Manchester United 3-2 Arsenal

I can't take all this excitement, goals, attacking, off the cuff football, I want my money back. I didn't get carried away by the result on Thursday, after seeing that Danish team in the flesh, I was left wondering how on Earth we managed to lose over there, because they were as bad any away team we have seen all season. So scoring five goals against them has to be put in context.
I had no expectations at all ahead of yesterdays game, and really why should I have had. That defence was just asking for a team to have a go at it. Instead Wenger's lot came here and tried to tippy tap it's way around it. Watching United has been like banging your head against a wall for the last three seasons since Fergie left, fuck know what it must be like to watch Arsenal choke season after season. If they don't win it this season, i can't see how they will ever win whilst Wenger is still in charge. It's not as if United were really that good yesterday, we just seemed to want it a bit more and took our chances.
As to the game and stand out performers, Rashford really looks like he has a chance, physically he looks to be strong enough and have enough pace to worry defenders. He made some really clever runs as for instance the run and set up he made for the third goal. And as we have seen in both games he can finish, the headed second goal was really classy.
I thought Varela grew into the game, though he is still far better going forward than defending. but he defended reasonably well during the second half. Fosu-Mensah looked more nervous than I expected him to be and whilst he didn't really catch the eye, again, physically he coped reasonably well, he wasn't bullied or outpaced.
Can we keep the good run going, nothing would surprise me less than us fucking up against Watford, though I expected that yesterday so fingers crossed.

Sunderland 2-1 Manchester United

In a season of lows, yet another to add to the collection, it wasn't just the result, bad enough as that was, yet again it was the performance, the lack of fight, the seeming inevitability of a bad ending. We never really got going. Darmian who had another stinker, gave away a needless free kick and they we conceded a soft as fuck set piece that went straight in after just a couple of minutes.
Some have tried to make a case that we weren't too bad in the first half, really? When that equaliser came, it was pretty unexpected to me. It was a great finish from Martial who once again was our only real threat up front and that was only sporadic and confined to the first 45 minutes. Rooney never got into the game, Mata was heavily involved for most of that first half, seeing a lot of the ball and having a couple of half decent chances. But is that really enough against a team second from bottom and struggling badly. And not unexpectedly to me, when the going got tough during the second half he completely disappeared. Gary Neville was spot on the money, he isn't a Manchester United player. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh picking on him as nobody else performed or stood up to be counted, but I'm fed up of hearing people say if we carry on with him at number ten we can build a team around him, no, no, no! And another thing that I've probably said a million times before is that the combination of Mata and Rooney is just so fucking slow, going forwards slow, no balls over the top with those two and slow as in pressing the opposition centre backs, they get such an easy ride against us. Seeing Welbeck yesterday return for Arsenal will only rub that in over the next couple of months.
Losing Darmian was only a blow in the sense of having to waste a replacement on him, he was as big a liability as Love appeared to be when he came on, at least Love didn't cost anything. We were lost in central midfield, Carrick didn't have his best game, but Schneiderlin had yet another stinker. With every appearance he looks less and less a Manchester United player. I suppose we'll find out when the current manager departs the scene, it could be that he's yet another player unable to express himself under the Dutch fraud. But on the evidence we have seen so far it looks to me as if he is just not good enough with the ball at his feet. He certainly doesn't look like a long term replacement for Carrick, which means going forward we still need two class central midfield players. Add that to the list of players needed in the summer.
The only positive I could take from Saturday was the performance of Borthwick-Jackson, reasonably calm at the back and once again he delivered a couple of great crosses and set up Martial near the end with one of our best chances of the match.
Once again the replacement of Lingard, who wasn't great, with Martial against a team fighting for their lives was nuts, but what else do we expect from Van Gaal. It summed him up when he brought Will Keane on after they took the lead when he should have been brought on ten minutes earlier just to try and inject something, anything into our spluttering front line.
Of course what made this performance even worse, was knowing what an important game it was in the hunt for that fourth spot. That seems an ever more forlorn hope given results and performances like this allied to the run of game coming up.

