Manchester United 6-0 Newcastle

What a good day that was, Arsenal could only draw at home to Birmingham, Liverpool could only draw at Middlesbrough and City got beat at Everton. And then we go and annihilate a truly woeful Newcastle 6-0, the Chelski result was the only blip on the day. I really didn't expect Birmingham to get a result at Arsenal, that was the big bonus of the day.
Right from the off United took the game by the scruff of the neck, particularly Rooney, who started the game on fire and could have scored a hatrick in the first 20 minutes. The first chance was probably the best, as he was put through after an excellent pass from Carrick. Unfortunately he probably took a touch he didn't need to and ended up blazing over the bar. For the first time this season we saw the Michael Carrick that we saw last season. Carrick put Rooney through again minutes later, but this time Rooney's first time volley was saved by Given. There then followed two big penalty shouts, i have to admit that when i saw them live at the match i wasn't sure about either of them, but after seeing the highlights, they were both definite penalties. The next chance fell to Giggs after a good low shot from Ronaldo was only parried out but Given managed to get up and save Giggs attempt. The chances came thick and fast, but they wouldn't go in. The crowd seemed to get a bit anxious in the last ten minutes of the first half, and this seemed to get through to the players as they tried that bit too hard. I thought this was a bit silly, you start worrying when you are not creating chances.
Newcastle must have wondered how they got through to half time still level, but they had. The second half started in exactly the same fashion as the first, as United went for the jugular. Taylor cleared off the line twice almost immediately first from Tevez and then from Rooney. But the goal had to come, and come it did as Smith fouled Ronaldo on the edge of the box. From the resulting free kick Ronaldo cleverly struck the ball under the wall and past Given. The dam was now breached and eight minutes later a calamitous piece of defending between Given and Cacapa saw the ball rebound to a grateful Giggs who put a simple cross in for Tevez to coolly slot home the second. The next goal saw a sweet exchange of passes from Carrick and Tevez who the fed rooney, who put another superb ball into the box for Ronaldo to run through and control first time before slotting home as nonchalantly as you like to make it 3-0.
Not long afterwards came another big shout for a penalty as Carr gave Ferdinand a not so subtle nudge in the back, the referee missed it again, but as the ball came to the recently introduced Nani, he attracted two players to him before sliding it across to Carrick on the edge of the box who nearly capped a fine display with a rare goal but Enrique managed to clear it off the line. Although United were still totally on top i thought they were going to settle for the three goals and reclaiming the top spot. But there followed an absolutely disastrous last five minutes for Newcastle as they just completely folded, and for once United really killed a team when they were down. First a superb through ball from Rooney put Ferdinand in and from a tight angle he volleyed brilliantly past the helpless Given. Then Ronaldo managed to get the hatrick he has been threatening to get all season as another half hearted piece of defending saw him gifted the ball just inside the box and after cutting inside the defender he struck a shot that took a slight deflection and 5-0 it was. As if that wasn't enough, a pretty innocuous cross from O'Shea found it's way to Tevez who stuck his shot onto the underside of the bar, and as it fell, it definitely crossed the line and the scoreline began to tell the story of the game.
I haven't mentioned the abundance of other chances that were created in the second half, Rooney could have scored another hatrick. It seemed to be one of those days for him as far as putting the ball in the net went, but he more than made up for it with the goals he helped to create. Simpson who came on for Evra to play at right back spent more time in the Newcastle penalty area than his own and he went very close twice. Just wait till we get Scholes back, we will really start flying then.

Arabs to buy Gillet and Hicks out?
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/story/0,,2240163,00.html

A good article about the Newcastle situation an what it says about football in general
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml;jsessionid=3AFJMSABTSP1BQFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/sport/2008/01/13/sfnpad113.xml

An interview with Daniel Day Lewis in the observer
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2239726,00.html

It is beginning to look like everything Brown touches turns to shit
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2239947,00.html