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.