No Scholes at the bridge

Fergie thinks that Chelsea are suffering for allowing experienced players to go in the summer and relying on too small a squad. That may be partly the case, but one of their biggest problems for me when i have watched them this season is that their defence isn't good enough. If their midfeild doesn't dominate in games their defensive deficiencies can be exploited. We have as good a chance as we have had in recent years to come away with the three points from stamford bridge.
I would have fancied us more with Paul Scholes in the team though, he is obviously a big miss. We saw the other night that our midfield largely got the better of Arsenal's but where was the creativity and control of the ball. We still don't have that when the ginger prince is missing. If we are going to go 4-3-3 again on Sunday i would like Giggs to in the middle to start the game to give Rooney a bit more quality service. Whether Giggs has played enough football recently to be up to that is the question. I'm just hoping this isn't one of those injuries that Scholes can't shrug off.
Paul Parker reckons United fans wouldn't swap Vidic for any other defender in world football and reckons his duel with Drogba on Sunday could be one of the deciding factors in the game. He isn't wrong on either count, in fact with Rio back to something like his best, fingers crossed, i wouldn't swap our back four for anybody else.

 Keano thought that Monday night was crap, it wasn't the greatest but it wasn't crap. How many times do the big games turn out to be a let down, there has always for these games to not deliver, in his time and before. Where United are at the present time it was probably as much as we could have hoped for. Of course neutrals would have hoped for a much better game, as would most reds, but when you aren't a neutral, the three points are the most important thing. And looking at the players reactions after the game they were well aware of that.
As i was  watching the game i couldn't help but think that the United team of a couple of seasons ago would have battered that Arsenal team. But as we all know, we aren't the United of a couple of seasons ago, we are still a work in progress.
Ian Wright is honest enough to admit that Monday night proved that Evra was right with his pre match comments about Arsenal and their title aspirations. I wonder what Fabregas is thinking after the Champions league draw paired the gooners with Barca once more in the first round of the knockout stages. I can't see past Barca to come through that tie. With the catalans new sponsorship deal just announced will the summer see another Barca attempt to prise the local boy back home and how will Wenger persuade him to stay this time.
Gill was pleased that the Chilean miners enjoyed their old trafford experience. It's a pity it wasn't that much of a game, but at least they saw the place on one of the nights when the atmosphere wasn't as dead as usual.

A couple of good games from Anderson and he gets a new extended contract. He has done well recently, but shouldn't an extension like that be awarded after a season of improved performance or at least a few months. It's to be hoped now that he has that in his back pocket that he doesn't revert to type.

Fergie warns last sixteen champions league opponents Marseille will be a handful. He is right, we could have had a worse draw but it could have been easier, look at the rent boys draw. We didn't do well at their ground last time we drew them if my memory serves me right.

The cabinet secretary has supposedly told Osborne that he will need a plan B according to a confidential circular that the FT has got it's hands on. Larry Elliott can't see him taking the civil servants advise, it's the modern British way to wait for catastrophe to strike first.
The BBC's Stephanie Flanders looks at the inflation wars being waged by MPC members Adam Posen and arch inflation hawk Andrew Sentence. Th weight of evidence and history would suggest Posen will be proved to be correct, but i would take a mild dose of inflation over a lurch back into recession anyway. Laryy Elliott looks at the banks less than sterling record at predicting our recent inflation rate.

A batch of reviews of Gordon Brown's new tome, it has received a better press from economists than political journalists though even the economists wonder where this Brown that saved the world in 2008 was in the years before that when he actually ran the economy.

The poison within the labour movement keeps on sneaking or even bursting out sporadically to remind us just what a job Miliband has on his hands. John Reid, a man far too pleased with his own rcord i have always thought, laid into Gordon Brown on the daily politics show. He is the type of Labour man who reminds me of why i am a Liberal.
The Economist's Bagehot seems to be giving Ed Miliband a better press than many of the Westminster pack.

James Forsyth's prediction for the forthcoming political year, expect the unexpected, who could have forseen the year just ending.
Alistair warns the Labour party that their schadenfreude over Clegg's troubles is blinding them to the fact that the tories are escaping the blame for any of the coalitions unpopularity. The party needs to start to attach the blame on Cameron and co. Peter Oborne thinks that the worst of Cleggs woes are behind him and this is now the time when Cameron's metal will be truly tested. He hasn't proved to be great when under strain so it will be interesting to see how he deals with Carke and his right wing critics.

Westminster MP talks sense shocker, and gets shot down as usual for pointing out the emperor has no clothes. Political bettings Mike Smithson asks why all political parties are scared of the Ainsworth plan, it's obvious why the tories and labour parties but this is the type of thing where the Lib dems are supposed to be liberal. There is no reason for them to be scared of the Daily mail, they will always be detested by that rag.

Michael day of the Indie reports that one of his own ministerial colleagues predicts that Berlusconi will still be gone by April despite winning the vote that kept him in power and set the stage for the riots seen later that night in Rome.

John Pilger explains why Julian Assange should be supported. 

Patrick West salutes the BBC 4 German season. It was quite good, i haven't watched Christopher Clarke's Frederick the great yet but the rest of it was pretty good.
It was quite timely having just finished Francis Wheen's biography of Marx and Tristran Hunt's biography of Engels, my head was already full of German history.




One of the greats