United On Fire

Looks like Louis Saha is starting his Everton career as he ended his United career; on the treatment bench.  Turns out he will be out for a month with a calf injury.  Makes me wonder what the Everton medical team actually checked when they did the test.

Seems we have a net profit of two new strikers as Manucho got his work permit and we, of course got the main man, Berbatov.  This is exchange for two players who didn’t play much for us last season at all.  Saha was nearly permanently injured, whilst Campbell was on loan at Hull.

The other news is at Mike Phelan has been made assistant manager.  Clearly, this is one assistant who will never be made the actual manager in the future.  I remember little about Phelan as a player, mainly his moustache and the fact that he was the least able of the midfielders Fergie bought at the time (Webb and Ince I remember), so he was a sort of Fletcher to Hargreaves and Scholes.

Finally, I updated the blog to the latest version of Wordpress, so it’s missing lots of the stuff from the sidebar, but I couldn’t edit any of that stuff anyway.

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Fulham 0 Manchester United 3 (Hargreaves 15, Park 44, Davies 72 og)

A routine victory with a non-routine side against relegation bound Fulham meant the gap at the top was reduced to a solitary point. Rooney and Ronaldo were rested and United had such depth of squad that United were still far too good for the London team.

From the start United played with pace, power and purpose. When United go at teams from the start, they usually win. The big question is why they don’t do it more often, particularly in Europe. On five minutes, Saha was put clear through on goal, but sliced his shot horribly wide. They didn’t let Fulham go when United won a freekick on the edge of the area. In the absence of Ronaldo, Owen Hargreaves struck an excellent curler into the net for his first goal.

From then on it was a cruise and the game ended as a contest when Park put away an excellent header on the stroke of half time. Scholes used his experience and class to make a great run to the byline, pulled back an excellent cross that Park slammed home.

United’s final goal was an unfortunate own goal by Simon Davies. As he was running back to cover, he managed to run onto the ball and kick it into his own net.

Man of the Match

Paul Scholes. Ran the game with excellent passing, and the combination of Scholes and Hargreaves looked good.

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Newcastle fans must be very glad they wont be facing again Manchester United this season.  Aggregate score in the league is 11-1 and Newcastle still havn’t won under Kevin Keegan.  Even the most ardent Keegan fans must surely be wondering if they havn’t made a mistake in getting rid of Sam Allerdice.   Comfortably midtable to relegation candidates in two short months.   I almost hope they don’t go down so we can have another two easy wins next season.

United were a little bit indifferent but Ronaldo and Rooney were clinical and Newcastle’s defending were woeful.  Fletcher was given a deserved start in the midfield with Carrick and perhaps our weakest midfield combination was more than enough for Newcastle.   Ronaldo and Rooney got two apiece and Saha popped up from the injury list to get his first goal for quite a while.

Speaking of injuries, my thoughts go to Eduardo and his horrific injury against Birminham City.  Having seen the replays on Match of the Day, you just hope that he’ll play again.  Arsene Wenger said the Birmingham player, Martin Taylor “should never play again” but later retracted that statement just as I was wondering if there was something seriously wrong with him.  Good of him to change his mind as the challenge was bad and poor, but didn’t look malicious, just badly timed.  Arsenal dropped two points after a late penalty decision that had Arsenal captain William Gallas react most oddly.   Sitting down on the pitch long after the final whilst is no way for a captain to behave.  Wenger had to come back out onto the pitch as if to treat Gallas as a toddler “get inside now, you’re an embarrassment”.

The result was that the lead is back down to three points and Arsenal are clearly wobbling whilst United are back to full force.

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Review: Manchester United 2 (Tevez 45+2, Saha 90) Chelsea 0

If you watch Channel 4’s American import “My Name is Earl” you’ll know about Karma and the concept that if you do something wrong, life will treat you bad until you do something to make up for it. In the TV show, Earl has a list of things he’s done wrong. Well, Jon Obi Mikel needs to make his list now and top of it should be “1. Subbed Man United and used lawyers to get out of a signed contract”. Until he does, he will continue to be sent off. I have to say that I thought the sending off was harsh. It was a poor tackle, but only one footed and would normally been a yellow card, but for some reason (karma?) the ref saw two feet and sent him straight off.

However, the reference got a number of other decisions wrong. Worst of all was the disgusting, despicable tackle by Joe Cole which should have seen a straight red. That sort of thing disgusts me more than anything and Cole was subbed soon after as the manager probably felt the same. There was also the type of classlessness from Chelsea when they failed to give the ball back after it had been played out for an injury. Also, there was Ashley Cole being himself and being hated by everyone. I’m glad Rooney pushed him to the floor and made him eat some Old Trafford dirt.

Unfortunately, the reffing issues (timing of the first goal, missing a penalty, wrong man sent off, a penalty for a dive) overshadowed the footballing story. Chelsea were never in this game, United bossed it and had it easy. Even a 10 man Chelsea would have tried something, possibly three at the back or something. Mourhino would have attempted something and maybe would have got a draw. As it was, they played one man up front and offered nothing.

In my preview I thought Giggs and Tevez would be substitutes and I’m very glad that I am not manager of Manchester United because they combined to score United’s first goal. Giggs played in a fantastic cross with the outside of his boot and Tevez scored his first for United with a diving header from much the same place as his last goal in the Premiership.

Late on, Saha picked up the ball inside the area and turned the out of depth Ben Haim. The Chelsea defender stuck out his leg, kicking Saha who let’s say “made the most of it” and won a penalty. Ok, he dived. I don’t like it and it wasn’t needed, but it was sort of funny because it happened to Chelsea.

So, an easy 2-0 against a hapless Chelsea. Will they come back strong spending another £100 million in the transfer window on some more stars and get themselves a good manager? Or will they turn into the Hearts of the south and be laughed at a lot? I don’t know, but I think this season at least, winning the league has just become much easier simply because Chelsea are not as good as they were. Karma is kicking in.

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