West Ham United 0-1 Manchester United

A good end to the weekend after Portsmouth gifted the scoucers 3 points on a plate the evening before. Despite Pompey leading in that game twice they were easily the worst team i have seen this season, which of course doesn't say much for Liverpool. In contrast we gave yet another excellent performance, we were never at our best and yet you always fancied that when the goal came it would be us scoring it.
The one thing about West ham is when they play us at their place they aren't scared and always try to play football and have a go at us. And with Zola seemingly doing an excellent job so far you knew this was going to be a tough game. And so it proved, with Carlton Cole in particular giving Ferdinand and Vidic the toughest 90 minutes they have had since the Arsenal game. I don't particularly like West hame but i do have time for the way they have always been a football team. And under Zola it looks like they may be back on their way to being a decent footballing team again, credit crunch and Icelandic ownership permitting.
United went with Giggs on the right and Ronaldo on the left, it look more and more likely that Nani will be shown the door in the summer. Carrick and Scholes partnered each other in central midield with Rafael Da Silva at right back and O'Shea continuing to deputise for Evra.
United played reasonable stuff in the first half but we didn't really create any clear cut chances although Berbatov found the net but it was ruled offside. I thought he was miles offside during the game but when i saw it after it looked like it had come off a home defender, so really it should have stood. At the other end Lucas Neil had one chance that he hit straight at Van Der Sar and Cole got the better of Rio only to attempt a weak chance that didn't really trouble the big Dutchman who after 30 minutes went on to beat the British record for keeping clean sheets. Ronaldo made Green work after diverting a Scholes shot that was going wide but he didn't really have too many shots to save in the first half.
The second half saw United take a bit more of a hold of the game in midfield as they probed and passed trying to break the mean home defence down. When the goal came it was worth the wait. A corner was cleared by West ham but the ball ended up at Scoles feet, virtually without looking he hit a superb ball out to right where Giggs received it. Just like the teenage Giggs from all those years ago he cut in beating two men effortlessly and the delivered the coup de grace hitting the back of the net through a crowded penalty area with his right foot. United saw the remaining time out comfortably and with Rooney and Evra to hopefully be back in a couple of weeks everything is looking good at the moment.

Henry Winter's match report in the Torygraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/4549452/Manchester-United-back-on-top-after-Ryan-Giggs-brilliance-stuns-West-Ham.html

Zola thinks Giggs should carry on next season
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/4563598/Gianfranco-Zola-urges-Ryan-Giggs-to-prolong-career.html

Scolari is sacked
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/7879638.stm
I had a feeling he wouldn't be succesful for them, but it is ridiculous to judge a manager on what half a season. I suppose there is some rational behind it if you might go down and lose millions of pounds. But when it's because you might not win something that is just wrong and no good for the sport, nobody has a divine right to win anything, how ever many ill gotten roubles you possess.

Ferguson amazed and says press partly to blame, i don't think this is the case here myself
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/09/ferguson-shocked-scolari-sacking

So much for Chelsea being run like a normal club, where is rent a quote gobshite Kenyon
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/chelsea/4571940/Chelsea-face-15m-bill-for-sacking-Luiz-Felipe-Scolari.html

Alan Hansen questions Wenger's judgement
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/4561570/Andrei-Arshavin-is-wrong-player-for-Arsenal.html

Geoffery Boycott on the latest English cricket debacle
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/4560492/England-locked-in-a-time-warp.html

Duncan Fletcher weighs in as well
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/feb/09/cricket-england-west-indies

Jonathan Fenby on the migrant workers of China
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/09/china-internationaltrade

Hemut Scmidt blames the anglo saxon countries over the credit crunch
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/29/crisis-schmidt-us-britain

Stephen King concurs with Larry Elliot's last column on the need for banks to regain trust
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/stephen-king/stephen-king-fiscal-and-monetary-policy-can-do-little-without-some-return-of-trust-1604651.html

Anatole Kaletsky's fascinating column in today's Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/article5689642.ece

This sounds interesting, it's a pity it's on a Saturday though
http://www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.uk/

Record profits again

and we are supposed to think that's great are we, season ticket rise after season ticket rise. Will they dare to raise it again in this financial climate. What happens if Inter knock us out, and thats before they have to pay the debt off.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1094608_euro_triumph_boosts_utd_profits

Tevez a free agent according to that paragon of journalistic excellence the daily star, saying that i wouldn't be surprised if it was true
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/68394/Real-lead-battle-for-25m-Tevez/

Premier league go with rupert's mob again
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/premier-league-to-cash-in-on-tv-windfall-1545159.html

Max Hastings on the industrial troubles
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/02/hastings-max-recession

Larry Elliot on the banks loss of trust
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/02/economics-davos-credit-crunch-banking

Anatole Kaletsky gives Brown some credit, a rare thing at the moment
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article5636248.ece

