Manchester United 1-0 Liverpool

Well a win over our biggest enemy is always a sweet thing, it was just a pity we couldn't have done it with a bit more style and rubbed their noses in the  proverbial as we sentenced them to the end of their season.As expected there was no Rooney with Hernandez coming in to replace him, but the absence of Vidic was a bit more unexpected. I think it's fair to say that there were a few worried reds about when they found out that Jonny Evans had been called in to replace him. It seemed to be a bit of a sink or swim decision from Fergie, putting his faith in Evans ability to cope with Torres and hoping he wasn't let down.
On the whole Evans didn't let him down, he was far from faultless and he still looks too shaky in possession, but he had a fair game at the side of Ferdinand. As for our Mexican stand in for Rooney, he did ok, but his game outside the box against better opposition needs improving before we really start to compare him to Ole.
We couldn't have wished for a better start, with the ref Howard Webb awarding us a penalty almost straight away, the TV and press seemed to have reached a consensus that it wasn't the correct decision. I suppose that's what you should expect from a vermin dominated TV coverage, but i was surprised that the press saw it that way. There may have been little contact but there was intent and there was contact, do we really think Gerrard would have stayed on his feet in the same situation, no me neither.
Giggs made no mistake with the penalty and the stage seemed to be set for us to really give them a good going over. But it never really happened. United's passing all afternoon was careless and not what you would want against a mid table team never mind against Liverpool.
Liverpool started to threaten briefly, until Gerrard was shown the red card for his two footed challenge on Carrick that left our midfield man in a heap. Maybe we would have gone on to really put the boot in, in the second half, if Evans header had broke the back of the net, instead of coming back of the upright just before the interval.
Liverpool started the second period with a bit more purpose and United fans started to get a bit restless with the lack of adventure from the home team. To be fair they didn't really threaten our goal seriously, but it was a disappointing show against ten men. United kept the ball well at times, but when they created chances we couldn't take them. But for the most part we kept possesssion well only to fluff the final ball. Southampton away is a nice reward and it looks like we will be involved on three fornts for a little while longer yet.

Fergie expects Rooney and Vidic to both be fit for next weeks important game at White hart lane. Good news, i would have liked to have seen Van De Sar back as well, Kuszczak never between the sticks never fills me with confidence and i have never thought that he inpsires much trust in the back four the way the the big Dutchman does.

Jonathan Raban argues that Gabrielle Giffords was the victim of a debased political culture, whilst Dan Hodges argues that Liberal hypocrisy risks descending to the levelof the far right

Sean O'Grady argues inflation isn't as bad as it feels and that we shouldn't worry about it too much, just yet.
Larry Elliott thinks we will avoid a double dip recession, but warns that 2011 will be a year of living frugally.
Paul krugam predicts that it will be Portugal next in the game of Eurodominoes. The Telegraph report that the Germans may be about to soften their stance on the Euro bailout fund. Whilst Paul Mason follows up his "scoop interview" with Maynard Keynes, with another with Kark Marx