Manchester United 5-2 Tottenham Hotspur

When we were 2 down at half time the consensus amongst most of the people i spoke to at half time and have spoken to since was that we would gladly take the draw. But typical United they come out and score 5 and from nowhere play the best football of the season. What we had hoped for at the start of the season after we had bought Berbatov, was that he would take us up an notch. Unfortuantely it has to be said that before ysterday we had been nowhere near as good as we had in the two previous seasons. And there were plenty of us wondering if Berbatov was part of the reason. I just hope yesterday was the day when everything clicked for us. When Tevez came on yesterday, we saw that front four really click, gel, whatever you want to call it. Ronaldo had his best game for ages, Tevez worked his sock off for the cause, Berbatov had a hand in almost everything drifting into space and opening them up with some great passes and Rooney was just absolutely brilliant.
What a change from the first half when, though i didn't think we played badly enough to be two goals down we were second to almost everything and the defence looked in trouble every time that Spurs attacked. In fact it would be a great time for the attack to gel because we look all over the place at the back. Even when we scored the Fourth and fifth we still looked shaky at the back and could easily have conceded again. I didn't think we would top the Villa game for drama and excitement but we managed it yesterday. I can't wait for the game on Wednesday.
The down side at the moment has got to be the defence, we are struggling at right back and we really could do with a fit Wes Brown to stiffen us up. Rafael is going to be a good player but he can get caught out of position badly at times. Evra just seems to have lost his confidence and the last player he needed to be facing yesterday was the man who seems to have started the rot. Since Lennon gave him a bit of a chasing in the first half of the League cup final at Wembley he hasn't been the same player.
When Fergie took off the once more ineffective Nani and replaced him with Tevez the game completely changed. And the change was totally complete when he brought Scholes on. Scholes was a man on a mission and it didn't take him long to get booked. But crucially Spurs weren't first to everything any more. All that said i can't argue with the view that the penalty changed everything. We may well have gone on to get a draw or maybe even won but i don't believe we would have gone on to give the perfomance that we got. And yet again one of our supposedly best referees got it badly wrong. Unlike last week when it went against us this time it went for us, and if i could have chosen the one to be given us this is the one i would have picked . As well as we played we definitely got the luck. The equaliser was the pick of the goals for me, it was a great move between the front men and a sublime finish from Rooney. After that it was like fantasy football as every time we attacked we seemed to score. Spurs did fall apart a bit but United were majestic. It must have brought back horrible memories of the 5-3 defeat we handed them at White hart lane earlier on in the decade when they 3-0 up at half time. So it was a great game, a great second half performance and a great three points. That title is getting closer.

The match reportin the Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article6167886.ece

Fergie admits penalty was fortunate
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/put-your-shirt-on-united-for-title-1674285.html

The Da Silva Bothers Q & A
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/apr/20/rafael-fabio-da-silva

Arsene Wenger believes the English games grip on the continent's best players is coing to an end. It's hard to argue with that as we as a nation come to the realities of slipping down the lwealth league tables.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/5221803/Arsene-Wenger-New-tax-on-high-earners-will-drive-foreign-stars-away.html

And here is Will hutton on the realities of that situation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/26/britain-super-power-will-hutton

The mouth of Rupert Murdoch doesn't like Obama's vision of the States, now there is a surprise
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6168774.ece

Hamish McRae on the Britain's finances and the world economy
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-the-state-we-are-ureallyu-in-1674376.html

Has the flu pandemic arrived
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/25/swine-flu-mexico

nice people to do business with
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/26/manchester-city-torture-tape