Vidic back !

Fergie pulled a rabit of a rabbit out of his hat this morning when he informed the press that Vidic was back intraining and he wouldn't be adverse to playing him next Wednesday's meaningless last champions league group game at home to Cluj. I can see why that particular game would appeal, it will involve a few youngsters, and should prove a reasonably comfortable game for him to try and begin to work himself to match fitness.
Nevertheless after seemingly already making one comeback ahead of schedule this season it seems a bit of a risk. Obviously having a fit Vidic for the rest of the season would be a big bonus for the team, though it's ironic that we seem to have got all our centre backs to fitness at the same time. Even more ironic as Fergie said, now we have all our centre back fit we've got two of our wingers out.
Of course it remains to be seen how Vidic fares in his latest comeback as he has missed an awful lot of football over the last two seasons. If he is still on the lookout for one last big payday in pastures new, you'd think he would have needs to show any prospective suitors his has still got it in him at the top level. I still wouldn't be surprised to see Vidic in joining Ferdinand in leaving the club in the summer.

Music

Band of horses - Mirage rock: I've never really got why some critics seem to see this group as a kind of country/folk rock act, when to me see a fairly basic indie group. A good one yes, but miles away from some of the groups they have been likened to.

Dan Deacon - America: I was new to his music, and you never really know what to expect when someone's classed as indie/electronica, sometimes it can be twee crap. But it's pretty good, a real grower, experimental but leaning to a radio friendlier experimental.

Jim Noir - Jimmy's show: I've been a bit of a fan of the Mancunian one man band since his appearance on the scene, but his career doesn't seem to have taken off. So whilst it's another hit for me, being no radical departure in sound, he'll still be waiting for take off.

Ondatropica - Ondatropica: This collaboration between Quantic and Columbia's finest is superb, the various genres of music sit well together, the latin groove's link it all together.

The xx - xx: I've been aware of this UK indie/electro/pop since their debut album scooped the Mercury but i've finally listened to it, ironically after reading reviews of their latest album. It's very good, the influences seem very obviously UK 80's electro/pop to me, New order, The Cure, et al. But the songs are strong and they don't sound like mere revisionists.

Yeasayer - Fragrant world: This is a more radio friendly slice of electro pop, and works better than the last album to my ears, more dance floor than The xx.

