Manchester United 2-1 Arsenal

A good start to our first big four encounters as we took the three points without playing anywhere near our best. Saying that, i can't agree with the majority of match reports that i have read that said Arsenal were the better team. For me neither side was that clever and a draw would probably have been the fair result. As for Wengers remarks this morning that United's tactics were anti football, having a go in particular at Fletcher, what a joke, half of the tackles he was pulled up for were basically just Arsenal players falling over. He was easily the man of the match as Rooney rightly said after the match.
The first half was one to forget for United, we were playing decently until it came to the final ball. The amount of times we could have opened them up only for the final ball to be unblievably poor was unreal. The main offender was Giggs who was having one of those games, but to give him credit he never stopped looking for the ball and making himsel available. We had the best early chance as Rooney fed Fletcher but the Scotsman couldn't keep it down. Arsenal were having plenty of possession but they weren't really threatning that much there best chance was when Van Persie was through but Vidic managed to block his shot. The goal was a great strike form Arshavin but i thought Foster should have done better. The tackle that preceeded it from Fletcher was a fait tackle as far as i was concerened as he got the ball. This new rule that says you can't follow through into player was obviously not conceived with challenges like this in mind. If a defender can't give everything he has got to try and block a forward getting an effort on goal in the penalty area the rules are wrong.
The second half saw us improve with Rooney busting a gut as usual but the goals when they came were gifted to us . They had a gilt edged chance to wrap the game up early on but Foster made a great save with his foot from Van Persie. It was cute play from Rooney to win the penalty. Most forwards would have given the pass up but he decided to give the goalie a decision to make and fortunately for us he made the wrong one, bringing Rooney down. This time Rooney took the penalty and made no mistake bringing us level. The deciding goal was comical, i don't know what Diaby was thinking but we gleefully accepted the gift. After that the game became end to end with Van Persie hitting the bar, Berbatov and Nani both missing great chances and then the injury time goal that was off side from Van Persie. So three points without playing that well, can't complain.
One thing that was pretty noticable in the game was Carrick's sudden loss of form. All of a sudden he seeems to have lost confidence, which is bit worrying. It was a good job that Fletcher had such a good game, then again he always has done against Wengers men.

Wenger has a moan and i don't think is going to win many friends
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/30/arsene-wenger-arsenal-manchester-united

Kevin McCarra's match report points out the hypocrisy in Wengers comments
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/31/manchester-united-arsenal-arsene-wenger

Alan Hansen thinks Arsenal need a Fletcher
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/6114767/Alan-Hansen-Arsenal-need-someone-like-Darren-Fletcher-in-their-team.html

Will Hutton comments on Lord Turner recent comments
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/30/will-hutton-adair-turner-banks

A nice draw

to get the 2009-10 european campaign off to a good start hopefully, Real Madrid didn't get the easiest group did they.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8223263.stm

Sid Lowe on La Liga which begins this weekend
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/aug/26/la-liga-preview-sid-lowe

Ferdinand thinks Owem and Berbatov will win over the waverers
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6098206/Michael-Owen-and-Dimitar-Berbatov-will-star-for-Manchester-United-says-Rio-Ferdinand.html

FSA head Adair Turner says he could support a Tobin tax, two opposing views, not surprisingly one from the Guardian in favour and one from the Telegraph, lukewarm to say the least.
Firstly Larry Elliot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/27/turner-tobin-tax-economic-policy
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/author/tracycorrigan/

Simon Jenkins on the cynicism of the Megrahi case
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/26/megrahi-release-scotland-gordon-brown


Music
Black lips - 200 million thousand: A good listen though not up to the high standards of their last album. I love the 60's garage rock sound though.
Bob Dylan - Together through life: A decent album from Mr Zimmerman. the review of this in the guardian made a lot of, critics falling over themselves to say his recent output is up there with his best stuff when he thought it patently wasn't. A fair point, but it's still got some corking tunes on it.
Peter Doherty - Grace: The acoustic or a least more mellow side of the former Libertine. It's pretty good and can only have come from him, he doesn't really sound like anybody else. With blues, jazz influences and Graham Coxon guesting it's pretty impressive.
Ravi Coltrane - Blending times: The great John Coltrane's son carries on the modern jazz torch of his parents. It's pretty good, i can't much more technical about jazz i'm afraid, i just know what i like.
Teddy Thompson - Up front and down low: Another son of a famous musician this time the son of guitarist Richard. I had the reviews saying this country influenced, but with his background i suppose i had expected a more folk or americana version of country. But it is pretty much country and western. I don't mind country but i can't say it anything i dip into other than every now and then. It's not bad and there are one or two very good songs but it's not something i will return to.

