Manchester United 1-0 Arsenal

I was quietly confident before this match, party because we had been coming into a bit of form and partly because of our excellent recent record against Wenger's men. After the three points had been won, even though we never really played as well as we can, i think my confidence was reasonably well placed. Alan Hansen had predicted how United would approach the game, get men behind the ball and catch them on the counter attack. He was spot on, Ferguson didn't deviate from the tried and trusted method of playing Arsenal and beating Arsenal.
We had to rely on our defence more than we have had to before though, as our attack never really caught fire last night. It was still good enough to get the all important winner and create four or five more opportunities that would have put Arsenal completely out of reach. As much possession as the gooners had and as much as they pressed they hardly created a thing. But our back four and midfield had to work very hard to keep it that way.
The whole back four was magnificent last night with Vidic and Ferdinand almost back to their 2006-2008 best. A big pat on the back has to go to Rafel at right back as well, that was possibly his best game in a United shirt last night. The right back slot is his for years to come if he can keep that kind of form going consistently. The most impressive thing about his game last night was the fact that he was getting stronger the longer the game went on. With Nani also showing what a top player he is becoming we looked very strong on the right hand side.
There were mixed opinions on Nani last night, some thought he was too greedy and messed a couple of things up, which was maybe true to an extent. But there were others which i count myself amongst, who thought he was our most dangerous forward and who absolutley scared Arsenal to death. On the night he should have scored at least once and when he lost and then regained the ball to Clichy i thought he was bound to score as he doesn't miss too many chances like that. But it was one of those nights for us in front of goal.
I wasn't that thrilled when i saw the game commence and saw that Anderson was given the role of getting forward to support Rooney from midfield. He has been given that responsibilty before and has never given a performance that has shown he can do the role. But he gave another excellent performance last night continuing his good form. He was another to be given a great chance to score in the second half and another who spurned the opportunity though. For all his excellent form he still doesn't convince me in front of goal.
Fletcher and Carrick both had decent games doing the less glamorous role of stifling Arsenal's midfield. Carrick gave the ball away a bit too much near the death of the game, but at that stage of the game it was that fast that both sides were guitly of giving possession away.
Rooney wasn't quite at his best but he wasn't that far away, i can't explain that penalty miss though. After seeing it again on the TV after the game in the Tollgate it looked like he was too hyped up. He ran so hard and fast at the ball it was always a danger he might miss the target altogether. Taking penalties calls for a cool head and i'm afraid he didn't really have one whilst taking that and it could have come back to haunt us.
So we have come out of the first of big four double headers with all three points and now it's to Stamford bridge where it's our record that isn't so great. If we play like we did last night we will have a great chance, but i would like to see us play 4-4-2 against the rent boys with Berbatov coming back into the frame. A lot of Chelsea's problems recently have been down to a dodgy defence and we need to get at it. Will Fergie go for it though?

Herny Winter uses his match report to describe the ominous warning that United handed out to their title rivals last night, as United won relatively easily without really hitting top gear. Ian Hebert reports on another dominating midfield peformance from Darren Fletcher against the Arsenal. It was nice to see Flecther somewhere back near his best form after his indifferent season so far. Daniel Taylor reports on the Guardian's five things we learned from last night's column and wonders whether Anderson is at last living up to the billing and looks at Nani and sees a potential footballer of the year. I can't say i had thought of Nani as a candidate for player of the year, but thinking about it, it's got to be a fair shout. He has been our most consistent and dangerous player so far this season. As for competitors for the title, i suppose Gareth Bale will be in the mix, but i'm not sure who else really stands out so far this season.

The Telegraph report on the maturing Tweeter man Ferdinand, who sees this a transitional phase for United but not as bigger a transition as happened after the 2003 title was won and the side was broken up.

Has Tom Cleverley played his last game for Wigan as he suffered a rib injury against Everton at the weekend. The update on that is the injury is not as bad as first thought, whether that means he has played his last game for them, who knows. But the news that we will lose Park for 7 games due to the Asian cup may well mean he will be coming back to old trafford in January. It would be a definite strengthning of our squad for the second half of the season

Chris Blackhurst of the London evening standard thinks United fans deserve an answer as to where the Glazer's found the money to pay off the PIK loan. Pigs might fly, but the one thing that seems certain is that they have not used their own money.

Martin Samuel looks at the Carlos Tevez affair and comes to the conclusuion that there is only Chelsea left for Tevez to play for. Hansen reckons that City can ill afford to lose the little Argentine if they harbour serious hopes of lifting the premier league title this season.

Andrew Rawnsley looks at last weeks events and comes to the conclusion that Cameron should really be sharing Clegg's pain. I suppose he should but if he and Osborne see their coalition partners as the useful idiots that others see them as then Clegg will receive just enough support to keep the coalition alive but not enough to do anything to salvage the libe dem leaders reputation.

Two differing views on the difficulties and possible outcomes on the potential future of the Lib dems. Mary Ann Sieghart uses her Indie column to proclaim a rosier future for the party tham almost any other commentator i have read. She claims that as most of the protesting students don't vote the party will not be as badly hurt as current thinking suugests. Steve Richards is right at the other end of the spectrum. With the party split down the middle ideologically, he thinks that some sort of schism is almost inevitable before the four years of this coalition are up.
Richard Grayson exposes the truism, i would hope anyway, that the parties grassroots are nearer to the labour party and to the green party than they are to their own leadership.

Peter Oborne looks at the inside workings of team Cameron and wonders whose vision of the future of conservatism prevails, the Google world of Steve Hilton or the Murdoch world of Andy Coulson. That's easily answered, whose views are nearer the grassroots of British toryism, it has to be the Coulson world of Rupert Murdoch.

Steve Richards last New Statesman column looked at the labour party and the re-entry of Gordon Brown into the political arena last week. He thinks that the party are still defined by Gordon Brown and argues that if Brown's economic policies come to be seen as a success in three years time that would be good news for the party. If on the other hand the cuts are largely accepted and the economy recovers it will be curtains for the party at the next election.
John Harris looked at the recent criticism of Miliband and argued that this was not the way to keep on treating party leaders.

The most interesting although not unexpected Wikileak revelations of th last few days were the news that Tricky Dicky stereotyped America's melting pot of ethnic identities and the news that the US are totally aware of how revoltingly corrupt Karimov's Uzbekistan really is. I had expected Craig Murray to blog on this little expose but he hasn't done yet.

The Pixies perform Here comes your man at the 2004 move festival at LCCC. I was there and it was one of the best gigs i have ever been to, they completely blew away the Stereophonics, not that hard i know.