Monday, March 26, 2012

Red Pressure, blue wilt

Ian Herbert reckons that City are trying a little too hard to tell the world they are enjoying the pressure of the title run in after there 1-1 draw at Stoke on Saturday. It's been clear for a while to me that there away form is probably going to cost them the chance of the title. I actually thought this was one of their easier away gamea left. I know a game at Stoke can't usually be described as easy, but Stoke haven't had the best season and haven't troubled to the top six or seven as much as they have. To my mind Norwich, Newcastle and obviously Arsenal are tougher away games.
It does seem to be the case that they are choking, it's not like United are really playing that well, in fact if we were under real threat it would have been interesting to see how we would have coped. When you get to the end of a season you generally get games away home that you thought would be three point bankers that tend to be anything but, real hundred mile an hour games. If there is one thing we have seen over the last couple of seasons it's that United are not at the best in those situations. I suppose getting knocked out of all cup competetions should mean that there will not be any excuses on that score.
All in all Saturday was a pretty good day for us with City dropping two points. Liverpool hitting a new nadir this season with their 2-1 defeat at home to Wigan who by all accounts deserved it and Chelsea being caught up by Newcastle. I don't want Chelski to get that fourth spot, because that will surely have Abramovitch wondering whether the rent boys project is really still worth it.
Now to hopefully push the gap to three points tonight against a decent Fulham side who none the less could turn into cannon fodder if the team go into the game with the right attitude. If Valencia carries on last weeks form that goal difference could be wiped out by the end of tonight.

Alan Hansen wrote this morning that it didn't matter how many times you had won the league this was still the part of the season when you became a nervous wreck. He reckons Mancini has got to banish all thoughts and talk of tiredness from his vocabulary. I may be wrong but i just don't really see Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, Rooney and co being nervous, i get the feeling that this is what it's all about for them. I'd be interested to hear Gary Neville's reaction to that.

Daneil Taylor looks back at Berbatov's Manchester United career which hit the heights at times but never really when it mattered. But contrasts the way he will leave the club to the exit of Carlost Tevez.
The Telegraph profile the rise of Danny Welbeck and discover that just like Giggs he was at City before the big Manchester club came in for him. He has been excellent for United this season, he's even done reasonably well at outside left in recent weeks, even though through the middle is obviously where he is at his best. I suppose that would be good news for the Glazer's too, after all his value would go up, though i doubt Madrid would be Danny's dream club.
I'm not much of a fan of international football and can't rally see England doing much this summer, but i am hoping that he shows his best United form in an England shirt inthose games before Rooney's return from suspension because that won't do United any harm as he would come back with his confidence on cloud 9.

Le Roi talks about his time after United in the Observer with a new film coming out in France, Switch and a second successful career established. He has quite a acting CV and to be honest i have hardly seen any of it, bar Looking for Eric of course.

The headline don't get any better for Cameron and the tories, i'm not sure why the Sunday Times should be going after them so hard, i thought they were one of his few real admirers. It's gloves off with Rupert by the looks of it, how fitting it should be a ideologically small goverment that should have to deal with the aftermath of hackgate and by the looks of it open warfare with News international. Does Dave have the balls to take the fight back, does he even want to.
The tories can be as defensive as they want but George Eaton reckons Cam will have to publish a list of donor dinners. The tories competence meter seems to have took a battering over the last week or so, any more and they will be entering John Major territory and then it won't be can they win a majority next time or even carry their coalition with Lib cems through to the next parliament it'll be how many seats can they save.

Unsuprisingly the budget got a hostile press form the liberal press yesterday, Will Hutton savaged it just as heavily as Larry Elliott and William Keegan repeated his mantra that George Osborne is the most dangerous chancellor he has known. Keynes biographer Robert Skidelsky argued once more now is not the time for cuts, austerity is for the boom years not the slump.
Blairite John Rentoul who i'm presuming was an admirer wonders what on Earth Osborne was thinking though just like all of his fellow travellers he seems to conced the right's case that the 50p top rate brought in little when the evidence for that is so clearly non existant.
Even his fellow cutters on the right weren't impressed, amongst all the furore over the 50p tax rate cut and the granny tax, the fact that cutting the deficit seems to get pushed back budget after budget with no inroad from their point of view is winning him no friends from that quarter either. Who ever bought into this curious fallacy that he was a master startegist, must be wondering what on Earth happened.






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