United On Fire

Tottenham 1 (Berbatov 21) Manchester United 1 (Tevez 90 + last kick of the game)

United earnt a draw in the last seconds of a game they were never in, showing determination and persistence against a much improved Spurs.

It’s advantage Arsenal in the league marathon as United dropped two points in a hard away match at White Hart Lane. United never played well and ended the match with seven bookings including a yellow card for Wayne Rooney that will keep him out of the Manchester derby.

I won’t go into too much detail as I haven’t seen the whole game due to a rather busy weekend and start to the week. However, I’ve seen the MotD highlights and it seemed to be a clear hand ball leading up to Berbatov’s goal. Jenas fell over in the box and put his hand out to claim a penalty. Whilst it was unintentional it was still clear ball to hand and it moved the ball away from Hargreaves who was wrong footed allowed Lennon to get past him. It was a clever ball across and Van der Sar could only parry it out to Berbatov who coolly slotted it home. If I’m right, that’s his first goal against a Big Four team.

United were not to be denied a point as Tevez got the equaliser from a corner with virtually the last kick of the game. It must have been gutting for Spurs and their fans. Never mind

Bloggers Reviews of the game

• How come we are happy with a point? Quite right. We were mocking Arsenal for treating a last gasp equaliser like they’d won the league. We should be disappointed we played so badly.
• Tottenham 1-1 Man Utd: Tevez Rescues Point United didn’t deserve the point
• Match Review: Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Manchester United We certainly didn’t deserve to take a point from that contest I sense a theme developing
• Why Spurs Point Is More Important Than We Can Measure Tevez’s goal is not the first important one he has scored after the minimum injury time has run out. Our new 20LEgend?

Popularity: 24% [?]

The votes are in and have been counted and verified. No dodgy ITV telephone scams here, and I can reveal the results. 75% of you think that Arsenal will be our main challengers for the title this season. Only 25% think Chelsea despite the signing of Anelka and the fact they are just 4 points behind us.

People think that Liverpool have as much chance as Derby of winning the league this season as they polls precisely no votes. More bad news for Rafa to deal with.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Reading 0 Manchester United 2 (Rooney 77, Ronaldo 90+2)

A very entertaining open game was decided by some Rooney magic as the Champions overcame the Royals in Berkshire.

As previously noted, I managed to get tickets for this game and went with my son and my dad to the Madejski Stadium. We were in the South Stand amongst the home support, but in the same stand as the United fans. Once inside with pint in hand (for two of us) we could hear the United fans on the other side of the wall, singing away. We went out to find our seats and found that they were actually back row which gave us a tremendous view of the passage of play but meant we were not exactly close to the action.

The game started and United were attacking the far end to us. After the initial 5 minutes the game settled very open. Reading played with two forwards and another forward in right midfield and Hunt, normally a winger in midfield. In contrast to their Old Trafford performance, Reading made this a game took the game to United. By the end of the first half, Reading were on top. Whilst United looked dangerous going forward, the midfield was conceding too much ground and possession and putting too much pressure on the defence.

Hargreaves harried well enough, but offered nothing going forward. Carrick was anonymous for large parts of the game and Park was just simply poor and completely outplayed. Reading were very clever in putting two left midfield players, Hunt and Convey over on United’s weak spot, the right back. Whilst Wes Brown is competent enough, he is the least of our defenders and gets no protection from Ronaldo in front (not a criticism of Ronaldo, btw).

As a result of their dominance of the midfield, Reading were able to put our central defenders under considerable pressure. Despite reports on MotD, I’m happy to say that Ferdinand and Vidic coped well. Kitson was very good as a strong centre forward but Vidic met power with power. Whilst I say they coped ok, due to the amount of pressure Reading had a number of chances when the could have scored.

A rare blunder from Van Der Sar left him well out of position and only intelligent positioning from Ferdinand denied Kitson the opening goal. More pressure and Kitson was brought down in the area by a poor challenge from Carrick but the referee gave the free kick the other way. Finally Vidic had to desperately tackle Kitson and ended up putting the ball in his own net. He was only saved by the fact that Kitson was offside.

All this said, United’s forwards are of such quality that they were able to create a number of chances themselves, without much help from the midfield. Hahnemann saved well from Tevez, Rooney evened up the “balls in net but offside” count and Hargreaves curled a wonderful freekick to the top corner only for Hahnemann to produce an excellent save. The replays on the big screen produced a loud “oooooh” from all corners of the ground.

Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t get where he was today by ignoring the blindingly obvious and at half time replaced Park for Ryan Giggs. An early second half corner from Giggs almost provided the first goal as Hahnemann didn’t collect it and it bounced off Kitson’s back towards the goal. It was saved by an excellent clearance from Reading’s centre back Cisse.

Slowly the pressure increased on Reading’s goal. Ronaldo skied over the bar from six yards out. Hargreaves was replaced by Nani as United decided that as the midfield was so poor, we would just play with forwards and wingers.

