Manchester United 5-0 Portsmouth

I could say what a great performance and agree with the weekend media's adoration of Wayne Rooney after another dazzling performance on Sarturday. But for me the story was just how bad are Portsmouth. I saw last seasons United Pompey away match on MUTV the other day and how instructive was that. David James aside there was hardly anybody on the Portsmouth team still there. United won 1-0 but it was a hard fought game against a team with a decent defence and an attacking threat with players who were not embarrassed to have the ball at their feet. Compare that to Saturday, nobody looked entirely confident with the ball and bar one or two occasions in the first half before we scored were toohless up front. I read the other day that Avram Grant thinks if they are relegated this season they could well get relegated next season to go down to division 1. After seeing them on Saturday i can see what he means. We may have problems off the park but at the moment they don't begin to compare with the disaster unfolding at that football club. It must be just a matter of time before they go into administration.
United started well but didn't get the breakthrough that had looked on the cards. Nani started on the left with Valencia on the right and Berbatov partnering Rooney up front. I had been looking forward to seing Nani and Valencia play together and i liked what i saw there was constant threat from both flanks and United should really have took the lead before they did. Berbatov missed a great chance and seemed to be in for one of those days where nothing he tried came off. But when Rooney got the opener with a goal after forty minutes from a Gary Neville cross the floodgates opened as Pompey fell apart. On the stroke of half time Nani beat his man and put a weak cross in that took two deflections to beat the embarrassed James at his near post. It was a terrible goal to concede and you just knew there were more to come in the second period.
The third came as a Carrick shot took a looping deflection to beat James on the hour before Berbatov hit a superb strike to make it four Minutes later. This seemed to boost his confidence as he now started to look for the ball and start to express himself more. His scopped pass for Valencia that James saved superbly was the move of the match. I felt a bit sorry for him as he went off as he obviously wanted to stay on as it now seemed things were going for him. But Fergie wanted to give Owen and Diouf some time on the pitch and i couldn't argue as Diouf had two great chances to score one of which he really should have put away, with Owen strangely dropping deep and turning provider but to good effect as the front two linked up well. The last goal saw Evra overlap and put a decent cross in that the Portsmouth defender Wilson hammered into his own net. So three points and a major turnaround in our goal difference over the last month.
I had hadn't held out much hope of Arsenal doing much at the bridge and they didn't. It's turned into a two horse race quicker than anybody thought.

Anti Glazer protests continue but Rooney rises above it according to the Times match report.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7018366.ece

Paul Wilson doesn't think the change of roles has been the key to Rooney's breathtaking form. He just thinks everything has clicked for him and he is in the form of his life which he takes as good news for United and England.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/07/wayne-rooney-england-manchester-united
There is something in that, he has blown hot and cold before, but he is really at the top of his game at the minute.

Tony Cascarino fears the worst for Owen Hargreaves
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/02/sad-owen-hargreaves-reaching-point-of-no-return.html

Patrick Barclay lauds the Bundesliga as the football model to follow
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2010/02/debate-is-the-german-model-just-the-ticket-.html
I couldn't argue with that. It's a fan friendly league where fans concerns seem to be on a par with the clubs and the players.

Will Hutton thinks the tories economic policies lack the courage of their convictions. More like they are scrabbling to find an answer to our economic problems which they know can't be solved by the market alone. But with a party full of unreconstructed Thatcherites how do they get it past the party faithfull.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/07/conservative-economic-policy-george-osborne

Robert Peston argues that the BAE pay out is a major embarrassment for the firm.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/02/bae_a_knowing_and_wilful_misle.html

Steve Coogan says a decision will be made over the next month as to whether he will make a film version of Alan Partridge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/feb/08/alan-partridge-film-steve-coogan

Mark Thomas on his latest tour where his audience to propose policies then debate them. Some good ones
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/08/britain-should-invade-jersey

A little bit of Kraftwerk