Manchester United 2-0 Fulham

It would have been nice to have seen a performance that matched the weather on the nicest and hottest Manchester day of year so far, but the most important objective of the day was three points, so with them safely in the bag i'm not going to moan. United never really hit top gear, in fact if Fulham had made the most of their good start it could have been a totally different game.
The visitors had a couple of decent early efforts but then Zamorra was given a very presentable chance the he skewed horribly wide. And from that moment on it was pretty much all United. Nani and Valencia were both on their game and the chances started to come. The first goal was the result of some excellent football involving some fine interplay between Anderson, Nani and Berbatov that ended with the Bulgarian cooly curling it past Schwarzer's right hand. TV replays apparently showed that he was offside, it would have been a shame to see such a fine goal chalked out.
More chances came including one put on a plate for Anderson by Berbatov that he made a right old mess of. He is never going to be a goalscorer at United, it's just not meant to be. Nani was again involved for the second as his run and shot fell to the head of Valencia who couldn't miss and you felt that at 2-0 it was probably game over and how many more would we get.
But it never really happened, the afternoon just fizzled out as United didn't show enough energy and Fulham were probably happy to go away conceding just the two goals. But it was game won, three points and job done and with two enormous games to come on Tuesday and next Saturday that was the most important thing.

Sparky thinks that United's experience means that the treble is on. It obviously is, though i never really believed the treble was truly on last time until we had got through both of those memorable semi finals. So yes it is on, but i'm not getting too giddy just yet.
Andy Cole would be more than happy with two trophies and has a go at Harry Redknapp for Aaron Lennon debacle. That was one odd episode.

Jim White discusses Fergie " the man for all seasons " as his tactical victory over Ancelotti demonstrates that tactics are not the supposed weak link that some commentators and even fans attribute to him.

Rob Kelly thinks the decision to not even nominate Nani for the footballer of year is " baffling and farcical ", unfortunately it's probably a sign of the unpopularity of man with his opponents. Even yesterday Fulham players were taking him to task for milking challenges, and as well as he played and has been playing, i can't say i blame them.
Still the PFA player of the year is about your contribution on the pitch, it's not supposed to be a popularity contest, and without doubt he has easily been one of the top 6 player in the premier league this season.

Gary Neville, Sky's latest acquisition blasts the inconsistent FA over Wayne Rooney's two match ban. He makes some great points, they are making things up as they go along.
Dutch legend Marco Van Basten thinks Rooney " is the man " but thinks the FA were right to ban him. Now he was a great player, i like his description of United as a more dynamic football team than Chelsea.

I watched the first leg of the FA youth cup semi final first leg between Chelsea and United earlier and it was an excellent game and a great advert for youth football. But even though i'm biased as hell how did United lose that. Still they have got come to our place and if United play as well as that again especially in the second half they must have a great chance of getting through to the final.
Paul Pogba looked on a different planet to everybody on the pitch, i'm not sure that he is a player that will have to go out on loan . He looks ready to make the step up to the first team squad next season. And hopefully he can get 10 15 first team games next year in the league cup and maybe a couple of earlier champions league games as well as a few league games at home.

Now that Johnny Morris has past away there is only Jack Crompton left of the great 1948 FA cup winning team left, Ivan Ponting looks back at the career at possibly the first man to fall out with Busby and suffer the consequences.

Polly Toynbee argues that David Cameron's well oiled winning machine is now a car crash. The article is fair enough except for the little matter of what well oiled winning machine is that, he didn't win the last election and that's where all his problems stem from.

Peter Capaldi interviewed in yesterday's indy tells Gerard Gilbert that some people don't ask for his autograph they ask him to tell them to fuck off, Malcom Tucker style, and that he does and that some times he means it.

Paul Mason looks at the Euro, Europe and the fact that the two Europe's north and south are diverging after the ECB decision to raise interest rates last week. He describes the current situation as a fiasco. Paul Krugman is equally astonished at the mess that Europe is getting itself into in his New York Times blog.
Peter Oborne argues that George Osborne must act before Europe sucks Britain into its whirlpool, but is alarmed that he doesn't appear to have any policies to keep us out of any fall out.

Ian Burrell talks of a disturbing day for News international, Robert Peston tries to make sense of events in the Murdoch empire, wondering if the widespread assumption that James Murdoch's move to New York is the promotion that many commentators view it as. The Independent wonder if the unreserved apology and damages payout fund will placate the Murdoch empire's enemies.
Henry Porter gets to the heart of the matter that the Murdoch empire is dangerous to the workings of our democracy.

The Independent blogs on the new face of Manchester fashion.

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