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Lyon 1 Manchester United 1

Published by
Paul
at February 21, 2008 in Champions League and Reviews. 2 Comments

Lyon 1 (Benzema 54) Manchester United 1 (Tevez 87)

Carlos Tevez rescued United from an away defeat as they take a vital away goal advantage to the 2nd leg. Both teams started with a 4-5-1 formation that canceled each other out. Lyon broke through with a great individual goal from Benzema whilst United leveled once they changed formation to 4-4-2 showing that they had a greater strength in depth. Tevez Scores

There was a tough first half as both midfields fought and and battled with few chances for either team. Hargreaves and Anderson allowed Scholes to progress further forward and a beautiful through ball from Giggs put him into the box in a throwback to 10 years ago. Giggs created an even better chance for Rooney who was put through one on one with the keeper, only for Coupet to save well. Meanwhile, United’s back four were pressed but coped with the Lyon attack.

United started the second half strongly with much possession only for Benzema to create a goal. With 4 United players around him, he was able to find the gap and place the ball into net off the post. United were visibly shaken by this and Ferguson showed his squad had the numbers and ability to change games for him. The increasingly tired and ineffective Scholes and Giggs were replaced by Nani and Tevez. Hargreaves was later replaced by Carrick.

The effect was notably as United went to 4-4-2 and Rooney had a companion to play with again and nearly scored as they showed their telepathic understanding one touch to create a chance. Increasingly Lyon were pegged back and they attempted to change the game by removing Juninho for a more defence minded player and Benzema for the Brazilian Fred.

In the end it was the latter substitution that had the most effect, but for the worst. As United pressured late in the game, they won a corner. Initially cleared, the ball then fell to Carrick in the area who fired the ball goalward only for it to hit Fred. It was cleared again, only to Nani on the wing. He flighted a perfect cross into the box but there were no United players on the end of it. However, it bounced again off Fred, this time off his heal and straight into the path of Tevez. Tevez couldn’t miss from three yards out and the game was level.

United take a vital away goal into the home game at Old Trafford and any win or a 0-0 will see them through.

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Manchester United 4 Arsenal 0

Published by
Paul
at February 20, 2008 in Reviews. 0 Comments

This one will live long in the memory even if it was watched from a hotel bedroom. I managed to get to the hotel just in time, but spent ages checking in, getting into the room and trying to find the on switch for the TV. Got it turned on and it was still 0-0, United had a corner and bang 1-0 up, the perfect start.

The perfect start led to a brilliant game where United totally dominated Arsenal in a way that only usually happens in your dreams. If United had put away all their chances … 10-0 ? Probably not, but that was such the dominance we had. Oddly, Arsenal were completely inept in defence. Rooney is not the best target man in the world, but United would play a simple long ball up to him and it would case absolute havoc in the Arsenal defence.

United rested Ronaldo, Tevez, Giggs, Scholes and Hargreaves but Arsenal did rest some of their players too, notably Adebayor, their main player. They offered nothing up front, lacked any passion in midfield and were abject in defence. I can’t see that carrying on onto their next league game.

Darren Fletcher had a superb game and should be given more opportunities based on his performance, and if it proved anything, we rely totally on Wayne Rooney at the moment, not Ronaldo. 4 days on from the game and without taking any notes during the game, I don’t want to comment anymore on United. They responded to the defeat against City really well and should push Arsenal all the way until the end of the season.

I will add one thing about Arsenal, however. The horror tackle from Eboue that saw him get a red was just one of a number of incidents in the second half from the Arsenal side that was downright nasty and shows once again that Wenger cannot control his players, or perhaps even encourages it. Gallas and others on Nani was particularly disgusting. Nani showed great skill, that was a little bit in the way of a showboat, but it was a very clever way of using skill to evade his marker. His reward from an Arsenal team that is supposed to be about the “beautiful game” was a lunging tackle and minutes later a blatant kick off the ball, that should have resulted in a red card, or a suspension for Gallas using video evidence. Once again, the Premier League took no action.

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Arsenal 5th Round Cup preview

Published by
Paul
at February 15, 2008 in Previews. 0 Comments

Due to a calendar malfunction, I’ll be away for this game.  I forgot to add the FA Cup tie dates into my diary.  I’m concentrating on the league and europe this season, ok?  Anyway, hopefully I’ll be able to find a TV screen in a pub or something up in Edinburgh to watch the game.  However, the omens are not good, on my previous visit to Edinburgh on a stag do, I watched Arsenal clinch the 98 title.  Amongst others, Tony Adams scored a cracker against Everton and I knew it was all over for that season.  Might have been earlier that 98, come to think of it, but I don’t tend to remember the seasons when Arsenal won the league.  I don’t remember too much of that stag do either, but that’s another matter.

Speaking of boozing, on a completely unrelated note, honestly, it’s sad to see Bryan Robson got relieved of his duties at Sheffield United.  Captain Fantastic was once down as a future United manager, but surely his career as a manager must be over now.

FA Cup 5th round and United are at home to Arsenal.  After the last two poor performances, United get back to form otherwise the Gunners will knock us out.  Having thought about the derby defeat, aside from missing Rooney the main problem was that United had nothing at all in midfield.  Ronaldo, Nani and Giggs cannot play in the same team at the same time.  Scholes and Anderson didn’t work as a central midfield pairing.  Scholes and Carrick we know works.  Hargreaves and Anderson works.  I think Scholes and Hargreaves would work as well and that would be my first choice for the remainder of this season and long time for Anderson to replace Scholes.

Tevez needs to play alongside someone.  Dunne and Richards totally bossed him, which I don’t think would be the case if Rooney had played.  So we lost out in midfield and up front.  Oh, and our defence had a shocker too.  We were lucky it was only 2-1 in retrospect.

Let’s hope for better against Arsenal and we’ll scrape through to the 6th round and dent Arsenal’s confidence in the process.

Any other United fans have a heart attack when they read about Ronaldo being out for 9 months and possibly having a career ending injury?  I breathed a lot easier when the news sites altered the headlines to “Milan’s Ronaldo ….”

And finally, what are the copycats at Liverpool up to?  Only starting an AFC Liverpool.   Now, forgive me if I’m wrong but didn’t the Anfield mob initially welcome their American owners with open arms?  It doesn’t look good when you then say “oh, but it turns out they are shite so we’ll bugger off”.  At least FC United were opposed to Glazer from the start.  I used to own a piece of Manchester United, but the Glazers took it against my will.

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