Tag Archive for 'tevez' Page 2 of 2

Arsenal 5th Round Cup preview

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.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Why Chelsea lost and Mikel got sent off

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.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Portsmouth 1 United 1

From the action I saw on Match of the Day, this was a game United should have won. However, highlights often lie and the key facts I can take from the game are the following.

  • Tevez linked up wonderfully with Nani to make the goal.
  • Scholes scored a thunderbolt strike. That should in part answer the doubters as to whether he should play.
  • The Portsmouth goal was a great header which should have been stopped before the cross. The cross was too good to defend and the header was too good to save (I haven’t see more than one replay of this)
  • Rooney has passed on his stupid gene to Ronaldo whilst he out injured. It was so out of character for Ronaldo to react that I’m sure something else must have happened. That said, the “headbutt” was no Zidane, was it? Joe Jordan thought the sending off was harsh, but then he was a Scottish centre forward from the 70s.

In all this leaves us on 2 points from 2 games and a slightly worrying 4 points behind Chelsea.

Popularity: 16% [?]