Manchester United 1-0 West Ham United

I can't say i was particularly optimistic that we would be royally entertained last night, but for a brief ten minutes i was hoping I'd been proved wrong. Unfortunately it didn't take long for that hope to be vanquished as United lapsed back into kind of uninspiring fare we have started to get used to over the last few weeks.
To be honest i think that decent start came from West Ham trying to recover from that first minute goal and getting used to United's diamond formation that they obviously hadn't been expecting to be facing. Once they adjusted for that, they got themselves back into the game and whilst not looking that dangerous themselves going forward, they did manage to nullify us as a threat.
It's hard to know where we are going wrong at the moment, unless we just concede we just aren't as good as we should be. I couldn't fault the decision to play with a diamond, if your wingers are out of form and contributing nothing, i was glad we tried something else. But why play Cleverley a right footer on the left and Anderson a left footer on the right. I'm not that enamoured of playing left footed wingers on the right, but this seemed even more perverse, ensuring almost no width. I don't know whether the idea was the full backs would bomb on, if so it didn't really work. It seems to me we are just going with systems designed to get as many centre forwards onto the pitch as possible, us being blessed with four quality strikers. The only problem is, it isn't really working, our form is going south at a rate of knots at the moment. Every game sees us play with less and less cohesion.
If the first half started well and became more and more mundane, what can be said for the second half. Yes we created chances, probably more than the first half, but we were even less convincing and at the end it had got to such a pass that I'm sure fans and players alike were glad to hear the full time whistle.
I thought our fans were as poor as the team last night, especially towards the latter stages. Yes United were playing poorly but the visitors weren't really a threat, but as the moans, groans and finally got louder, the players sensed it, got nervous and became even worse, giving the opposition the sense that there maybe something on for them. There really isn't anything that separates's our fans from the rest nowadays, I'm not sure we can really go making quips about the boo camp anymore. I know there is a sizable amount of reds who don't rate Welbeck as i have had the arguments, but last night they were just willing him to make a mistake so they could crucify him. That really does my head in, I'm no fan of Anderson, but my crititicism of him at games, are generally little jokes, i don't rant and rave every time he misplaces a pass or goes AWOL again. I'd have no voice left half the time, if i did anyway. Rant over it just pisses me off, and a local lad as well.
Speaking off Anderson he had a reasonable game, but nothing to get excited about. Cleverley however was poor, he started the season in great form, but his form seems to have been dragged down with the rest of the team. Mention has to be made of Rooney's display also, he was poor, he's played reasonably well at the tip of the diamond prior to last night, so it's hard to believe it was anything to do with where he was played. Fergie was right to take him off, even if it led to the introduction of a Danny Welbeck who seems to be going the same way as Cleverley. His form had dipped alarmingly, not helped at being out of position. He can play out wide, but as part of 4-3-3 not as an out and out winger. He's got a battle on to regain his form and prove wrong his doubters, i really rate the lad, so I'm rooting for him to turn it around.
The management must have to start looking at themselves as well over our slump in form and individual players decline. I'm not generally one to whinge about rotation, but there's too much at the moment, and as importantly moving players around the pitch too much.
I'll finish on a brighter note, Rafael looks ready to make that right back berth his personal possession with yet another excellent display, he was my player of the match. When some of our other youngsters were feeling nervous at the end he was chest out, using the ball, making great forward runs and defending well. It's been mentioned that it's due to our injury list and the fact the Fergie's basically had to play him every game. What that fails to remember is that he has usually been on that injury list. So it's not just great to see him playing well, but staying fit.Let's hope that's not put the mockers on things. Not far behind him was Evans who had no Rio aside him last night but had Andy Carroll opposing him last night. This was the kind of game and opponent that has seen him struggle at times in the past so this was another good sign for the future of our back line as well. 

Manchester United 3-1 QPR

Yet another dull lethargic performance from United, where once again we had to see the opposition take the lead to stir the home team into a concerted period of pressure. I wasn't particularly enamoured with the team selected when the teams were given out, but i wasn't really expecting the team at the bottom of the table to pose any serious threat.
That they did so, was down to another of our first half performances where you wonder what pre-match team talks are been given out at the moment. You're half expecting these mogadon like displays everytime we take to the field now.
And yes our central midfield was too slow and too predictable, but once again we had nothing coming from the flanks, and if we are going to play 4-4-2 you are going to struggle when your wingers barely get a cross in. Welbeck came in for most of the stick on Saturday and yes he was poor. But at least he has the excuse that he was out of position out there, though he can usually do a better job than he managed against QPR. But what's Young's excuse, Welbeck did manage to get to the byline twice and get dangerous crosses in. Can you say that of the ex Villa man, he really doesn't do enough, he is too often almost anonymous, and it's no fluke that when things aren't going to script, his is one of the first names Fergie looks to take off. I'll hold my hands up i thought he would be a decent signing, i knew he wasn't top of the tree, but i thought he had enough to make him a useful squad member.
Whilst i don't think we deserved to go into the interval behind, we almost did as the opponents took the lead just before half time, only to have to chalked off after a very tight offside call. But United weren't able to lift there game at all at the beginning of the second half, and the seemingly inevitable taking off the lead, by the opposition took just seven minutes to come.
Scholes seems to have come in for the brunt of the criticism for our sluggish midfield performance, but i thought he did alright without ever being anywhere near his best. The Carrick haters won't like this, but we missed him badly. I'm afraid i haven't been as taken with Flecther's comeback as other reds seem to have been. Despite a lovely headed goal, he wasn't really at the races on Saturday, he's nowhere near as sharp as before the condition stuck and to me, Scholes was being asked to do part of his running, which of course was pretty ludicrous. I said after the game that the selection of Flecther was based on sentiment, and i totally agree with this piece, but if some of the rumours are right, that this will be Fergie's final campaign, and their will be a bit of a clean sweep at the end of the season, i can see Flecther joining Scholes, Giggs and maybe Ferdinand in being part of that process.
Anderson seems to have been given the credit for the transformation in our fortunes, and whilst his introduction did bring some much needed mobility to our game. The two headed goals from corners that followed each other sharply were really what changed the game. The final goal did see Anderson at his best as he burst through to feed Henandez to keep the Mexicans goal scoring run going. I'll hold my breath over the idea that Anderson may finally be coming good i think.
Mind you if we thought our game was bad we hadn't seen the battle between second and third place the day after. What a strange affair that was, it was as if there was nothing at stake, and as for the standard of football, Europe's finest won't be quaking in their boots. Mind you, as City are already out and the rent boys may follow them, they wouldn't have to anyway.
It looks like Abramovitch may have surpassed himself this time, just a month ago it was being described as three horse title race, after the appointment of Bebitez and the bad vibes that has brought to that club, it wouldn't surprise me if they end up battling it out for fourth spot again.

