Manchester United 3-0 Everton

Three goals and three points was just what the doctor ordered after the disappointment of stamford bridge. It was a decent performance without ever really hitting the heights, a bit like the season so far really. Yet again the the three players of the season were the oustanding performers in a red shirt. Evra is a magnificent player who must love playing at old trafford because i saw him for France against Ireland in that now infamous play off. He obviously does not get the freedom to roam forward and express himself under Domenech as he does under Fergie. Fletcher likewise, with the current crop of scottish players it is hard to see him getting to a world cup any time soon. Yet for me and most reds i should think he is unquestionably the first name to go down when it comes to midfield places nowadays. And after his performances against Arsenal, City and then Chelsea when he was our best player in all three i would say we can safely assume all of us that thought we badly missed him against Barca in Rome have been proved right. And lastly Valencia is coming on in leaps and bounds. He works hard for the team and is a permanent threat to the opposition. With his crosses, his running, his subtle passes that seem to go unoticed by those who still don't rate him and i think he will have scored a reasonable number of goals come May. He is looking a real Manchester United player if only we had someone on the left. Obertan may be that player but it's early days yet we will have to see him start more games to see whether that potential will make him the real deal on the left. With a European game to come where we have already qualified and a league cup tie against Spurs to come up he may well have two games in the starting line up.
United started reasonably well, though with Everton showing no adventure and obviously trying to contain us rather than making a game off it, the final ball needed to be spot on but it wasn't quite happening for us. Rooney had another in and out game and if he'd have had his shooting boots on we may have took the lead long before we did as he missed a couple of reasonable chances. But the goal was worth waiting for when it did come but not too many people would have been putting money on it coming from Fletcher. In fact the move involved those three players mentioned above again. Evra worked his way down the left and managed to get a decent cross over that found Valencia at the back post. Valencia cleverly nodded towards Fletcher who showed superb technique to volley it into the top left hand corner of the net. It was a superb shot and probably the best goal he has scored for United.
Everton brought Yakubu on to partner Saha in the second half and Everton looked a threat all of a sudden as the goal made them come forward. Of course that also meant that United would find it easier to make iroads towards the scousers goal. This made for a far more entertaining game and though United reallt did start to create chances Everton did have one or two themsleves and Yakubu went really close seeing his shot go inches wide with Van Der Sar beaten. But that second had to come and when it did it sort of summed up Rooney's afternoon. Giggs corner fell to him at the back post but Rooney's shot was so poor it ended up at Giggs feet who then took stock of the situation to play the pass of the day finding Carrick who sidefooted the ball past Howard for the second goal. Game over as Ferguson took Rooney off, which was fair enough for me, he hadn't had a great game and nobody should be guarenteed a place on the park if they are not performing and there are plenty of matches coming up. The third came from a surging run forward from substitute Scholes who drew his man before finding Valencia in space on the right hand side of the box and whose deflected shot beat Howard to give Valencia his fourth goal of the season. That was his season's total for Wigan last season, i definitely expect him to get into double figures for us by the end of the season. I suppose that shows what playing with better players plus a bit of coaching can do. People forget Ronaldo was hardly a prolific score for us over his first couple of years at the club.

Gary Neville asks why players need to pay agents 5 to 15 % of their wages to set up a bank account or buy a fridge, fair point.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6630343/Manchester-Uniteds-Gary-Neville-urges-players-to-take-back-control-from-agents.html

The Independent pay tribute to Ryan Giggs still first choice on the left hand side according to Sam Wallace
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/sam-wallace-giggs-recipe-for-success-hard-work-diplomacy-ndash-and-avoid-best-practice-1825957.html

A BBC Northern Ireland piece on Jonny Evans
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8373458.stm