Wigan 0-4 Manchester United

I can't pretend i saw this coming, even though we ended up scoring four and running away with it in the end, it wasn't really a 4-0 performance. Maybe i shouldn't have been surprised though, how many times have we played Wigan when they have played reasonably well for an hour and then disintegrated. I suppose we're lucky it only happens when they play us.
I was happy to see us revert to a 4-4-2, even though it seemed to affect our cohesiveness as a defensive unit. In fact the first ten minutes were amazingly end to end, if they had got the first goal, and they had the chances, who knows how the game would have panned out. I had forseen yet another of our 4-3-3 away performances where we have struggled to impose ourselves on the game, so i didn't mind the openess of the game as i would take our attack to find the back of the net more often that a goal shy Wigan attack.
Wigan had really good chances in that first quarter of an hour but either took the wrong option or found Van Der sar in top form. United were equally dangerous at the other end with Nani roaming around causing havoc in the home sides rearguard. The first goal came via a superb move as Rooney set Nani free down the left and his excellent cross was finished off by Hernandez doing what he does best. His game still has a way to go outside the box but when we create a chance in and around the six yard box he is the man. In fact he could easily have had a hatrick yesterday, but having a squad man who can come in and make goalscoring look easy has probably been one of the key differences from last season. And if we go on to lift the title, still a big if, he will have been one of the key differences from last season.
Nani was unlucky after another excellent move saw the ball end up on his left foot but saw his shot come off the inside of the post. It was end to end and Van Der Sar was needed once again to stop McCarthy after a supern flowing attack from the home side.
The other big talking point of the half was Rooney's elbow McCarty before we had scored. I have to admit that whilst watching it live i didn't think it was that bad, but it didn't look too good on seeing the replay. But the press witch hunt this morning has been well over the top, why is it when Rooney does something like this he is usually hung, drawn and quartered by the press whilst when a Terry or a Gerrard go over the top it's hardly even mentioned. 
United started to get a grip on the game in the second half as dangerous home attack's got scarcer and scarcer. It took until fifteen minutes from the end for that all important second goal to come though. Hernandez played a one two with Rooney and found himself through on goal, and he gratefully accepted the chance to give United vital breathing space. Or so we thought, but both sides had different ideas as United stepped up a gear and Wigan fell apart. Berbatov came on for the Mexican and almost immediately set up Rooney for a tap in to make it three. And our other sub Fabio who had also not been on long made it four with a couple of minutes to go to make the scoreline look far more emphatic then the performance actually warrented.
It's a nice way to go into the Chelsea and Liverpool games, though i'm not sure i'll be reading too much from this performances going into those two encounters.

Martinez wasn't happy with the Rooney challenge, thinking he should have seen an early bath. The Mail as po faced as ever ask if he will ever learn. Meanwhile after the game in Marseille encounter Rooney professed himself happy to play on the left or wherever is needed as the big games mount up and potential siverware starts to come into view. Although he has certainly had better games than that on the left in the past the Marseille game was head and shoulders above any of the performances we have seen from him on the left so far this season. Just think of the West Brom, Wolves or Birmingham displays over the last couple of months.

Paul Wilson writes about what every United fan knows and what disturbs us most about a lack of transfer activity over the last couple of seasons, that we can't keep relying on Giggs and Scholes as sooner rather than later they will have hung up their boots. We know we have great prospects coming through, but they won't be ready to pick up the mantle early enough to replace those two giants of Manchester United's history.
Rene Meulensteen talks to four four two about Paul Scholes and the importance of training, practice makes perfect. Fergie reveals that Scholes wants assurances about the amount of games he will appear in before signing a new one year contract and that United want him to stay on as a coach when the time to hang up his boots does come.

Fegie hopes that we will have Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans back for the Anfield test next Sunday which means the impressive Smalling will start on Tuesday night at Stamford bridge. But tells Smalling that if Rio is fit he will walk back into the team for the big games.

The Glazers insist United is not for sale with a statement that is virtually word for word exactly the same at their not for sale statement last year, and about as believable. Andersred used the Guardian to advise the Qataris that if the really do want to buy United, that £1.5 billion would be way over the odds for what it is really worth.

I don't know how much credence to give this report of United being worried about the lack of progress being made by Fredrico Macheda in his loan spell at Sampdoria. I still don't really understand why he wasn't sent on loan to a premier league or even a championship club.

Nani is enjoying life at United and reveals he still keeps in touch with Cristiano Ronaldo, but that he is his own man.

Joschka Fischer writes of the middle east awakening and warns that whatever the outcome of the tumult that has hit the region, whether the democrats will prevail or whether the old forecs of reaction will regroup and regain control, the middle east and north Africa will never be the same.
Peter Oborne asks how will America react to the loss of its middle east empire, as he ponders how history teaches us how quicky empires and dynasties can collapse. Mick Hume looks at how the world has changed since the liberation of Kuwait twenty years ago and the seeming hegemony of the US looked unassailable, and now the future is up for grabs. Robert Skidlesky looks back to the second Iraq war under George W. Bush and wonders whether he was wrong to oppose it. I don't think so, the spread of democracy to the middle east was the goal of the neocons in so far as it helped to continue US influence of the gulf region's oil.And that looks far from certain at the moment. If trouble hits Saudi Arabia, all bets are off.
UK business is more than a little worried that their links to Gaddafi will count against them when he is finally toppled and their international contracts are reviewed.

David Bowden compares Denmark'sTthe Killing, currently being shown on BBC4 to David Simon's The Wire. Whilst i too am engrossed in the series, it's excellent, i wouldn't go as far as to compare it to The Wire. The Wire covered, the projects, the police force, Baltimore politics, the unions, the education system and the penny piching lack of scrutiny of the US press. The Killing doesn't really pretend to be a state of the nation piece such as that.

Steve Richards writes of David Cameron's worst week and predicts many more to come.
William Keegan asks how many brandies Osborne must have bought the US treasury secretary after his praise of the coalition's economic policies which of course the US are not following. Paul Mason talks about the world economy, QE, currency wars and looks back at the lessons of the 30's.

A bit old but Martin Wolf looks at Britains experiment in austerity and looks at the options for growth as the necessary rebalancing of the economy from the financial sector occurs.

A fascinating interview with Gorbachev, in which he speaks of his shame at Roman Abramovitch. I admire him but understand why he isn't as respected in his homeland as he is the western world. But i can't understand his continuing reverence for Lenin, a figure who changed the world yes, so a great historical figure certainly, but think of a Russian history where the bolsheviks didn't seize power and how different the history of the world could have been.

It's nto long until the next Elbow album is released and they have been in the press over recent weeks, Guy Garvey talked to the Observer today about the new release. The Quietus talk to fellow north west act The Demdike Stare about past years releases and what the future holds for the duo. I have only heard Forest of evil so far but that was excellent