Eventually the goal game, just when you were starting to think that this one was going to get away. United built on the left and Reading failed to clear it properly. Tevez got the ball and played a wonderful pass to Rooney, who provided the deftest of touches to glance the ball into the net. A quality goal. All Reading’s hard work was undone by a touch of genius.

Reading pushed further forward in search of an equalizer and nearly got it. Good work in the midfield again and Harper burst through on goal and put his shot inches wide. Reading attacked again, it broke down and United had a three v two with the keeper but failed to score. Into injury time (I’m with Fergie; the game had virtually no injuries and only one flashpoint where Convey and Ferdinand were both booked; where did four minutes come from?) and still Reading attacked. Murty’s attempted shot hit Vidic and then Fletcher cleared to Ronaldo. This time it was three on one and Shorey got no where near him and he coolly made it 2-0.

A hard fought and vital away win for United and an entertaining and open game. We left the ground and got caught in a group of Man United fans looking for their coach. They were all happy, if a bit lost.

Popularity: 53% [?]

Reading v Manchester United (Madejski Stadium, Saturday 19th January 2008 15:00 GMT)

Reading away.  Last season United played at Reading and ended with a 1-1 draw.  Kevin Doyle scored from the penalty spot after Gary Neville handled in the area before United equalized fairly late on with another great Christiano Ronaldo solo run and goal, turning the Reading full-back Murty inside out.

United are better than when the played Reading last season, and Reading are not quite as good.  Their defence seems to be leaking more goals and they have lost key central defender Sonko to the African Cup of Nations.  Backup defender Bikey has also gone to Africa and an injury to Michael Duberry leaves then very short in this position.  Up front Doyle seems to have be going through a lean spell and Kitson, the top scoring English player in the premiership is doubtful with a knee injury.   Their key player to watch, is Stephen Hunt, infamous from the Petr Cech incident but a very good winger, both skillful and not afraid to get stuck in.

United are flying again, top of the league after putting six past Newcastle last week.  Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez are all on top form.  Hargreaves is fit again, Anderson and Carrick did well against King Kev’s new/old team and Scholes is closer to returning to the team, so there is real competition for central midfield places.  The defence picks itself at the moment which says it all.

We shouldn’t be too complacent as Liverpool came to Reading and lost this season and we have only won one of the three league games against Reading.  When you virtually need to win every game going, a draw is like a defeat, so we shouldn’t be overconfident.  Reading are 13th in the table, but only two points from the relegation zone, so will fight for all the points they can get.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Manchester United 6 (Ronaldo 49, 70, 88, Tevez 55, 90, Ferdinand 85) Birmingham City 0

United massacred managerless Newcastle scoring six second half goals and goal machine Ronaldo scored his first hat trick for the club

United were all over Newcastle in the first half and Rooney could have got a hat trick himself, whilst there were two strong penalty claims on Ronaldo and Giggs in the space of a minute, both denied by referee Rob Styles. However, it was Newcastle that had the ball in the net. Even the Michael Owen was called offside, the TV replays showed he was on, but the United defenders had stopped.

The second half started with a double goal line save by Taylor first from Tevez and then from Rooney from the rebound. United had come out flying, perhaps on the end of a Fergie “pep talk” whereas Newcastle showed that they were managerless by coming out as if they’d spent half time talking about where they were going to go on holiday this summer.

The first goal came from a perhaps harshly given free-kick as Smith clipped Ronaldo. Ronaldo took the resulting freekick low and the wall jumped over the ball. Another goal from a Ronaldo freekick just as the critics were complaining about them.

It was quickly 2-0 as Newcastle made a total mess of clearing the ball. A poor back pass put Given under pressure and his clearance struck a defender and fell to Giggs who squared for Tevez to put the ball away simply. He had more trouble getting the dummy out of his shorts than scoring.

The third was a great goal. A fast passing move, typical of the current United side, tore Newcastle apart and ended with Ronaldo controlling the ball fantastically before slotting the ball home. Before the 4th goal there was another shout for a penalty as Ferdinand was pushed in the box. However, it was the England defender that had the last laugh as Rooney found him in the box as he volleyed it home to make it 4.

Ronaldo completed his hat trick as the chances and goals continued to flow. Ronaldo’s shot was deflected but he was clearly delighted to get his third. Who needs a goal poacher like Van Nistelrooy when you have the goal machine Ronaldo?

There was time for one more goal and a sending off. Tevez hit the ball and the ball bounced on or over the line. The linesman called goal and it was 6-0. Alan Smith protested a little bit too much and Styles sent him off. He received warm applause as he left the pitch as the United fans gave thanks to his commitment whilst playing for us.

Cheer up Alan Shearer. It can’t get much worse for Newcastle. Harry Rednapp turns you down and then you get slaughtered 6-0. Next week can’t be worse than this one.

Popularity: 22% [?]