United Survives Hawthorns

WBA 1 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
WBA: Morrison (14)
Manchester United: Rooney (2), Hernandez (75)

Team: Kuszczak, Rio, Vidic, Neville (Fabio 71), Evra, Carrick, Anderson, Fletcher, Obertan (Gibson 61), Rooney, Berbatov (Hernandez 61)

Hmmm....where shall we start? First off, we were terrible...really terrible. Secondly, WBA should have won with plenty of leg space to put most first class seats in most airlines to shame.

Granted we started off early with a Rooney goal from open play to usher in the New Year, we were second best for most parts of the game. Neville, in particular, was just abysmal. I know he's been a loyal servant and a key part in alot of our past success, but the current version lacks the timing and positional sense to play the game at this level anymore. He was caught out of position time and time again and to make matters worse, he's been caught for pace and left for dead. He should have been sent off early in the game with a crude tackle in the box, but was let off when the referee waved the game on despite it being an ironclad penalty.

It's embarassing to watch a legend fall so badly. Ferguson should stop trying to shame the poor fellow and let him slowly fade into the sunset. There are options at rightback if Ferguson is willing to put away his biasness.

Obertan is the other player in red that was utterly disappointing as well. There is no doubts that he has oodles of skills, but for some reason, he just doesnt't know how to deal with it. He's decision making is some of the worst I've seen in football. Nani and Ronaldo have been guilty of making some poor choices on the pitch, but Obertan takes the cake. Some of the stuff he does )or doesn't do), just baffles the mind. Nevertheless, I'm not willing to write him off yet. If we exercised the amount of patience on both Nani and Ronaldo, then it's only fair we give Obertan the same amount of time to establish himself and learn the game properly. Yet for some reason, I feel he just might not make the grade.

As for everyone else, I suppose they did enough. We were lucky that WBA missed a penalty while they were completely dominating the game. That penalty miss deflated them and Hernandez went on the sub salt in their wounds with a game winner.

We've chalked up our second away win and have temporarily broken away from the chasing pack, albeit for a few hours.

Oops, We Did It Again

Birmingham 1 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Birmingham: Bowyer (90)
Manchester United: Berbatov (58)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Anderson (Fletcher 73), Gibson (Hernandez 90), Giggs, Rooney, Berbatov

We still can't keep leads away from home. This game was a huge downer, especially how we got the lead then proceeded to give it away at the last minute of regulation time.

It wasn't a pretty game. Birmingham, mired at the bottom of the table, set up shop to frustrate the living hell outta us. We never got our passing game going, and barely 48hrs after the last game, we faced up to a fresh Birmingham team that was determined to spoil the festivities. And if that wasn't bad enough, we came in with a reputation of giving games away late when we're not at our favourite hunting ground. Everything pointed to a draw and we didn't help by living up to our reputation.

With the exception of an fabulous strike by Berbatov, there really weren't many bright spots in the game. Instead of pressing on for the kill, we sat back too deep and invited Birmingham to come forward and by doing that, the inevitable happened. Although it was a blantant handball by Zigic and a hint of offside by Bowyer, the bulk of the blame had to fall on ourselves. Spoilt by the pretty play of the past few games, we let ourselves down by not doing enough.

I suppose that on the bright side, we're still top of the heap come 2011, but barely. Our noisy neighbours have crept up and are sitting pretty alongside us, as the top gets uncomfortably crowded as a bunch of teams are within striking distance. Yet given how we're started our campaign, I suppose this is still a good position to be in. Looks like we have to pull up our socks and do what we traditionally do, and that is to finish strong into the second half of the season.

Strolling Past Sunderland

Manchester United 2 - Sunderland 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Berbatov (5, 57)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Anderson (Gibson 64), Park, Giggs (Macheda 64), Berbatov (Hernandez 82), Rooney

Firstly, I'm absolutely gushing over Anderson. He's been the outstanding player for me in the last four games. Maybe it's because he's playing along side Carrick, or maybe he's finally gotten it at long last. Whichever the case is, he's passing, tenacity and powerful runs forward are exactly what we've been missing at United for quite sometime. If he carries on in this fine form, it's just a matter of time before the goals come as well. Then we'd be talking about him along side some of the great midfielders currently playing for Barcelona.

Today Berbatov stepped up to the plate with a fine brace. Steve Bruce's side found it hard to cope with the power and pace at Old Trafford today. Our play was so good that after the first 15 or so minutes, you just have the feeling another Blackburn-type scoreline was on the cards. In that brief opening sequence, Berbatov scored, we hit the woodwork twice and Rooney had an exqusite chip narrowly miss the target. In short, we were all over Sunderland. It unfortunately fettered away. Although we only scored two, the defense was never really threatened.

It's just quite astonishing just how much we've accomplished with this team. On paper we look terribly average, yet on Boxing Day, we're leading the pack by two points with two games in hand. I think it's a combination of both the league being super competitive this season and all the title challengers not playing up to par. The fact we top the table by not playing up to par is a superb achievement.

As of right now, we're just beginning to play the kind of football the fans have come to recognise all these years. Alot of the credit has to go to Ferguson. He has somehow brought out the best from these players, managing the expectations, stroking the egos and nurturing the youth. There is still a long long way to go, but things looking up despite the hectic schedule that Mother Nature has thrown up.