(Image from here)AS Paul Scholes trooped down the tunnel in that indifferent way of his, Sir Alex Ferguson summoned Wayne Rooney to the touchline.He wanted a quiet word in his shell-like.
Half an hour to go, son, Scholesy's off for another couple of those joke tackles, time for your two-man impression.
Rooney duly obliged.
After Scholes was dismissed, United were not down to 10 men. They simply had nine plus Rooney.
And if my football maths is half-decent, that equals 11.
At a time when Spurs had theoretical numerical advantage, Rooney brought a wonderful save out of Carlo Cudicini, hit a post and scored a stunning goal to kill any fanciful idea of a Tottenham comeback.
And this after treading down more Wembley turf than a U2 audience only three days ago.
This correspondent has exhausted his reserve of Rooney superlatives. So we'll leave it at remarkable.
Tackling is not a comfort zone for Scholes. And a late sliding example of the many we have seen over two decades - this one putting Defoe on the turf - earned him his first booking.
But he was unfortunate to collect a second when his collision with Tom Huddlestone seemed an unavoidable accident.
That Scholes and his team-mates took the decision with a certain degree of restraint is a credit to them.
He has another piece on Rooney, this one on him and England, which includes this rather silly assertion:
Rooney the international player is different from Rooney the club player.
Football and England are his passions, Manchester United is his job.
Hmmmm...
Amy Lawrence in The Observer also showers us with praise:
Tottenham were shown precisely what it takes to gate-crash the elite of English football by a United team who chewed them up and spat them out. They epitomised every requirement for a winning team – the resilience to ride an early storm, the gifts to plunder game-changing goals, and the cockiness to have a man sent off and make it look as easy as pie.
In the last couple of games United have seen off Arsenal and Tottenham, and once their midweek Champions League assignment at Besiktas is out the way they can turn their attention to that lot with the mega bucks and "small-club mentality", Manchester City. Having recovered from such an embarrassing start at Burnley they look in the mood to pick off the pretenders one by one.
United's goalscorers epitomised why they purred, how they covered every base. Ryan Giggs was impeccable and clever. Anderson dynamic. Wayne Rooney a monster. Together they demolished all Tottenham's excitement.
The Independent spread the praise among the same three players:
In one of the usual eventful encounters between these sides, they scored inside 50 seconds and enjoyed a one-man advantage for the last half an hour after Paul Scholes was sent off, but could still manage nothing more rewarding than honourable defeat.
Thus their 100 per cent record in a best start to the season since the Double days of 1960 was shattered, and United climbed to a familiar pos-ition above them on the back of goals by Ryan Giggs, Anderson and Wayne Rooney. That trio were outstanding, Rooney outshining his England colleague Aaron Lennon, who could not replicate his Wembley pyrotechnics, the flame easily doused by Patrice Evra.
The Daily Star's report is notable only for the description of Paul Scholes as a, "one-man war machine," which would be great if it was in anyway true...
The Sunday Mirror's report is pedestrian at best, shall just quote this:
Even after going a goal behind in less than a minute and playing the last half hour with ten men, United looked accomplished and assured. And superior in most departments.
Think there's probably a problem for some journalists putting enthusiasm into match reports when they can't slag us off.
The Sunday Times adds Vidic to the names of those deserving of praise:
As happens regularly when these teams meet, Tottenham began beautifully, led, then lost control after United came back to beat them by a margin. Ferguson’s heroes were Nemanja Vidic who, sometimes brutally but always presciently, made interventions to stem Harry Redknapp’s in-form attackers and Anderson, who garnished an all-round performance with his first United goal. It gave them a 2-1 lead going into the break after a Ryan Giggs free kick cancelled out Jermain Defoe’s first-minute overhead kick.
And there's a nice description of Rooney:
Wayne Rooney, quiet when his side had 11 men, grew leonine and capped a relentless exhibition of lone-striker play when he cut past Alan Hutton and nutmegged Carlo Cudicini to guarantee United leapfrogged their next league opponents, Manchester City, into second.Sunday Telegraph notable only for the utterly wrong description of the Scholes sending off:
It is quite incredible the persistency with which Scholes has refused to learn to tackle. He had already been booked for clattering Defoe on 51 minutes. Eight minutes later he was off, going in to a challenge with Huddlestone that he was never going to win and leaving his boot in on the Spurs midfielder.
We'll get to Sir Alex saying Paul Scholes was sent off for being Paul Scholes, but some of the reporting of the sending off is also clouded by who it is: yes, Scholes isn't the best tackler, but that shouldn't affect individual decisions.
The finest player in all of England delivered a goal to match the grandeur of his talent. And in that single, exhilarating instant, Manchester United declared that it will take a truly extraordinary football team to tear the title from their grasp.
The goal, 13 minutes from the end of a breathlessly absorbing match, combined the best of Wayne Rooney with the very best of the side which he graces. It gave the champions a crucial win and persuaded Spurs to reassess some of their early-season optimism.
Like all the best goals, it bore the hallmark of simplicity. Breaking swiftly and running selflessly, Rooney was picked out by a gem of a ball from Darren Fletcher. He collected it in a stride, set off on a slaloming incursion, bemused a couple of defenders and rolled in the shot through the keeper’s legs.
Dazzling instinct combined with rare football intelligence. The match was over as the ball hit the net.
He loses points for describing Scholes as, "eternally irresponsible," though.
Good round up of quotes here. Sir Alex on the sending off:
“It was terrible sending off, I think the referee got it wrong.
“I thought it was a bad sending off. I have looked at the video twice and I don't see any sending off. I think he has been sent off because his name is Paul Scholes.”
The full quote has him suggesting that, "The Tottenham player done him – he should have been punished," which seems like fair comment.
On the game itself:
“It was always going to be hard game,” Ferguson said. “Tottenham are in great form and they got off to a fantastic start in the first minutes of the game.
“It was a marvellous finish from Defoe but it was early in the game, still 90 minutes to play.
“We had to gather our game and show composure.”
Ferguson admitted he only started to breathe easily after Rooney had struck.
“It was at a great time, it killed the game,” he said. “We had been under the cosh because of the 10 men. The goal finished the game.”
Giggs on Rooney's goal:
“It's a great goal. We were down to 10 men and just hanging on really, but then a bit of magic from Wayne.
“With 10 men it is always tough, they have a lot of the ball and you have to defend really well.
“They have a lot of attacking options so when you are down to 10 men you just try to get behind the ball and get a breakaway goal, and that's what we got.”
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