Wigan 0 - 5 Manchester United

At last, after the first two, pretty indifferent performances the new exiting United that we had hoped that we might see this season materialised. The team selected was more like my imagined first eleven than Wednesday with Valencia and Nani on the flanks and Scholes and Fletcher in the middle. I feel a bit sorry for Carrick who didn't play against Birmingham and again missed yesterday. I am pretty sure if he had been picked alongside Fletcher instead of Anderson on Wednesday i am sure he would have had a good game. It seems strange that the man you would have thought was our number one central midfield player has only made one start so far this season especially with Arsenal and Spurs looming large. Then again Scholes and Flecther were superb, Scholes giving one of those performances where you wish he was still in his twenties and Flecther showing that he just seems to get better and better. In fact the way last season ended and with the negative impact his suspension had on our performance in Rome it would be hard not to think he is our chief man in the engine rook now.
The first half may not have seen us score but it saw us start to play football like a proper Manchester United team. Berbatov may not run around like a blue arsed fly like a certain Argentinian but some of the touches and the weight some of those passes is just top notch. The two chances that he helped set up, the pass to Nani that saw the portugese man cross for Fletcher that was blocked on the line and the back flick that should have seen Paul Scholes open the scoring were Cantonaesque.
We were getting a lot more from the wide men than we had seen on Wednesday with Nani once again showing his vastly improved form and consistency over the 90 minutes and at last we got some real glimpses of the Valencia we saw in pre-season and we have been waiting for. Rooney was looking sharp again and with Vidic back in defence alongside Evans the defence had a much more solid feel about it. That's not to say it was one way traffic as Wigan played their part in a good game of football with some good attacks of their own.
When Rooney scored you had the feeling that would be that but Wigan went straight to the other end and almost equalised. But that was where the game as a contest ended as Berbatov, Rooney and Scholes combined to see Berbatov beat the goalie and open his account for the season and how pleased was he. Next up was Rooney to get his second and really kill the game. That was the signal for substitutions to be made and for Owen to come on to replace Rooney. The way the game had gone i suppose we should have then expected him to break his duck. And after fine work from Nani waiting for Owen to make the run to lose his man that is what he did with a fine finish. Nani applied the icing on the kick with an injury time free kick that beat Kirkland all ends up. So at last the season is up and running properly and we have hit some decent form just in time for the games against the north London rivals Arsenal and Spurs.

The match report from the Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/rooney-put-on-strike-to-bring-up-his-century-1776071.html

David Pleat thinks Wigan commited the cardinal sin of giving Scholes too much room
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/24/wigan-athletic-manchester-united-tactics-david-pleat

Bayern Munich make a poor start to the season
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/aug/24/mainz-bayern-munich-bundesliga-raphael-honigstein

Anatole Kaletsky paints a bleak picture for the German and Eruopean economic recovery
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6807255.ece

Michael Portillo thinks something sticks the Megrahi release
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/rooney-put-on-strike-to-bring-up-his-century-1776071.html

Rio out for a month

Ferdinand out for a month, great, just the news we wanted to hear
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article6804973.ece

Fergie says we will go with what we have got, there will be no new signings, not a surprise to me anyway.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/ferguson-rules-out-transfers-1775411.html

United are in a goalscoring crisis according to the torygraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6060245/Five-strikers-who-could-solve-Manchester-Uniteds-Premier-League-goalscoring-crisis.html

An article on one the greatest albums of all time
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2009/aug/21/miles-davis-kind-blue-moment-richard-williams

Convicted Lockerbie bomber set free, as this article argues, it is more than doubtful that he was guilty and the yanks must know this. Western double standards
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/tim-luckhurst-scotlands-mess-over-lockerbie-1775092.html

