Manchester United 2-0 Arsenal

Along with almost everybody else, when i saw the teamsheet before yesterday's game i feared the worst. Reports were predicting a 4-4-2 with the twins on the flanks with O'Shea and Gibson in the middle. As we trundled off to the game all the talk was of seven defenders in the starting line up. That wasn't particulaly what concerned me, as the Da Silva's are both very attacking full backs, that is their strength. I felt they would do a job, and boy did they really do a job for us in that first half. It was Gibson and O'Shea in the central midfield i was bothered about.
As it turned out, Fergie pulled of a masterstroke, his tactics, substitutions and the timing of those substitutions all came off on the day. The two twins covered every blade of grass on the pitch allowing Gibson and O'Shea to sit just in front of the defence. Rooney was dropping deeper than we have seen for some time. The plan would have been perfect if Fergie had been able tp pick Scholes as one of the holding players as he would have been able to hit the kind of balls that Hernandez, the twins and Rooney were making which had the vistors defence looking nervous when we looked to attack.
If it's possible to feel sorry for Arsenal, i'm not sure how they came out of the match without a goal down to their name. The second half in particular was as open a game as we have seen this season and as open a game between two of the top four as i can remember. I suppose the difference was that i felt that we always looked more like scoring than Wenger's men. Van Der Sar was outstanding, but the majority of the visitors shots were invariably hit straight at him. The pick of his saves was the save from Koscielny just after half time which proved to be even more important by United going almost straight up the other end and after another fine move whichRooney finishing off to put United two up.
The first half half had been a fair spectacle with United scoring after a fine move which saw one of the twins, Fabio getting on the scoresheet and Van Der Sar making a tremendous save from Van Persie. Arsenal had most of the possession in the first half as United sat deep and played them on the counter attac. But the second half was absolutely magnificent stuff.
I was sorry to see Fabio go off at half time, but he was probably knackered, but that was made up for by the excitment caused by the re-appearance of Valencia. That was probably the best news of the day and even better he looked like that horrendous injury has been totally ovecome. He looked like he had never been away, his pace, strength and great footballing brain were all still there and he was a major handful for the vistors defence.
The wonder is how the game ended without any further goals as both teams took turns to attack and both goalies made fine saves. Vidic was once more immense in defence but a special mention must go to Smalling who was once again absolutley outstanding. It looks like he is going to be one hell of a player.
So the season is back up and running and United will probably be confident of defeating Marseille on Tuesday even though we learnt before yesterday's game that carrick and Fletcher will both be out of that one. I don't think that will be easy , but our firepower should see us through.

Wenger wants Arsenal to bounce back, whilst Fergie is very pleased to have Antonio Valencia back. He is right, he is a brilliant player, totally under rated. On friday he had told the press that it had been a tough week for him and the club, but the reason for the media blackout was because he wanted to avoid any more controversy as he didn't think United could win.

Daniel Taylor hit the nail on the head with this piece on the enigma that is Michael Carrick, ironic he didn't play. The Telegraph report that Hargreaves has made one more last ditch attempt to save his United career, we all know what the reult of that will be.
The two defeats, especially last Sundays at Anfield has led to a week of renewed press speculation as to United's summer transfer list, with the main names being the familiar, Rodwell and Ashley Young. The Mail reckon Young is very keen to make the switch, i should think he is. I'm not sure how good he really is, but i do remember thinking that Dwight Yorke was a pretty good player when he was at Villa, but when he came to United and played with better players realising he was a bit better than that. Young has skill, seems like he has a good engine and definitely has a good attitude, so i wouldn't mind seeing him in a red shirt.

Sky sports scout takes a look at United's midfield youngster Ryan Tunnicliffe and likes what he sees. He isn't alone, i'm very excited about Tunnicliffe, Pogba and Morrison. Tunnicliffe has been compared to Robson and Keane and he is in that mould, but from what i have seen of him so far, Steve Gerrard is the player i would most compare him to. But Bryan Robson is the player to emulate, any manager would kill to have a Bryan Robson in their team.
The youth team came up trumps earlier today with a gutsy victory at Anfield coming from two goals down to triumph 3-2 with Ravel Morrison scoring thw winning goal four minutes from time. It must have been some game with each side eventually replaced to nine men, Pogba's sending off was bizarre by the sounds of it. I haven't seen it yet, so can't comment any further.

