GOONERS all round the world cheered when Darius Vassell banged in the first goal at Old Trafford.
His first shot was going wide but when it rebounded back to him, Vassell buried it. That came after a great counterattack in 24 minutes
Difficult week for Man United, trying to do Munich Remembered gracefully. Nice plain red shirts, souvenir scarves for everyone, a minute's silence well-observed by Man City fans.
But Sir Alex's team selection was a joke.
It was madness, quite the wrong thing to do against City, a rope-a-dope counter-attacking outfit who bore you to tears and then nick a goal.
As I said last week, Sir Alex gets self-indulgent. His old boys, Giggs and Scholes, just huffed and puffed, played from memory, while his Portuguese boys just showed off. United were dire. Really dire.
At the start, United planted themselves far up the field against City's deep 8-man defence and we saw 15 minutes of pedestrian sparring, then Petrov had a shot over the bar, and Ireland had a header saved.
You can't play Nani right, Giggs left, Ronaldo-Tevez down a crowded middle, and Scholes-Anderson in central midfield !
THAT WAS RIDICULOUS !
That's not a team, it's a fantasy.
They were losing 2-0 till stoppage time when sub Michael Carrick scored a tasty goal.
Rooney was suspended. It's interesting, and a bit weird, that Rooney has not played in any of the five games Man United have lost this season. Ronaldo has missed three of those defeats.
Vassell's goal was only the fourth United have conceded in the league at Old Trafford this season.
Then, in 45, debut boy Benjani headed in a Petrov cross from the right. His preposterous flick-header flew over the scalp of Wes Brown, beat the stretching boot of Vidic, bounced past the diving glove of Van der Sar and went into the bottom corner for 2-0 at half-time.
I thought : Yikes ! United are in big trouble now ! How are they gonna score three goals in the second half ?
Monday morning's replays showed that the ball actually went in off Benjani's shoulder.
On 61, when Nani came inside from the left and should have shot, but tried to pass to Tevez, I knew it was over : Man Utd looked flaccid, leaderless, clueless.Sir Alex and Carlos Q were conferring on the touchline, looking bemused, as if they had no answers.
For the Chelsea -Liverpool game, Avram Grant brought Lampard back ALONGSIDE Ballack.
We all know that Frank Ballack isn't a midfield, any more than Steven Lampard is a midfield. They're incompatible. Simple as.
I've been to Stamford Bridge three times recently and SWP has been sparking in the inside right role, starting to build an understanding with Anelka, with Joe Cole on the right.
4-3-3, I've always thought, is a very precarious, fragile system. If you use it, you can't tinker. You can only practice 4-3-3, you can't tinker with it. If it doesn't work, practice again. When something is working, leave it alone and let it evolve. Joe, Shaun and Anelka were beginning to play some triangles, make some moves, some chances. Shaun will give Anelka a pass and run for the return. He won't always get it, but he'll run for it, and that's good because he's fast, agile, very determined.
Really, the Chelsea-Liverpool game was a very simple story. Lampard had been out for 10 games with a thigh injury and his return unbalanced Chelsea.We saw no moves today, SWP was invisible, Malouda came on for SWP and never touched the ball, Cole went back on the right side, too late, I thought. It was all square pegs and round holes, made worse by Rafa doing what he always does in a big away game : park the bus in the goalmouth.
Chelsea always find it hard to score against Liverpool anyway. They can usually score one against Arsenal, or maybe two, and they can score against Man United, even if it takes a long time, as it did in last year's FA Cup Final.
But Chelsea really struggle to get goals against Liverpool.
The best chances fell to Crouch in the first half. He missed them. So Chelsea could easily have lost this dismal, scrappy contest.
I had few hopes going into the game, knowing it would not be a spectacle. It was never going to be about that. It was always gonna be about who won. And in the end it was 0-0. Nobody won.
Those two results give Arsenal a big chance to grab a five-point lead by beating Blackburn on Monday night.
With prolific sharpshooters Benni McCarthy and Roque Santa Cruz, Blackburn are better equipped to score a goal than Man United and Chelsea were today, even if Arsenal dominate the midfield, which is what we all expect.
Arsenal have players missing, so do Blackburn. Basically, I've got a lot of faith in Hleb, in Fabregas and Gallas, in Clichy and Sagna, and I've been surprised by how effective Adebayor has become. A 2-1 win will do.
Everton beat Reading 1-0 on Saturday, so they are still above Liverpool.
Premiership Table
| |
|
pld |
pts |
| 1 |
Arsenal |
25 |
60 |
| 2 |
Man Utd |
26 |
58 |
| 3 |
Chelsea
|
26 |
55 |
| 4 |
Everton |
26 |
47 |
| 5 |
Liverpool |
25 |
44 |
| 6 |
Aston Villa |
26 |
44 |
| 7 |
Man City |
26 |
44 |
(I'm not too good at tables, so I've no idea why Chelsea is in bigger type here)
What else ?
Well, Sir Alex and Avram are too close to their teams and can't see the wood for the trees. They should read ANR.
I'm writing this tonight because I'm scared to get up on Monday morning. I got up on Friday and found that the world had gone barmy. Scudamore was touting a 39th Premiership game to be played in five cities abroad as part of the league and the Archbishop of Canterbury had said Sharia law was inevitable in Britain !
Maybe those two can form a thinktank and come up with more great ideas.
yazeez
** MiYaFuSHi **
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