identity, since Evra was the one who kicked the ball away. I'm sure it would all be sorted after the referee's report.

In any case, it was a frantic end to a fantastic game. Rooney validated Fergusion's earlier comments that he was one of the premier players in the modern game today. And while Rooney continues to hug the headlines, Fletcher was undoubtedly my hero today. He worked tirelessly firstly on the left of midfield, then to the centre and back to the left again. I'm sure he covered every blade of grass at the San Siro.

Which brings me to another point. It seems Evra, Fletcher and Rooney are playing every game. Given their incredible workrate, I'm beginning to worry that they might face a burn out sooner rather than later. Rooney especially has been left upfront alone rather frequently which means more running, something which he already does naturally. Our replacements don't seem to be able to carry their own weight, or at least Ferguson seems to have lost faith in them, namely Owen and Berbatov. It could all be much ado about nothing, but I'm still concerned.

Hey, don't let this grumpy fan take the joy away from today's epic victory. Let's savor the moment. It's not everyday you beat AC Milan so comprehensively.