Manchester United 1-0 Everton

Three points in a hard fought but deserved victory over the blue side of murkeydive. To be fair to them they are not a bad side nowadays, they didn't really show too much going forward but we were always aware of the potential in their side to score a goal out of nothing.
The side was a pretty strong one with Tevez partnering Berbatov in the continuing absence of Rooney. They seem to be shaping up a fine understanding and are both playing excellently at the moment. I don't really know what our strongest central midfield partnership is any more but yesterdays pairing of Carrick and Fletcher must be up there amongst our best at the moment. That said Fletcher didn't have as good a game yesterday as we have come to expect this season. He didn't play badly but with his game not quite up to speed, it left us to marvel at another superb performance by the man who undoubtedly is our main man in the middle now, Michael Carrick. So it was fitting that it was him that made that surging run into the box to earn the penalty that decided the game.
United had decent chances before that but couldn't manage to finish them off. Tevez came closest when he instinctively flicked on an attempt at goal but saw it scramble over the bar for a corner. Ronaldo saw a shot from just outside the area agonisingly hit the outside of the post, it came back to Tevez but the Argentine was ruled offside. We had expected Everton to contest everything and make it hard for United and that is exactly what they set out to do. It was a bit of a throwback of a game, hard and uncompromising, typified by the duel between Vidic and Fellanini, that the Serb won hands down. After getting one in the mouth early on he set out to dominate his opponent and managed it totally winning everything in the air against him.
The one concern that we had in the game was the success they were having on the left hand side against Gary Neville in the first half. I think Neville got injured early on and maybe should have come off earlier than hid did. When replaced by Brown the problems on that side stopped completely and Brown looked like he'd never been away throwing himself into some pretty meaty challenges.
The penalty came just before half time, always a great time to score, and despite the protests of the Everton players it was a clear penalty. Carrick tried to stay on his feet but was unable to after Arteta's stuck out foot had just caught him. Ronaldo made no mistake with the spot kick as United went into the half time break with a deserved lead.
Almost immediately at the restart United should have had another penaltyas Carrick was brought down again, if anything it was an even more blatant penalty than the first. But referee Halsey botttled it in yet another poor refereeing performance at Old Trafford, the quality of English officials at the moment is pretty dire. I am wrinting this after watching the bindippers victory over the rent boys. The sending off of Lampard in that game was an absloute disgrace and was the obvious turning point of the game. United didn't create any really great chances in the second half but we were the only team that really looked like scoring. This was a good solid win in what could have been a tricky game. Next week we face another tricky game at West Ham who seem to be going well now under Zola. If we come out of that unscathed i can't see us having too many problems winning another title despite Liverpool's late late show today. I mean was that a performance to scare anybody this afternoon, and as for Chelsea they were woeful again even before Lampard's dismissal.

The match report in the Telegraph which goes a bit over the top about Ronaldo's performance
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/4412304/Cristiano-Ronaldo-magic-sends-Manchester-United-five-points-clear.html
He had a reasonable game but nowhere near as good as Tevez, Berbatov, Carric or Vidic.

Paul Scholes best United eleven
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/27/paul-scholes-manchester-united-team
Interesting

Ian Brown on his support for United
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/feb/01/ian-brown

John martyn who died last week, remembered
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/singer-john-martyn-dies-aged-60-1519948.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/01/john-martyn-remembered
http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2009/01/farewell_john_martyn_1.html

Martin Kettle on the special realtioship and Europe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/30/obama-britain-europe

Alan Watkins and Matthew D'acona think the Labour government will be no more after the next election.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/alan-watkins/alan-watkins-the-government-is-breathing-its-last-1522511.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/matthewd_ancona/4413199/The-week-Labour-lost-the-next-election.html