Arsenal 1-1 Manchester United

I was never bothered about a record points total, and from the evidence of yesterday, neither were the players. We were so bad for that first twenty minutes or so, it was painful and you started to worry that it could become embarrassing. Fergie had picked a pretty strong line up, who looked miles of the pace. In fact i was starting to think he may well have picked some of the kids I'd like to see get a sniff of the first team, we were that bad, they couldn't have done much worse. The celebrations must have been pretty special.
But slowly but surely United got back into the game. In fact as bad as we had been, by the half time whistle, we had probably had the best clear cut chances of the half. Jones had two great heading chances and should have buried at least one of them. Van Persie also had a great chance, at least his header forced the Arsenal keeper into making a save.
Still the way the second half went, if Sagna hadn't have fucked up twice, first in giving the ball needlessly away to Van Persie and then in bringing him down in the area, I'm not sure we would have come away with a point. The intensity we hadn't showed in the first half, never really made an appearance in the Arsenal penalty area as much as United bossed the game for periods of the second half.
I was surprised Nani started, but i suppose his good record at that ground ticked a box in Fergie's memory. His performance didn't really warrant selection, he wasn't poor, but he didn't raise himself to any heights. What possessed Fergie to bring on Anderson, in the second half, completely lost me. Once the Chelski game is out of the way, I'm hoping we'll see Powell and maybe Januzaj get a glimpse of first team action. If Scholes is fit, i presume he will get a run out against Swansea at home for one last time. I'd love us to beat Chelsea next week, but i don't think I'd put any money on it. As for the other two games, i just hope we start to look to the future and not the past of Anderson and Nani.

Manchester United 3-0 Aston Villa

All you could ask for last night, was for United to go all out for it from the word go, no just doing enough, which to be fair has helped us get where we are, champions for a twentieth title. The half time scoreline shows that this is just what they did, so though the second half tailed off a bit, I'm not grumbling.
Fergie picked a strong line up, though Ferdinand and Vidic were rested, Jones and Evans aren't bad back up. I was surprised to see Rooney in the centre of midfield again, I'm not sure if he really is going to drop back or Fergie is just giving him games before a summer sale. Once again Cleverley didn't start, though he hasn't been seen much of late, i thought he might get a game last night. Kagawa started in his best position, in the hole behind Van Persie and continued his recent pick up in form. In fact he should have capped it with a goal, but he missed the best chance of the second half when he blasted the ball over the bar, when he should have at least hit the target.
United started the game as they meant to go on, as the ball found Giggs on the left who crossed for Van Persie to blast the ball home after just a couple of minutes. Of course the game will be remembered for Van Persie's second which is definitely United's goal of the season and must be in with a shout of being the goal of the season. A brilliant Scholesesque cross field ball from Rooney found Van Persie who volleyed home brilliantly as the ball came over his shoulder, it was reminiscent of one he got for Arsenal last season, only better. The third once more came from a Giggs assist, as he was put through by Kagawa, he then unselfishly crossed for Van Persie to claim his hatrick. The barren spell is now well and truly behind him, it looks as if he may end the season as the league's top scorer after all.
The second half fizzled out by comparison as Villa to their credit, kept on coming forward in search of a goal. It's hard to see them going down on the evidence of last night. It looks as if this may be the season where Wigan finally don't manage to avoid the drop.
United still had good chances, Kagawa missed a great chance as mentioned earlier, Rooney missed another cracker as United tried in vain to get a fourth. Final mention goes to Valencia, who had his best game for ages, he wasn't back to his very best, but there was hints that he may yet recapture the form that we and he have yearned to see this season. 
 

