West ham United 2-4 Manchester United

The return of the real Manchester United, this was one of those days that only United do and make us all love them all the more. I actually thought that we played well all 90 minutes, first half included, i certainly didn't recognise the match Hansen watched in which he described United as abysmal in the first half. Compared to some of our away performances away from old trafford this season the first half saw us play some pretty good stuff only to be let down by two pieces of abysmal defending.
Evra didn't cover himself in glory on the first West Ham goal, letting Cole get clear through and giving away a penalty when he had seemed to retrieve the situation. And Vidic had one of those games that he seems to have every now and then. If he was going to bring Cole down he shouldn't have waited until he was almost stood in the penalty area. And another referee may well have sent him off when he had one of those moments and brought down Ba after another long punt caught the big Serb out. The worrying thing about the first half performance was out of a defence made up of Fabio, Smalling, Vidic and Evra it was the two more experienced defenders who had me worrying.
Going forward though, United were looking good with Valencia on the right hand side reminding us of just what we have been missing since the injury sustained against Rangers. He was giving Wayne Bridge all kinds of problems and put in a series of crosses inviting a finishing touch, but West ham defended pretty well with Green in good form when United did manage to create the chances that their play deserved, making decent saves from Smalling and an excellent save from Park. I thought the 2-0 half time scoreline was a travesty, but saying that if you gift the opposition two soft penalties you can't really complain.
I actually thought that Fergie should have brought Berbatov on for Park at half time but he came up trumps again with a half time substitution that completely changed the game. Evra can't have been happy to have been took off at half time to see Giggs move back to left back but he couldn't have much complaint after his poor first half showing. With Hernandez giving the home team a problem with his pace United started to take a total grip on the game.
The first goal took it's time in coming but when it did through a superb dead ball strike from Rooney you just knew the three points were there for the taking still. With 25 minutes still to go there was still plenty of time and just 8 minutes later it was Rooney again who after rediscovering his first touch hit low and hard to level the score. The penalty that Fabio then won was harsh on the home team, i would have been gutted if that had been gutted if it had been gutted if it had been given against us, but when Rooney sent Green the wrong way to make it 3-2 and seal his hatrick that was the last thing on my mind.
Berbatov's introduction really took our game onto a different plane with Rooney nominally going out to the left but with license to roam the home team were under pressure on all fronts. The fourth was the icing on the cake as Rooney drove forward to feed Berbatov who delivered to Giggs and Hernandez made no mistake tucking away Giggs driven cross. The results later in the day have once again put the title into our own hands. As much as i am not one for saying it's all over, the fact that it's Arsenal with the only realistic chance of now catching us means we really have now got an outstanding chance of making it 19.

Fergie was a happy man after the game, lauding the performance as the display of champions.

Press outrage as Rooney uses industrial language after his hatrick goal, the press just love to have something to moan at. It's not often Shearer is the man to get it right, but he did last night as he said , he he was wrong and has aplogised, now let's move on. Shaun Custis appears to think he is a psychologist, well he aint much of a journalist as he opines on Rooney's state of mind.

United fan Jim White takes his biased hat off for a minute to make the case for a one game ban for hatrick hero Rooney.  

Yet another Berbatov article, this time from Daniel Taylor of the Guardian, i can see the story but the fact seems to be that he is happy to be part of the squad. There doesn't seem to be any sulking, and every time he has been brought on lately he has delivered the goods.

Liam Collins goes over Fergie's least glorious hour with a rehashing of the rock of Gibraltar saga. Painful reading, he was totally out of his depth and how it has cost the club, and us as fans, how it has hit us in the pocket and in so many other painful ways.

Matthew D'ancona argues that Nick Clegg is ready to use shock and awe tactics as he aims to make Britain a more equal society. He will have to take on entrenched interests and not just in the tory party.

Another article looking at Nicholas Shaxon's influential book about tax avoidance Treasure island. Joseph Stiglitz warns that Americans will come to regret leeting the 1% of the US population own 25% of the nations wealth in article titled " of the 1%, by the 1% for the 1% ".
Liam Halligan is not impressed by the so called recovery of the US economy and warns that it is little more than an economic sugar rush. Ben Chu blogs that the banks really did cause tthe deficit, and we shouldn't forget it.

The Indy interview Fleet foxes Robin Pecknold ahead of their new album Helplessness blues, whilst the Telegraph looks at the recent folk revival.


Stuart Jeffries travels to Copenhagen to find out more about the show everyone was talking about, the killing.

Morphine