All the footprints you've ever left and fear expecting ahead (Everton)

With Liverpool and Chelsea playing each other tomorrow we'll be putting space between us and at least one of them with a win today. Everton are on a good run at the moment and will no doubt come to Old Trafford looking for a point, sitting back and hoping to nick a goal, especially given their lack of strikers. Tim Cahill is a doubt for the game it would be a bonus for us if he was to miss it, however I really expect him to play; talk of him being saved for their cup replay seems a bit of red herring.
For us, Wes Brown and Rio Ferdinand both came through their comeback game midweek without complication so both may/should figure, with Brown coming in for Neville on the right of the defence. Their seems to be some difference of opinion in the papers over our other injury doubts, with Fabio being listed as injured in some reports and listed as a possible starter in others. Similarly with Evra and Nani, although the consensus opinion on these two is that they're more likely to figure next week. Wayne Rooney also looking to return next week.
I'd expect the midfield to much the same as against West Brom, maybe Scholes replacing Giggs, maybe not. Not much option up front so Tevez and Berbatov almost certain to start.
Prediction: Can't see Everton scoring (we need to go 72 minutes for a new English league record for not conceding remember), slightly worried by The Guardian's stat about one goal games following 5-0 games which I mentioned earlier, but think we'll win this one 2 or 3 nil, we seemed back to our attacking best on Tuesday. Having said that, Everton are unbeaten against the "big 4" this season, so it won't be a alk in the park by any means.
Mark Halsey's the referee, normally a pretty safe pair of hands.

Throw an Elbow

Vidic gets a one match ban for his sending off in the World Club Championship, missing the away tie with Inter. Pretty much every paper calls his offence the same thing, "swinging an elbow". I don't want to downplay the seriousness of elbowing someone, but, from what I remember, Vidic's elbow was at the very bottom of the scale of elbows. I seem to remember (and I'm in too much of a hurry to actually check out youtube) they were both laid on the floor after a tackle and Vidic kind of pushed his arm towards the other player. Hardly swinging an elbow. The sending off was right - it was a stupid thing to do, rather than a dangerous thing to do. So I think the one match ban is pretty fair. The Guardian compare it to another incident from the same competition:

Whereas the United defender received only a one-match ban for elbowing Claudio Bieler, a striker with the Ecuadorian side Liga de Quito, Fifa also ruled that a Gamba Osaka player, Takahiro Futagawa, should be suspended for two matches after he was sent off in the third-place play-off against the Mexican side Pachuca. Futagawa had committed what the organisation described as a "clumsy foul".

On the face of it, Vidic's challenge would appear the more serious and his own manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has talked in the past about elbowing being the "worst offence in football", warning that "someone will lose an eye soon".

I haven't seen this other foul so can't comment on that, it does sound a bit harsh though, but going on to put Vidic's elbow in this context of someone "losing an eye", is a little misleading. The "on the face of it" should also go on to to describe the elbow, so as to show why the "face of it" is wrong.
Just about every report decides it has to quote Jose Mourinho asking for a 2 game suspension, again creating the impression he's got off lightly, Sir Alex's answer is all that is needed:

Ferguson seemed amused when he was informed of those comments yesterday. "That's a surprise. Why would he say that?" he asked with mock incredulity.

There's a quote from Scolari in The Telegraph, where he agrees with Benitez about Sir Alex, however he actually can't help himself telling the truth of the matter in the same breath:

"I understand very well. When we play there [Old Trafford] and at Stamford Bridge I know what happens. Alex Ferguson works very hard, he's very good, and he has mental ideas about this and that.'' In fairness, Scolari was also keen to highlight the real reason for Manchester United's success. "Don't forget, he has a good team.''

Staying with Chelsea, The Sun have a commment from Nicholas Anelka on Sir Alex:

The Blues striker said: “United don’t have a notably better or more complete squad than Chelsea or Liverpool.

“But Ferguson is so smart and so impressive.

“He keeps spotting and signing precisely the right players to complement what he already has and give balance to his squad.

“Then, what is massively important and difficult, Ferguson somehow teaches them to understand and demonstrate the special spirit of his club.

“He has been there doing it for a long time. But he keeps on succeeding.”

There's only one thing wrong with that - we do actually have a better and more complete squad than Chelsea or Liverpool. You only need look at the teams we've been putting out during our current injury crisis to see that.
In his press conference yesterday Sir Alex once again felt the need to point out that Ronaldo has been playing well this season, it's just in the context of last season that it looks ordinary, from The Sun:

“I just hope now that it’s going to be the forwards who take the credit.

“The case of Ronaldo is a good one. Last year was a miracle season. To score 42 goals as a winger, it is hard to imagine he could replicate that.

“Yet people are saying he has not had a great season but he’s still got 13 goals for us and had 11 assists.

“If we could dismiss last season altogether you would say that was incredible for a winger to score 13 goals by the half-way mark.

A further comment, reported in The Mail, adds a little to that and demonstrates just what a perfectionist Ronaldo must be:

‘He just expected to carry on where he left off. He had that ambition. It was a situation Cristiano had to face and he’s starting to come to terms with the whole thing.

'His forward play, his movement, his penetration were fantastic on Tuesday.’

More on the defensive record: The Telegraph has a list of when the next records are coming - basically we have to not concede against Everton, West Ham and then go 64 minutes against Fulham and it'll be a record. I'll believe its possible if we're still intact after the tricky game at West Ham. The Mirror has a nice picture of Van der Sar clutching a rather pointless trophy, a "merit award" apparently...
There's a few questions from celebrities for Sir Alex reproduced in The Times from Inside United:

Simon Le Bon, singer (Duran Duran): You seem to be the object of more public speculation and criticism than any manager before. How does it affect you?

It’s part of the job when you’re manager of Manchester United. It’s not just me, either. Look at the criticism [Cristiano] Ronaldo gets, the best player in the world. He only has to have half a bad game and he’s slaughtered. [Eric] Cantona got it, he got slaughtered for ages. You have to accept it’s part of the package. It doesn’t bother me one bit.

Sir Alex confident Owen Hargreaves will ready for the start of next season, from The Guardian:

"Owen had a second operation last week and it was completely successful," said the United manager. "It was better than the last one, which was much more difficult. This one is completely clear and I am certain he will be ready for the start of next season."

There's talk in The Mirror of a possible rush to sign Wigan's Luis Antonio Valencia after reported interest from, who else, Real Madrid. Not sure how true this sounds, given that Real have just signed one winger from West Ham. Still. Who knows.
Two quick ones to finish with. The Guardian has the stats to demonstrates that we're only going to score one this afternoon:

In the Premier League this season Chelsea have twice won 5-0. Both times they've scored just once in their next fixture. United themselves have scored five goals on three other occasions. Each time they've failed to get more than one next time out.

And The Mirror looks at Rio's claim that Van der Sar is the best keeper he's ever played with:

Which is a bit like saying George Bush senior was the most intelligent of all the American presidents called George Bush.

Because during Rio’s time at United, Leeds and England he played and trained with Roy Carroll, Tim Howard, Ricardo, David James, Scott Carson and Paul Robinson.

Words from the Genius

Brief interview with Eric Cantona, "I still support United and always will. I will die with them in my heart," he said.

Did You See The Words

Missed this earlier, and frankly, I still think my eyes are deceiving me but here it is - The Sun apologise to Sir Alex! Yes, you read that right, The Sun apologise to Sir Alex:

LAST Saturday’s paper reported how Manchester United were ‘investigating’ an FA ruling that potentially allows teams drawn against each other in the FA Cup to play extra time after their first game and not just the replay.

Regrettably, our headline ‘Cup Killers’ gave a false impression that United, and their manager Sir Alex Ferguson, were deliberately trying to destroy the fabric of the competition. We totally accept this is not the case and apologise for any embarrassment our headline may have caused.

