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.