YellowHandMan

Grand Theft Old Trafford

EPL 04/38 (29 Aug 2009)
United 2 Arsenal 1
Rooney p, Diaby og

A draw would probably have been the fair result - Arsenal created more, while United showed the desire and fighting spirit you expect of champions. Instead, United stole the win thanks to Diaby's inexplicable own goal. Then salt was rubbed deep in the Gooners' wounds, with van Persie's apparent last-second equaliser rightly disallowed for Gallas being offside when he set it up, and Wenger sent to the dressing room - with a comedic detour into the Old Trafford stands - for his expressions of frustration.

For United, this game probably came too early in the season, as we're still adjusting to life without Ronaldo, so the three points are even more welcome. It's certainly understandable why Fergie opted for caution and played 4-5-1 to close down Arsenal's space in midfield, but I felt he should have played Rooney wide right instead of Valencia, with Berbatov as the lone striker - Berbatov is a better target man, and he's also shown a willingness to chase back this season.

As for Giggsy's inclusion - well, it was one of those days when he keeps getting the ball in good positions, then making the wrong choice or playing a bad last-ball. He frustratingly wasted several opportunities to put in Rooney or others, but in the end it was still his angled pass that set Rooney on a collision course with Almunia for the penalty. Despite being 36, Giggs also still possesses sufficient speed and mobility to get about in central midfield, and that certainly helped to disrupt Arsenal's passing game.

Indeed, the Gooners' opportunities didn't come from passing their way through our midfield, but rather from defensive lapses or fast breaks, and that was largely due to the efforts of man-of-the-match Darren Fletcher. He was lucky to get away with a tackle on Arshavin that should have been a penalty - he managed to take the Russian's legs as he was shaping to shoot and handle the ball while on the ground at the same time - but the determination with which he made it there for the last-ditch tackle was vintage Keano. Fletch was everywhere throughout the game, harrying and dispossessing Arsenal midfielders constantly, further reinforcing my belief that our season depends as much on him as it does on Rooney.

For me, games against Arsenal seem to have the highest stakes, strangely even more so than those against Liverpool or City, simply because of the recent history of rivalry (at least until Arsenal's drought started), over-the-top acrimony (Pizza-gate, Keano v Vieira in the tunnel) and my particular dislike for Arsene Wenger's blinkered self-righteousness (of which there were more examples in his post-match interview). At the same time, these games are almost always classic showcases of footballing drama (the 1999 FA Cup semi-final replay is still the greatest game I've ever seen), and last night was no exception.

High-flying Hotspurs next...can we bring them back down to earth?

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Some Arsenal fans - and Wenger himself - are insisting  that Rooney's penalty was the same situation as Eduardo's dive against Celtic in midweek. It's true that Rooney appears to be on his way down or stumbling before Almunia makes contact, but that's only in super slo-mo - in real time, it's a split second and probably Rooney's instinctive tensing up just before Almunia hits him.

And that's really the bottom-line : Rooney's ankles were clearly hit by Almunia, whereas only the miracle of WengerVision (tm) reveals any contact between Eduardo and Boruc. Even if it's argued that Rooney was looking for contact, the point is that there was contact, and contact with the player without playing the ball is a penalty, plain and simple. Rooney didn't fabricate any contact, as Almunia's relative lack of protests also demonstrated (as opposed to Boruc's understandable outrage towards Eduardo).

I actually sympathize a little with Wenger's complaints that Eduardo is being singled-out - it is fairly inconsistent with previous incidents to charge him retrospectively. But trying to argue that a clear penalty wasn't a penalty just undercuts his own moral high ground - then again, that's nothing new for the self-confessed master of selective blindness.

24 = 16?

From The Guardian:

"Darren Fletcher is simply a very good footballer."

Darren Fletcher is finally starting to get the recognition he deserves, although Terry Butcher's suggestion that he is "almost a Bobby Charlton-type player" is probably going overboard. The comparisons to Keano are more apt, although I doubt many people will ever appreciate the similarities. Appropriately for a player who wears '24', Fletch never stops running and fighting.

Crisis? What crisis?

