Aston Villa 1-1 Manchester United

I would have been happy with a point before the match and after the Nani sending off i was more than happy with it. And if you had to have picked a more worthy winner on the night it would have had to have been us. It was a night where we again showed we are deadly serious contenders for that nineteenth title.
Fergie picked a pretty strong line up with Nani picked in front of Valencia once more and Giggs on the left this time. Scholes came back to patrol central midfield with Carrick and Fletcher and Rafael replaced Gary Neville. There still is no sign of Vidic, would it be a surprise if he came back to face one of the clubs vying for his signature next week.
United started reasonably well, the passing was sharp and precise but we didn't really open them up. Villa started to come into it after about 10 minutes and looked threatening. But the goal was a touch soft when it came United didn't really cope with the original cross from Downing, but give him credit it was a superb header from Cuellar to beat Van Der Sar. My first reaction to their goal was that we would now see what we were made of. Well it didn't take long for my answer as another free flowing move saw Nani cross to the far post where Giggs vollied back into the six yard box and Collins put into his own net. It was probably a shot from Giggs so there was a slice of fortune to it. But all these own goals aren't down to luck are they, they are down to the fact that we are attacking and getting shots in on target, regularly spreading panic into the opposition. Ahem, maybe not on Saturday though. So Villa held the lead for just four minutes, a great reply from the reds.
Five minutes later the game turned again as Nani had a rush of blood to the head and launched into Petrov. There are differing views on it but for me it was an obvious and straight red card. You can't take off with both feet in the air as you go into the tackle. But doing it away from home in a big game in front of a full house in front of the ref, well that's just asking for it. United pushed Fletcher onto the right and played 4-2-3 and as we have done before looked like we still had eleven on the park. Carrick saw a searing shot tipped over the bar by Friedal and United looked the better team as we went in level at the break.
Scholes was sacrificed at half time as Valencia moved to the right with Fletcher reverting to the middle of midfield. Almost straight away Valencia was in the thick of the action hitting a shot over the bar when maybe he should have hit the target. Rooney once more showed what a great player he is as he occupied both the centre halves on his own. United were the better side and were controlling the match though Milner did have one good shot well saved by Van Der Sar. Rooney saw a great shot tipped over the bar with quarter of an hour left but that was as close as we came to a winner. We had the worrying sight of Giggs going off with an arm injury with fifteen minutes to go but overall with rent boys losing at Goodison we have to be happy with the night.

Giggs to have an X-ray, we don't want to be losing him, as great a player as he is still when he starts he is the one player we have who can make a real difference when he comes off the bench.
So if he starts that's great and if we have him to come off the bench it's just as good.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7209074/Manchester-United-winger-Ryan-Giggs-sent-for-X-ray-on-arm-injury-suffered-against-Villa.html

The praise for Nani's maturity didn't last long
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7022716.ece

Paul Wilson argues that Fergie is right to eschew the post match press conference. I have argued before that they should be abolished. A manager should be given time to think about what he wants to say. And if he can't say what he thinks anyway, ie the ref's had a stinker without getting into trouble, what is the point of them at all.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/10/sir-alex-ferguson-press

Portsmouth are on the brink as the taxman gives them just days to find a buyer or face liquidation. If that is occur how can Scudamore and co stay in their job, i know they will, but they shouldn't be should they. David Conn lays into the free market buffoons
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/feb/10/portsmouth-high-court-winding-up

Andy Cole puts forward a footballers view on the pompey debacle.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/the-andy-cole-column-dont-blame-the-players-for-accepting-pompeys-champions-league-wages-1895606.html
That's ok as far as it goes but we all know the biggest financial problem in football is that players are paid too much, full stop. And that goes from the Rooney's and Ronaldo's right down to championship level.

Steve Richards thinks Cameron has been found out as he swims against the ideological tide. A pretty good column summing up where our politics are heading.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-the-tide-has-turned-and-the-tories-are-swimming-against-it-1895840.html
However clever he is in positioning his party in the centre, and i'm not that sure about that myself. His party is an irredeemably free market right wing party.

Former Cadbury's boss thinks it's time to review British takeover rules. He is absolutely spot on, but will the next government see the light. Obviously not if it's the tories, they don't want to upset their friends and backers in the financial world. It's hard to have much fiath in new labour or even the lib dems over this though. Mad because it is surely not just right but i can't believe it wouldn't be a vote winner. And we wouldn't have been took over by chancers that couldn't afford us as Alan Sugar said yesterday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/09/roger-carr-takeover-rules

Aren't we supposed to be the good guys. MI5 lied about torture
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/binyam-mohamed-torture-mi5
What loses me is, what do you hope to get from torture. How do you know they are not just telling you what they think you want to know. That doesn't seem to be the best basis for intelligence gathering to me. As to the argument we are now less safer because of this ruling, simple that's bollocks. This is not world war 11.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article7022494.ece

United fan Christopher Eccleston stars in this I am kloot video

I am not mad on music video's but this is a good one. I used to see him and i presumed it was his dad, occasionally outside the ground in the 95-96 season when the north stand was being built and we were moved to the bottom of the main stand.