Norwich city 1-2 Manchester United

Yet another late late show from United, and just to put the icing on a delicious cake, that boy Giggsy scored the winner on his 900th appearance. As others have said maddeningly United waited for the Norwich equaliser with seven minutes to go to play the best football of the match.
Having said that i don't really go along with the theory that the best side lost. Norwich opened the game showing that theye weren't going to worried about reputations. But once United got a feel for the game they kept the ball well enough and the passing looked good enough for us to threaten the home team. When the opener came, it came from a slightly unexpected source as Scholes gifted in at the far post, as in days of yore to head home. If we do manage to go on and pip the berties to the title, i will point to his return from retirement as the moment when our challenge turned the corner.
United continued to play well and had a couple of decent chances, Welbeck coming closest after a one two with Hernandez was brilliantly saved by Norwich goal Ruddy. But then as against Ajax, United took their foot off the pedal, allowing the home team to gain confidence. The home team had been playing reasonably enough, but United started to pass for passing's sake to no great purpose. Norwich's hard working midfield's pressure started to force United into giving the ball away and all of a sudden we started to come under a spell of sustained pressure.
Norwich had been watching the video's and tried to target Ge Gea, but the Spaniard coped with everything, making some fine saves in both first and second halves and possibly having his finest game in a United jersey. Our defence was a little shakier than i would have liked once more but we got through to half time with the one goal lead.
The second half saw United keep the ball better, but Norich still made it hard for us. But whilst we might not have been at the top of our game we did make some good chances. With eight minutes to go, unlike most commentators i thought we would see it through and maybe pick up another. And really, whilst it may have been a good finish from Holt, it was a pretty soft goal to concede, there were four red shirts around him when he turned to shoot.
But then United through everything at the home team and only Welbeck will know how he came out of this game without a goal. His first chance wasn't a bad effort, the goalie got out well to smother his shot, but the missed header after it being put on a plate for him by Giggs was a howling miss. I wouldn't be too hard on him, because otherwise, once again he had a cracking game, but he will have to improve his finishing, and i'm sure he will as he gains more experience.
The winner from Giggs in the second minute of injury time and the celebrations were just pure United, nobody does that better. It was actually a superb finish from Giggs, it was not an easy chance, but his touch made it look so simple. So off to Tottenham next week, if we can come away with the three points next week, a big if, but maybe not as big an if after their debacle yesterday we will have one hell of a chance of retaining our title. A draw wouldn't be that bad a result, because that would be all our top six games over apart for that vist to the boo camp, which could end up a title decider, though i can't see that myself.

Scholes agrees that United know they may have to win all there remaining games if they are to retain the title and that's why they threw everything at Norwich during those last five minutes. I can't see City winning every game going for their first title since 1968, somewhere along the line before they play us the prssure will tell. Whether we will be able to take advantage before we got to their place is the question.

No suprise that Rooney and Cleverley are out of this week's international against Holland, presumably Rooney will be back for the trip to Tottenham on Sunday, it will have been a nice break for him ahead of the title run in.

I'm sure i can't be the only one to conclude after recent events that Paul Pogba will be on his way in the summer. Left out and not even on the bench last Thursday against Ajax and then left out all together again on Sunday. The return of Ryan Tunnicliffe can be seen as keeping numbers in midfield in the squad, although i suppose he could have been brought back to help persuade him to stay. The odds must be on him leaving though. Time will tell, but if he does go, it just shows that footballers really do live in another world.
I'm not going to argue that he should show United any loyalty, he didn't show any to Le Harve and we took advantage which i was never entirely comfortable with. It's from a football perspective it doesn't make sense, alright United as a club have been slowly slipping in strength since 2008, yet we are still competing for the title against the club with the deepest pockets in the world of football.
Yet he is considering switching to Juve, who whilst a big club, especially in Italy, aren't much of a force in European football at the moment. If it had been Barca, Real, Bayern Munich, AC, Inter or even though it pains me to say it City, PSG or one of the clubs to have benefited from an Arab windfall i could at least understand it.
For all those that say this shows where the club have ended up under Glazernomics, i can only say we'll see. I'm not sure there is much the club could have done to have kept him. It doesn't look good to have lost two of the brightest talents to have come through the academy in recent years, but Morrison, who was the most nailed on, given the right attitude, had to go, it could be argued United should have got rid sooner. If Pogba is asking for the kind of money quoted without doing anything to convince he has what it takes, bar one short cameo in a game that was already won, then i don't see United had much choice. Surely you have to walk before you can run.
There is still plenty of talent coming through the ranks, this years academy squad looks really talented, it looks like Fergie's succcessor will be the man to have the task to bring them through to the first team. Which is of course where i have a problem with Mourinho being the supposed heir apparent, he has absolutely no history of bringing talented youngsters through a club's system.

George Monibot argues that democracy faces a fight against the billionaires and corporations, proved by the recent leaks from The Heartland Institute.

Of course those same billionaires and corporations are the intended beneficiaries of the coaltion's NHS "reforms", Polly Toynbee sets out the cheating behind NHS waiting lists as claimed by the coalition.

I'm sure there was a BBC series based around the late M.R.D Foot's history of the S.O.E 1940-1946, this Telegraph obituary plots the path of his research. That was a brilliant series, the most interesting, oddly enough for me was their operations in the low countries which were a total faliure. I wouldn't mind seeing that again on any channel.

David Blancflower sets his target on the Bank of England for the first time for a bit, claiming its forecasts of rapid eceonomic recovery are far too optimistic and lays the finger of blame at the top, Sir Mervyn King.

Yesterday looks like it was the start of a long week, weeks even for Rupert Murdoch and News International, David Allen Green describes today as an explosive start to the second module of the Leveson inquiry.
Alistair Campbell reckons Gove's intervention last week on the Leveson inquiry will have had the full backing of David Cameron. This week is going to test that strategy then.