NY Excuse

Watching Sky Sports News this morning and saw an interview with Damien Comolli, who was Spurs Director of football and who was sacked with Ramos, in which he rehashes the whole Berbatov thing. Couldn't find the video, but there's a print version here. He said:

"I think the fact that Berbatov stayed so long, until the last day, made life for the coaching staff difficult," Comolli told Sky Sports News.

"What can you do if a player tells you, 'I'll never play for you any more'? If a player has refused to play three games, like happened last summer, what can you do about it?"

I'm fairly sure that it was Spurs desire to drag every last penny from us that meant he "stayed so long". And then, when you see a sentence begin, "I'm not looking for excuses but...", you can assume someone is looking for excuses for their own failure.

Ruthless colt of the gringo

Bit of a quiet day today, with few stories of interest about.
On days like this what do the papers do? Make stories of nothing...
Both The Independent and The Times return to the "Tevez is frustrated at his lack of permanent deal" story. Why 2 papers decide to run this story today is anyone's guess, but from what I can see there's nothing new there. The story is pretty much "Tevez is a quality player and x club and y are watching the situation to see what happens. So here's the essence of the story:

Internazionale are believed to be interested, as well as Real and Chelsea, but the most intriguing prospect is a move across Manchester to Eastlands.

Yet, as both papers make clear, "It is Tevez's ardent desire to stay at United when his loan deal expires this summer." So there you go.
And, just imagine, another story rears its ugly head again this morning - Ronaldo? Real Madrid? Srsly? Suppress yawns as you read this, from The Times:

Sport, the Catalan daily newspaper, reported yesterday that Jorge Mendes, the Manchester United forward’s agent, has signed a long-term agreement with Real Madrid worth about £91 million. The deal reportedly includes a penalty clause that would force Ronaldo and his agent to pay Real €20 million (about £18 million) if he does not appear at the Bernabéu at the start of next season.

Having read that imagine what the next sentence is... let's have a look:

The accuracy of the news as reported by Sport is dubious

(That's my emphasis btw) So, we'll print this story and just say its dubious, that'll sort it. It's almost the end of the transfer window, isn't there enough real stories floating around? Or at least silly rumours relating to this transfer window?

There's a few quotes from Rio around, commenting on our experience, from The Daily Star:

“It is easier when you have experienced players, like Giggsy, Nev and Scholesy, who have won the league before.”

Ferdinand, 30, said: “Maybe that is the edge we have on the other teams.”

But, he warned: “It is not the be-all and end-all.

“You’ve got to have momentum. If you’ve got momentum going into the last few games of the season, you are in a good position to strike then. That counts for a lot.”

Sir Alex won't be in charge of the proposed British football team at the 2012 Olympics according to quotes from Inside United, reported in The Mirror:

Sir Alex Ferguson has ruled out taking charge of a British football team at the 2012 Olympics in London.

"No. I won't turn to international management," he told a special 200th anniversary edition of the club's magazine Inside United.

"When I've finished here, I think I deserve a rest. After here, I'm finished."

I'm already yawning but it has to be done... Tony Mowbray just can't let it lie. You get beat 5-0, wouldn't you just want to move on, forget about it? Or would you bleat endlessly? And he's got the red card rescinded, what more does he want? Stranger still given that immediately after the game he said this about the red card:

“It’s a debating topic,” the West Brom manager said. “Some people will say it was a disgraceful challenge. Other people will say it wasn’t a red card. It’s all about opinions.”

Which is fair enough, the panel thought it didn't merit a red. Be happy about it. Why go on about the ref now? It's because its Rob Styles who has somehow become this whipping boy, every decision he makes is now wrong, regardless of anything. It is acceptable to have a go at him, even the FA do it, given they seem to like to overturn his decisions. The Sun labels him "Cock-up ref". I don't even want to defend him, he's not the best ref, far from it, but just because he makes a decision, it doesn't automatically make it wrong, which seems to be the situation we're in at the moment. I've already spent far too long on this subject so I've only one thing more to say (this BBC report seems to have the longest version of his comments) which is that given the way his players badgered and complained to the referee all game and got several players booked for dissent (and given the "Respect Campaign" I don't think he can complain about them) how useful is it for the manager to come out and say this? Wouldn't he be better off saying to his players "don't get booked for something stupid like dissent (especially when you've already seen a couple of your team get booked for it and hopefully noticed how picky this ref is, oh, and while I'm on the subject, don't dive in with both feet, some people might construe that as a dangerous challenge and send you off. Thanks."
One last thing. This interesting opinion piece by Simon Barnes in The Times in which he plays with certain stereo types about us, but in the right way, to make a good point about sport in general:

Sir Alex Ferguson was in a good mood on Tuesday night, never the most attractive sight. Manchester United had just beaten West Bromwich Albion 5-0 and Ferguson was happy because of his team's belated rediscovery of their “ruthless streak”.

He meant that he was pleased because his team were horrid. They were beastly to the poor Baggies. They showed them not a jot of courtesy, consideration or chivalry. The milk of human kindness had run sour, no wonder Ferguson rejoiced.

...

Every victory in sport is based on a willingness - an eagerness - to see the other guys lose. Victory in sport has its basis in a readiness to cause disappointment, suffering, pain and, yes, humiliation. This is not entirely admirable, it must be admitted, but the fine and admirable things we find in sport would not be possible without it.

Shine on you Crazy Diamond

Today is mainly about our record breaking defence, with quotes from Giggs, Ferdinand and van der Sar himself doing the rounds.
The Guardian concentrate on the whole teams contribution and van der Sar's acknowledgement of this:

"I have to be happy with it on a personal level but it is a great team effort also," said Van der Sar. "We have had a lot of ­players injured during this run of games. But Jonny Evans has been fantastic, Rafael [da Silva] has played, [John] O'Shea has come in for Patrice Evra. It just shows the strength of the squad. At the beginning of the season every­thing was on [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Wayne] Rooney, [Dimitar] Berbatov and ­[Carlos] Tevez but you need everything to win ­trophies. You don't need only your ­strikers. You need your defenders to be on top of their game. You need a midfield to work hard and track back and I suppose you need a goalkeeper who makes saves once in a while."

And they give an illustration of van der Sar's acknowledgement:

His appreciation of his team-mates could be gauged by the way Van der Sar asked every member of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad to sign Tuesday's match-ball.

The Independent focus on Giggs's and Ferdinand's praise of the keeper:

Ferdinand, who returned ahead of schedule from a back complaint against Albion, said: "Edwin is the best keeper I've played with. It's as simple as that. The record, the stuff we've won together, the assuredness that he transmits from himself to the back four, is great. I also don't think I've seen a better keeper with his feet to be honest either."

Giggs said: "Edwin just gives that calming influence right throughout the team, with his calmness on the ball when we play back passes to him, and his general goalkeeping is sound really. That calming influence goes right through the team. He is getting better with age."

The Telegraph take van der Sar's warning that nothing has been won yet as their theme:

Van der Sar said: "Our defending has earned the recognition now, so maybe teams know now that when they go a goal behind against us, it is going to be difficult for them.

"Two or three years ago, Chelsea hardly conceded any goals and it is good to know, with the quality we have in midfield and in attack, that we are able to score one or two goals. But we don't feel invincible. The moment you start feeling invincible, you start losing."

Could that be a sly dig at Arsenal or am I reading too much into it? Has van der Sar taken a liking to Sir Alex's "mind games" perhaps?
The Mail continue the theme of too early celebrate with comments from Rio:

He said: 'It is just about continuing what we have been doing. I think we have been very tight of late. We have got players who are very businesslike at the moment.

'The players want to get the job done, score goals, want to defend - and defend for our lives - and keep clean sheets.
'With that form, you are onto a good thing, but medals haven't been handed out yet so we are not going to get ahead of ourselves.'