It's almost there( 20 that is )

I'll be honest, i could have lived with a City victory yesterday, i would have loved us being able to go the Emirates to try and win the title on Arsenal's home patch, wiping out that awful memory of them lording it at Old trafford in the early noughties. But after City's debacle during yesterday's second half where they went to pieces for the last half an hour, i can see nothing other than three points and a twentieth title celebration tonight. Villa may need the points, but i'll be amazed if United don't do enough tonight.
City showed why they weren't good enough to retain the title at Tottenham, United may not be as good a team as some of us dared to hope, as we entered that champions league tie against Real Madrid. But we haven't delievered perormances as bad as that, when we have been off our game, there has been enough character to ensure we don't fall apart as City did yesterday.
For all the moaning at the state of our midfield, we still have a better balance between defence and attack then any other team in the division. Christ if we'd have had one winger on song for the season, the league would probably already have been sewn up and who knows a trip to Wembley and chance of a fourth double as well a twentieth title might have been on the cards.
I just hope we go out tonight and do justice to the occasion, a party off the pitch and an attacking party on the pitch please. The last thing i want to see tonight is for our team to go out and do just enough, which is bascially the fare we have had to get used to since christmas. Lets see our players cut loose.

Crystal castles - 3: The third album from the Canadian indie/electronica trio continues the excellence of the first pair of albums. Don't expect anything new, it follows the same path as its predecessors, but the sonds are as good, if not better.
Guano Padano - 2: Another slice of the very listenable blend of spaghetti western, psychedelia and everything else they throw into the kitchen sink from the Italian. A superb instrumental only group.

Herbie Hancock - Miaden Voyage: Classic mid 60's jazz, as befits it's era, it's bop as opposed to his later excursions into funk and experimental jazz. It's up there with the Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter classics of the era.

The Hives - Lex hives: You know what you're going to get from a Hives album, but they do it as well as anyone. If you want 30 to 40 minutes of short catchy guitar adrenaline tunes, you can't really go wrong.
Tori y moi - Anything in return: A decent album, the first time i've heard the experimental indie US act, this is more like a musical hip hop r & b sound. It's pretty good, radio friendly in the best sense of that phrase, it's still pretty interesting musically.

Villagers -Awayland: Conor J.O'Brien and his band deliver a superb second album, musically more adventurous than his debut, there are some great songs on this and it gets better with every listen.
Yo La tengo -  Fade: US indie near its very best, i only discovered these a couple of years ago, they are an excellent band. They have been going since the 80's, so that's some catalogue i've got forward to discovering. Veering between loud guitar based rock and more accesible melodic fare, there albums are never predictable.

West Ham United 2-2 Manchester United

Not a totally satisfactory performance, but i would have took this result before the game. In actual fact this was as well as we have played for a while, but only in spells and only after we had let the home team gain an early initiative in both halves.
It seems as if Fergie is trying to give certain players a bit of a run in the team at the moment. Valencia seems to have been given the nod, now that the league is virtually over and we're out of the cup competitions. I presume he is trying to let him get his confidence back, that's fair enough i suppose, he was alright tonight without looking like the Tony Valencia we'd like to see. Kagawa started again on the left, and tonight had one of his best games in a red shirt, contributing superbly to both our goals. That is still not his ideal position for me, and he wasn't as involved in parts of the game as we or he would have liked, but that was pretty encouraging.
Rooney and Van Persie started as forward combination and though on the twittersphere Rooney got all the shit, whilst Rooney was on the park, i didn't think Van Persie was that much better myself. Worryingly for Rooney, Van Perise seemed to come alive once Rooney had gone off, though it wouldn't have surprised me if the same would have happened if Van Perise had gone off and Rooney had stayed on. 
We were surprisingly suspect at the back at times tonight, more so than i expected us to be. I was also surprised that Vidic and Ferdinand started together again, more so as Vidic doesn't play back to back games too often any more. But it has to be said Vidic was absolutely magnificent tonight, almost back to his very best. The worry for me was Ferdinand, he looked a little off tonight, didn't quite look right to me. It's a bit where we have seen a performance where he didn't quite look mobile. I wouldn't be surprised to see Evans start on Monday night, he seems to have joined Cleverley as the forgotten man at the moment.
It was a coming of age game for De Gea, flattened by Carroll towards the end of the first half, he let the big geordie know he hadn't forgotten about it at the first opportunity at the beginning of the second half, and that he was great to see.
Once again Cleverley was overlooked for the starting line up and again not even considered as a change when the game was being chased. I don't think he's going to get much more of a look in for this season, the summer will be a big time for him.
I thought City might struggle against Wigan, pity they couldn't hold out until the end, unfortunately I've a feeling City will do Spurs on Sunday, not that it matters, we will wrap the title up at some point, no idea when though.