Daniel Knowles of the Torygraph is fast becoming a must read feature of that paper and he is right to say low pay is as much a problem as youth employment. The coalition aren't even fighting the last was they are just trying to give us rehashed Thactherism four years after it was totally discredited.
Martin Bright argues that David Cameron's political reputaion will be on the line if he does not get a grip on the governments back to work reforms, which thanks to Emma Harrison and her firm A4e haven't been out of the papers for the last few days. She was always just part of the neo liberal elite as Paul Mason has described it or gravy train as others might.
I can't help wondering what political reputation Bright is imagining, he's a great PR man for his party every now and then, but a complete non entity for the majority of the time.

Kraftwerk

Manchester United 1-2 Ajax

I didn't really see that coming, i thought we had got over this kind of inconsistency, Fergie was probably on to something, admitting he had got his team selection wrong. So much for Henry Winter's advice to Stuart Pearce to play Smalling and Jones against Holland next week. I don't think Jones had a bad game, but i'm still not really convinced centre half will be his position.
We started fairly well, but i wasn't that impressed with our central midfield pairing either, i don't know how serious Cleverley's injury but he didn't really look right the whole time he was on the pitch. I know Park needs game time , but he is not a central midfield player, especially in a midfield two. Still when Hernandez gave us the lead i was thinking of how many we would get .  What the game showed is that with such an inexperienced defence United really do need to attack, attack, attack because they can't hold on to leads, the second half was a reminder why we are in this competition. I think we have the potential to get near Barca but we are nowhere near them at the moment. Which is a pity because i think Barca aren't quite what they were, Messi's brilliance is what's keeping them where they are, if he got injured their form would be interesting to watch.
Their equaliser was fortunate but they possibly deserved it for their attacking intentions. United had chances but were a bit careless in front of goal. It looked like we were going to escape with a less than satisfactory draw until the late header gave them anight to remember. Again it was a pretty soft goal to give away, at least this performance happened on a night it didn't matter too much. Any performances like that in the league and we'll be hearing blue moon sang all summer.

Thursday night channel 5 nearly there

Fergie is supposedly thinking of starting Pogba tomorrow night in the second leg of the tie against Ajax, according to the press this morning amongst reports that Fegie is hoping Rio Ferdinand can persuade the young Frenchmen his future should be at Manchester United.
When the second goal went in at the Amsterdam Arena the thought that Fergie may be able to blood a couple of youngsters did pop through my mind. The trouble is Cleverley is a player that definitely needs minutes on the pitch, and tomorrow's match is the perfect opportunity for that. But would Fergie want to go into the match with a central midfield pairing of Cleverley and Pogba.
Henry Winter has called on Stuart Pearce to forget Rio and Terry for next weeks friendly against the Dutch, and pair his former under 21 partnership Smalling and Jones at centre back, that's not a bad call, i wouldn't mind seeing that tomorrow with the two twins at full back. It may be that Fergie will want Jones for the Norwich game at right back, whatever it will be great to see him back in the team.
One player that i think we can assume will start tomorrow night will be the revitalised Hernandez who has been telling the press that he is happy enough with the way things have gone and is content to score goals coming on as a sub. He has been doing better, we are still noticeably better when Welbeck starts up front though, he just offers our game that much more variety. He's not a bad sub though is he. To be fair to Hernandez the stronger the squad and the better the service he may yet regain last season's end of season form. I suppose the question is who will play alongside him tomorrow, i was suprised that Berba wasn't in Amsterdam last week, if he doesn't start tomorrow, i can't see him getting many more starts this season.
Giggs is hoping that United's experience and players returning from injury will give United the edge over City come the end of the season. Providing United and City both get through the next round of the Europa league we will be seeing a lot of blue against red in April. I'm pretty sure i won't have seen United play City so many times in one season.

Fergie's interview with Radio 1's DJ Spoony has been all over the papers over the last couple of days, i suppose one of the most interesting answers was his assertion that his players want to know how long he will carry on before they enter into contract talks. I'm not sure if that was aimed at anybody or not.
It must be food for thought for the gimps anyway, as yesterday's quarterly reports showed that they have been using the Ronaldo to buy back the bonds amidst results that showed once again most of the clubs profits are being used to pay off the debt in one way or another.
Andersred's blog focuses on a suprisingly big increase in the wage bill. David Conn using Andersred's figures wonders how anybody can justify the £500 billion that has now leaked out of Manchester United to service the debt laden ownership.

United's reserves have hit a little dip in form recently with the defeat to City and yesterday's 0-0 draw at Wigam which apparently wasn't the best. It was a bit of a suprise to see Ryan Tunnicliffe make an appearance, i wasn't aware he seems to fallen out of favour a bit in recent weeks at his loan club Peterborough.
A bit ironic really after Warren Joyce was praising last season's youth team skipper Tom Thorpe for his versatility in adapting to a new central midfield role this season. Obviously it's a good trait to have as a player, the ability to play two or three positions, but i'm not sure it's always the best thing for a young player's career coming through the ranks. After last season he would have expected to have played more regularly than he actually has. Of course Tunnicliffe coming back for a game saw Thorpe drop back to the subs bench, even if he got on reasonably early to replace Reece Brown, another young player blessed/cursed with the ability to play in different positions.

John Pilger's latest New statesman's column warns us to learn from Blair's crimes, so we don't repeat them in Syria. I honestly don't think any of the western nations would have the stomach to get involved in any Syriam civil war however much the reamining neo-cons would like us to.
Blair's former chief of staff Jonathan Powell has also penned a lengthy piece still making the case for western intervention, i think. There parts of that i agree with, but there is no way the west should try intervene in that conflict, Powell's giving Cameron a pat on the back for going out on a limb over Libya, but whilsi definitely shed no tears for Gaddafi's fall, we still have no idea what the endgame will be in that country. It's certainly no functioning state yet, in fact some reports claim it's going backwards, implicit in that being there could be another outbreak of hostilities there.
Peter Oborne argues that the Syrian crisis is leading Cameron and Hague to unlikely bedfellows, warning that they are at risk of over-simplifying a dangerous and complex situation. He's right, but i'm inclined to dismiss the Al-Qaeda theories.
Just in case we wondered how dangerous and unstable the situation comes the news that the Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin has been killed in Homs.
Meanwhile Ian Black looks at Assad and Syria's ally Iran and argues that Iran is in crisis, but it suites everyone to exaggerate its power.