Statue

Not got much to say really, on the day when another statue is unveiled at the club. Personally if i had been mega successful in my career and my employers had proposed building a statue of me, i would have laughed and told them politely, to do one.
I don't even get where the club are going with this, a stand named after him and now a statue, it's almost Stalinesque. These things should surely be way down the line. Nevertheless i suppose i'll be in a minority on this, as usual. Even off the pitch, at things we once did with a bit of class, the club seems to be going down all the wrong route's at the moment.

Music
Albert Ayler trio - Spiritual unity: Free jazz was something i thought i would enjoy more than i have discovered i do. It has it's moments, but it's not something you would ever put on repeat.

Antibalas -Antibalas: The latest album from the US based Afrobeat collective delivers the goods again, excellent stuff.

Bill Fay - Life is people: The comeback album from the British Rodriguez?, probably not. This is an excellent album from the folkie that made two albums in the early 70's before giving up on the music biz.

Delicate Steve - Positive force: A second album hot on the heels of his impressive debut highlights his musical prowess. It focuses more on instrumentals, but is just as good, it may even be better, i haven't made my mind up, still.

Julia Holter - Ekstasis: The US female leftfield singer/songwriter follows up her slowburning ambient-ish debut with a more song based follow up. It's good , it's hard to describe it as better, as it's a pretty big departure from it's predecessor.

Toy - Toy: Like fellow UK indie outfit the horrors, this bears the heavy imprint of the Krautrock motorik rhthym. It's an seriously good first album, can they follow the horrors, in following it up.