Stoke city 0-2 Manchester United

Back on the victory trail albeit without really recapturing any sign of the form that seems to have vanished post Real Madrid. Then again we were away at Stoke, and to add to that a wind was blowing that would have harmed the chances of a decent football match against a team that likes to play with the ball on the floor.
The start was pretty crucial, an early goal just minutes into the game, knocked their low conference for six and gave United a boost after our shaky form of late. Rooney started the game in central midfield, which, regardless of whether that's a position he settles into later into his career, given the resources available to us at the moment, was a pretty smart move. He gave a decent display, though I'm not sure it was worth the man of the match awarded to him by Gary Neville. Still he helped the once again, excellent Carrick more or less control the centre of the park for the majority of the encounter.
Not that this really converted itself into goal mouth action. The chances were few and far between for the whole of the match. Stoke didn't offer much, they were poor, without descending to the level of Sunderland's abject display against a couple of weeks back. I would be quite happy for them to go down, their dislike for us, for one, but more to the point, they have played the most unattractive football that we have seen during all the years the premier league has been going. I have a feeling they may just stay up, though how they'll do that with such a dismal goalscoring record, I'm not sure really.
From their point of view, they opening goal was a pretty awful goal to concede, when Carrick got his toe to the ball, i didn't expect it to trickle into the back of the net. The second and decisive goal was fairly straight forward for the referee to give, Van Persie was clever and was definitely upended. The Dutchman made no mistake with the penalty, and with the celebration after where he almost took the 71 year old Fergie out, he showed just how much the goal drought must have affected him. I actually thought that it was great to see the outpouring of relief, at the time, but when i thought about it, I'm not so sure. If his recent lacklustre form is down his goal drought, he should be reassured that his all round game, leading the line is just as important.
Anyway that sealed the win and softened the blow of City's semi final win later in the day, which of course probably means a second FA cup final victory in three years. I couldn't see anything other, than a City victory yesterday, the amount of game the rent boys have had to play, and the travelling they have had to put in, meant City had to be favourites.
So onto West Ham on Wednesday and another team hovering just above the relegation zone. I expect this to be a far harder task, than yesterday, and wouldn't be surprised if we have to be satisfied with a point. I suppose it will all be down to the team that Fergie puts out. Will Rafael come back into contention, where is Jonny Evans, will Phil Jones go into midfield, has Cleverley completely fallen out of favour for the remainder of the season. I'd like to see Welbeck start, whether through the middle or out wide. Hernandez couldn't get into the game yesterday, if we don't dominate a game, he doesn't really contribute. For all the talk of Rooney's future in the summer, there must be as big a question mark about the Mexicans, if the rumours about him not being happy at the number of big games he's missed out on this summer are true.