Music
Barn Owl - Lost in the glare: I don't dislike this, but it ends up dragging on a bit. I have heard them described a drone duo, a pretty good description. The problem for me is there is not enough light and shade, individual tracks are good, but it ends up dragging.

Death in Vegas - Trans love energies: A pretty good album, though it doesn't have the stand out tracks of the first two albums and doesn't really match up to that level.

Destroyer - Kaputt: Canadian indie and pretty good stuff, i didn't know that Dan Bejar was a part of The New Pornographers, i like them. I can't put mu finger on why, but if i hadn't have known this was Canadian i would have had this down as very English sounding. There is a lot of good music coming out of Canada nowadays.

M83 - Hurry up, I'm dreaming: I have read this compared to the MGMT debut album and that is a fair comparison for the US based Frenchman's latest album. There are some cracking tracks, not a catchy as MGMT, but not enough for a double album.

Sonny Rollins - The bridge: I saw a documentary on Sonny Rollins on the BBC a few years back related to his time in retiremt when he escaped to the brdige that was excellent. I didn't know that most of the tracks on this are also on his Quartets album. They are excellent though and they seem a lot looser, more fluid on this album.

Wild Flag - Wild Flag: US female indie stalwarts get together to produce a promising debut that veers towards a heavy rock sound, nothing wrong with that. There are two or three cracking tunes, the rest of the album doesn't really live up to that standard, but it's pretty enjoyable.

Ajax 0-2 Manchester United

First of, i'm jealous of all those able to go, whether they went to the match or just went and watched it in a bar, iv'e been to two Amsterdam tournaments and had a great time there. Mind you they were friendlies, and the locals were reasonably chatty, yesterday would have been different.
As to the game, nice result, average performance but soured by the late injury to Valencia. Just when you think we are back to a fully fit squad, leaving long term absentee Vidic out of the equation, our most influential player of the last couple of months does his hamstring in a game that was probably already won. Of course thatnks to his run and pass to Hernandez that ended with the Mexican finishing off Rooney's return beautifuuly weighted through ball the home leg should be a formality.
Fergie was right to say that we didn't hit any heights in the game and right about our second half improvement. You couldn't help thinking the absence of Valencia had something to do with the lacklustre first half as the two best crosses of that half were provided by right back Jones. The main reason for the below performance can hopefully be put down to the returnee's as none of them hit any heights. It was great to see Cleverley back but he looks like he is going to need some games to get back to where he left off before the injury at Bolton. He looked to me like a reserve game or two might be in order, he was fairly quiet apart from one brilliant first time ball in the first half.
Young and Nani were both equally rusty, the Portugese winger especially, he was very poor in the first half and once again had Rooney tearing his newly acquired hair out with the quality and timing of his crosses. Rooney is going to miss Valencia, it's no accident that Rooney has been scoring goals for fun as Valencia has returned to top form.
Even though Young scored the opening goal he didn't exactly convince again. But with the injury to Valencia he will probably get a little run of games, so this could be a chance for him to try and regain that early season form that had us thinking that he would turn out to be an excellent injury. Carrick carried on his excellent form and the back four did reasonably well with De Gea making a couple of really good saves in the first half. It was nice to see Jones back, as well as Rafael has done recently, Jones is even better going forward. I still se him as a cerntral midfield player myself, but how many games he will get there now for the rest of the season, i'm not sure.
After City's comeback in Portugal it looks like we will be heading for the quarter finals that UEFA must wish was going to be the final in Romania. I have to admit that i would want us to win this trophy more than i ever thought i would after that dismal night in Basel and not just to stop City winning it. Saying that the league is still the priority and we are right in there with a great chance, interesting times ahead.

Ferdinand is confident United can cope with the loss of Valencia, he will be a loss, but this is what you have a big squad for, when one man gets injured, others can come up to the plate.
Andy Hunter argues that with Fergie claiming that England can forget a Scholes return, it won't be long before they will be taking a closer look at Tom Cleverley. I think and hope he's right, for the skae of United that is, it's touch over the top for a man playing his first 60 minutes for about 4 months though. Lets see him get through the rest of the season without any further injury mishaps before we get carried away.
The MEN analyse the performance of Ajax's Danish international Christian Eriksen, who United have been linked with in the past. I thought he looked a reasonable player, but a Manchester United quality, i wasn't convinced.

Faisal Islam asks why are the credit ratings agencies are taken so seriously, and answers that George Osborne has staked his whole economic redibilty on them. Credit agency clowns are making life diffcult for chancellor George Osborne writes Jeremy Warner, but discredited though the may be, they have still identified a weakness in the chancellor's economic strategy.

Simon Jenkins warns that austerity fails, yet we're too shy to think out of the box, whilst Martin Wolf argues that we are not learning the lessons of the inter war years, the stress on balanced budgets is leading into a uneccessarily recession, we need to relearn the lessons of John Maynard Keynes.
It looks like the Japanese are about to think out of the box with the under reported news that they are about to target higher inflation. I'm reading Kindelberger's The world in depression 1929-39, which is totally fascinating and he briefly mention's Japanese economic policy where he writes that they were implementing Keynesian policies without ever having read him and mentions that the Japanese coped as well as anyone during the 1930's depression, but this wasn't enough for the militarists who killed the theorist behind Japanese policies, Takahashi in 1936.
It's the first time i have read a book that doesn't come at this period of world history from a US perspective. It is a real eye opener, i have always felt the first world war was the end of an era, but what i take from this book is just how far reaching that really was. It wasn't just the beginning of the end for the British empire and European hegemony, but just as now a period when the global economic balance was shot to pieces. And then as now our politicians and economists were left all at sea in trying to repair the damage.

David Blancflower looks at events in Greece and talks of the return of the economic "death spiral". Faisal Islam wonders if we are reaching a European "Lehman moment" as Germany "insults" Greece, with the Greek political class suspect Germany and its allies of wanting the Greeks to default and exit the Eurozone.