Galatasary 1-0 Manchester United

I had hoped we may get one or two more youngsters into tonight's starting eleven, but being realistic, i suppose that was never on the cards. All the same it was a reasonably youthful team, half of which will hopefully be part of the post Ferguson era .
In situations like these i lways the think the main thing is the performance, more than the result. So whilst, yes i'm disappointed we lost the game, i'm more than satisfied with the performance, bar a cutting edge in the final third, they were more than a match for the home side.
I suppose if we were going to only have one of our real young guns from the reserves playing, then Powell was the one i would have wanted to see picked. Thankfully he didn't disappoint, he was excellent in the first half. Given a more advanced role than he has been given so far, he showed me, that he should have a big future with the club. If the header had gone in, instead of hitting the bar, it would have really capped things off for him. He drifted out of things in the second half as the pace caught up with him. He won't have played in an end to end game of that calibre before so it was understandable.
I thought Rafael, Jones Cleverley, Powell, Welbeck and Hernandez all pointed the way to a promising future, even if none had the perfect game, they all showed quality and character. I was very surprised to see Jones have such a good game and seemingly, last the full game without tiring at all after such a lengthy lay off. Again he wasn't perfect, he could have conceeded a needless penalty in the first half, but his performance was more than we had a right to expect after such little football over the last few months. If we can get Vidic back and keep the majority of our defenders fit for the remainder of the season, that will be a big boost for the latter stages of the campaign.
Their winner was a soft goal for us to concede, but i'm afraid playing Carrick at centre half does always seem to see us concede aerial goals from set plays, not that it the goal was his fault. Even though they hit the bar later, they never really looked like breaching our back line though we did come under heavy pressure for a spell at the beginning of the second period.
United managed to create their best chance of the second half not that long after going behind, but Hernandez wanted longer on the ball than the home defence were allowed to give him and his shot was blocked. We had more decent moments as the game wore on, but none quite as promising as that.
The substitutions flummoxed me, i've got to admit. It wasn't who was brought off, Anderson as usual never lasts the ninety minutes and Powell started to tire. Young was bound to come on, being the only experienced sub, though he couldn't manage to get in the game. My gripe was the sending on Macheda before Josh King, not only is King the better prospect, he's shown by far the better form for our reserve side this season. I'm not sure King will be United material, his finishing seems to have fallen away over the last couple of years. But he has definitely got enough talent that he ought to be given some sort of chance to show what he can do at first team level.
A decent night was made all the better with the news of Chelsea's seeming implosion in Turin. It's too early to count our chickens yet, but it would be hilarious if they do fail to go through to the next round. We all know they fluked their way to that trophy last season, so to see the team assembled now, which is far superior, going forward anyway, struggling to get past the group stages seems like Karma.

Norwich city 1-0 Manchester united

Well that was bad day at the office, some reds have been saying that this result has been coming. I can't say i saw it coming, not in the manner it did anyway. To have hardly really tested their keeper for the 90 minutes with the attacking options we have needs some explaining away.
As usual central midfield has come in for the brunt of the blame, Giggs shouldn't be starting anymore and the usual criticism of Carrick. We weren't great in the middle of the park, but we controlled enough of the game for me. The glaring weakness of yesterday's performance was out wide. Ashley Young gave another pretty innocuous display, but far more worrying has been the deterioration of Antonio Valencia's form. Even his biggest fan would have to admit he is pretty one dimensional, but when on form, boy is that a destructive one dimension. The problem starts when he goes right off the boil. It's not just that he has stopped taking his man on altogether, last night, he wasn't even releasing the ball to Rafael when he tried to take pressure of Valencia by overlapping. He seems to have become almost totally risk averse, squaring up to the full back and passing it back inside.
Of course this is a huge problem when your playing 4-4-2, with no Nani on the bench and off form anyway, maybe it's time to try 4-3-3 or even the diamond for a couple of games. The loss of Rooney can't have helped, he may not always seem at the top of his game, but boy did we miss him yesterday. It's hard to judge our forwards performance when they had such little quality service. But as ever Hernandez put in the sort of display that makes you think he's better coming off the bench in certain games. Kagawa's name seems to have gone off the radar recently, and i'm not sure if he would have made a difference yesterday, but it would be nice to get him back in the thick of things.
I would have liked United to experiment in Turkey in midweek with top spot already sewn up, but i think we've got to put a stop to these pretty soft defeats. Three defeats out of our first twelve fixtures is too big a percentage, at our best we'd have come away with a point a piece from the lost games. Then again with the defensive injury problems we have endured, maybe second in the table a point behind the leaders is as good a position as we have any right to expect.
Yesterday's result was a double blow really, we lost the chance to really pull away from the rent boys and we have probably put real belief back into City's title campaign, as i said at the beginning of the blog, a bad day at the office.