And Giggs points out what makes the record sweeter:

'In a way to achieve the record is an even better achievement because we have not been able to have a settled back four recently.

'Credit to the people who have come into the side like Fabio and Rafael (da Silva) and Johnny Evans. It's been a big squad effort.'

One other story today is from The Sun and tells us that Ronaldo had a heart operation as a kid:

SOCCER superstar Cristiano Ronaldo had to have a heart op to save his career, his mother revealed yesterday.

Doctors diagnosed a racing heart when the Manchester United ace was just 15.

It was feared the Portuguese winger — now 23 and World Footballer of the Year — might have to give up playing.

But he was whipped into hospital for delicate laser surgery which cured the problem.

His mother tells a very funny joke on the subject:

And mum Dolores Aveiro joked yesterday after revealing the secret: “It seems the treatment allowed him to run even faster!”

Onto lighter matters: Liverpool. I wouldn't usually comment about such matters here but given that Benitez made reference to Sir Alex in his post match comments I think I'm allowed. As The Sun puts it, "The Kop boss launched into another bizarre tirade no one could understand". The Times have a good review of the comments:

after another bizarre post-match press conference, the Spaniard found himself having to fend off questions about his own state of mind.

After he reacted to Mido’s 83rd-minute equaliser by substituting Steven Gerrard, having already taken off Fernando Torres, the Liverpool manager was asked whether he was feeling the heat of the championship race. “No I am OK,” Benítez replied. “What you can’t control, you can’t change and maybe you have to understand it has to be like this for years. I don’t have any psychological battles with him [Ferguson]. He has been here for 22 years and you can see what it means. You can see what it means to stay here for 22 years. I will not say anything else.”

Liverpool officials suggested that these cryptic comments reflected the manager’s unhappiness with the referee, Phil Dowd, in relation to a perceived lack of protection for his players. When asked whether this was what he meant with reference to the “crazy” second half, however, Benítez remained elusive. “The second half was a crazy game and when it is a crazy game you can’t control things,” he said. “Why was it crazy? Because it was crazy. In the last three games there has been something in common that I don’t like. I know what it is, but I can’t say anything.”

I'm pretty speechless at the thing. What on earth is the reference to Sir Alex all about? You've just dropped points at Wigan and you feel the need to make a comment about Sir Alex? Not only that but a completely nonsensical reference to make it even crazier. I thought his whole rant against us was strange and completely wrong and a bad decision to say it all, but at least it wasn't altogether INSANE. The Mail's headline, "Crazy Rafa blames the world", I particularly like, it says everything and leaves an image of a delusional, paranoid and defeated man. Think it's only Chelsea who we're competing with now, though I guess the Liverpool-Chelsea game will tell us more on Sunday.

Double Talking' Jive

There was an incident in the Chelsea-Boro game yesterday which perfectly demonstrates the double standards that get applied to Man Utd and, in particular, Ronaldo.
Remember when Ronaldo got sent off against Manchester City for a deliberate handball? And remember the reaction in the papers? See my post from the day after for recollection.No choice but to send him off, a stupid thing to do, etc.. Yesterday Mohamed Shawky who had already been booked deliberately handled the ball, the referee awarded the free kick and yet failed to send him off. The reports I've read of it today (and I've not been through them all) can hardly be bothered to claim it as a mistake by the referee, no one calls out Shawky for stupidity. And yet when Ronaldo did it (in admitedly more bizarre circumstances, but the essence of the offence was probably worse in the Shawky incident, the ball was in the middle of the park while the game was flowing, he had more to gain by handling it, whereas Ronaldo caught it in the opposition box and certainly wasn't trying to gain an advantage) everyone was so sure it was a definate, cast iron yellow card. And they say all the decisions go for us...
A slightly petty point about The Independent's version of the Chelsea-Boro game, but they do seem to have been particularly against us recently so I might as well point out. Their match reporter was paying so much attention to the game that they didn't even realise what had happened:

Soon after that it was Scolari and Southgate who were rowing over what seemed like a few trivial fouls but it demonstrated just how tense the Chelsea manager was. He carried on the argument as he went down the tunnel at half-time. It had started over a foul by Mohamed Shawky, part of a five-man midfield which Chelsea were struggling to break down.

From what all the other papers said, and from what I saw on Sky Sports News it started over a Shawky handball, not a foul. Quality reporting from the ever dependable Independent...

Banned in D.C.

Forgot to add this story to the round up post, from The Telegraph:

Nemanja Vidic will discover on Friday if he will play any part in Manchester United's Champions League clash with Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan.

The Serbia international could receive a three-match ban after he was sent off in the FIFA Club World Cup final against Liga de Quito.

I'd forgotten all about that. It would surely be nonsense to ban him for three games though, wouldn't it? On the positive side there have been 8 different combinations of the back four in our 11 clean sheets so we should still be good enough no matter what.

Vans till infinity

Before looking at our great attacking play and our defence, new holders of the Premier League clean sheet record, let's just get it out of the way. Rob Styles. I'm a little surprised at the papers today, quite a few of them take a pretty reasonable view of the incident. My worry was that the fact that it was Rob Styles would influence the tone of the reports, his reputation preceding him so much. As I've said before, for all his faults, Rob Styles is at least an "honest" referee - he makes bad decisions for everyone. And last night's game was no exception. In truth he got all the major decisions right, but even having said that he was probably a bit fussy in his bookings (he booked I think 5 West Brom players for dissent), and he let some blatant fouls pass unnoticed while some decent challenges he'd blow up for. The important thing is that he got everything else pretty spot on. First off Gary Neville went down in the box and it looked convincing, but replays showed that the contact was minimal and the right decision was made by Styles (this penalty incident seems to have been forgotten in the wave of derision from West Brom supporters). The sending off? Well, it was a close call but I think it probably right. There was quite a lot of talk last night of it being a 50/50 challenge but it really wasn't, Park was there first and the tackle/lunge by Robinson was certainly reckless (to put it kindly). Most referees would have sent him off I think.
Most of the papers agree, The Independent's assesment is pretty fair:

Robinson slammed into Park Ji-Sung as both men went to ground in pursuit of the ball. The left-back's left boot was only slightly raised but with that glimpse of studs, and the ferocity with which he came at Park he gave Styles an invitation to send him off. Robinson's challenge was not as gruesome as some but he was not in control of the tackle when he collided with Park.

"an invitation to send him off", I think that is fair, implying that Styles had every right to do it, while keeping the air of a bit of a harsh decision - it wasn't mailcious, but certainly reckless.
Onto those that disagree, The Guardian claim it as an "overreaction":

The decision was a grave overreaction by the referee Rob Styles. Robinson and Park Ji-sung both slid into a challenge after 40 minutes. The Albion left-back seemed to try and minimise the contact when a collision became inevitable, but he was still shown the red card. There had been no malice.

In the replays I saw I never noticed him pulling out, The way this is worded, "seemed to try", implies that the writer isn't fully convinced either, and the whole "no malice" argument is the last resort of those claiming a horrendous challenge isn't worthy of a red card. If a challenge is dangerous its dangerous regardless of any level of malice and so deserves a red card.
The Telegraph go for another dubious tactic - the "he went for the ball defence":

As Robinson flew, his left foot angled towards the ball but his right was always going to make bruising contact with Park’s ribs. In approaching an opponent at such speed, Robinson’s carelessness bordered on recklessness. West Brom’s captain never left the ground in pursuing the ball, so Styles could have given a yellow but from the referee’s angle, he could not see the ball, only a Korean midfielder buckling under the force of a late-arriving English full-back.

Robinson was shocked to be punished even with a free-kick and was genuinely stunned when Styles brandished red. Television replays were hardly helpful: from behind, it looked a horror challenge but when seen with the ball in view, Robinson’s case that he was targeting the ball carried some legitimacy. The tough-tackling full-back could have been the victim of his reputation: this was his sixth red card in three seasons.