Nick Shaxon reports India's head of its central bureau of investigation complaining about a lack of transparency from the leading tax havens and notices just who those leading tax havens are.

A blast from the nineties, decent group Lush

Apology accepted !

United issued a statement thanking Liverpool for the apologies issued yesterday after Saturday's events yesterday afternoon, and now hope the issue can put to bed.
We can all put two and two together, i'm just amazed it took so long for the owners on the other side of the Atlantic to knock some heads together to act in a manner that was yet more continual shots to the clubs foot. No doubt the fact that the non handshake made the New York Times yesterday and Boston's and worry that that the whole sorry saga would start to hurt the Liverpool "brand" concentrated minds yesterday.
Ian Ladyman hit the nail on the head in the Mail today, Dalglish's handling of this affair has been woeful , he's made himself and his club a laughing stock. It's blindingly obvious that his apology has been forced on him, i was looking forward to readin the latest Red iss this weekend, there were supposed to be some juicy bits about the inner goings on at Anfield since this affair broke. I wouldn't be suprised if neither of the villain's of the piece will be at Anfield come the beginning of next season.
Kenny's golfing pals are trying to let Dalglish down gently, blaming Suarez for letting Dalglish and the club down. Hansen used his Telegraph column to argue that Suarez's actions were quite simply incomprehensible, of course he is talking about a man that was known as the cannibal of Amsterdam after his time at Ajax. During this whole affair i've not heard a single commentator mention the fact that he has form for being an absolute aresole.

I mentioned my disappointment at not being able to read the latest Red Iss, i had read that something had happened before the game, so i wasn't toally suprised to see no sellers on Matt Busby way. I guessed correctly as it turned out, that the only possible reason could be the Suarez picture. GMP police seem to be getting as bad as the club over the last couple of years, though in this instance the club had nothing to do with it.
Mick Hume correctly argues that this anti-racist censorship should make us all see read. How on earth could this be accused of being provocative, who was at home on Saturday. After learning what had gone on, i half expected the police to try and arrest Evra on the pitch for celebrating in front of his own fans at the end.

Lest we forget a game went on on Saturday morning, David Pleat writes that United's old guard were too slick for too defensive Liverpool. I have to admit to a bit of a concern with th side when i saw that both Scholes and Giggs were picked to start. I'm not sure why, especially at home, that side was certainly better than Liverpool's, helped by the fact Dalglish didn't pick Bellamy.
There has been a lot of suprise at the form of Scholes, count me out of that. I have always thought he could play until he was 40 if he wanted, pace isn't a part of his game. Not playing regularly enough was behind his less than stellar form last season. So the one benefit of our injury problems is he can play reasonably regularly. He won't play in Amsterdam obviously, erm i think he won't anyway, but if he is used similarly to Giggs there is no reason why he can't give us another season after this.
It hasn't taken long for Scholes for England bandwagon to start, with the heir apparent Redkanpp claiming he would take Scholes in the summer if he were manager of England. Well he's giving him enough notice, unlike Capello ahead of South Africa.

Ryan Giggs tells Mark Ogden that playing in central midfield has helped in prolonging his career and he could tell the difference in his body after playing on the left wing on Saturday. It was noticeable he wasn't quite on his game against the dippers, you felt that when it went to 2-0 if Nani had been on the other wing we would have really opened them up. He can still do a job there though, who was it that crossed for Hernandez's equaliser at Stamford bridge.
He's right about the pre-match handshake, yet another ridiculous Sky invention that the game would do well to see the back off, Liverpool must surely agree with that at least.

Another good win for reserves against Bolton last night as Paul Pogba headed the winner in a 2-1 victory that looked like it was never going to come as United missed some sitters as well as seeing the away goalie make a couple of tasty saves. I was suprised Pogba started to be honest i thought he would be in contention for Thursday night. Apparently Fergie has insisted we are taking this competition seriously and announced that he will be picking an experienced team, that's Park in central midfield then.
I would like to see Smalling and Jones paired at centre half for this match, though i suspect that might have to wait for the home leg. It will be nice to see Cleverley starting the match, he says hopefully, will Fergie take both Carrick and Scholes or will he give one of them a complete break.

Another great week for football governance as both Rangers and Portsmouth look like they will both seek administration as they both fight for survival as HMRC look for monies owned.

A fascinating piece on Johann Cruyff by Simon Kuper, i have read a couple of books about Dutch football and i would say most of that article is on the money. Like a fair few geniuses, he seems to be verging on mad at times. If you go and watch some you tubes of that period 70-73 you get an idea of just how good he was.
We are so parochial at times in this country, we will have all this shit football blooper DVD's and yet DVD's about the world's great players or teams, you would have to search high and low for just one.

Is it only a matter of time now before George Osborne's whole pack of economic cards comes tumbling down around him after yesterday's announcement that Moody's credit agency has put Britain's triple AAA rating onto negative outlook, as Peter Hoskin writes it wasn't meant to be like this.
Jonathan Portes resurrects a month old Independent column to argue that this is bad news for Osborne and Ed Balls. He isn't alone to argue this morning that the credit agencies don't know what they are doing and we shouldn't have ever based an economic policy on pleasing them.
David Blanchflower sticks it to the coalition, wondering who they wil blame for the mess the economy is in next and then outlining policies to try to kick start some life into the economy.  Meanwhile Private Eye point out Labour's abysmal record on the honours system and their sucking up to the city in a pretty lengthy and embarrassing column.
The Telegraph's Daniel Knowles pens a very un torygraph article talking about fiscal stimulus, ending by arguing that we need a world wide economic stimulus led by countries that can afford it, we all know that Germany under Merkel isn't going to provide this.

Larry Elliott lays it on thick with the footballing metaphors as he argues that we have to own up on the UK economy, we are not a big club anymore. Never mind mid table he has us fighting off relegation, it's probably inevitable in the long term, in fact if the neo liberals cling on to power it's the championship here we come.

