Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Manchester United

The best performance of the season so far, and a terrific result. I must admit i wasn't sure about the team selected when i saw it, but it was more than up to the job. Anderson was selected alongside Scholes in the centre of midfield with Fletcher on the right and Giggs on the left. Whilst Fletcher has done a job there in the past it is obviously not his favoured position. And Giggs doesn't start out wide that often any more. But they all gave top performances, even Anderson had a good game and got that long awaited goal.
I was really impressed with the way we fought back after such a bad start. Not that we started badly, there wasn't much we could have done about their goal. But the way they have been playing, the atmosphere in the ground after they had scored before a minute was on the clock there was lot to like about the assured way we fought our way back into the game.
The equaliser was absolutely top notch, i had expected Rooney to take as the position seemed to suit a right footer better but Giggs hit it to perfection and even though the goalie went the right way he was never going to lay his fingers on it. I thought the goal had been coming as they had been getting desperate stopping us mainly by fouling us. Rooney and Berbatov were linking up nicely and Scholes was in the thick of it. As the half wore on we were the side who looked more like scoring, spurs threatened occasionally but didn't look as assured as United. One attack saw us have three bites at the cherry but a save, a block and the final attempt by Berbatov went over the bar. The goal was not long in coming and it was Anderson who smashed the ball home from the edge of the area. Let us hope that the goals start coming for him now. He didn't give the ball away yesterday and it was his best performance for us in ages. If i was Fergie i would play him again in Turkey, with the derby coming up i think he may well do anyway. It will be interesting to see the teams he picks for the next two games. I have a feeling he may well play Owen on Wednesday, and it will be interesting to see our formation and who our wide players will be in both those games. Spurs started the second half as they had the first and almost scored but Keane's shot was superbly blocked by Vidic and went for a corner. The sending off was a joke, scholes took his feet away but the reaction from the spurs player seemed to influence the ref to produce the second yellow and hence the red. But when you saw the replay you saw Scholes hardly touched and with the positioning of the referee who was right on top the incident and so should have seen it.
Carrick came on for Berbatov and incredibly it saw us move up a gear, and from then on there was only one team in it as we were the team busting a gut for that all important third goal. Rooney was on fire, and all of us who have pined for him to be put back into the middle on a permanent basis it's great to see him more than delivering the goods. I have always thought he was our most important player and with the way he is playing at the moment we are not going to miss Ronaldo as much as people thought. Fletcher has another magnificent game and it was his inviting ball that found Rooney who then beat Hutton before cooly slotting between the goalies legs to cap and oustanding performance.
Crouch had hit the bar for them but we were more than deserved victors. That was a bit puzzling to be honest, he doesn't usually play that well against us but he was always a danger against us yesterday.Whe you look at our performances so far it makes it even harder to understand what happened at Turf moor. So now it's a trip to Turkey before next weeks encounter.

The Telegraph's match report
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6174642/Tottenham-Hotspur-v-Manchester-United-match-report.html

David Conn on the academy system's failings
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2009/sep/09/chelsea-fifa-premier-league-academies
Ours would seem to be one of the better ones if our reserve and youth team performances this season are anything to go by.

Simon Jenkins on the media obssession with misery
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/sep/10/media-misery-nation-of-whingers
That's a good article, i can't stand when you hear people saying things like it was never like that in our day, when you know very well there is nothing new under the sun. You would think paedophilia was new the way it is reported, that murders are more common etc.

Martin Kettle on the problem for the Lib Dems
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/10/lib-dems-electoral-problems

I love this you tube piss take on the Oasis split
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6IyGAvbOs4
That is a brilliant film by the way

Thatchers reputation sinks further
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6829735.ece
What was the point of the cold war if the reunification of Germany wasn't one of the aims.

Will Hutton the obssession with cutting the national debt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/13/budget-national-debt-will-hutton