EPL 01/38 (16 Aug 2009)
United 1 Birmingham 0
Rooney

EPL 02/38 (19 Aug 2009)
Burnley 1 United 0

EPL 03/38 (22 Aug 2009)
Wigan 0 United 5
Rooney 2, Berbatov, Owen, Nani

A rather-laboured opening day win over newly-promoted Birmingham already had the doubters chirping, but that immediately turned into proclamations of crisis after the midweek loss to Burnley, who were playing a top-flight home game for the first time in 33 years. How could Fergie have been foolish enough to think that players like Rooney, Berbatov and Owen would ever be able to make up for the loss of Ronaldo?

Three days - and five goals in forty-five minutes - later, with all three strikers on the scoresheet and a curling freekick from Nani capping it all, the fans were singing again. Crisis? What crisis?

It's early days yet, and the players must keep the Burnley embarrassment in mind, but I think it's safe to say that the players we have in our squad can and will score. A lot still rests on Rooney's shoulders, as he's clearly the player upon whom continued success this season will rely. However, it's not as if Rooney doesn't have help.

Berbatov is looking livelier - he's probably done more chasing back in the games so far than himself and Ronaldo did combined throughout the whole of last season - and the way he celebrated his goal demonstrated that he can be passionate after all. The Bulgarian's languid style of play, long body and legs somehow trapping and keeping the ball while looking completely relaxed regardless of defenders around him, often reminds me of a squid - or maybe it's just the greasy hair.

Then there was Owen's finish, clipped past the keeper into the far corner after a perfect pass from Nani. Even as he wheeled away, you knew the ball was hitting the back of the net, because Owen's career has been built on finishes like that. Liverpool fans would have felt a sense of deja vu, and possibly also some apprehension at the thought of Owen scoring regularly for United. "Are you watching, Merseyside?" sang the travelling Reds.

But the strikers aside, it's looking like the key to our season might well end up being Darren Fletcher. For long periods last season, he was the only player in our midfield who had any mobility. His nonstop movement against Wigan, and also Birmingham, was reminiscent of Keano in his pomp, albeit without the snarl and savagery. I don't think it's any coincidence that he didn't play in the Burnley setback, with the strangely shaky Carrick and increasingly headless-looking Anderson preferred instead. It's clear that if Rooney's must be the first name on Fergie's teamsheet, then Fletcher's must be the second.

So - three games into the new season, one crisis already weathered, and we now have more points than we did at the same time last year. But in football, you're only as good as your next game.

And our next is against the Gooners.

"United can't replace Ronaldo..."

Alan Hansen on the BBC Sports website:

How will Manchester United replace Cristiano Ronaldo?

It is the question that has provided the backdrop to their attempt to win a fourth successive Premier League crown - and I believe the answer is that they cannot replace him.

He might as well have said, "You'll win nowt without Ronaldo". Mr Hansen, we'll see if your prediction comes true in May next year, and if your beloved Scousers will really win it all. For now, I hope someone printed this out and pinned it up on the notice board in the Old Trafford dressing room.

United Season Preview 2009/2010

It's funny, but despite a third consecutive Premiership victory and a second consecutive Champions League final appearance, United start this season with uncertainty and doubt looming over us - losing one of the best players ever to wear our shirt, and probably still the best player in the world, can cause that - even though we received 80 million pounds in return. Inevitably, all the pre-season talk is about how United will get on without Ronaldo - and to a (much) lesser extent, Tevez.

Based on the preseason, it looks like Fergie is depending on Rooney to finally step up and make the team his own, partnered with Berbatov and surprise-signing-of-the-season Michael Owen. Nani and Ronaldo's notional replacement, Antonio Valencia, will be expected to play more as out-and-out wingers, supplying the service for our strikers - the three aforementioned big-names, plus up-and-coming youngsters Frederico Macheda and Danny Wellbeck. Between all of them, they'll have to find a way to make up for the 68 goals that Ronaldo contributed in the last two seasons.

They'll be supported from midfield by a combination of Park, Carrick, Anderson and Fletcher, with Scholes and Giggs a year older and likely to contribute even less. Daron Gibson will also feature, but he's young and ultimately looks like being a poor man's Nicky Butt - Butt, of course, having been a poor man's Roy Keane, even at his peak. The X-factor here might be whether Owen Hargreaves can finally regain his fitness and then his form, following his major knee problems. It hardly seems likely, given his history - but a fit Hargreaves would give United the alternative tenacious midfielder that we missed so badly in Rome when Fletcher was suspended for the final.