With the future of the Sun now seemingly in the balance, with all that would mean for the Times and the Sunday Times, Ian Burrell asks how far will Rupert go to save the currant bun. There is talk of civil war at the Sun with journalists there unhappy about being thrown to the wolves, Steve Richards thinks they protest too much, who was it that was cheering on Yates of the yard, short memories haven't they. No one is above the law.

The Economist's Bagehot is baffled by the oddity of Britain's human rights debate, the right should be careful what they wish for. What they wish for is for the clock to be turned back to before 1870, where the sun never went down on the British empire and Johnny foreigner knew his place.

Music

Albert Ayler - The Hilversum session: Free jazz at its most free, Ayler was one of its pioneers. I like it, but i admit i have to work at it, it needs a few listens before it becomes totally enjoyable.

Gillain Welch - The harrow and the harvest: The latest offering for the Americana/country duo lives up to past very high standards. Americana doesn't really get any better than this.

Laura Marling - A creature i don't know: The follow up to her excellent debut is probably even better, cracking song after cracking song.

Male bonding - Nothing hurts: This was a pretty good first effort from this UK indie punk/power outfit, there aren't enough UK groups like this.

Tom Waits - Bad as me:Another excellent offering from US one off Waits, the usual mix of blues, jazz and rock but not as experimental as the last studio effort Real gone. I love Hell broke luce.

Walls - Coracle: An excellent piece of Electronica, i have read it described as a cross between ambient and krautrock, which goes some way to give you a clue as to its genre.

Manchester United 2-1 Liverpool

I would have taken any kind of win before the game began, but when the second goal went in, we were so on top it could have been anything. Rooney could and maybe should have had a hatrick, but when we stopped playing with quarter of an hour to go we just invited them back into the game.
United can do your head in some times, i don't mind United trying to see out 2-0 leads with 20 minutes to go, although it's not something i want to see all the time. But when you look at United this season, our weak spot has been our defence, so to have had the scousers on the ropes when we could have killed them off completely, and then basically invite them back into the game, beggared belief. Still we saw it out, thank fuck.
Of course the big talking point after the game was the refusal of Suarex to shake Evra's hand, in the heat of the game live, we didn't even know all that had happened to be honest. You can't believe that this won't have big repurcusions for Suarez and Dalglish, whose post match reaction was in keeping with his inept handling of the whole affair. I can't believe the yanks are happy with any of this tarnishing off their "brand".
As to the game i didn't think United started that well but gradually got a grip on the game. The away team were always going to have a fair bit of possession with the extra man in the midfield but our poor passing at times during the opening stages of the game stymied our momentum.
The one real star of the first half and in fact the whole game was Danny Welbeck who put in a real storming performance and put it in when it mattered. It was a pity he couldn't finish it off with the chance he had right near the end, but the fact that Fergie didn't bring him off during that spell spoke volumes about how integral a part of the team he has become. The best chance of the first half fell to Scholes who could only direct his header straight at Reina when you'd have put your house on him burying it. Liverpool had a couple of moments, noticeably when Johnson ghosted through our defence and hit a curling shot just wide, but not much else.
The second half didn't take long to burst into life as United actually managed to score from a corner as a Giggs corner saw Henderson nod the ball straight to the boot of Rooney who volleyed home imperiously. Minutes later Valencia robbed the ball from the opposition in their half and fed an inch perfect pass for Rooney who made no mistake to send Old trafford into delerium. United could and should have made it three before they decided to shut up shop and give us a nail biting last ten minutes or so. True to form we let in yet another soft goal
There were cracking performances all over the pitch for United but it has to be said that Scholes and Carrick were magnificent. And praise should also go to Evans who was also magnificent and with the less than mobile Ferdinand next to him he had to be.

Ryan Giggs goes on and on and on

It's not exactly a suprise that Giggs has signed on for another season at the club, the suprise will come when he doesn't i suppose. But when you stop and think about it, he really is something else, because let's face it, this isn't sentiment on Fergie's part or Glazernomics even, he really is an invaluable part of the squad. Just look at his performance last week
After he signed it, Giggs showed exactly why Fergie loves to keep him, as he talked about loving the 19th title, but looking forward to the challenge of winning more titles.

Fergie told the press this morning that the Suarez/Evra issue doesn't come into things tomorrow, they have not even thought about it.Yeah right. As Andy Mitten has written this afternoon Liverpool are onto a loser even before they take the pitch, there is only one victim in this whole saga and he doesn't play for Liverpool. Fuck me can you imagine what the atmosphere would be like tomorrow after recent events if this game had been played during the mid seventies to the late eighties. I was hyped up to fuck before the derby at City and i'm absolutely certain when i wake up tomorrow, i'll be exactly the same. We better do the bastards, we should have got something in the cup, i'd be gutted if we didn't get the three points tomorrow.
I noticed he answered questions about racism in the game earlier in the week but than says we are just focused on the game in his press game. I don't blame him, we have to be focused on the game tomorrow, the last thing we want is for tomorrow to turn into a grudge match, if we play our A game we should win, of course if it does turn into a battle, we better be up for it.
Before the start of this three game run against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham i would have hoped for seven points but more than settled for five, I hope the Norwich game takes care of itself. But i was hoping and to be honest expecting to beat Chelsea, so last week has put even more onus on getting a victory tomorrow because the Tottenham will probably be the hardest game of the three.
Good news that Tom Cleverley will be involved tomorrow according to Fergie, though it's hard to see him starting the match tomorrow, having him on the bench would be a big bonus. It's also good to hear that Jones should be fit for the Thursday Ajax tie, he has been out for quite some time now, it's a month out where we thought he would be back within a couple of weeks.

Fergie agreed this morning that De Gea's confidence will have been boosted by his late save against Chelsea last week. Earlier in the week, Van Der Sar was quoted as saying that De Gea must learn to cope with the pressure, United paid a lot of money for him and he has to come through. I'm not sure how much of an endorsment that is, especially as he praises Lindegaard whose form he calls magnificent.