Corporate tax dodging and tax havens etc
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/02/tax-gap-diageo-johnnie-walker
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/03/offshore-tax-avoidance
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/04/tax-gap-series

Music
A guy called Gerald - Black secret technology: Innovative drum n' bass from the mid 90's from one of Manchester's electro pioneers, and a good listen
Barry Adamson - Oedipus schmoedips: Another soundtrack for a non existant film. It has it's moments but it is not one of his best.
Be your own pet - Get awkward: Reasonable indie rock that veers towards the punk end of things at times. There are no really memorable tracks though
Eugene Mcguiness - The early learnings of Eugene Mcguiness: Promising, indie/folk pop perhaps, there are a couple of crackers on it that the rest of the tunes can't quite live up to unfortunately. Monsters under the bed is a cracking tune.
Holy fuck - LP: I saw these on channel M and Clint Boon said he saw a bit of Krautrock mixed with Hawkwind about them. That sounds like a good mix and these Canadians make good on that likeness on this space electro rock album.
Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke: I wasn't too sure about this at first but it has grown on me to a degree. Anything that draws so heavily on the mid 80's isn't usually my bag, but there are some good tunes on it and you can't argue with that.

Manchester United 1-0 Everton

Three points in a hard fought but deserved victory over the blue side of murkeydive. To be fair to them they are not a bad side nowadays, they didn't really show too much going forward but we were always aware of the potential in their side to score a goal out of nothing.
The side was a pretty strong one with Tevez partnering Berbatov in the continuing absence of Rooney. They seem to be shaping up a fine understanding and are both playing excellently at the moment. I don't really know what our strongest central midfield partnership is any more but yesterdays pairing of Carrick and Fletcher must be up there amongst our best at the moment. That said Fletcher didn't have as good a game yesterday as we have come to expect this season. He didn't play badly but with his game not quite up to speed, it left us to marvel at another superb performance by the man who undoubtedly is our main man in the middle now, Michael Carrick. So it was fitting that it was him that made that surging run into the box to earn the penalty that decided the game.
United had decent chances before that but couldn't manage to finish them off. Tevez came closest when he instinctively flicked on an attempt at goal but saw it scramble over the bar for a corner. Ronaldo saw a shot from just outside the area agonisingly hit the outside of the post, it came back to Tevez but the Argentine was ruled offside. We had expected Everton to contest everything and make it hard for United and that is exactly what they set out to do. It was a bit of a throwback of a game, hard and uncompromising, typified by the duel between Vidic and Fellanini, that the Serb won hands down. After getting one in the mouth early on he set out to dominate his opponent and managed it totally winning everything in the air against him.
The one concern that we had in the game was the success they were having on the left hand side against Gary Neville in the first half. I think Neville got injured early on and maybe should have come off earlier than hid did. When replaced by Brown the problems on that side stopped completely and Brown looked like he'd never been away throwing himself into some pretty meaty challenges.
The penalty came just before half time, always a great time to score, and despite the protests of the Everton players it was a clear penalty. Carrick tried to stay on his feet but was unable to after Arteta's stuck out foot had just caught him. Ronaldo made no mistake with the spot kick as United went into the half time break with a deserved lead.
Almost immediately at the restart United should have had another penaltyas Carrick was brought down again, if anything it was an even more blatant penalty than the first. But referee Halsey botttled it in yet another poor refereeing performance at Old Trafford, the quality of English officials at the moment is pretty dire. I am wrinting this after watching the bindippers victory over the rent boys. The sending off of Lampard in that game was an absloute disgrace and was the obvious turning point of the game. United didn't create any really great chances in the second half but we were the only team that really looked like scoring. This was a good solid win in what could have been a tricky game. Next week we face another tricky game at West Ham who seem to be going well now under Zola. If we come out of that unscathed i can't see us having too many problems winning another title despite Liverpool's late late show today. I mean was that a performance to scare anybody this afternoon, and as for Chelsea they were woeful again even before Lampard's dismissal.

The match report in the Telegraph which goes a bit over the top about Ronaldo's performance
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/4412304/Cristiano-Ronaldo-magic-sends-Manchester-United-five-points-clear.html
He had a reasonable game but nowhere near as good as Tevez, Berbatov, Carric or Vidic.

Paul Scholes best United eleven
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/27/paul-scholes-manchester-united-team
Interesting

Ian Brown on his support for United
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/feb/01/ian-brown

John martyn who died last week, remembered
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/singer-john-martyn-dies-aged-60-1519948.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/01/john-martyn-remembered
http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2009/01/farewell_john_martyn_1.html

Martin Kettle on the special realtioship and Europe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/30/obama-britain-europe

Alan Watkins and Matthew D'acona think the Labour government will be no more after the next election.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/alan-watkins/alan-watkins-the-government-is-breathing-its-last-1522511.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/matthewd_ancona/4413199/The-week-Labour-lost-the-next-election.html