Aston Villa 2-3 Manchester United

We could do with a big walloping away win like the 5-0 at Fulham last season, to boost our goal difference, but for excitement you can't really beat games like Saturday. At some stage though, we are going to have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and defend properly and start games as we have finished the last couple at Braga and Villa park.
I'm not sure where the team that went to Newcastle and ripped them a new one for the first twenty minutes and then did the same at Stamford bridge has disappeared to. The sluggish first half we witnessed in midweek was followed by another toothless attacking display until their second goal went in, just after the second half began.
I actually wanted Scholes to start on Saturday, but Villa did a bit of a job on him getting close on him and giving him no time. The ginger prince wasn't poor, but he didn't have the impact that Fergie would have hoped for. Saying that, that should be the signal for others to step up the plate, but there was no sign of that at all.
One of the problems over the last few weeks has been the lack of threat from the flanks until the games enters the latter stages and the games gets stretched. Valencia once again never threatened to take his man on, on the outside until late in the game. On the other side Young whilst not being as poor as Nani in Portugal didn't offer the threat you'd like to have seen. Rooney couldn't really get in to the game and Van Persie was totally starved of service.
Villa's performance belied their lowly league position, but you always expect these teams to raise their games against us, that's why you want to see us start the game at a better tempo. Still it looked as though we would go in level at half time, so to lose such a late goal and another soft one was annoying. Smalling didn't cover himself in glory, failing the physical challenge from Benteke, but Fergie had said he didn't really want to play him after only just playing his first ninety minutes since coming back from injury. No midweek game may a good thing for him as he can get a full weeks training under his belt.
Thankfully we saw the exciting all out attacking side of United that's been like a breath of fresh air after Villa got their second. The two quick replies were vital in giving us the chance to take all three points. After the equaliser it actually became an end to end contest before United bossed the game for the last ten minutes in the search for the winner.
It wasn't a hatrick for Hernandez, he won't be awarded that second goal, but it was another excellent performance from our new super sub. I wasn't surprised he came on at half time, though it may have been harsh on Young that he was the man to be replaced. He didn't alter things straight away, but he was always on the shoulder looking for the through ball stretching the home defence. It took a beautiful Scholes ball to see him bundle home the first after his ugly first touch seemed to have lost him the chance. The equaliser came through good work on the right from Valencia and Rafael, whom once again had an impressive game. The winner followed a well struck free kick from Van Persie, which saw Hernandez find acres of space in the box and he made no mistake. Even on a quiet day for the Dutchman, he still managed to hit the woodwork twice and almost fed Hernandez in the latter stages a couple of times.
It wasn't all over as the home side gave us a couple of anxious moments before the final whistle eased our worries. We have moaned over the last couple of seasons about our style of play and absence of attacking flare, well not this season, we're not.

