Manchester United 1-0 Crystal Palace

Just when you think United may have turned a corner, as the draw against Chelsea and the creditable defeat at City seemed to suggest, we get Saturday's lacklustre performance. Still it was absolutely imperative that we got the three points, and with a bit of luck we managed it.
We continued the 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1 formation, that has seen us get tighter at the back, but as Van Gaal admitted after the game, it seems to be at the expence of attacking threat. It doesn't help so many of our attacking players are just not clicking. Van Persie really should have been dropped by now, you could see the difference when Wilson came on and immediately we had speed up front. Di Maria seems to have lost his spark, since he's been moved from the middle to his current position on the flanks. I have been a big fan of Januzaj, but his form has absolutley slumped, he seems to have lost all his confidence. One of Van Gaal's big plus points was supposed to improving young players, something has gone badly wrong there.
I couldn't understand why Fellaini was chosen in front of Herrera, it didn't do much for our creativity, that's for sure. I'm presuming he was picked for his height at set pieces, but was that really necessary against Crystal Palace at home. The big plus points were the return of Carrick, who showed was we have been missing right from the start of the game. It was a touch strange that he ended the game at centre half, but given Blinds lack of pace, I wasn't that unhappy at that move. The other big plus was the improved form of Shaw who really looked the player people have been saying he is capable of becoming.
I have to admit being non plussed at the introduction of Mata for Januzaj, not player for player, that was fair enough, but at the introduction of Mata on the right hand side of our attack. We were slaughtering Moyes for playing him out wide last season and I still think it was a dodgy substitution. But, he came up with the goal, so all's well that ends well. He could have had another at the end and Rooney should definitely scored right at the death. It was game we had to win, and win we did so there's only so much grumbling to be had at the performance. Given Arsenal's woes at the moment, that is going to be one hard to call game at the Emirates in a couple of weeks.

Music

Bob Mould - Beauty & Ruin: His last solo album was a bit of a cracker, this is a solid follow up, without touching the same heights.

First Aid Kit - Stay Gold: Another good effort by the Swedish folk/rock sibling duo, the more listens, the more it delivers.

GoGo Penguin - v2.0: The debut album from the Mancunian jazz tinged outfit was pretty good, this follow up is even better.

Jack White - Lazaretto: His first completely solo album Blunderbuss was one of his very best, this follow up is good, but not quite as good, no shame in that, most artists would die for an album as good as this.

The Soundcarriers - Entropicalia: The first album I've heard from this UK blissed out psychedelia flavoured band, and it hit the spot almost straight away.

TuneYards - Nikki nack: This album got some impressive reviews, yet i noticed some people out there seemed to absolutely hate it. I can see why, some times I listen to it and thinks it's alright, at others I want to turn it off after a coule of tracks. Not one for the memory banks.

Manchester City 1-0 Manchester United

I was confident going into this derby, not so much because we we were on top form, but because we  seemed to be improving, whilst they seemed to be all over the place. Even though the game went against us, it was a reasonable assesment of the game to come.
Whilst we seemed to dominate the first 20 minutes, terrtotorially, we didn't create the chances that the possession deserved. And then out of nowhere, De Gea had to make two wonder saves to keep us in the match. One day somebody will explain to me, what it is exactly that leads them to believe Valencia can do a job at right back. Smalling was idiottic to get sent off, but it was easy to see why he lost his head, when he thought he had to charge into the right back position to get the Soth American out of another mess of his own making. The only problem being he was as of the pace as Valencia.
Any chance we had of winning the game disapearred at that moment.There can be argument over the substition of Januzaj, he had looked one of our more more promising forward players. I wouldn't have took him off that is for sure. But fot all Van Gaal's big talk we have all seen he will not take Roney or Van Persie off when it matters. Though the late substitution of Van Persie may signal that the Dutchman is no longer untouchable.
Once Smalling was sent off, I feared the worst, expecting us to get murdered. So from that point of view the second half can only be seen in a positive light. There was a spell when it looked as if we may be in for a humiliation, but once we got over that wobble. United put in a reasonable display. That was helped by City's performance of course, their display over that last fifteen minutes or so, against ten men and against that back four was unbelievable. It's hard to be sure of how the game would have panned out if it had been eleven against eleven, but it's hard to believe we would have come out of that game without something to show for it.
Despite our poor start, results and points wise, you can see we are heading in the right direction. Though the defence is going backwards, injury wise and playing wise, their is miles more character and fight from the players than there was under Moyes. It still defies belief though, that we didn't buy an established centre half during the summer. That said, I can't say that I'm jumping for joy at any of the centre backs that we've been linked with in the press over the last couple of months. Once we get the Arsenal game over and done with, we have a run of games where we should be able to go on a good run. If we that doesn't happen, the journalists who this morning have tried to paint a picture of doom over Old trafford, will really have something to write about.