Rooney And Carrick Take United To The Top......For Now

QPR 0 - Manchester United 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (1), Carrick (56)


Team: De Gea, Rio, Evans, Smalling, Evra, Carrick, Jones, Valencia, Nani (Young 88), Welbeck (Hernandez 63), Rooney (Giggs 79)

Superb performance.

Gonna make this a short one since there's plenty of football to catch tonight. We had a storming start when Rooney connected with Valencia's cross early in the game. Again the same story that we should have had more. Jones and Evans had loads of chances throughout the game but were unlucky to only find the woodwork.

Nani and Valencia were excellent down the wings and Jones is simply an incredible player. We're just hitting the surface of what he can do. Carrick had an excellent game as well and topped it off with an exclaimation. He intercepted a pass from Joey Barton in the second half from his own half and did a Ryan Giggs, bringing the ball all the way to the Rangers' box and scored.

The win brought us to the summit of the Premiership until Shitty plays Arsenal later in the evening.

Wolves Face United Backlash

Manchester United 4 - Wolves 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Nani (17, 56), Rooney (27, 62)
Wolves: Fletcher (47)


Team: De Gea, Rio, Evans, Smalling, Evra (Fryers 67), Jones, Carrick, Valencia, Nani (Young 77), Rooney, Welbeck (Macheda 74)

Was expecting this to be a tough game. Wolves has always given us trouble, especially when they come to park the bus. This season is a little different though, from the few games I've weatched Wolves, they have been adventurous and brave going forward. Today they played Fletcher and Doyle upfront, and instead of doing what most teams do when they came to Old Trafford, Wolves were probably foolishly trying to take the game to us.

Of course I'm not complaining. The opening exchanges were pretty even, but as the game progressed, it was apparent that they were leaving too much space for us to exploit in midfield. Jones and Carrick had relatively easy games and were able to dictate the pace. It was just a matter of time before we opened the scoring with the chances were were creating.

And true enough, Nani found himself with an opening and scored after jinking a couple of defenders before firing low. Rooney added a second in the first half. Wolves were facing a determined United team who had to endure a week of ridicule after being dumped from Europe's premier competition.

The opening of the second half didn't start in the way of the first. United's defenders were caught napping and Matt Javis found time and room to float in a cross which Fletcher headed into the net.

There were fears that we might not hold our nerve in the face of adversity again, but those notions were dispelled 10 minutes later when Nani added his second after good work from Valencia. Rooney made sure of the result with United's fourth and his second. There probably could have been more, alot more but we were unable to add to the tally.

This was possibly one of our better performances in the recent couple of months and exactly what the doctor ordered after our midweek exit. The difference today was that Wolves allowed us too much time and space in midfield, and most importantly, we were able to take our chances.

Our next 6-7 games are really 'must wins'. We'd be facing mostly mid to lower table teams and must make the most of it to push for the title. It will be the clearest indication if we're championship material.

Europa League....Here We Come!

Basel 2 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Basel: Streller (9), A.Frei (83)
Manchester United: Jones (89)


Team: De Gea, Rio, Vidic (Evans 44), Smalling, Evra, Jones, Park (Macheda 82), Giggs, Young (Welbeck 64), Nani, Rooney

This game had the feeling of deja vu all over it. It felt exactly like the game against Newcastle a week back. We were all over Basel but were sucker punched twice. In truth, we were our own worst enemies yet again. Rooney couldn't buy a goal and our defense couldn't keep one out.

We dominated the game and had chances galore but were put on the backfoot with a piss poor De Gea clearance that allowed Streller to volley home from the edge of the box. De Gea's had a brilliant season thus far, but he's had a terrible game tonight. All game he was nervy and his distribution was poor to say the least. It was so bad that towards the end of the half, Jones was ranting at him to pull up his socks.

If the result wasn't bad enough, we had to suffer the ignominy of losing Vidic in what looked like another serious knee injury. He was stretched off and replaced by Evans late in the half. The season's going down the shit house.

We continued to pepper the Basel goal with chances but with one true poacher upfront, we rarely looked like making the breakthru, whereas Basel looked really good whenever they had the opportunity to break. Even after throwing Welbeck and Macheda on, we continued to struggle.

It was eventually Basel who added to their lead with the old, wily veteran Alexander Frei's header. He eluded Smalling, crept to the backpost and headed in a cross. We answered with Jones' header in dramatic circumstances but it was too little too late.

We need help, and we need it in the worst way possible. We've been sleepwalking again this season and unless Shitty goes thru the kind of meltdown Chelsea did last season, the chances of retaining the Premiership title is slim to none. Adding to that, Shitty crashed out of the Champions League as well, which probably means they would be concentrating their entire resources to pipping us to the title.

Not wanting to end this on a sour note, at least we can continue blooding our youngsters in the Europa League since we've crashed out of the Mickey Mouse Cup. So it's not all bad eh?