The official site ran an interview with the Keane twins ahead of the reserves derby yesterday, they both seem to have their heads screwed on nicely, and of course both have good potential. It was a pity about yesterday's result, 4-2 flattered City, i thought United played the better football, when space opened up. United's second goal was a belter, the run and thenvision of Will Keane underlined why he is potentially a first team future star.
Danny Welbeck impresses his interviewer Stuart James with his modesty and his self belief in a Guardian interview this afternoon. I have watched him since he was in the youth team and i always expected him to make it, and i believe there is still loads to come, Fergie is right that he will be a United striker for years.

Mark Ogden acclaims Eric Cantona as his most influential foreign import into the English game, that's a pretty good article, there were a few foreign imports before the modern influx led by Eric but he was the catalyst for the premier league we see today, for good and sometimes worse.

Andy Cole isn't suprised that Capello has walked and ponders the media's part in the circus that is the national team. He is absolutley spot on, in all the talk about Redknapp taking over or just taking the job for the European championships this summer, everybody is still talking as if England have a chance of winning it. That just isn't even remotely serious, i've said it before, if the authorities are serious about having a team that can compete at the highest level in the future then this should be a tournament that is used to blood and experience the talent coming through the ranks.
Yet you know this isn't going to happen, you wonder how long it will take for the clamour to take Scholes in the summer to start. If he was used in the right way, to lend some experience to younger legs and inexperienced players then fair enough, but i can't see it. It's a pity for England that it looks as if Wilshere will miss the tournament as i'm sure that he has what it takes to mix it with the best in the world. The problem is that there are too many other positions where that class of player isn't there. Take Jones and Smalling, they both have fantastic potential, but they are not Vidic and Ferdinand yet, and that's if Jones is even a centre half which is open to debate. The problem is that England have real class in certain positions, but only potential in others.
I can see a new manager being told on the quiet that Terry will not even be eligible for selection for the tournament as it would be too embarrassing commercially and that they don't want a repeat of South Africa, which would almost certainly be on the cards if he did go. To be honest it's not as if he is half the player he was anyway, he was garbage in South Africa, not alone admitted, but he hasn't exactly shone this season either. With Ferdinand not the player he was and with a cchronic back problem, the centre half partnership is a big problem.
I'm totally in agreement with Keano in his assertion that England's players should be keeping their thoughts to themselves as far as to who the next England manager should be. Of course they can have an opinion and if asked in private they should give it, but if for some reason Harry didn't get it, every man and his dog would know that the new manager was not the players choice and that would put the new man at a disadvantage straight away. And in that job, that would be the last thing that he'd need.
One last thought, i can't help laugh when journo's say that the England manager is the biggest job. All i can say to that is, we'll see about that when Fergie finishes and somebody has to follow that act.

More stink coming out of the Leveson inquiry as Gudi Fawkes admits pictures of Hague's advisor in a gay bar were bought by the news of the  from him. Coulson's appointment looks even more dodgy.

 Steve Richards warns modernisers, tory or labour, to either run the NHS better or scrap it but stop trying to reform it. That's the point though, they are trying to privatise it by stealth, i have said it before these free mrket fundamentalists are Soviet style Marxists in their blinkeredness.

Richard Murphy refers to an Economist article on Swiss banking secrecy to argue that the war on tax evasion that the US has begun is the sign of things to come and that Swiss style offshore banking havens are doomed.

Julian Baggiani has been examining American atheism and asks why won't the US accept its atheists, but argues that the internet is coming to there rescue. As has been said a million times before it really is a different country.

Chelsea 3-3 Manchester United

I'm still not really sure whether that was a point gained or two dropped, but i am sure that yesterday was a reminder of why we all love United. And what a fitting day to have poduced that display the day beore we remember the Munich tragedy. It reminder me of the 3-3 at Hillsbrough during the 92-93 season where United despite playing reasonably well found themselves 3-0 down but instead of feeling sorry for themselveskept going for it and eventually thrillingly fought there way back into the game for the 3-3 draw. Of course we have pulled off some spectacular come back's before but probably not against such high profile opposition.
Having said all that it was the least we deserved i thought, how we found ourselves 3-0 down escapes me, we didn't defend brilliantly but there was a huge slice of fortune for two of their three goals. It was important that we have started to get bodies back, and yesterday showed why as all the substitutions proved vital. It was a suprise to see Young in the team and Nani not even on the bench, i'd assumed that Nani was nearer playing than the ex Villa man. Apart from one decent shot in the first half, Young once again failed to deliver really, i don't know if he needs a consistent run in the side or he just isn't really as good as i though he was.
United went 4-4-2 once again against the rent boys and whilst it makes us more threatning when we attack it does sometimes mean we don't dominate games. But i thought United did well enough in the first half and if the foul on Welbeck had been given and Cahill had been sent off the day may have been a lot more comfortable if less spectacular. Their first goal came out of nowehere, Evra should have done better but once he was beateb Chelsea still needed a big slice of lack as De Gea kicked into Evans and into the net. United upped their game and though we went into the break a goal down you felt reasonably confident we would fight our way back into the game in the second half.
So to find ourselves three goals down five minutes into the half was a shock to the system to say the least. Even so you felt if we could get a goal back quickly we would be back in the game. Courtesy of a poor challenge from Stuuridge the chance came via the penalty spot. I have to admit after his recent miss i wanted Rooney to leave it for Hernandez, but all credit to our number ten, he made no mistake smashing it past Cech and sending him the wrong way.
The second penalty was considered dubious according to most pundits, i'm not too sure why, it was soft, but he made contact. Just as City's the day before may have been soft, but was still definitely a penalty. Anyway after the two decisions not given in the first half and the way we have had so many contentious decsions go against us at Stamford bridge ove the last few years, justice was done. The second penalty was eve better as Rooney went the other way, again sending Cech the wrong way. It was all one way traffic now and when Giggs cross was headed home by Hernandez you greedily wondered whether we would go on to snatch all three points. It wasn't to be and to be honest the home team looked more likely to score with De Gea making a fine save near the death. Talking of the Spaniard he had a mixed game, his susceptibility to anything in the air was there for all to see as he punched terribly when he should have caught a cross unchallenged in the first half. On the other hand, he made two superb saves in the second half.
I had been pretty confident before the game with a stronger team and stronger bench and with Chlsea missing their two best defenders in Terry and Cole. But having said that i would have been happy with a point before the game. But if we had defended as well as we attacked it would have been an even better day. You have got to hope that if we are to suffer any more injuries they don't come at that end of the team.