Manchester United 1-2 Manchester City

What a flat end to the season it now looks like we have in store. I thought we'd see whether the last couple of games were just a sign of legginess after the internationals or a sign that our squad had run out of steam. Well we got out answer last night, nobody really rose to the occasion, Jones excepted, but at centre half he wasn't able to get us going further up the field.
The grumbles at the ground were that we were second best and that our midfield had been shown up again. I didn't think they were that much better, if they were better at all. The winner, a great goal admittedly, came out of nowhere, they had looked as unlikely to poach a winner as us, i thought. Both teams may have been looking for a second goal as the game wore on, but neither really looked like getting one until Aguerro's run and strike.
Tactically the game followed the normal pattern of recent seasons, we let them outnumber us in midfield and tried to hurt them out wide and on the break. The problem for me, yet again, is that we haven't the wide men in form to make this work. Welbeck did alright, but he's not a natural wide man, and he's not going to beat his man and get to the by line. Which puts the onus on the other flank, and if there's one thing Young doesn't do, it's take his man on and get to the byline. In fact his first instinct all over the pitch, seems to be, to go back, before he goes forward.
I thought Van Persie had another lacklustre game, but, i suppose, to be fair to him, he didn't get much service. Rooney tried hard, but was unable to influence the game as much as he would have liked. Carrick was decent, but Giggs picked a bad night to have his worst game for ages. The problem there though, was who could you bring on in his place, who would have made a difference. Cleverley's form seems to have hit a brick wall, and you can forget Anderson, it seems Fergie definitely has, at last. The same could be said, for the flanks, he eventually brought Valencia on, who proceeded to remind us what a terrible lack of confidence he currently has in his own game.
Once again as in recent weeks, i didn't really understand the substitutions, the players to come off had to be first Young and then maybe Giggs. But he took Welbeck off, who at least had been trying to take the fight to them, to bring Valencia on. Young only went off after taking a knock in the last minute.
Both of their goals were on the soft side defensively, from our point of view , Giggs back heel summed his night up, and Aguerro was allowed to run with the ball before his brilliant finish.
One of the myths about United under Ferguson is that we always come strong during the second half of the season. There have been plenty of occasions where we have either fallen badly away, or limped over the line. What we do usually do, is put a good run together, a couple of months either side of Christmas, and it's that, that will have been the key to our twentieth title success when we lift the trophy in May.
As far as the rest of the season goes, I don't give a shit about points records, I'd like to see Nick Powell get a few run outs and if there are any other youngsters the coaching staff think have a chance, give them a try out over the last month or so.

Jones the "animal"

With the build up to Monday's night's derby well and truly on, Fergie waxes lyrical about Phil Jones describing him as a football animal who can play anywhere, even centre forward. Getting real, he sees him long term, as a centre back.
Going off what we have seen over his first two seasons, he has proven that he could be a top class right back, he could definitely do a decent job in midfield, long term if it came to it, but if he is to make the centre half position, his own, long term, he could probably do with playing in that position a bit more.
He and United in fact, could do without the injuries though, after not much action during the first part of the season, he has come back and given some excellent performances, usually in central midfield, and usually in between injuries. Hopefully as he matures, the injuries will decrease, if that happens, United really will have a player on their hands.

So the derby, when the fixtures were announced last summer, this seemed like, the, game to look forward to. But with us fifteen points clear, our recent exit, out of two competitions we thought we had a good chance in and either a drop in form or a temporary legginess, it's lost most of that "big game" feel. No doubt by Monday afternoon I'll be up for it, heart pumping, ready for a pint and up for the game. But that Chelsea defeat didn't half hurt, the derby i was really looking forward to, was going to be the one at Wembley, that was really going to matter. That's being a complete spoilt arse, i know but they're you go.
No doubt a victory will put that right, i don't really care about the score, i just want to see us put in a performance. As much as was gutted about Monday's scoreline and the flatness of the performance, i think the doomlords have gone way over the top, as if our fifteen point lead over City is some kind of fluke. Hopefully a couple of day off, and a decent gap between games will see us revert to the kind of performance's we gave in the champions league against Madrid.




Music

Bobby Womack - The bravest man in the universe: A new album with the collaboration of Damon Albarn, this is a bit of a corker. At times beat driven, it's a superior piece of contemporary soul.

Chromatics - Kill for love: A pretty good slice of indie electro/pop, not what you would usually associate with Seattle, it owes more to New Order and and the 80's than grunge. Mind you there's a wide spectrum of good stuff coming from Washington state nowadays.

David Bowie - The next day: Some of the reviews for this surprise realease from one of the giants of Rock music went a tad over the top, but it is fucking excellent. There may be no tracks to rank alongside his seventies classics, but there are still some blinders on it. Great musicianship too.

Frank Ocean - Channel Orange: I wouldn't usually listen to this kind of stuff, but it got some great reviews, so i gave it a go. It's pretty good, some great tracks are on there.

Gaz Coombes - Here comes the bombs: The ex Supergrass mans first solo album will satisfy any of us that admired his first group. Without being exactly more of the same, it ticks the same kind of boxes as the latter Supergrass sound.

Memory Tapes - Grace/Confusion: Found out about this just through surfing the net, it was a decent find. Indie/pop that goes prog/rockish at times, it takes a few listens, but it's worth the rewards.

