United played well within themselves and came out easy winners against a limited Fulham side.
With illness racing through the defence faster than it takes for Saha to pick up an injury and rust falling off the shoulders of Wayne Rooney, it was left to the 2nd best player in Europe to win the game for United.
United set off at a blistering started and Ronaldo scored after 9 minutes, but by half time that was really as good as it got as United’s performance tailed off. Evra was taken off ill at half time and replaced by O’Shea and later Rio Ferdinand had to come off as well. Owen Hargreaves ended up at right back.
It was O’Shea that provided a cross for Ronaldo’s second, a fairly simple header after the Irishman was given far too much time on the wing. It was more or less all over then but there was time for Ronaldo to try to get a third and was thought to have been brought down for a penalty only for Rob Stiles to book the winger for diving. I’ll need to see a replay to find out whether that was right or not.
Tevez again played well, but missed some chances and had some chances excellently saved by the Fulham keeper, Niemi, who was by far and away Fulham’s best player.
It is worrying that we are now relying totally on Ronaldo to win us the games. Hopefully, Rooney will shake off the rust and get back to form and Tevez will start putting away some of the chances.
Update: Links to the goals and penalty claim. I also talk more about the Ronaldo penalty here.
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Having now watched the game and ignoring the main talking points raised by the media I have to comment on the standard of football. It was fantastic, particularily the first half hour. The passing was crisp and accurate and everyone was moving off the ball into space. Of particular merit and and praise are Hargreaves and Anderson. Only Rooney looked rusty but his endeavour was top notch. He only lost his rag and got booked and ultimately substituted because his standards are high and he wanted to join in the scoring. He and Teves linked wonderfully although Teves should have had about ten goals.