I've been saving this post until now instead of writing it last week as I felt okay to lump last week's Premiership result with this week's FA Cup action. And it's been a helluva week. And with the Champions League resuming this week, we footie fans are in for treat after treat right up until the end of May.
We'll start with everyone's favourite team, Man U, also known in Cantonese to be Man Luen. We're certainly on a roll, and yesterday's comfortable victory over Everton in the FA Cup just sums up how well we've been playing since our last defeat at Fratton Park. Okay, we did suffer another defeat to Chelsea in the competition that Liverpool have the best chance of winning, but that aside, we've been strolling past opponents with apparent ease. If we didn't score in the first half, you could have counted on us scoring in the second, and sealing the victory with a rock solid display by Carroll and Co. Gordon Strachan, the former United winger and ex-Southampton manager, charted in one of the major papers the strategy that we employed on our way to the win at Man. City. We started the first half against City with Darren Fletcher (who should be given the Scotland captaincy right NOW, instead of letting it remain with the Rangers weakling) on the right and Quinton Fortune on the left, and finished the first half with a scoreless stalemate. While both are good players, Strachan pointed out, neither were the sort of players who would run with the ball and drag opposition full backs out of position. Enter Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs in the second half. More dribbling, more running with the ball, and the rest, as they say, with a cliche, is history. In fact, it's not hard to see where Strachan got that idea from. The first goal just confirms what he says. Giggs, while on the right, came in to the centre and brought his full back marker along with him, lest the ball should be passed on to him. That freed up the space on the right for which Gary Nev could, and normally would, run into. Roy Keane threaded an excellent ball through to the rampaging Neville, who dutifully floored in a square pass to Rooney for the goal. The second goal, well, just unlucky really for Richard Dunne...
At Everton this week, I'd have predicted a 2-0 win, and it was quite a stroll too as I thought. Funny that such a likely result was given an odd of 7/1 by the bookmakers. We weren't really in much trouble at all, but the first goal was another statement of just how important a player Ronaldo is to us. Easily beat two Toffee statues, and then flighted in a delightful cross for which Fortune, a much improved player from last season, headed home. The second goal just underlined how sharp United were, in particular our Portuguese whiz kid, to react quicker than any of the Everton players to stab home the loose ball. Wayne Rooney, to his credit, managed to stay clear of any "Judas" trouble on his return to Merseyside, albeit having a relatively quiet game. This is what is and will be beautifully frightening about United. One week it's Rooney, another week it's Ronaldo. There's no stopping those two! And what if they're unavailable? Scholesey, Giggs, Keano, Smith, Saha, and of course...Ruud. And forgetting a fully fit Ole too!
Now, Roy Carroll was again the subject of conversation following his being an unlucky missile target for some moron. United were always saying they're on a look-out for another keeper. Why need be I wonder? In my opinion, Roy Carroll is our no.1 and he's good enough for that position. He did drop a clanger against Spurs, but who doesn't? He's human after all! Even the Peter The Great experienced the odd mistake or two in his glorious time with United. I say we just offer him a new contract and let the matter rest. It works well for the defence anyway if they know they've got a familiar and reliable keeper behind them. So now we can really look forward to a realistic multiple trophy campaign, given the winning form that we're on right now. I still believe we can catch Chelsea for the Premiership, and I certainly won't put the Champions League and the FA Cup beyond our reach. By no means!
Now, on to Arsenal. Much has been said about Arsene Wenger fielding an entirely foreign team in their impressive 5-1 win against Crystal Palace, but this time I'm siding with Wenger. His job is not to make sure that England (or any of the other Home Nations) have enough young players to take over the mantle from the seniors. That is Sven Eriksson's job (for which he is being paid GBP 3 million a year for, and is very often receiving fair criticism for it). Wenger's job is to make sure Arsenal secure a win, every week if possible. I find it hard to see why the British, who often pride themselves about wanting to be "professional" on their job (a really convenient excuse for being calculative and lazy if you ask me), are having trouble with Wenger just plainly going all out to make sure his team win! Making sure English youngsters develop is not his job, so why should he do it. I think he's absolutely spot on when he said that he does not pick teams based on passports, but rather on quality and attitude, and that when you've trained with these players so often, you forget where they come from most of the time.
I'd have said that Arsenal were right back in form had they won yesterday against a Sheffield United side who's obviously trying to kick Wenger's men off their own park, but they didn't, so I won't say they're back in form. This time I feel it's Wenger's and Dennis Bergkamp's fault. He totally omitted Thierry Henry from the side, chose instead to play a largely second-string side (though I can understand why), and then Dennis Bergkamp got himself sent off. To me, 11 against 11 to an underdog side can sometimes be more than a handful, never mind 10 against 11 for more than a half. Sheffield have really got nothing to lose, and they came at Arsenal like a bunch of hungry bull dogs.
And of course, our review has to end with "Smelly Shit" Chelsea. Lucky but predictable win against a 10-man Everton, but not so lucky today. Mark Lawrenson was spot on with today's result when he predicted a Newcastle win, though he wasn't with the scoreline. I felt it was quite possible too myself, not because Newcastle were playing great, but that Chelsea themselves weren't as fluent as they were a couple of months ago, or more accurately, not as fluent as they were before Arjen Robben got injured. But, just this time, I just felt Jose Mourinho has been too cocky for himself. I know he's a bold man, and he's earned the right to be as brash and arrogant as he is, but he's really made a mistake this time. Okay, he was unlucky, but when he made the three subs at half-time, I was thinking to myself...isn't three the maximum number allowed? Is he really so desperate as to bring on all three at the same time with a whole second half remaining? No cover for any possible injuries later? Well, he had it coming, didn't he. But I guess everyone's entitled to the odd error or two. No more Quadruple (haha!), and no goals against any 11-man side since the injury of Arjen Robben (yeah, remarkable but true). And I won't be surprised if Liverpool were to deny them the League Cup next week. Liverpool, being so consistently inconsistent, that you really just won't know what to expect from them, but I've got a feeling they will turn up for the Carling Cup final. And suddenly, Jose Mourinho doesn't look so dashing anymore on Soccernet, does he?