Burnley 1-0 Manchester United

Back down to earth with a bump, i wasn't that amazed to be honest. The performance against Birmingham lacked cohesion and when i saw the staring eleven for this game it didn't fill me with confidence. Of course our defensive problems aren't helping, losing Rio is a big blow and we always miss him bringing the ball out of defence when he doesn't play. It was a surprise that Jonny Evans played, i can't help feeling he was playing through an injury. I wasn't surprised that Wes Brown started, and it wasn't really ideal having him start at the side of Evans when he himself missed almost all of last season through injury and has missed a fair chunk of pre-season like wise. But that is where the injury crisis has led us.
It was when you looked at the midfield that the balance of the team didn't look right. Giggs, Park, Anderson and Carrick doesn't read that great to me. Where was the man to provide the width and give them headaches on the wing. We know that Park isn't really an attacking wide man. He was used by Fergie to make sure that Ronaldo's defensive shortcomings didn't hurt us too much, but with no Ronaldo where was the man to cause their defence problems. Giggs is definitely at his best in the middle nowadays and that was where he kept drifting. It is only two seasons ago when Anderson had his first good run in the centre of midfield but i'm afraid it seems like ages ago to me. He gave his usual performance last night giving the ball away far too frequently for a United cenral midfield player. Carrick didn't have a bad game but neither did he force himself into the game as we would have hoped. I had expected him to play Owen and i wasn't wrong, it has to be said though the quicker he gets that first goal the better for all concerned. We don't need the press dissecting every performance if he struggles to get the goal. I don't expect him to play brilliantly as i have never thought he was that great a player. But for Fergies gamble to come off he has to get us 15 to 20 goals this season.
The way we started last night it looked like his first goal might be on the cards as United started well and a fine cross from the once again magnificent Evra should have seen Owen at least get a touch on the ball. Instead he bafflingly missed it and the chance was gone. United were playing reasonable football but with not quite enough cutting edge, but worryingly, though maybe not surprisingly, we were looking shaky at the back. For all those decrying this as a terrible result i would have to remind them that whilst we could and should have got a result last night Burnley are certainly not the worst promoted team of recent years. They try and play football and you have to applaud that.
When the goal came it wasn' that much of a surprise. Evra may have been better heading it out for a corner but who could have forseen Blake hitting such a thunderbolt volley, that hit the back of the net almost before Foster had moved. Owen had the best chance that United created in open play during the rest of the half but his clever run was followed by a poor header. But it seemed we were going to be granted the reprieve that we probably didn't deserve when a superb run into the box from Evra was brought to halt by a clumsy challenge by goalscorer Blake. Surprisingly Carrick strode forward to take it and then probably regretted his decision as he hit a pretty poor shot almost straight at keeper Jensen who parried it away. I suppose we should have seen the writing on the wall then.
The second half was the really disappointing part of the night as even though we did create chances we never really managed to control the game or attack with enough conviction. Nothing came form the flanks, and even when Valencia came on for the ineffectual Anderson that didn't change. In fact Valencia himself was worryingly out of sorts and didn't seem to want to take his man on. Rooney had one of those nights, he didn't play badly but too many times he seemed to get frustrated at the fact we were getting nowhere and shooting from the edge of the box into a packed defence. Berbatov was our most effective player when he came on for Owen but he wasn't able to carve out or score the all important equaliser. Giggs had probably our best chance of the second half but in keeping with the rest of our performance he wanted too long on the ball.
The result from Anfield capped a pretty miserable night. It is beginning to look as if the rebuilding or transitional process is going to take some time and we may have a few nasty results in store. I want to see as strong and experienced team as we are able to muster against Arsenal and Spurs away.