Finally, in defence things look settled with last season's record-breaking defensive squad returning unchanged - I use 'squad' because our success was based on several players rotating in and out of the lineup. Having missed most of last season with injuries, Wes Brown will add further strength on his return. The main uncertainty here is that Vidic, Van Der Sar and Evans all start the season injured. VDS, in particular, will be out until October with a broken finger, giving Ben Foster the opportunity to finally prove his case to be United - and England's - next number one; on the evidence of the Community Shield, he didn't look the part at all.

And the manager? If United go on to clinch an unprecedented fourth consecutive English top-division title, overtaking Liverpool's now-tied record of 18 championships in the process, then Fergie would have once again demonstrated his greatness, and nothing further would need to be said in the debate over the best manager of all time.

Prediction: Premiership Champions again, in a hard-fought battle with Chelsea and Liverpool. A third consecutive Champions League final would be asking a lot, however, especially as it was really Ronaldo's brilliance that carried us to the final last year.

Players to watch:

1. Rooney - can he take over as United's winning talisman?

2. Nani - can he finally mature and contribute consistently?

3. Owen - just how much can he contribute?

Filling in the gaps, Pt 1

Five major sports stories in the six weeks since this blog petered out again about two months ago:

1. Lakers signed Artest instead of Ariza, and (after a painfully drawn-out limbo) re-signed Odom. So we're set to repeat, and on paper should be even better.

2. Felipe Massa got hit in the head by a spring that fell off Barrichello's car, but fortunately seems on the road to recover after it looked a little dicey at first (to say the least). Then Schumi announced he was coming back to fill in for Massa, but eventually had to call it off because a recent motorcycling injury hadn't healed. Disappointing, to say the least. Meanwhile, FOTA and the FIA finally sign the new Concorde Agreement and peace breaks out in F1. And Red Bull seem to be slowly reeling in Brawn F1 in the championship races.

3. Slightly more than a month short of his sixtieth birthday, Tom Watson almost won the British Open. But he choked (yes, that's the only way to describe it) on a tournament-winning putt on the last hole, and ended up losing in the playoff. Nobody cares who the actual winner was.

4. United signed Michael Owen on a Bosman transfer from Newcastle. We're paying him a relatively low salary with incentives - in my opinion, it's a great no-downside gamble by Fergie, and it'll be the icing on the cake if his goals contribute to our overtaking the Scousers on championships won. Antonio Valencia's long-rumoured transfer is also finally completed, making him Ronaldo's replacement, at least positionally-speaking. Oh, and Carlos Tevez took Citeh's money, whining all the way to the bank.

5. United lost the Community Shield to Chelsea on penalties, after drawing level 2-2 with an injury time goal from Rooney. Nani had a great first half capped by an excellent goal that gave us a 1-0 lead, but Chelsea came back to lead 2-1 after a disputed goal by Lampard when first Ballack (by his own admission) fouled Evra, then ref Chris Foy allowed play to carry on with Evra being down, despite Foy having halted play on two previous occasions for injuries. It was a better Shield match than most, with both teams playing hard and the aforementioned dose of controversy. Crap penalties from United's penalty takers, unfortunately, and Ben Foster looked completely overwhelmed by the pressure of finally having his opportunity as first-choice due to VDS's broken finger.

Replacing Ron?

Unsurprisingly, the press is full of rumors about how United will 'replace' Ronaldo.

The answer is very simple - you don't replace a player that good. What you do is take the available resources - Wayne Rooney most of all - and re-organise the team and tactics to play to those strengths.

I can't wait to see Rooney and Berbatov teaming up in the middle, with Valencia and another proper winger getting down the flanks. For most of last season, we had hardly any wing play at all, because Ronaldo was always drifting infield (effectively, it must be said). That forced Rooney and Berbatov wide to make way. We can be a more balanced team next season, if we buy the right players.

Yesterday's YellowHandTweets after the cut, posted by LoudTwitter.

Good-bye, Ron

So the saga finally ends, and Ronaldo is going to Real. It always been clear he wanted to go eventually, so it was only a matter of time. We've gotten three Premierships, one Champions League and another Champions League final from him. Pretty good return for a 12m pound buy that we are ultimately selling on for 80m!

United will survive - we always do. Time for Rooney to take center-stage, literally and figuratively.

Yesterday's YellowHandTweets after the cut, posted by LoudTwitter.

