Ruud Winner (Manchester United 1 - West Ham United 0)

Ruud started and scored the winner, however that's bout all he did the entire game. That's Ruud's game, a clinical striker. We had tonnes of chances but only a couple fell to Ruud. Had we been more clinical, we should have put away West Ham and made this a comfortable victory, instead we had to sweat the entire game. It's a frustrating game to watch.

Again our midfield went MIA, much due to Saha not playing. It's kinda difficult to balance the team. Have Ruud playing and you can be sure of goals if the chances fall to him. On the other hand, play Saha, and you wouldn't have your midfield overwhelmed by the opponents. It's a tough decision and I'm glad I'm not making it.

Pique, Vidic and Evra started this game. Pique IS the future. He played awesome in right back, making all the right decisions. Come to think of it, he's the present. I've yet to see how he performs in a full game at centre back, but if we lose Gary Neville for whatever reason, there's a ready replacement. Yes, I'm drooling all over the prospect of seeing Pique become a regular.

Vidic had a pretty damn good game too. He single handedly kept Harewood out of the game. I don't know what's happened to Brown, but Vidic is a player. Evra had a mixed game. Did nothing outstanding and wasn't too damaging at the back.

We are having a pretty decent run of good results. If I'm not wrong, we're facing Bolton at the Reebok this weekend. That should be a real test away from home against a strong team. I hope our midfield doesn't get kicked off the pitch.

Merciful (Manchester United 3 - Birmingham 0)

Maybe it's because it's Steve Bruce's team, or maybe we just lost that ruthless edge, but whatever the case is, we were merciful today. The scoreline could and should easily have overtaken the midweek scoreline Birmingham suffered in the hands of Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter finals (7-0, and yes I caught that game, in fact I caught all the FA cup quarter final games).

The game effectively ended as a contest in the 14th min when Giggs scored our second goal, adding to the first he scored in the 2nd min. After that, we were basically just hoofing the ball over to Birmingham and inviting them to test out our defensing pairing of Vidic and Rio.

I've also noticed that the midfield pairing of JOS and Giggs seems to work pretty well, despite not one of them being a recognised central midfielder. I realised that alot of it boils down to playing Rooney and Saha as the front 2 pairing. Rooney basically plays slightly in front of JOS and Giggs, and Saha actually plays pretty deep despite being the frontmost guy. I noticed in the past few games, he's always been playing deep and making penetrating runs when we do move forward. He acts as the extra midfield, helping the 2 guys in the centre. It's something Ruud is unable to do because he lacks the speed to make a dash forward when we win the possession back. Which probably explains why he started the 4th consecutive game on the bench.

On a sadder note, this is probably going to be Bruce's last game as a manager of Birmingham. I think his players have already thrown in the towel and pretty much a foregone conclusion that Birmingham are going down to the lower division, even though it's not a mathematical certainty. The other sad note is that Brian Robson's West Brom might just join them. As I mentioned some weeks back, Portsmouth is finally starting to gel and playing some terrific soccer. If both Birmingham and West Brom continue not to pick up points, there is a very high possibility that Portsmouth is going to overtake them.

Warning: Not soccer related
Just like to add that Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the creators of South Park) are geniuses. In their latest offering, they basically showed the middle finger to that fruity little club, while giving Chef a fitting farewell.

And hail Xenu.

WBA 1 - Manchester United 2

Good game for us. Nothing much to report though. We were pretty good but nowhere near the brilliant form of last week. We were so comfortable that I nearly fell asleep in the first half. Luckily Kentona called me on the mobile to wake me up.

Anyway, good result and another win to keep Liverpool a decent distance from us. Let's hope we can keep this run till the end of the season. Gives us something to build up to next season.