Andy Mitten writes about every reds worst nightmare in his evening news column.

God news for north west cricket fans as the redevelopment of the other old trafford Lancashire CCC can now go ahead. I'm no fan of the redevelopment plans, i think they are terrible, but as a cricket fan i want to see the Ashes at old trafford. As Manchester confidential points out if Derwent had won it would have been disastrous for Lancy and would have been much good for the area or the council. Good to to see the tax avoiding wanker get beat.

John Kampfner discusses how a fearful BBC must regain its nerve. In the Telegraph Neil Midgeley argues that Chris Patten must tune the BBC to its strengths.
Michael Wolff looks at Rupert Murdoch as the news international owner celebrates his 80th birthday. It sounds like he belongs to the school of thought that believes that once he is no longer with us, his empire will fall apart.
Meanwhile whilst he is still on planet earth Chris Bryant points out the malign influence the people that run his organisations in this country have on our governing representatives. He claims a Murdoch ally warned off MP's from pursuing the phonetapping scandal and attacks the police for their role in a "full blown, copper-bottomed scandal". Yates of the yard has now started to feel the heat surrounding the affair. Good.

It's not been a great week for Nick Clegg's leadership of the Lib dems, but Andrew Grice thinks he is bearing up reasonably well under his thickening layer of skins. Holding the Lib dem spring conference in his home constituency of Sheffield doesn't look such a goodidea in retrospect. Barnsley by-election candidate Dominic Carman warns that the Barnsley public saw his party as tories with a yellow badge on. Unfortunately it's a pretty fair assessment of their role if you are voting for you own self interest as most voters do. Peter Oborne contrasts the warm reception given to Tim Farron to the dutiful one received by Clegg.
Mehdi Hasan describes why he is not a Lib dem hater and argues that the coalition has brought the Labour parties worst tribal instincts. At least the Lib dem rank and file at yesterday's spring conference showed that they are not tories with yellow badges on as they voted overwhelmingly against the governments plans for a radical overhaul of the NHS that was in neither parties manifesto, and should never have been allowed to proceed this far by the Lib dem leadership.

Paul Mason blogs on oil, inflation, soverreign debt and revolution as he thinks the world economy is on the brink of a collision of three strategic problems that could derail the economic recovery. One of those strategic problems was the Euro and news that Spain has seen its credit rating downgraded shows that Europe's economic problems maybe be about to erupt again. Philip Inman writes that Spain and Portugal are in "debt denial". Ambrose Pritchard-Evans talks of a EU paralysis driving a fresh bond route.
David Blanchflower reminds readers of Osborne's track record on economic predictions, and they are not very impresive, wrong on almost all the major economic issues of our time. Both the FT and the Economist have come down on the side of those support the thesis that the bankers threats are bluff and should be faced down. Liam Halligan of the Torygraph also comes down on the side of those who feel the banks should be faced down by advocating retail and investment banking should be seperate. Robert Skidelsky doesn't believe that the government's economic policies, ie cuts, are neccessary but if that is where we are, they must then put the emphasis on growth by getting serious in funding its Green bank and investing in our creaking infrastructure.

Faisal Islam claims that Lord Hutton's report on public sector pension reform shows that claims that it will spiral out of control if left unreformed to be untrue as it shows that by 2050 the total cost the nation will be less than it is now. Martin Wolf of the FT supports reform, up to a point.

David Bowden reminds Spiked's readers that a couple of years ago professor Niall Ferguson was telling us that Islam was about to bring down the west. In his latest TV series he joins the Chinese bandwagon, predicting the transfer of economic power from west to east. I'm a big history buff, and even though of the liberal left will usually watch programmes by conservative historians. But i have never watched anything by him, he just seems to always want to provoke.

Chicago with Beginnings from their brilliant debut album