Thee oh sees - Putrifiers 11: More Californian garage/psychedelic rock that hits just the right spot and they seem to be almost as prolific as Ty Segall. Not as full on guitar blast as him, but with a wider palate of influences, i can't wait to hear their next album.

Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United

I can't say anything other than i was gutted by yesterday, i was pretty confident, helped by their defeat on Saturday at Southampton, if not our lacklustre display at Sunderland. But once the game passed the half hour mark, that confidence slowly evaporated. It's amazing, alarming even, how our form has completely slumped since the champions league elimation. Regardless of yesterday being the second game in three days, we've lacked any kind of cutting edge or ability to up a gear in all our games since Real Madrid did for us. I can only look at it and wonder what would have happened if we had got through, playing Barca in our current form, doesn't bare thinking about.
As usual most will point the finger at our midfield, but whilst it's true far too much reliance is being put on Carrick at the moment, to me the problems are out wide. We seem to have wandered back to that early part of the season where we have absolutely no threat coming down either left or right. I didn't understand Fergie's decision to play Cleverley on the left, when Giggs was on the bench and hadn't played for a couple of weeks and would seemingly have been fresh. The only explanation for his omission van be, Fergie has him in his plans for next Monday. If that's so, that is disappointing, because we missed him badly yesterday, neither Cleverley or Nani contributed much yesterady. For me the chance to avenge that semi final defeat of a couple of years ago was the last big challenge of the season, with the league virtually done and dusted.
I suppose Cleverley has more of an excuse than Nani, for his ineffective display, playing out of position on the left, though his game has deteriorated the longer the season has gone on. Maybe he is feeling his first full season at the top level, one thing seems to be sure, he needs to work on his endurance levels and a summer on the weights, maybe an idea. As to Nani, where do you start, right from his first few touches of the match, you could guess it was going to be one of those days from him. He can be top class, as against Real, and yet he can be so bad, as he was yesterday, that it's almost like playing with ten men. It's looked like he was on his way in the summer, anyway, but after that, i can't see United having second thoughts and trying to hang onto him.
I actually don't think central midfield was too bad yesterday, we controlled the game for most of the first half. It was only when Carrick's energy levels understandably dropped in the second half, along with the returning Jones legs fading going that Chelsea got into the game. The lack of input into the game from the flanks put all the onus on our central players. Even then Chelsea didn't control the game at any stage.
But they got the all important goal, and once that went in you were just hoping for a response from United, and sadly, that never really came. Saying that, we still managed to create three great chances, Hernandez's header that produced a fantastic save from Cech, and Van Persie's chances when he came on. I'm still not sure how he missed that side footer. When that went over the bar, i knew that it wasn't going to be our day. The header he missed and header he put over the bar just compounded the feeling.
I don't really think Fergie got his substitutions right at all either, the first substitution had to be bring Giggs on, for whoever, we needed that bit of class further up the field from Carrick. Van Perise was a no brainer, even if he didn't come off on the day, but after that i would have brought on Kagawa before Young. For his ability to keep the ball, when we needed to build up some pressure during those last ten minutes and his ability to score a goal. Young didn't really affect the game at all, of course maybe it wasn't to be anyway, but i don't think our changes helped. 
It wasn't total doom, i thought Welbeck was superb in the first half, trouble was he was almost playing Chelsea on his own up front. He faded out to an extent, in the second half, but once they got the goal, they defended in numbers. Jones gave another excellent performance in the middle of the park, it really would be like buying a new player if we could get an injury free season from him next season, fingers crossed. Carrick was the pick of either midfield for the first 45 minutes, but the fact he had to play the ninety minutes at Sunderland told as the game went on. The defence didn't really do much wrong, it took a great goal to breach our defence and break the deadlock. We opened up their backline, but didn't put the ball in the net.
So that's that, no treble, no double, just a twentieth league title, how spolied we are, i would gladly have took that as the season got under way at Goodison in August. But the season had once promised so much more, the feeling must be, that whilst our squad is strong, it's not quite strong enough. The comings and goings this summer will be vital if we are to turn that one title into a more next season, or more so to me, whether we can get back to a champions league final. I'll leave those changes to another day.