SC Braga 1-3 Manchester United

Well if we were slightly disappointed at Saturday's fare, what is there to say about last night. We were poor, very poor, we looked as far away as you can, to a team with pretensions to winning the tournament, until the second half substitutions saw the real Manchester United.
Last night was back to the plodding 4-3-3 that we see too often in Europe away from home where we go to silence the home crowd, but end up sending ourselves to sleep. On paper the midfield wasn't exactly inspiring, but i expected something better than the first half from them. For all those claiming all Anderon needs is a run of games, how do they explain last night. That was back to the Anderson that makes you tear your hair out, how often did he give the ball away in the first half. He improved slightly in the second half, but then again, he had to. I've always been a big Giggs fan, but he needs Carrick next to him, if he's going to play in the centre of the park against half decent opposition. Rooney was the pick of the three, but even he didn't hit the heights until that last fifteen minutes, still he looks the part when dropped deeper.
I have never been keen on Hernandez up front on his own, he is always better feeding off someone just behind him. Last night didn't do much to change my mind,not that he played badly, he had no service to speak off, but the difference when Van Persie came on was there for all to see. As bad as our midfield was, we got no joy out wide either. Welbeck likes to come inside and needs players to see his runs quick enough to feed them. But the play was so ponderous last night there was no chance of that happening. Meaning he just ended up either running the ball back into midfield or back to Evra.
On the other wing Nani saw plenty of the ball, but for all that he did with it, he might as well have not been on the pitch. The game changed as much when Rafael came on at right back allowing Valencia to switch to the right flank as when Van Persie entered the fray. If Nani can't bring more than that display to the table when he gets his chance, Fergie may as well let him go in January.
We looked shakier than of late at the back, but with Valencia at right back and the returning Smalling at centre half, i suppose that was inevitable. Aside from the penalty he gave away, Evans didn't look as solid as he has recently, i hope it wasn't because he didn't have Rio next to him, but i expect it may have been
There was no disputing their penalty shout and they made no mistake in putting it away. It was one of those nights where i couldn't really see us getting back into it, we had been so bad up to that point. The best i was hoping for after that, was some wonder goal or a mistake from them to allow us to leave with a point. Well we got the mistake for the equaliser, as the goalie came out into no mans land and Van Persie needed no invitation to shoot from outside the box into an empty net. The way the game had gone i was more than happy to settle for that.
But now Valencia started to really attack his man and it was down the right, that the cross came that led to the challenge on Rooney that saw us awarded a penalty. It was very harsh for me, i wouldn't have been happy if it had been given against us. Rooney took the spot kick, to the surprise of some, he converted it, after a fashion, slipping as he hit it.
The third and final goal was cruel on the hosts, again it came from the right flank, a cross touched on by Rooney for Hernandez at the back post. Inexplicably the Mexican then tried to do a George Best and beat three men before putting in, he got lucky when the ball rebounded to him and his lightning reflexes saw him bundle it home.
It was a travesty of a scoreline really, but a great result that should allow some of our returning defenders to get some game time, it would have been a great time to give Keane and Lingard a game, but it's probably better for them to be out on loan. I'd like to see Powell get a run out in both games, there seems no reason why Fergie shouldn't give him a proper taster of first team football, now we have already topped the group.
Hopefully the big guns will be back into the team for Saturday, it's about time we saw Scholes back in the middle and this Villa team seems the kind of opposition he should relish.

Youngsters go out on loan

It was good to hear the news that Michael Keane and Jesse Lingard have gone out on loan, to championship club Leicester City. Fergie has sent them to a fair sized club, so he seems to have faith that they will be get the game time that will get them the experience they will require. I'm suprised it's only for a month, but i suppose Leicester and United want to see how it goes before they decide on a lengthier period of time.
The two games Keane has appeared in during our league cup run, showed that he has ability and the Chelsea tie showed he probably has the temperament. It was a pity that Lingard didn't get a run out, but with games against premier league opponents and Anderson and Fletcher needing games, it wasn't to be. This is possibly an even bigger move for Lingard, who needs to show he can translate potential into ability. I like him, he's one of those players who always seems to take the eye, my only worry for him, is what position he will be able to make his own.
It was rumoured, Robbie Brady might be about to go back to Hull City on loan, and once again that's got to be a good move for him. I'll have to say though, he must be a bit disappointed at a wasted first half to the season for him. I was sceptical about Fergie having a look at him at left back in pre-season, but after seeing Buttner's handful of games for the club, i'm pretty sure he would have done at least as well there. I was suprised at Buttner's arrival and unfortunately it still doesn't make much sense. It will be interesting to see where Hull play the Irish left sided player. 

Music

Liars - WIXIW: As the reviews of this mentioned this is a band who don't stand still, each new offering might as well be a different band. I took a few listens to get into this, but when it clicked, as usual after listening with headphones, i was hooked on the latest incarnation.