Criticism of the Glazer transfer policy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/aug/20/manchester-united-alex-ferguson-transfers

Match report from the Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/6056109/Burnley-Manchester-United-match-report.html

Simon Jenkins on the farce of our Afghan policy on election day
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/19/afghan-election-taliban-rumsfeld-intervention

Larry Elliot on David Cameron's economic policies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/20/black-swan-theory-david-cameron

Martin Kettle on the lack of coverage of the forthcoming German election
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/20/germany-angela-merkel-gordon-brown

Manchester United 1-0 Birmingham City

If i'm being honest i expected a better perormance than we got yesterday, but seeing as though we have failed to win our last two opening games of the season at Old Trafford, it will more than do. Birmingham came to shut up shop and they managed reasonably well, though to be fair to them when they got the chance break forward they took it and had some decent chances. Mind you when you look at our defensive problems it should have been the least we should have expected. It looks like Ferdinand will be out for at least two weeks with A pulled muscle according to Fergie. Let's hope that is true and it is not a recurrance of last season's back problems because we don't need that flaring up again, he is our most important centre half by far.
O'Shea stepped into Rio' shirt alongside Jonny Evans and had an excellent game even if the quality of the opposition has to be taken into account. Fletcher partnered Scholes in midfield with Nani and Valencia on the flanks. Rooney started up front with Berbatov in the partnership that has to step up on what we saw from the pair last term if we are to have a chance of that 19th league title.
I thought we saw our best football in the first half with Rooney looking lively and forcing a brilliant save from Hart after 10 minutes. Nani continued to produce the improved form we have seen from him in pre-season, if he can consistently perform like this Fergie will be licking his lips as all of a sudden he looks a proper player. It's a pity he has picked up this shoulder injury as he could do with a run of games. The disappointment of the afternoon has to be Valencia's display, this was not the player who we had seen in pre-season. He seemed hesitant and didn't seem to have the confidence to run with the ball and take his man on. I am not saying he had a bad game, it's just not what we had been expecting. We all know he is not going to be a like for like replacement for Ronaldo, but it looks like he could do with a good run of games to get into the groove of playing for United against the inevitable packed defences that i suppose he won't really have played against before. I have got every confidence that it won't be long before he starts to show what he is really capable of.
When the goal did come, it was Nani who delivered the assist and Rooney the man in the middle who had the initial header that hit the post and was alive enough to tap home the rebound. Birmingham did have one close shave as a shot from Jerome took a slight defelection leaving Foster standing motionless watching it float just wide. Evra had to clear a header off the line from a corner on a day where once again he gave a performance which left you wondering how many better left backs there are than him in world football. I can't think of any. Almost the last action of the half saw Fletcher miss an absolute sitter, it seeemed easier to score
The second half saw United really slacken off, as at times it just seemed to be too easy as United kept possession without really threatning. Nani had gone off to be replaced by Giggs, but it was one of those days where his flicks didn't seem to be coming off. With 15 minutes to go it looked we might pay for our lacklustre second half display as the Birimgham sub Benitez found himself clear on goal only for Foster to make a fine save. It was a much better performance from Foster after his very shaky performance at Wembley last week, he now needs to keep that level of performance up if he wants to establish himself Van Der Sar's successor. Owen came on for Berbatov and showed why i think he will turn out to be a good signing as twice he found himself through one on one with the goalie. The first time he was given offside, though it was mighty tight, the second, the goalie made a good save, though i'd like to think he will convert more of those chances that he will miss.
So an opening day victory and three points, and just to make it an even sweeter day the scousers getting played of the park and going down 2-1 at Tottenham. It wasn't that much of a surprise to me, i saw some of last weeks friendly against Athletico Madrid where they went down 2-1 at Anfield and from what i saw yesterday was totally on the cards as they were shocking against the Spanish. Chelsea weren't that impressive against Hull whilst Arsenal may have won 6-1 but Everton were truly awful so we can't read to much into that performance yet. City managed to win away from home and looked decent going forward but there were times especially in the first half when Blackburn battered them so i will reserve judgement on their performance. Still the main thing was for us to get off to a decent start and that we did, now can we follow it up at Burnley and Wigan.

Defensive crisis at United
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6041302/Manchester-Uniteds-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-rues-injuries-Rio-Ferdinand-and-Jonny-Evans.html

Mathew Fort on Keith Floyd
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/aug/10/keith-floyd-cancer
I loved his cookery shows, great food, mostly when he didn't cock up and great entertainment as a result os some of those cock ups.

Larry Elliot on a missed opportunity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/11/financial-crisis-recovery-bailout-labour