Even this defence is pretty feeble, "it looked a horror challenge", "he could have given a yellow", implying the possibility of a red was always there, it wasn't some wrong decision, it was a borderline case. Considering the writer goes to such great lengths to defend Robinson, his is the only report that suggests West Brom were trying to rough us up:

Some of the tackles flying in were designed to test the champions’ character. No question. There was a spiky, steely side to Mowbray’s men. No doubt. Carl Hoefkens went through the back of Ronaldo, ignoring the ball, leaving the European Footballer of the Year crumpled on the floor. Valero then poleaxed Ferdinand. United knew they would leave with some bruises.

Which puts Robinson's challenge into a different context, that of the culmination of a campaign of intimidation, which would surely imply the red was right?
Final word on the subject to Sir Alex:

Ferguson described it as "careless and reckless". "They tell me that from the other television angle it doesn't look as reckless but I have to say it was a careless challenge," Ferguson said. "He didn't need to do it, the boy slid into him.

Enough of that. Let's celebrate the great football on display, which most of the papers actually manage to do, although some are a little begrudging (The Guardian, for example). The Mail sum it up pretty well:

It was impressively easy for United. A perfect demonstration of their predatory qualities as well as what continues to be an extraordinary run for a defence bolstered last night by the timely return of Rio Ferdinand.

The Sun are slightly more poetic:

CLEAN SHEETS to clean sweep — United are dazzling brighter than bright as they go hunting success on five fronts.

The Mirror make fun of Benitez's refrain of "Fact" in summing up our recent good run, too long to quote though.
Our defence also, obviously gets plaudits this morning, The Sun labelling us "The InVANcibles", very humourous... The Guardian has the fullest article on the achievement:

It is now 17 hours and 12 minutes since the 38-year-old picked the ball out of the United net in league competition, a record that spans 11 matches and eclipses Cech's mark of 1,025 minutes, which was set in Chelsea's title-winning season of 2004-05, by 360 seconds. It was the 84th minute before Van der Sar could celebrate here, though at that point all the attention was focused on the opposite goal as United went into overdrive.
...
If he completes another 72 minutes without ­conceding a goal against Everton on Saturday, Van der Sar will take possession of the all-time league record, which has been held by Steve Death, the former Reading ­goalkeeper, since August 1979. Ferguson made a point of acknowledging the part other men have played in helping United become so difficult to penetrate "even when we have made changes", although as the last line of defence it is Van der Sar who merits the most praise.

72 minutes? Against a team playing without strikers? Should be a doddle? (Famous last words...)

All the footprints you've ever left and fear expecting ahead (West Brom)

I'm starting a new feature today, under the title "All the footprints you've ever left and fear expecting ahead", more commonly known as, the big match preview. So, without further ado...

12 injured first team players and it's a sign of our strength in depth that the probable teams listed in the papers still have a pretty good look about them. The Mirror go with:

Van der Sar, Fletcher, Neville, Vidic, O'Shea, Scholes, Carrick, Ronaldo, Giggs, Tevez, Berbatov

On the Sky Sports website they give:

Van der Sar, Eckersley, Neville, Vidic, O'Shea, Ronaldo, Carrick, Fletcher, Tosic, Tevez, Berbatov.

While The Times go for:

E van der Sar — D Fletcher, G Neville, N Vidic, J O'Shea — D Gibson, M Carrick, R Giggs, C Ronaldo — D Berbatov, C Tévez.

All of which look plausible. Eckersley looked good when he came on against Spurs but not sure we won't be going for Fletcher there for his Premier League experience. In the midfield I think I prefer The Mirror's suggestion, though it would be interesting to see Tosic get a start, he looked more than capable when he came on at the weekend, would be good to see what he could do from the start, but again experience might be the key, given the chance to keep the pressure on the other teams by going three points clear with a win. And with Liverpool facing a potentially tricky trip to Wigan tomorrow night.
With West Brom also having numerous injury problems I can only see a Man Utd win here. I'll go for a 2-0 scoreline, we'll have too much for them going forward and our defence should be more than capable of shutting them out.

The great big no

Edwin va der Sar is the man in the spotlight today. Just 84 minutes away from breaking Peter Cech's Premier League record, and that against a West Brom team who don't have a great scoring record. The Telegraph have some quotes from Peter Schmeichel, he always thought that van der Sar was the man, he says:

"When I left Old Trafford, it was Edwin that I said the manager should sign. I said it then and I said it every time I spoke to Sir Alex afterwards.

"He is the sort of keeper they need for the style of football they play. He is probably the best goalkeeper there has ever been with his feet.

"Edwin is a very modern goalkeeper, he doesn't stay on his line, he pushes right up and that means the defence can play very high too. Knowing that it is Edwin behind them gives the defence confidence"

I think The Mail take this a little far when they list our top 7 (why seven?) keepers ever and put van der Sar at number one. At the start of the season he was looking very dodgy and I would put our defensive record down more to the collective defence rather than just one man. Given the injuries to our defence and the number of different combinations used this is remarkable. Long may it continue.
This preview of tonight's game from The Times also praises van der Sar, quoting Sir Alex:

“Edwin’s calmness and concentration are doing us a power of good and he is playing as well as he has ever done,” Ferguson said. “He has certainly been at a peak during our recent run. His experience will count for a lot in the coming weeks because the smell of the title run-in is there and I’m looking for us to raise our game even more. We have been on a good run lately and what we want now is a great run.”

This "great run" comment is taken up in a lot of the papers, but this other comment by Sir Alex, on Ronaldo is also interesting:

If there is a slight concern for United, other than injuries, it is the form of Cristiano Ronaldo, who has not come close to scaling the heights of the previous two seasons, but Ferguson said: “I don’t think confidence affects Ronaldo. He is a very confident lad and he has still made ten goals for us this time around and scored ten. By the end of the season he will still have over 20 goals, which is fantastic for a winger. You do have these exceptional seasons and it’s hard to replicate it every year.”

Yet again a report runs out the tired Ronaldo-out-of-form cliche. It's good to see Sir Alex pointing out facts, even if they don't quite get through to this reporter.
There's also some quotes from Ronaldo's interview with ITV over the weekend hitting the papers today, I'll take them from The Daily Star:

“Me scoring goals is not important, as long as the team wins. If that happens, I win too.

“I know if I keep working hard and doing the right things, my form is going to get better and better, so I don’t worry.

“I do try to make people happy with the way I play.

“When people come to the stadium to watch you, they want to enjoy themselves, and I try to make that happen.

“When you win, then everything is good. Winning, scoring, and beating defenders, that’s the order I like it.”

Of course the comment that gets the most publicity is about the worth of players, take this from The Mirror:

Cristiano Ronaldo believes he is now part of a select breed of "special" players who are worth more than £100million on the transfer market.

Manchester United's star performer made the bold claim in the aftermath of local rivals City's botched attempt to sign former World Player of the Year Kaka for a record-breaking fee of £108m.

"Special players are maybe worth that," said Ronaldo. "I agree with that. When you are good, when you are a special player, you are more expensive than the other ones. That's normal.

"It's like cars. Some cars are better than others, that's why they're more expensive. It's the same with players. But this is only my opinion."

Note that he doesn't actually claim himself to be in that bracket (though no doubt he thinks it, he is World Player of the Year after all, but he obviously doesn't say it), the paper just makes that up. One last quote, this time from The Telegraph, with added emphasis from me:

"My dream is also to win the World Cup and the Euros. I want to win more things for the club. The cups, the Premier League, Ballon D’Or, World Player of the Year, I want to win them all again. "

Let's finish with Paul Scholes, The Sun has some quotes from him:

“My desire to win more trophies is still strong. Manchester United is a massive club that demands that you win things.

“If you are just happy to go along and not earn medals there is no point in you being here."

