United On Fire

Manchester United 2 (Ronaldo 60p, Rooney 77) Bolton Wanderers 0

There was no controversy over Manchester United’s decisive penalty,  it wasn’t one.  Rob Styles gave United the game on a plate, but Wayne Rooney was given a cake by a Ronaldo back heel, stuck some icing on it and stuck on the plate to give United a 2-0 win.

Rob Styles gave United the penalty after it started to look like United were going to have one of those days when the ball just wouldn’t go in.  A lovely cross field pass gave Ronaldo some space on the right, and he was able to pick up some speed and travel into the box.  As he went inside he showed too much of the ball to the Bolton defender, J Lloyd Samuel, who timed his tackle perfectly and stopped the ball.  Ronaldo fell over his leg and used his hands to protect his very expensive face from hitting the ground.  Even he couldn’t be bothered to try to claim a penalty because it was a good tackle.  But Styles, who isn’t inexperienced in the art of giving penalties where no exist, pointed to the spot.

Ronaldo duly put the penalty away with minimum of celebration and the game was more or less sealed in that moment.  Rooney, who had been rested ahead of another Champions League clash, came off the bench and linked up well with Ronaldo and scored a peach of a second.  Who knows whether it would have been the decisive moment.

If you ignore the penalty, this was a routine victory for United, if slightly laboured.  United are slowly moving through the gears and back up the table.

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From whence did this fixture come from? It’s not in my diary. Anyhow, it appears to be on Sky so I’m happy. A team in the relegation zone, playing poorly, easy three points ? That didn’t work out too well Saturday.

I’ve given up trying to work out the midfield team selections. It’ll be two from Scholes, Anderson, Carrick, Hargreaves or Fletcher in the middle. The trouble is that they don’t play enough together to get to know one another. Oddly enough Scholes come back hasn’t helped too much as it just means more rotation.

Up front, I expect Rooney and Ronaldo will play despite Liverpool coming up at the weekend. Maybe if the job is done by 60 minutes, they’ll come off but I think that Fergie knows that you don’t mess with the important bits of the team at the business end of the season.

Speaking of important parts, we certainly missed Ferdinand on Saturday, and I hope he is fit for this game, if not it is vital both Ferdinand and Vidic played against Torres on Saturday.

The goalkeeper position got very interesting as a result of the Portsmouth cup defeat. Presumably, Foster did well enough to keep his place as van der Sar is still injured. If he performs really well, should he be dropped for the Liverpool game?

From a Bolton point of view, they need points badly, but I just can’t see them getting goals. They must hope for a clean sheet and try to steal one at the other end. Selling Anelka was a really bad move and unless another team does even worse (I’m looking at Newcastle here) they’ll be going down as Fulham are starting to pick up some points as well.

Prediction: 2-0 with Ronaldo getting 1 (but missing 32) and a Gary Cahill own goal

Image Fulham on the attack, by d.nuttall

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