Fergie was unhappy with the officials and proves there is nothing wrong with his memor. It seems obilgatory for all the broadsheets to now have a Monday five things we leaned yesterday column, so here's today's Telegraph's five things column.
Ferdinand thanked Chelski fans for the inspiration they gave him and the lads on his twitter timeline, i wished they had shown Terry's face as our third went in as they did when their third went in, i'll bet that would have been worth seeing.
Carrick admitted that the players were slightly disappointed to have come away with just the point, after the third went in they fancied their chances of getting all three points.

I wonder how embarrassing the Huhne resignation and the court case to come will be for the Lib dems, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Raphael Behr writes a departure widely unmourned, but there is no upside for the Lib dems. Iain Martin claims David Cameron should start preparing for an early election.
Amongst all the talk about Huhne's replacement Ed Davey and future reshuffle's i can't help wondering what happened to the Lib dem left, or the successors to the social democrat tradition. If it has been completely captured by the orange book free market rightit will have lost my future support. Talking of free market right, Mathhew Norman completely demolished David Miliband's attack on social democracy in last week's Independent in another brilliant column.

Larry Elliott names the guilty men, in his column " who to blame for the great recesssion ?", as he says there are so many to choose from. I would have added Blair to the list, he is still an apologist for the free market, and seems to have learned nothing.
Paul Krugman is happy some of his anti Keynesian opponents are grudginly admitting that they were wrong. Jeremy Warner worries whether the great interest rate gamble will pay off.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard sees the strrings of French socialists leading a latin revolt against a Germany that has badly overplayed its hand over the Eurozone crisis. Maybe, but i'd judge the French socialists by their actions, not by their words, obviously, i hope he is right as the Germans are leading us on the road to nowhere.

Lindegaard out for a month

Anders Lindegaard will be out for at least a month Fergie has confirmed. With De Gea miraculously recovered from his Tuesday illness/injury it looks like he will have another extended run in the side.I don't mind that too much, though i would have preferred Lindegaard in goals, the main thing for me was to stop goalkeeping rotation as it doesn't work.
It looks like our absentee's are creeping back into the frame as Fergie announced this morning that Rooney, Nani and Jones would be fit for Sunday. Young could make and Cleverley will make the trip, which sounds like he has an outside chance of being on the bench. It's great to have Rooney and Nani both available for Sunday. I can't wait to see Cleverley back in the groove too, can he stay injury free until the end of the season.

Fergie is still unhappy with Hansen, the Indy believe that he thinks Hansen's comments were a dliberate ploy to rile United, well it's certainly annoyed Fergie.

Rio unsure whether to shake the ex England captain's hand, now he's been stripped of the honour, it shouldn't be as hard a decision. Fergie told the press he would have a word with Rio, and by the sounds of it try to convince him to shake hands.

Quinton Fortune pays tribute to the "unbelievable Tony Valencia" who he compares to Scholes in his aversion to the limelight. I'm not arguing his importance he has been one of the main reasons we are up level with City, if only he had a left foot though, he would be almost unplayable.

I don't want to go over the top about last night's youth cup victory, but it's hard to not do. It was a pretty close game until United hit the home team with that three goal burst during the last 8 minutes of the first half. But United had shown signs that the football to come was on the cards. Yes Swansea's heads went down after the fourth United goal, minutes into the second half and yes they were a very tired team during the last quarter of an hour when United made substitutions and could have scored a bucket load more. But they were tired because they had been given such a chasing. How i would love to see our first team playing that style of football.
They all worked hard, they were all comfortable on the ball, they all seemed to appreciate the angles to make passes, they all seemed to be able to dribble past at least a couple of players and that was defenders as well as attackers and most of them will still be eligible for the competition next season. We have got to hope some of these boys make. They were all that good it's hard to single anybody out, but Blackett the captain who played during last season's run was immense, pace, power, technique and leadership. I was going to say that if he can play left back, i'm not suprised United aren't prepared to pass on Fryers contract demands, but of course he can play left back, he played there last season.
The whole of the midfield was outstanding, different people mentioned different players as their stand out midfield performance, which sums up how good they were. If i were to pick one myself it would have been Norwegian Mats Daehli, but Rudge and Hendrie weren't far behind. Even the substitutes looked world beaters, but Swansea were a broken side by then.
If the next round is at Old trafford i think a visit will have to be payed, that was the best football i have seen by a United team this season.

Paul Hayward reports on Ravel Morrison seeking salvation after his transfer window move to West Ham. Morrison's camp have claimed his hangers on will not follow him down there, to which you can only think, we'll see. I'm not going to be hypocritical i don't really wish him well, on the field anyway. Players that have given United great service deserve that, Morrison doesn't.
I suppose i was as suprised as anybody that it was United who enticed as young blue over to the red half of Manchester and not the other way round, it makes you wonder just how good their youth set up is. I don't know how good he is, but after watching Tyler Blackett's performance last night he'll need to be good. You can only take it that Veseli must have something to captain a country to an under 17 world cup.


Jon Snow wonders if anybody feels sorry for Stephen Hester as he argues that vilification of the banker won't do anything to address the worry that a second financial crisis may already about to hit us.
Bennedict Brogan argues that Hester's decision leaves David Cameron substantially weakened. I'd agree but for totally the opposite reason Brogan advances, the tories still haven't really got it have they, this isn't about giving into anti-capitalist mobs, it's about fairness and the reason Cameron looks weak is because he was pushed into doing something his heart isn't really in, he is following the supposedly weak Miliband's agenda.
Alistair Campbell fesses up to the fact that Labour were as much to blame for the financial mess we're in as anybody else but warns the bankers they still haven't engaged in a process of reconcilliation for the events leading up to 2008. If Sir Fred is the only one to lose his K, so what.
Aditya Chakraborrty claims that it wasn't the bankers who came up for the model for the excessive pay gains made over the recent past, it was academics, who then jumped aboard the gravy train. I think he is referring to what Paul Mason would call the neo-liberal elite.