38 = 90 = 18

EPL 38/38 (24 May 2009)
Hull 0 United 1
Gibson

So after all the fuss about Fergie fielding a weakened side, our youngsters completely dominated Hull but only had a 1-0 win to show for it, thanks to Darron Gibson's sublime first half cannonball from outside the box. Unfortunately for him, he spent the rest of the game trying to replicate it at every opportunity, endangering the occupants of row Z on several occasions.

In truth, it was pretty much a nothing game. Hull weren't good enough to put up a fight for survival, instead having to rely on Newcastle's equal-or-worse ineptitude at Villa Park. As for United's perspective, games like these are just an opportunity for the youngsters to strut their stuff against (barely) Premiership opposition. Rafael Da Silva put in a couple of great crosses (although he looked suspect in defence) and Wellbeck looked particularly good, while in contrast Macheda was disappointingly pedestrian and missed a couple of good chances. The rest who played - Gibson, Lee Martin, Ritchie de Laet, Richard Eckersley, Rodrigo Possebon and Zoran Tosic - all didn't really impress, and look like the many young players who have since gone on to be journeymen at smaller clubs. I'm sure Keano will be on the telephone soon.

So another victorious Premiership campaign comes to end, but of course, not just any title triumph - our 18th, bringing us level with the Scousers. We're sharing the perch now, and it would be fitting for Fergie to finally knock them off it with a fourth successive championship next season.

However, while the battle for the Premiership may be won, our season isn't yet - Rome on Wednesday.

Note: There's no match report on the United-Arsenal game last week when we actually won the title, because I was stuck at a wedding dinner on Sentosa and missed it. But what's more frustrating is that I have barely been able to enjoy the title presentation and celebrations either, because of the Football Channel's ridiculous decision to show them without audio. The entire season is about who becomes champions, and they think the audio for City-Spurs is more important? Just makes me all the more glad that useless host Joe Morrison's Newcastle were relegated.

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Some thoughts on Newcastle's relegation (which I posted on XP earlier):

I was surprised by how much I wanted Newcastle to go down in the end. Although the late appointment of Shearer (whom I can't stand) played a part, the main reason is that I feel that Newcastle - with their constant talk from fans and management of being a BIG CLUB - have taken their Premiership status for granted in recent years. They always talk big, but it's been a long time since they were any kind of threat to win the EPL, let alone make it to Europe. Despite the fact that the fans blame the lousy owner, ultimately they are just as deluded, with their constant cries for a new Messiah - first Keegan, then now Shearer, with Owen also hailed as the Messiah at some point.

What happens next will be interesting. If Shearer can really rebuild the club and bring them straight back up, I'll be somewhat impressed. But his team selections and tactics in his short time in charge seemed random and not particularly well thought out, and his immediate move to blame the players suggest he might have to rebuild entirely.

BTW it seems that yesterday the Villa fans were chanting for Shearer to give them a wave, and he obliged, just as he acknowledged the mockery of the Anfield crowd ("You should have stayed on the telly!") a few weeks back. Why am I not surprised that, while his team was fighting relegation, it was all still about Alan Shearer?

Fergie, sign him up!

EPL 36/38 (13 May 2009)
Wigan 1 United 2
Tevez, Carrick

For awhile there, it seemed like Brucie was going to throw a spanner in the works. Wigan were excellent in the first half and took a well-deserved 1-0 lead, while United seemed unable to play our usual game in the pouring rain.

Then Fergie brought on Carlitos, who promptly scored within three minutes of coming on, instinctively backheeling Carrick's miskicked shot past the wrong-footed Wigan keeper. As Fergie's Four-headed Beast of Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov relentlessly pressured for the winner, it finally fell to Carrick to place a far more precise shot into the top corner with four minutes remaining.

Three points, just one more (at least) to go. We can - and I believe, will - win the title against Arsenal at OT on Saturday.

As for Tevez, I had been getting increasingly irritated by the constant lobbying from his camp, to the extent that I felt he should just go. But after yet another game-changing performance, I've got to admit I was wrong. He's still not worth (a further) 22 million pounds, but United should find a way to keep him.

In fact, as things unfold, it seems clear that there is some hardball being played. With Tevez and his owners things are never straightforward, and it looks like United are looking for ways to get him for less than the previously-agreed price. Hopefully they can sort it out - in this present financial climate, one wonders whether any other team is prepared to pay Joorabchian's asking price, in which case the advantage might well rest with United. Get Tevez onside and put pressure on MSI, and we just might get him for a fair price.