While The Guardian looks at his choice for a best Man Utd XI, with the biggest surprise being the omission of Cantona:

The exclusion of Cantona might seem surprising, but then Scholes, independent of thought and free of sentiment, has previously hinted that, on a technical level at least, his reverence towards the man who catalysed United's glorious modern era might not be quite as great as others. ... the fact he omits him hints tantalisingly at a story of indifference or even antipathy that may never be told.

Does it? We have had a lot of great players over the years (and over the years Scholes has been playing). While I would certainly have Cantona in there, his omission doesn't be a matter of antipathy, does it?

Shock City

I'm getting sick of reading about how the FA Cup is getting devalued by managers playing understrength teams. It really doesn't add up. Take this nonsense from Alan Hansen in his column today:

The warning signs were there as early as two years ago. When covering Reading's fourth-round Cup match against Manchester United I recall that they played a weakened team even though their league status was relatively safe.

This applies to so many clubs: if you are struggling in the league then clearly your priorities lie elsewhere, but equally if you think that you can take your team into the Champions League then you are not going to put out a strong side for the Cup.

It makes no sense, according to the second paragraph the only teams that would play a strong team in the Cup would be those teams languishing in mid-table obscurity. But that is precisely where Hansen places the Reading team he says fielded a weakened team. This type of nonsense argument just shows that no matter what the facts are the perception of the devalued cup is what's important. The top 4 play weakened teams and don't care about the cup? That's why last season, before Portsmouth won it, everyone was moaning that the cup was being devalued precisely because no one outside the top 4 had a chance of winning it.
The other ridiculous point that I've seen made this weekend is exemplified in this, on The Guardian website:

Tradition has become the FA Cup's life support machine, but interest in the tournament almost expired over the weekend. Though the pulse was strong in Swansea's 2-0 win at Portsmouth

Which is to say that the weekend's FA Cup action was rubbish because there was only one shock. This is completely nonsensical, surely a shock by definition can not occur many times. If all the lower league teams had beaten their opponents it would just be normal, rather than a shock? This whole thing should be turned round, congratulate Swansea for pulling off a great result, rather than moaning about the cup not generating enough shocks.

Facts about it all

It's a sign of how good we were against Spurs that, carrying on the trend from yesterday, every report has a different player to praise - we were that much better all over the pitch.
The Mail today go for Michael Carrick:

the spectre who left boss Redknapp wondering why fate was so cruel was that
talented wraith Michael Carrick, a truly stylish assassin, who denied his mentor and his former club a place in the fifth round away to either Derby or Nottingham Forest.

As does The Guardian:

there are different types of courage on a football field and Carrick's is geared to his special talents, always wanting the ball, even in tight areas, confident enough in his own ability to find a team-mate, his philosophy being that losing possession is a sin. "He's the one who makes Manchester United tick now," Redknapp, the manager who gave him his debut at West Ham, volunteered.

Redknapp's praise of Carrick is a little odd - as is the way the papers quote him unquestioningly - given other quotes he made after the game. Compare these:

Redknapp said: 'Michael is a terrific craftsman, a top player and a great lad. It’s fantastic to see him develop as he has. He’s a superb footballer.’

“I had loads of players who can pass the ball but I didn’t have anyone who could open United up and hurt them,” the manager said. “We’re not overloaded with aggressive players.”

The point being that on the one hand he praises Carrick for his craft and yet on the other he suggests that what Spurs were missing was aggression, he has loads of players who can pass a ball. I only saw that second quote in one match report today, the first was in most of them. It is a petty example of the way agendas shape reports, but all evidence adds to the picture.
Another petty example of this is the continuing campaign of little digs at Ronaldo. Look at this from The Telegraph:

Unlike the increasingly petulant Cristiano Ronaldo, ever more prone to grumble if a pass does not meet his exacting demands

This is from a passage praising Paul Scholes (another paper, another player to single out for praise), and it seems awfully unnecessary, out of place, seeing as, and to be fair nearly every other report recognises this, Ronaldo was playing with a bug. Only The Sun manages to give Ronaldo any kudos for actually making the game:

Ronaldo had to go off early on Saturday having dragged himself on to the pitch despite suffering from a bug

Enough grumbling. The Independent praises our young players, and its good to see Welbeck getting praise - he had a really good game, looked very dangerous, but yesterday seemed to get a little overlooked:

Young Brazilian Fabio da Silva filled in for Evra at left-back with such passion, and touch, that his 53 minutes before injury were quite long enough to rival the impression made by his brother Rafael in a series of remarkable performances on the other flank, and then it was the turn of Richard Eckersley to play with bite and an old-headed poise. Danny Welbeck, coltish legs not withstanding, played wide with fine touch and dangerous pace before he too was injured. Zoran Tosic, the Serbian find who has caused so much excitement in Ferguson's old talent-plundering heart, was given 18 minutes to introduce himself after the exit of Cristiano Ronaldo. He did it with the authority of a kid gunfighter wise to the world beyond his years

Actually, I've got one more grumble; both The Times and The Telegraph reports begin with really overlong digressions on how the cup is being devalued and again the agenda is clear: to somehow tie us to this trend, when I think it is unarguable that we always treat the FA Cup as a trophy to win, look at the reaction to our loss to Portsmouth last season, look at the fact that Ronaldo played with a bug on Saturday. We are certainly not the ones disrespecting the cup. It's the clubs lower down the Premiership who play weakened teams with no apologies, rather than the bigger clubs who generally play most of their top players. But the agenda means we have to be linked to anything percieved as bad in football and to hell with facts.
I'll finish with this rather pointless little story from The Sun, which I actually rather like for its very pointless invocation of Sir Alex.

ALEX FERGUSON emerged the big winner as FA Cup draws left two rivals facing a fixture nightmare.

Fergie’s Manchester United coasted past Spurs on Saturday and into a fifth-round trip to Derby or Nottingham Forest.

But Arsenal and Liverpool were both held to draws yesterday, leaving them to fit a replay into their already chaotic schedules that include vital Premier League and Champions League clashes

It's as if Sir Alex is some omnipresent being, every bit of news must flow through him. It's that agenda thing again...
Two last things, one, I'm going to start tagging my posts. I've avoided this before because it bores me typing them all in and all i'd end up with would be a list of players names, seemed a bit pointless. But now I've realised that when I'm looking for a specific post it would be a lot easier for me, given my obscure post naming system, to look via tags. So i'll use them from now on...
And, two, I'm also going to start using Twitter for updates. I'll still do the main posts here but using Twitter means that I'll be able to post quicker, on the move, breaking news, etc., might even branch out into live match updates, we'll see. So anyway, my Twitter details should be to the right somewhere, or at least they will be soon, when I've put them there...
Now, to the tagging...

It's so easy

A good easy win yesterday, and the papers are pretty magnanimous, preferring to slag off Spurs, rather than us, for a change. The Sunday Times singles out Fabio for, deserved, praise:

The Da Silva twins are identical, sharing the same wide-eyed, curly-haired boyishness, youthful builds and coltish gaits. Injuries meant Fabio had to wait for yesterday’s debut. Spectators mused that he could not be as good as his brother and soon knew their instincts were right: he looks better. From kick-off until he was forced off early in the second half with a calf knock, Fabio tore up and down his flank, overshadowing the teammate he kept surging beyond on the overlap, Cristiano Ronaldo, World Footballer of the Year but United’s second best left-sided player yesterday.

The Telegraph single out Tevez for, again deserved, praise:

He hustled and bustled, scrapped and shimmied and utterly destroyed the Spurs defence. The combination of talent and tenacity is incredibly rare and it was his closing down as much as anything that decided this game. Spurs couldn't deal with him.

The Observer report concentrates almost exclusively on Spurs, so nothing to quote there really, I'll pick out this on our second goal:

Berbatov latched expertly on to a long ball forward from Carrick and confidently beat Alnwick from the edge of the area. Inevitably that prompted boos from the travelling support, much to Ferguson's disgust. "That's the nature of life now," the United manager said. "It's a social disease, I think. We must be the only club left to actually welcome back our former players."

