Aston Villa 0-0 Manchester United

Well our record at Villa park had to come to an end sometime, at least it didn't end with us losing. This wasn't the greatest of games with Villa sitting back and making it hard for us, chances were thin on the ground. It was a pity Fletcher was injured as i am pretty sure he would have featured in this game.
United were the better team and bossed the posession but found it hard to really make that penetrating final pass. Ronaldo made one good run that saw him hit a fierce drive but Friedal had no problem parrying it out for a corner.Tevez and Rooney worked hard as usual but the only other real chances fell to Park and Vidic in the first half. Park looked to have been put through clean on goal but a brilliant late tackle from Young stole the ball away from him at the last minute. A couple of minutes later he was inches away from converting a cross from Rooney. Vidic went close from a dead ball from Giggs but 0-0 at half time was probably a fair scoreline.
The second half followed a similar pattern with United having most of the possession but struggling to convert the posesssion into chances. Probably the best chance of the match fell to Rooney after Carrick had cleverly lobbed a pass over the Villa defence to give Rooney a chance with a right foot volley but he only managed to put it into the top tier of the north stand. Tevez was replaced by Nani and shook his head in disappointment. I can't see the Argentine being here next season, it will be interesting if Campbell does come back as i think next season would see two products of the youth team in the first team pool.
Villa had a shout for a penalty on the hour after Vidic tangled with Agbonlahor but the ref didn't give it. A foul outside the area would have been the correct decision but he didn't give anything. With Liverpool and Chelsea but having disappointing results some might think that this was chance missed. In a way obviously it was, but i would have took a draw before the game so i am not too disappointed. It looks like Arsenal are in freefall after their thumping at the boo camp, it wasn't just the result but more the performance. Gallas has opened up a right can of worms there.

The Observer match report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/nov/23/aston-villa-manchester-united

Campbell could return, says Fergie
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7743233.stm

Rossi the one that got away
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article5212782.ece
I had a lot of time for him, he was a really good player.

Keynes biographer Robert Skidelsky on what the great man would have done faced with todays situation
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/robert-skidelsky-what-would-keynes-have-done-1029916.html

An article on the artist Rodriguez and his great lost album Cold Fact. I have been listening to this recently and it is a classic, amazing that it never sold.
http://www.djouls.com/index.php/rodriguez-cold-fact