Chelsea 1-1 Manchester United

Well the improved performance's continue, a draw at Stamford Bridge is always a decent result, but what a gutting way to finish a game. At the time I thought the last minute equaliser was harsh on us, but the more I've thought about it, it probably wasn't. Others have used the fact that we relied on De Gea to protect our lead too often, but we were away from home against a side who whilst obviously not what they were, still have good players. No, the reason we probably didn't deserve the the three points was the way we played after taking the lead, especially the last ten minutes to quarter of an hour.
I'd usually blame Van Gaal, but whilst he obviously contributed with his ridiculous substitutions, I think the players settled for that one goal lead. I'm no Fellaini fan, but he had a decent game, still Schneiderlin for him at least made some sense. But Depay for Lingard just as the pressure was really beginning to mount, was off the scale bonkers. The guy does just not put a shift in. Add to that, his confidence is low and form non existent, then you should half expect him to completely fuck up passes like the great counter attack chance we had about a minute before they went to the other end and equalised.
Of course that was equally bad defending, Blind had a bit of a moment, I'm not sure how Borthwick-Jackson gets any blame for that though. Speaking of the young left back, I have resisted the temptation to go overboard over his displays on the basis that he hasn't really played against anybody yet, for ninety minutes anyway. But I thought that yesterday was a performance to take note off, he really did look the part. I saw him play for the youth team and thought he obviously had a good technique and had a bit of pace, but wasn't sure he would be able to handle the physical side of the game. So far, so good, even when the senior players regain fitness I'd like to see us persevere with him till the end of the season, maybe resting him for the odd game. Given our position in the league, maybe the emergence of Lingard and Borthwick-Jackson are what we should focus on.
Jesse Lingard didn't have a great game, but as usual he does enough good things to continue to keep faith with him, we are a better team with him in the eleven than not. Add to that he is an attacking midfielder who is a natural goalscorer and what's not to like. He took his goal absolutely superbly, and that's another thing, he doesn't just score goals, he scores all types of goals. Let's hope Wilson gets a chance next season, another lad who can score different type of goals.
Though I don't think fourth spot has definitely gone yet, given the league this season, how can anybody say that, it's going to get harder unless we can put a string of victories together. To be honest I was more gutted over the equaliser because this sort of thing always seem to happen to us at Stamford Bridge than the league position. So onto to Sunderland, can we make four decent performance's on the bounce?

Manchester United 3-0 Stoke City

Two wins on the bounce, three goals on the bounce, a reasonable amount of chances on the bounce and two consecutive reasonably exciting performances, pinch me and tell me I'm not dreaming. As with the Derby game Stoke were not up to much, but you can only beat what's in front of you which we did and did well.
It has to be said we were playing Stoke at a good time, knocked out of a league cup semi on penalties and then dumped out of the FA cup on Saturday and with a few injuries to boot, they were never really at the races last night.
I thought the inclusion of Carrick was a big reason for last night's improved display, he gave us somebody in the middle of the park with the ability to pass forward and to move it at pace. Mata had an improved game albeit, he was given plenty of room and Lingard gave an improved performance than of late. But Martial was the real bright spark up front, he gave the right hand side of the Stoke back four a torrid time. His goal was the highlight of the night, a brilliant move involving Mata and Rooney and a finish that was absolutely fantastic, he made it look far easier than it actually was.
Stoke did give us a couple of frights at the back during the first half that made you wonder what kind of game if the Stoke that beat us at their place had of turned up. But the second half, was a bit of a procession, though United eased off towards the end of the match.
The acid test as to whether things are really looking up will come on Sunday for me. Since Mourinho got the boot, it's amazing to see the transformation in that Chelsea team and now the results and performance's have started to follow. I have to admit that I'm worried about our back four against their attack, a result on Sunday and maybe we have turned a corner. Don't worry I haven't changed my mind about the manager, he still has to go!

Derby County 1-3 Manchester United

I didn't see most of the 1st half again thanks to work, so I can't really say much about it, except I was told United dominated for the most part and even managed to create a few chances. Saying that, when Derby got into it after they had equalised they looked dangerous. With United having to field two very young full backs I had expected a bit more from the home team, but from my viewing they never really managed to get at them at all.
The opening goal was a belter from Rooney, there;s talk of a rejuvenated centre forward with is his run of 6 goals since the new year. It's good to see him scoring, anybody scoring even, but we saw last week when he has a pacy physical centre back on his case, his game went to pot. I suppose we'll see next week where he's really at, when we visit Stamford Bridge.
United more or less dominated the second half, but the moments where United generally came alive and looked dangerous were when Martial got the ball on the left. I complained about him running down blind alleys last week, not this week as he had the Derby right back on toast, giving him a torrid time.
The second goal came from the other side though, as Lingard crossed to find centre back Blind running towards the six yard box to put us back in the lead. God knows what he was doing up there, but it was vital as it seemed to knock the stuffing out of the home side. Mata finished things off right at the end after more good work from Martial.
The draw seems to be trying to be kind to us as we now head to Shrewsbury for the next round. Not one tie against premier league opposition in the FA cup, I think that's unheard of in recent years. No home tie either, no Automatic Cup Scheme, great news. No money for the Glazer's and no need to fork out an extra £50 to watch Van Gaal's brand of drudgery, result!