The Guardian blog has an article on the (non) story I mentioned yesterday of not playing replays, again I won't bother with it. It does lead us nicely to The Mail's match report though, which has this in it:

even Sir Alex Ferguson deigned to treat the match with the seriousness it deserved, sending out a near full strength side from the injury depleted squad at his disposal.

"Even"? Since when didn't Sir Alex treat it with seriousness? The Mail continues in a ridiculous vein with two other (non) stories. One on Sir Alex apparently "igniting a club v country row" by saying Rooney might not be fit in time for the next England game. Stating facts is now a crime...
And one on Gus Hiddink slagging off Ronaldo for having nice hair and being attractive. Neither worth looking at.
It also has a story updating us on Owen Hargreaves injury:

The 28-year-old is due back in England this week to start rehabilitation and hopes to take part in pre-season training.

Rock on Top

A story I missed earlier, only saw it when I was round my parents' and saw the physical paper. Sir Alex named as the most influential man in sport in The Times. The write-up is not exactly glowing, but what can you expect?

Sir Alex Ferguson ... has been shaping our sporting lives for decades, to the extent that he is atop our summit, and the hard part is not in establishing where his power starts but where it ends.

It is a job best approached with caution, given that the old bully recently banned a journalist for describing him as the leader of a mob. And we all saw what Ferguson did recently to Rafael Benítez. The Liverpool manager described his United counterpart as above the law, a serial intimidator of officials and hell-bent on organising the fixture list to suit his own ends — the most powerful man in sport, in other words — and the Spaniard still has the bruises for saying what others only think.

Turntable hype

Arsene Wenger apparently thinks we have an advantage with the fixture list:

'Manchester United have been given an extreme advantage in the League fixtures - that's what we have to cope with.'

Interesting. This being the same Arsene Wenger who earlier in the month said:

“When I saw Ferguson’s case about fixtures, we checked - because we are always curious. And he has a case"

Hypocrite?
The main story today seems to be about Sir Alex's comments about invoking a rule allowing for replays to be dispensed with. A non-story if ever a saw one, won't waste time with it, see it here.
Some strange reporting on Sir Alex's comments on our defeat to Portsmouth in the FA cup last year, The Daily Mail headline is "United Boss Fergie finally confesses about Pompey defeat", claiming:

Sir Alex Ferguson has performed an amazing U-turn by admitting Manchester United had only themselves to blame for missing out on the Treble in losing last season's FA Cup quarter-final to Portsmouth.

He admitted: 'We knocked ourselves out really, because we missed six good chances.

However if one reads the Daily Star report this comment gets put into some sort of context:

“You look at that game and it hinged on the referee’s decision not to give us a penalty.

“But we knocked ourselves out because we missed six good chances. No question.”

Not quite a U-turn is it?

You ain't saying nothing

Not much around today.
Teddy Sheringham defends Berbatov in The Sun:

“I’m a big, big fan of Dimitar Berbatov. In fact, I think he’s a player like no other.

“He goes around the pitch at his own pace then he’ll put on a burst and leave his man for dead.

“He does things you don’t expect and that’s what makes him so exciting. I really enjoy watching him. But I can understand how he could frustrate some supporters."

And Nani has some thoughts on his form this season, from The Mail:

In an interview with the Manchester Evening News, he said: 'I would like to play more times but it hasn't been the same as last season. I was pleased with my games last season and my contribution to the team.

'This season I hoped it would be better. When I get my chances my aim is to do better than I did at the start of the season."

And that's your lot.

Second Place is the first loser

Just a short one. Found the link to Harry Redknapp's comments on the FA Cup which I failed to find in the last post, from the BBC:

"We've got some tough games, we've a game at Man United that really is so secondary to me now," he said.

"We're in a relegation battle and I can't risk Jamie O'Hara, Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Dawson at Old Trafford.

"If Alex (Ferguson) is listening, I'm really going to send a real mish-mash team up there. I hope it doesn't upset the fans, but we played extra time and we're out on our feet a little bit.

"The lads who didn't play tonight will play and I'm going to rest the key players who played tonight because I can't afford to lose any more to injuries."

Four hearts in a can

I like this story from The Mail (and reported elsewhere):

Cristiano Ronaldo, named as the best footballer on the planet only last week, was given Carling Cup duty against Championship side Derby by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson - in an effort to boost his confidence.

Ronaldo short of confidence? There's a first...
In more serious matters, The Guardian looks at our injury problems:

While the 4–2 defeat of Derby County at Old Trafford on Tuesday has propelled Manchester United into the Carling Cup final, there was no great sense of jubilation at the club yesterday as Ferguson and his coaching staff organised a meeting to discuss how to cope with the absence of five defenders through injury and another three back-up players who have been loaned out. As well as playing Fletcher as an emergency full-back Ferguson is considering giving a debut to Rafael da Silva's twin, Fabio, on the opposite flank.

John O'Shea, who has been deputising for the injured left-back Patrice Evra, is expected to move across to partner Nemanja Vidic in the centre of defence while James Chester will be on the bench.

The thing I had forgotten was that we have a midweek league game next week, so the FA Cup tie still doesn't give us much more time to recover. Having said that the back four mentioned in the article looks strong enough, and Evans should, by my calculation be fit for the league game. And as for the FA Cup, given Harry Redknapp's words, on the weakened team they're likely to field, after their game last night, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Some optimistic quotes from John O'Shea in the papers this morning:

And O'Shea admitted the players are focused on winning every available trophy.

'We are going for all four,' said the 27-year-old defender.

'It is something you hope for at the start of the season. There is confidence that these four trophies are all up for grabs.

'And when you have the players and belief we have, why not? Fingers crossed when the Champions League starts up again we will have a fully-fit squad. That is when we will start to dream about those sorts of things.

Why not indeed...

Sour Times

We're through to the final, which is the important thing. First half we were excellent, second half injuries made us disjointed but we still showed some great attacking play. The injuries to our defence are beginning to look a bit troublesome and we can only be thankful that the FA cup tie against a, presumably, weakened Spurs team intervenes to give everyone a chance to recuperate.
The reports today are all a bit bland; Oliver Kay in The Times doesn't see fit to mention his slagging off of Nani yesterday instead just basically says, "well of course they were going to win, what's it matter how?" And he even finishes his report claiming that Giles Barnes deserves the "final word". That's nothing against Barnes, great free kick, but surely a report on a semi-final should end up congratulating, or at least praising, those who reached the final?
That's nothing like the churlishness in the match report by serial offenders The Independent, who describe Nani's goal thus:

Nani's goal certainly looked spectacular, he cut in from the left, ignoring O'Shea's overlap and unleashed his shot from around 30 yards. The former United goalkeeper Roy Carroll got a hand to the ball and really might have done better in the circumstances. From then, United smelled blood and Derby duly crumbled.

What's wrong here? "It looked spectacular"? It didn't look it, it was spectacular. The implication being that it looked better than it was, and then we have the classic sour grapes expression, "and the keeper should have saved it anyway". And the churlishness continues with the final words:

There was no debating that United were worth their place at Wembley, it remains to be seen whether it was worth all the aggravation.

Disparaging the cup we've just reached the final of and a rather nonsensical suggestion that we could have chosen the way the injuries fell. What?! It remains to be seen? How do we judge that? If we lose the final it won't have been worth it? If we lose a league between now and forever The Independent's writer is proved correct? Whatever...
The Sun has a concise guide to injuries and Sir Alex's comments regarding them:

“We had six or seven injured. The serious one is Anderson but Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Nani all picked up knocks.

“Jonny Evans has got a recurrence of the ankle injury that has bothered him for a few weeks but hopefully he’ll be OK in a week’s time.