Santigold - Master of my make believe: I don't know why they've changed the name, but the music is pretty similar to that on the debut album, maybe a more beat heavy electro pop. As with the first there are a couple of killer tracks on it, the rest aren't bad either. It's not something i could listen to again and again, but i've no doubt others could.

Sofrito - international soundclash: I love this mix of mainly African and latin American compilation, i should think their club night's are something else.

The dB's - Falling of the sky: I had not heard any of this early 80's US power pop outfit's original output, but read good reviews of this reunion album. It's pretty good, not earth shattering, but enjoyable enough. It veers off into country rock at times, a poppier version of Tom Petty.

The travelling band - Screaming is something: I saw this Mancuian soft/country rock act a few years back at a free Spinningfields gig and thought they were a group to follow. This is pretty good, definitely a grower, they can write a hook. I hardly ever listen to the radio anymore, but i'd describe them as radio friendly.

TY Segall and white fence - Hair: A blinding bit of modern garage rock from the prolific Californian, i'm not sure why people listen to the modern variations of heavy metal and heacy rock when there's brillaint dirty scuzzy guitar rock like this about.

Manchester United 2-1 Arsenal

Well that was a weird game, Fergie was right, that wasn't like a United Arsenal game. It didn't help the quality of the game that visitors were so poor, but that doesn't really excuse United's sloppy display.
I have seen Arsenal a couple of times on the box this season and for all the hype i hadn't seen anything to suggest they would be challenging the top three any time soon. As usual it seems to me, a couple of decent reults and the southern press try to big them up. Arsenal seemed to improve defensively at the beginning of the season, but without playing anybody at all.
They were poor on Saturday, they saw plenty of possession but possessed absolutley no threat where it mattered. I like Wilshere, he is going to be a good player, he had a bit of a weird game during this game, culminating with the red card. Other than him though, there is no real class there as far as i'm concerned.
However poor Arsenal were, it was no excuse for the lethargic display United conspired to produce. It was one of those games where you wonder if the early goal settled down United too much. What a gift it was as well, Vermaelen mishitting the clearance straight to his ex team mate, Van Persie made no mistake and if he has ever had a flicker of doubt about whether he made the right move, this game must have quashed it.
But instead of United kicking on and putting the game to bed, we got sloppy, our passing and our movement to a lesser extent, were far from what we've got used to over the last few weeks. What made the half even worse, was the fact that we still made some great chances and should have gone in at the break at least two goals to the good. I suppose the penalty miss from Rooney just about summed the half up.
United came back out looking for the second and it had to arrive with the chances we created. We should have scored almost immediately, but Valencia couldn't convert Van Persie's cross, oh for that to have been the other way around. He's going through a bit of an iffy spell, the Ecuadorian at the moment, why he has become reluctant to take his man on the outside all of a sudden, is mystifying. That said, even when nowhere near his best, he still manages to create goals. All the same, if Nani was anywhere near his best, he would probably be struggling to be first choice in our starting eleven.
When the second goal did come, it was from an unlikely source, with Evra getting a second headed goal of the season, not direct from a corner this time, but from a short corner and cross from Rooney. What's happened to us scoring so many goals from set pieces all of a sudden.
Unfortunately United took the foot off the pedal after that, and even more so after the dismissal of Wilshere. I didn't see the funny side of their last minute consolation goal, after watching us play out time for the last twenty minutes when we could have improved our goal difference, to then see us unable to even keep a clean sheet just left me with a sense of satisfaction with result, but not particularly with our performance.
Still events later on in the day, made the ale taste all the better. I fancied West Ham to get something against the bitters, but the late equaliser from Swansea was a real bonus. Given the run of games we have, we should stay top until the end of November at least.

