Mnchester United 2-0 Portsmouth

One of the best performances of the season, and a solid three points. It could have been 5 or 6, but i would have settled for 2-0 before kick off so i'm not grumbling. Ronaldo didn't just score two excellent goals he was superb throughout the game, his vision and awareness of others was as eyecatching as his dribling and silky skills. That was the kind of performance we saw from his last season, but for all his goals, i still don't think he has been as good as last year. The last few games though, have sen him start to step back up to that level, which must be pretty frightening for everybody else. But there was one other player on the pitch equal to him last night, yes you guessed it Paul Scholes. The passing and movement last night was on a different planet to what we have been watching whilst he has been out injured. He just sits and wields the baton conducting the orchestra in the middle of the park. We are such a better team with him in the side. Against the lesser teams, particularly when he and carrick are paired together, the opposition are just literally starved of the ball. I don't know what the stats were from last night but it just seemed like United had the ball almost all the time. The movement and passing was on a par with the Villa park performance in the league, Scholes last game in the league before his injury. A big thumbs up for Rooney too, he didn't have his greatest night, but his work rate just makes things happen anyway.
United started brightly and just carried on all night, even the substitutions in the second half only temporarily stopped the chances coming. The first goal came in the 10th minute as a triangle of passes between Scholes, Nani and Ronaldo saw Nani put Ronaldo clear through with only James to beat, and beat him he did, as easily as you like just side footing past him. Just 3 minutes later United were awarded a free kick 30 yards out, just a nice distance out to allow him to get it over the wall and dip it back down. Which is exactly what he did but at such a pace that James had absolutely no chance of saving it, add some swerve into the equation, and you come up with a perfect free kick. Even at that stage i felt it was game over, as it felt like it was a question of how many more we would score. Some how though, we remained goaless after that, despite numerous chances and near misses. It wasn't rooney's night in front of goal he missed two outstanding chances one in the first half where he couldn't convert Evra's cross when he really should have at least hit the target. And the other in the second half when a long punt from Van Der Sar, similar to the one against Spurs on sunday saw Campbell misjudge it and let Rooney in, but he couldn't manage to get his chip right and James got back to save it.
The second half saw Redknapp make a couple of substitutions, it seemed to me to try and keep the scoreline down more than to try and get back into the game. United carried on the domination, but though we were still carving out chances they weren't as plentiful as in the first half. I thought United wound down a bit saving themselves for saturday's tough looking fixture at White hart lane, whilst Pompey were just happy to get out of Old Trafford without the kind of humiliation that was handed out to Newcastle. United showed that they did have this in mind when they too Rooney and Ronaldo of with about 20 minutes to go. But they had combined earlier through rooney's never give anything up attitude when he lost the ball to Campbell, then chased and tackled him back presenting the ball to ronaldo on the edge of the box. It was a great chance, and with him being on a hatrick i expected him to do better, but he seemed to be as surprised as everybody else at the chance served up on a plate to him and hit it weakly wide.
Hargreaves and Tevez came on for the pair, and at first United struggled to adjust, although Nani hit a thunderous shot that seemed to surprise James, but was just over the bar. Anderson had come on for Scholes on the 60 minute mark, and he had a really good last half hour almost topping it off with a goal right near the end when he outstripped the defence and nipped in front of James, but the prodded shot just drifted wide of the post. So job done, and when the news came through that Liverpool had been beat, though we didn't know it was a last minute penalty, a good night was complete.

Munich anniversary memorial vandalised
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/munich-anniversary-memorial-defaced-with-paint-776039.html
Whilst i detest what the Glazers have done to our club and i don't think AIG should be on that memorial, i don't think that was the right way to go about protesting. To be honest i don't even see the need for the memorial anyway. There are enough memorials, the clock and the plaque are unbeatable for me, subtle and poignant. Unlike that piece of tat.

Player power ?
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ronaldo-goes-for-16312m-it-could-happen-776041.html


Ouch i had no idea Internet connections were so fragile, thats without the Russians and Chinese trying to sabotage it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/31/internet.blackout.asia

Timothy Garton Ash on the surveillance state that we are becoming.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2249473,00.html

More splits in the Kremlin exposed
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/russian-minister-exposes-split-in-putins-government-776178.html

Is Mervyn King really up to it?
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/adrian-hamilton/adrian-hamilton-the-question-remains-is-king-up-to-the-job-776107.html