Ben Fox argues that as culpable and virtually corrupt as the ratings agencies were in the run up to 2008's credit crunch they have done us a favour at every stage of this crisis as action has been forced on the politicians.
Duncan Weldon reports that after this weeks money supply figures we may well already be in a second credit crunch.
Martin Wolf warns the government to end this masochism in economic policymaking, as he ends up saying it isn't going to happen, but it should. David Blanchflower declares the verdict in, austerity has failed, he is spot on the money again.

A brilliant piece about the scandal of the firm the last set of clowns let loose assessing disabilty benefit eligibility and why this governments attempts to reform the welfare system make my blood boil.
Faisal Islam reports that unlike the UK, the US is waging economic war against Switzerland over US tax evasion, one more reason to hope the Democrats do well in 2012's elections.

The New York Times asks will Israel attack Iran? it sounds like the military thinks it would be mad, whilst the politicians are coming round to the answer that the time could be approaching, scary. It also reveals to nobody's suprise the lengths the Israeli security force Mossad's have been going to stop Iran's effort to develop Nuclear capability.
I'm never sure how any of this is supposed to help the Iranian opposition in their efforts to bring a cleaner form of democracy to the country. And how this would help the global economy, which is already teetering on the edge.
Ali Ansari uses the pages of Prospect to argue that the Iranians are bad at Chess, Iran has piles of Uranium but no endgame. I suppose if there is any kind of endgame, it is more to do with getting a bomb before the Saudi's do than anything to do with Israel.
Robert Fisk laments an attack on Iran would be madness so don't rule it out.

The tird part of the BBC's excellent documentary Putin, Russia and the west is on tonight. Peter Oborne admires it but believes it's too sympathetic to Putin, and worries about the BBC's coverage of modern day Russia.
I'm not too sure it has been too sympathetic, it has certainly shown the Russian version of events, but as long as you have followed Russia since the Soviet Union imploded you can pick out the lies. Last night was just the same, the programme never actually said that Yushchenko had been poisoned by the Russians or Russian backed elements, but you didn't have to be mastermind to work it out.
As for new labour, yes they were appalling, but any worse than the tories have been, Michael Foot a communist spy, come on, and we haven't forgot the Peter Wright affair. The tories are just as in hock to Russian oligarch billionaires and money as new labour were.
I'm glad Powell came out and admitted the spy rock fiasco, it helps us to not believe everything, that even our state tells us. Scepticism of power is always a good thing, as watching Putin's youth movement last night proved.
The Russian liberal opposition are even more upset with the documentary and queries once again about the role of Angus Roxburgh

Craig Murray quotes a NATO report,  “Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over GIRoA [the Afghan government], usually as a result of government corruption, ethnic bias and lack of connection with local religious and tribal leaders”.

Music
Bjork - Biophilia: Another excellent leftfield album from Iceland's premier export. I have only listened to the album but i can imagine, the whole experience would make it even better.

Feist - Metals: The Canadian singer/songwriter follows up the success that was her last album the reminder with a less commercial sounding album but for me an even better album.

Imelda May - Mayhem: Rockabilly meets jazz and it works for the Irish singer. I have seen her a couple of times on the TV, she was good but the tunes were catchy rockabilly tunes, the album shows off her jazz leanings and really enhance her music.

Janelle Monae -  The ArchAndroid: Yet another female artist and another cracking debut album. I'm not sure what this would be classed as, there's funk in there, soul, rock it evens starts getting really out there at times. It's may be a tad overlong, but it shows some ambition.

Noel Gallagher high flying birds - Noel Gallagher high flying birds: On the evidence of this he should forget about ever reforming Oasis, this is easily his best work since What's the story. I was suprised quite how much i liked this, i have barely been able to listen to Oasis since they degenerated into their own tribute band
.
Tarwater - Inside the ships: German indie/electonica band that comes close to Krautrock at times, pretty good if not that memorable.

Manchester United 2-0 Stoke City

A pretty ordinary performance, but with our injury problems last night was all about the three points and they were delivered pretty comfortably, with the result coming in from Goodison last night turned into one to remember.
Stoke have a terrible record at Old trafford since they returned to the big time, but the law of averages says they must get a result or even put in a performance here at soome time. So i can't say i was totally confident of our chances ahead of last night's game. I should have known better, once again Stoke didn't turn up, United didn't really play that well, unsuprisingly, but then again they didn't have too. That was one of the easier games of the season. Third choice keeper Ben Amos might start to think that premier league goalkeeping is a doddle, he hardly had a save to make all night.
Once again Paul Scholes started in the first eleven and this time he stayed on for the full ninety minutes, we have looked far better since he has returned. We all know he isn't the player he was, but he is still able to dictate games like this.
Stoke's manager Pulis complained about the penalty decision's after the game, he was surely having a laugh, they were both nailed on penalties and the only thing the referee got wrong was not awarding us a third that was even more obvious than the two given. It was nice to see Hernandez get on the scoresheet, and even better that, whilst he wasn't brilliant, it was his best performance for a while. Berbatov had an in and out game, though to be honest there was much service to him.
I was suprised to see Pogba given his little cameo and even more suprised, to be honest that it was such a promising one. He looked class in the youth team but i have been disappointed in his performance level when i have seen him in the reserves this season. It was a pity he couldn't tuck away his chance to really cap the night off.
Once United went two up, United decided to coast the game, happy to take the chance if it came along but more than content with the 2-0 victory and no more injuries. Which of course is where having Scholes back is so crucial as he just keeps us ticking over controlling the tempo of the game. The night would have been even more perfect if Berbatov had converted the chance that the excellent Valencia put on a plate for him, but when the result came through from Goodison that was totally forgotten.

I have to admit that i fancied Everton to get something from the clash with City before last night's game, but if i had known Everton's back four line up i wouldn't have been so confident. And to top off everything Darron Gibson scored the winning goal.