Chelsea 5-4 Manchester United

So near but so far, i'm gutted for the young lads, but fucking proud of that performance. When the draw was made, knowing that they always pick a strong team in this competition i presumed that tonight would be the end of the line in this competition for this year. After all the shit that went down on Sunday i thought Fergie may go with a stronger team. So when i saw that back line, i was just hoping to see us put in a creditable performance.
We certainly got that, right from the kick off, United took the game to the hosts, which made sense as the front six was the strongest part of the team. United were looking more likely to take the lead, but some comical defending as Anderson, of all people stole the ball and fed Giggs who made no mistake the finish saw us fulfil the promise. United continued to play good stuff going forward and defensively looked alright, except for Buttner, who it's fair to say had a bit of a mare. Even before conceding the penalty that led to their first equaliser he'd looked shaky as fuck with the ball at his feet. When Moses attacked him you ended up fearing the worst. This was a big pity, because Keane and Wooton were excelling in the middle and Rafael was continuing his good form.
United didn't take the equaliser laying down and Anderson once again turned provider, feeding Hernandez with a pin point pass that the Mexican finished superbly. Whilst i didn't think Anderson was as good as other reds tonight, on that form he would be a useful member of the squad. Unfortunately he showed why, ultimately he isn't, and never will be, as he completely ran ouf of juice after 70 minutes and virtually begged to be brought off with ten minutes to go. When you look at Giggs doing the full two hours, that's just shocking.
Fergie took the shellshocked Buttner off at half time, replacing him with Powell, shifting Flecther to right back and moving Rafael over to the left. We started the second half well, and Powell almost scored with a fine shot with his first touch of the contest. But as the half went on, the home team started to find a lot of joy down our flanks. It wasn't a particular shock when they equalised, but once again United's response was magnificent. United's third was the moment of the match for me, a brilliant passing move, finished off with a glorious finish from the returning Nani. It was a pity the rest of his game was as hit and miss as usual.
Chelsea now pushed forward, and the removal of Welbeck for Macheda didn't help our cause as we stopped looking as dangerous on the break and had to soak up more pressure. Still it looked like we were going to do it until Wooton gave the penalty away in the last minute. I saw Fergie blame Nani for giving the ball away in the lead up to the goal, but, it wasn't great defending in fairness, it's not like they sliced us open or anything.
With Tunnicliffe also now on for Anderon it was always going to be a hard task, but the crucial fourth goal was hard to take as Wooton misjudged a back header and the hapless Sturridge for once kept his head and gave the home team the lead. I felt sorry for the lad, he doesn't have the talent of Michael Keane, but he is a whole hearted player.
United saw plenty of the ball after that but never really threatened, not carrying the same threat going forward. Their fifth came as we threw everybody up for a corner, they countered and finished the move off with a class goal. Amazingly we managed to go straight to the other end and win a penalty to reduce the deficit back to a single goal, but there was no fairytale ending for us.
I won't say it was a moral victory for us, for fear of sounding like a bertie, but we can definitely take as much from that game as the victors. The spirit and self belief in our camp at the moment, even with all those young lads, is as good as it has been for ages. Our creativity and attacking play, again with a revamped front six against a far stronger Chelsea back four than ours, was impressive.
Some of the younger lads look like they could have a future at the club. I'd love to have seen Powell on from the start and though we didn't see the best of him, he didn't look out of place on the big stage. As for Michael Keane, i've already predicted big things for him, and the longer the game went on tonight, the better he got. Sure he made a couple of errors, but the way he read the game and Sturridge, even started to come forward with the ball in the latter stages of the game, showed he is made of the right stuff as well as having the talent. A local United fan as well, what's not to like there.
Giggs showed he may have another season in him as Fergie keeps suggesting, whilst others, myself included, i have to admit, have wondered if this will be the final season. One last piece of praise, i've been critical of Hernandez over the last season or so, but tonight was his best perfomance in a United shirt in ages, not just the goals, his movement and all round leadership of the line reminded us just what he provided us with in his debut season.
So we go out in a blaze of glory and now look forward to Arsenal on Saturday, and for those of us a bit on the skint side, no need to fork out any more on the least important trophy of the season. I'd have took the before the game began.