“Rafael has a hamstring injury and will be out for a few weeks.

In other news The Mail reports on comments by Ronaldo that he's happy at United:

'The only thing that is true is that I am happy at Manchester United.

'This is my home. Because I am winning things, because of friends, because of fans, I have always felt very loved.

'I feel at home here, it is a very lovely stage in my career, as much because of the coach, who has always supported me, as because of the players.

This morning comes confirmation that AIG aren't renewing their sponsorship when it runs out in 2010.
As an update to my post on the papers' reaction to the Middlesboro players' reaction to the sending off in their game against West Brom at the weekend, I was interested to read this from the BBC:

Middlesbrough have been charged by the Football Association with failing to control their players during their 3-0 defeat by West Brom on Saturday.

While I haven't scoured every inch of every paper I couldn't see any that actually reported on this. Double standards? YES.

Tricera -TOP-s

Aside from one transfer story (us being linked to yet another Wigan player) the news today is mainly of the Carling Cup semi-final. The Times concentrates on the negative, having a go at Nani:

Nani made a largely positive contribution during his first campaign with United, making 41 appearances in all competitions and starting 16 of their 38 Barclays Premier League matches, but, despite being one of the few players to have stayed clear of injury, he has figured only fleetingly this term.

He has started just three of the club's 21 league fixtures and, at 22, has failed to show anything like the same maturity that Cristiano Ronaldo exhibited at the same age.

I'm not sure I agree with this, firstly the article goes on to single out Nani and Anderson for criticism for the display against Derby in the first leg but really we were just collectively bad, Anderson's form has been more worrying for me personally, against Bolton on Saturday his passing was really dreadful, Nani has been good on a couple of occasions I remember this season, one bad performance, in the context of the whole team's failings doesn't really warrant this type of article as far as I'm concerned.
The other reports go for the more positive, looking forward to the possibilty of Zoran Tosic starting the game, or at least starting on the bench; Mike Phelan quoted in The Independent:

"Whether it is as a starter or coming on as a substitute against Derby we have not decided yet," Phelan told the Manchester Evening News.

"But Zoran has shown he is capable of blending in. He has done it nice and quietly. Now it is a case of giving him a chance for everyone else to see what we have seen.

The Guardian has the biggest look at this, with an article including several quotes from the player and this useful snippet of information:

he already has Balkan folk sessions with Dimitar Berbatov

(and that awful post title is my attempt at a pun related to the fact that we are now top of the league with a game in hand -in case it was inobvious)

Invasion of the Moral Crusaders

The papers aren't quite as scathing on our performance as I thought they might be. For the first 30 minutes we were dreadful, couldn't string a pass together, but after that we were pretty good, denied by Jaaskelainen on numerous occasions and controlled the game. Yet I thought the papers would simply criticise on the basis of the first half hour.
And yet we can still see hints of bias. Take this, from The Independent, it contains the usual "Giggs and Scholes, though they play for Man Utd we are allowed to like them" thing (the comparison with Gary Neville is intersting here - why does he not garner the same continuous praise? - is he just too Man U?) I often cite:

it was significant that Ferguson felt obliged to send on both Giggs and Scholes, even with two big cup ties coming up this week. Until that point, Ronaldo had remained the most likely source of a breakthrough for them.

Implying that Giggs and Scholes changed the course of the game. Now, while they both played well, and Giggs passed to Tevez in the build up to the goal, I'm not exactly sure they changed the game, we were playing well and were on top any way. Most of the other reports follow this line, from The Observer:

Ferguson sent on the old guard and must have been ­disappointed when Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs proved unable to make any difference.

The point being that by the contrast between reality (which at least some reporters managed to pick up) and the report, we get to see the bias at work. It does not matter what happened, by pointing to how good we claim Scholes and Giggs are we get to, by implication, slag off the rest of the team.
Another great example of bias today (and I accept that it is a bias that I can also imagine occuring towards Chelsea - though not the saintly Arsenal or Liverpool) is the response to the sending off of Middlesboro's Digard. Watching it on Match of the Day last night I was shocked by the Boro players surrounding the referee in an aggressive manner. After that initial shock it occured to me to consider what would have been said had that been our players (or, I accept, Chelsea's). The outcry would have been immediate, from the commentator, carried on in the MOTD studio, and splashed right across the back pages. And when Boro do it? No discussion of it at all in the MOTD studio. And the papers today? Absolutely ignore it. The Observer match report even carries a picture of the players surrounding the ref, but there is no mention of it in the report. All we get on the sending off is this, "A rash decision from referee Mark Halsey ". It absolutely wasn't a rash decision. The guy jumped in with both feet, it was a horrible challenge, rightly given a red card. Again, imagine if it had been Wayne Rooney doing the challenge. And imagine if it had been Sir Alex using his blinkers and saying this, as Gareth Southgate did, quoted in The Sunday Times:

“I think it is controversial,” he said. “He wins the ball. It kills any hope of getting back into the game.”

I'm fairly sure that even Gareth Southgate must be aware that winning the ball is no guarantee that the tackle wasn't dangerous. The Mail's report is the worst though, just for this sentence, "Southgate later felt that referee Mark Halsey was harsh to dismiss Frenchman Didier Digard."
That's it. The report completely ignores its responsibilty to tell us what happened, instead telling us what Gareth Southgate felt happened. What is the point of a report that does that? Why not just have Gareth Southgate write the whole thing?
To finish on a lighter note, I thought that this description of the pitch invader, from David Walsh in The Sunday Times, was class for its portrayal of Gary Neville:

The game started tamely. Bolton’s poor recent run made them do everything cautiously and United weren’t in the mood to rush things. Then the strangest thing: midway through the half, a man left his seat in the stands and somehow insinuated himself into the game. He just trotted on to the field as a line of orange-coated stewards looked on menacingly. As he walked towards the centre circle, the intruder waved a red-and-white scarf over his head, indicating he might have been of a United persuasion. What prompted him was the mystery. Was he there to ask for more passion? Perhaps to complain about the lack of excitement? It was a strange minute or so. Play stopped and nobody moved. He was burly, and it may have been his size that induced such trepidation. “You tell him to get lost.” “After you,” the players and stewards seemed to be saying. Tevez’s quiet diplomacy didn’t work.

Then Neville, who has been known to rush in where angels fear to tread, went to The Burly One and suggested he leave. As the full-back ushered him away, you should have seen the belated bravery of the orange coats who swarmed on to the pitch and frogmarched the fan to the waiting police. So engaging was this little distraction that it was almost a comedown to return to the sedateness of the game.

The Warning

Another take on the Ramon Calderon resignation, a word of warning from Sid Lowe in The Guardian:

The desperation with which he chased Ronaldo made him look like a little leaguer facing the Yankees. It also made him look dishonest, having constantly briefed that Ronaldo was in the bag. The pursuit infuriated Sir Alex Ferguson too of course, but if United believe that his departure is some kind of victory they should think again. Elections will now be called and there will be plenty of candidates who see in Ronaldo their ticket to the top. Candidates who will not be as easily outmanoeuvred as Calderón was.

I talk to the wind

There's very similar speculation in both The Mail and The Telegraph on the result of Calderon's resignation on the Ronaldo "deal". The consensus seems to be, surprisingly, that no one knows. The frontrunner to be the new president, Florentino Perez, "is also understood to be keen on taking Ronaldo to the Bernabeu, though his relationship with Mendes and Manchester United is less clear." So there you go.
The Mail report that we are looking likely to sign Wilson Palacios from Wigan. The headline cites Sir Alex as being confident but in the article there is no mention of any comment by him on the subject. I've never seen any mention of this on Sky Sports News either - and I watch it pretty much all day - so who knows. Deal to be done over the weekend it is alleged so we'll soon know.
In news about things that have actually happened, Manucho has signed for Hull on loan till the end of the season.
This article from The Sun has quotes from Berbatov about not wanting to be compared to Cantona, and also has a good summary of our injury problems ahead of the Bolton game.

Berbatov said: “It’s not good to be compared to a legend, as it brings more pressure.

“I have my own style, I play my own way.

“I want to be known for that, rather than the comparison to be made.

“And there is no comparison. I have a long way to go.”

On our injuries:

Patrice Evra, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Wes Brown all injured.

Tevez and Jonny Evans will also have fitness tests this morning and even Cristiano Ronaldo was limping after the midweek win over Wigan.

In training yesterday, John O’Shea and Rafael were the only fit defenders and Ryan Giggs did a stint at left-back.

With a patched-up side, Ferguson needs to draw on the strength of his squad. But he believes if they can stay in contention until all are fit again, then the title is in the bag.

We should still have enough to beat Bolton though, and with Bolton's problems scoring a record equalling clean sheet should be in the bag. See us winning yet another game 1 - 0.
The Telegraph has comments from Michael Carrick:

"When you get a number of injuries in similar positions, it can start to stretch you," he admitted.

"We have coped so far but you get times throughout the season when games come along that you just have to find a way to win.

"There are no excuses. Whoever plays is good enough to be at this club and to win."

To finish, The Mail has a story on Sir Alex being named "World's Best Club Coach of 2008" by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. The awards just keep on coming...

Here is the news

Breaking news - Ramon Calderon resigns as Real Madrid president. What does that mean for the Ronaldo speculation (further to the earlier post I note that Liverpool have accepted a bid for Pennant from Portsmouth)? Too early to tell, but here's a report from earlier today, from The Mail, speculating on the result of Calderon saying he wouldn't stand again:

At Old Trafford they must surely hope that means that Cristiano Ronaldo might be left in peace for more than five minutes between transfer claims and the war of words between two angry old men, Sir Alex Ferguson and Calderon, will end in the foreseeable future (2010 when his four-year mandate expires).

The Ordinary Boy(s)

Stories today look at our injury problems going into the Bolton game. The Independent speculate that Fabio da Silva may make his debut, The Guardian look at the absence of Rooney and how it affects Tevez and Berbatov, while The Times look at how a team carrying knocks might not be looking forward to playing Bolton.
Just to make the speculation regarding Ronaldo and Real Madrid even more bizarre The Telegraph report on how Real are looking to Jermaine Pennant:

Real's overtures towards Pennant, however, are only seen as a short-term solution before stepping up their chase of Manchester United winger Ronaldo.

Jermaine Pennant? As a stand in for Ronaldo? Good grief...

The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes

Not the best performance last night. In many ways the second half reminded me of the Derby game, passing not slick enough, and that when we actually managed to string passes together, too many misplaced balls from midfield. Thankfully we had the early goal. Although perhaps it was a case of "scoring too early", becoming complacent. Vidic had an amazing game, and Wigan looked pretty good, gave it a go and turned it into a match. Anyway, we got the points.
I thought the performance of Steve Bennett was interesting. Only one of the match reports I read mention the referee, and in fairness there was no one decision which could be isolated to make a story, but I thought his entire performance summed up why he's not a great referee. He seemed like a man who had heard Benitez's comments about referees at Old Trafford and refereed accordingly, giving no decisions to us except the most blatant. It was one of those nights where our players would have have to have been shot in the box to get a penalty. Twice he could/should have issued a second yellow card to a Wigan player and twice he failed to do so. Numerous times he let play run when he should have given us a free kick. There was no huge decision which went against us, just many petty decisions. If there had been a big decision to make though I'm fairly sure we wouldn't have got it. He's a referee who, rather than referee a match on its own merits, will take in the surrounding debate and referee according to that - remember when he sent of Mascherano at the height of discussions about dissent? I prefer a referee like Rob Styles who, for all his faults, referees each game on its merits.
The reports today aren't really worth reporting on, as if the writers are reflecting on our performance on the level of their own writing - they are truly a lacklustre bunch of reports. So I'm not going to link to any of them.

Trying not to think about time

Everything is going pretty well in the world of Man Utd. We beat our rivals convincingly. Liverpool slip up at Stoke. We can go top of the league by winning beating Wigan and Bolton. SO now seems like a great time to ... have a go at us...? Come on down Martin Samuel with an article on, bizarrely( although it is less bizarre if you remember the bias towards us and the fact that there's nothing else to criticise us on), given how long it is before the competition restarts, why we're probably not going to win the Champions League... I won't quote from it, I couldn't even be bothered to read through most of it. I wonder if he'll regurgitate it in time for the Champions League to actually kick off again...
Elsewhere, it is interesting to read the ever-magnanimous (HA) Keith Hackett on our disallowed corner/goal:

"It was a mistake," Hackett told the Guardian. "In his defence, the assistant referee appears to have been caught by surprise, just like Chelsea, who didn't defend it. It's a tough, instant decision to make, but the way to judge it is this. First, was the ball correctly placed in the quadrant? In this case, yes. Was it kicked? In this case, rolled with the base of the foot, which I'd give as a kick. And third, had the referee signalled for the kick to be taken? Corner-kicks are taken without a huge wave from the referee, so that's fine too. It's also important to note than the ball doesn't have to leave the quadrant to be live.

"So it was a good goal – it should have been allowed. I've spoken to Howard Webb, and the incident will be discussed in detail with our Select Group referees and assistants. It'll be a lively debate."

Ummm, I'm sure he'd have said the same thing had it cost us the goal. No, really, I do...

Also in The Guardian is this article praising Giggs. Like I said on Monday I thought he had an amazing game on Sunday, and it made me reconsider all the time I've spent criticising his performances recently, but, in the midst of its praise, the article also mentions what I have always maintained - that Giggs gets an easy ride from the media because he's the Man Utd player it's okay to like:

Unless you are a fan of the club it has been easy during their period of Premier League dominance to find grounds to object to almost all of their players — for reasons of behaviour or attitude or just simply good old spite — but Giggs is the exception, the one United player it has always been difficult to dislike

To finish, here's a summary, from The Telegraph, of Sir Alex's comments from the press conference yesterday.

King of Rock

The top story today is, of course, Ronaldo being made World Player of The Year (was there ever any doubt?), "It gives the 23-year-old a clean sweep of all the recognised major individual and club honours available to a footballer and ends 18 memorable months for the winger."I thought his acceptance speech was very good, especially this bit:

Sir Alex has had an important role to play in my life. Last season was a great one for me, my club, and the boss was important because I learned a lot from him. His immense experience, after so many years, is of paramount importance and for me it's a privilege to be able to be a part of the history of such a big club as United.

Ronaldo always has the knack of saying exactly the right thing in these circumstances. The other big story is this by Daniel Taylor, from The Guardian, on the role of an Arsenal fan in the Evra debacle:

Sir Alex Ferguson's sense of grievance with the Football Association has been exacerbated by the discovery that one of the men who banned Patrice Evra for four matches recently is an Arsenal season-ticket holder.

Ferguson, the Guardian can reveal, felt strongly enough to express his displeasure about the way the case was handled in the original draft of his programme notes for Manchester United's game against Chelsea on Sunday, only for his comments to be toned down after the intervention of the club's chief executive, David Gill.

Another aspect of this which is important is noted by Ian Herbert in The Independent:

Ferguson has grounds for some indignation where Stewart is concerned, since it was at the QC's behest that the contents of the commission's ruling were made freely available on the FA's website before United were informed, a decision the FA chairman Lord Triesman later admitted was a mistake.

I like Evra's response to the whole thing, reported in The Telegraph:

“I dedicate this victory over Chelsea to the English Football Association,” Evra said.

“I’m doing so because I am still unable to stomach having been given a four-match suspension by them."

In a strange turnaround - perhaps realising that their coverage yesterday was very very petty towards us - The Independent have an article on Johnny Evans and how good he is.