Manchester United 3-1 Aston Villa

If our away form has been as bad as it has been for years at least our home form of late has really bucked up. And last night we were graced by another top performance and for once a pretty competitive contest as Villa had a bit of a go and put in a performance that belied their position in the lower reaches of the division.
After the weekend's FA cup exertions the line up reverted to something more like full strength with Ferdinand returning to the heart of defence and Rooney and Berbatov up front. United got the dream start as long punt from Van Der sar was controlled first time by Rooney who then unleashed an ubstoppable shot to put us one up with just a couple of minutes on the board.
I thought last night was an excellent game but i'm not sure the first half was as good as some around me were making out. I thought after getting the early goal United seemed to be content to keep the ball when we had it and get everybody behind the ball when Vill had it. Meaning Villa had a fair amount of possession but didn't really threaten Van Der Sar's goal. Villa passed it nicely but didn't threaten but i don't really think United did to be fair. The second goal also came at an excellent time, right on the stroke of half time. It was another excellent goal on a night of good goals with Nani putting in a cross just asking to be put away and Rooney made no mistake. It was clinical but a tad harsh on the away team i thought.
The second half was probably the best 45 minutes of football we have seen at Old trafford this season. It was end to end with Villa more than playing their part, though United always looked the more likely to score. In fact when United lost the ball in the middle of the park and Villa broke to score through Bent it looked like it was game on. But it took United just five minutes to restore a two goal lead as Rooney held the ball up in the box and fed the ball back to Vidic of all people who hit an absolute screamer.
United created plenty of chances after that to make it four with Berbatov missing a sitter and Rooney being denied a hatrick by Friedel. Nani was on fire and would have scored the goal of the match for me when he beat his man on the left but couldn't beat the goalie froma very tight angle. He got a bit of stick from the crowd for being greedy but not from me. Ashley Young clpipped the bar for Villa and they commendably kept coming forward but the three points were never seriously threatened.

Rooney hasn't written the rent boys off and reveals he is happy enough with his own form depite his lack of goals. He played well enough last night, whilst Berbatov was superb once more. The standout players were Nani and Giggs for me though. Giggs has been brilliant the last three or four games, it has taken him a while to get back to his best form after his injury lay off, but he is right back to the kind of form that is as good as probably more consistent than at any time in his career. The same could be said about Nani, though he wasn't out as long as Giggs he seemed to have lost his cutting edge when he returned to the team. It's well and truly returned now and that's bad news for the premier league's full backs.

Andersred's latest blog asks whether the fact that the fans have no way of knowing what is going on with the clubs finances is really good enough. 

Paul Wilson asks how United will fit in the form man Berbatov into their European formation when the champions league resumes later this month. It's a fair point, especially seeing as though Rooney's performances on the left this season has been underwhelming to to say the least. If we are to play 4-3-3 it's hard to see how he can leave Berbatov out on his current form.

New acqusition Anders Lindegaard reveals he was happy with his Manchester United debut and that he has not come just to warm the bench up. He wants to be the man to replace the Big Dutchman next season. He made a reasonable start on Saturday.

I don't think anybody saw this coming, though to be fair to him, he seems to be being fairly realistic. Laurent Blanc was spot on the money with his comments after we had signed him when he said he had the talent but he wasn't sure he had the determination. After seeing a season and a half of Obertan that is as good a summing up as its possible to give. To make it at United you have really got to want it and i'm afraid he just doesn't want it enough.

Andy Mitten talks about Guiseppe Rossi who is garnering rave reviews for his performances and goals for Villareal and about life in general for life after United for the boys who came through the youth system. I loved watching Rossi play for the youth team, he was a real talent. I thought he was a cert for the first team. Nice to see that he still speaks highly of Fergie and United in general.
It must be horrifying for the Glazer's to think how much Pique and Rossi are worth now compared to what we sold them for. The goal Rossi scored against Espanyol at the weekend was the kind of thing we saw at youth and reserve for United.

Steve Richards points out how events in Egypt are a reminder of the errors that the Iraq war. Daniel Korski pens a ludicrous piece in the spectator claiming that maybe the neoconservatives have been proved right, laughable. It seems to be going under the radar at the moment but there seems to be major concerns the unrest in the middle east may well spread to the Arabian peninsula. Ambrose Evans-Pritched reports on the worries. What a terrificly daily Telegraph name that is.

Gary Younge reports on how the US is moving on from Afghanistan whilst its soldiers are still dying there. Needless to say that's still happening here as well.

Christopher Hitchens argues that whilst the kings speech may well be a good film, historically it's all over the place. Has there ever been any film about the British monarchy that remotely gets anywhere near the historical truth.

Labour's craven attitude to Murdoch exposed, even out of government still sucking up the wanker, not a massive surprise.

Southampton 1-2 Manchester United

It's getting ridiculous, our away form is embarrassing, the performance in the first half was yet another shocker. Gibson, Owen and Obertan might as well have not been on the pitch for all the influence they had on the game in that 45 minutes. It's getting cruel having to watch Gibson's limitations shown up and then see him hauled off to get some real United players on. But in that first half he wasn't alone, the plan to play Owen behind Obertan and Hernandez may have looked good on paper but it didn't work out on the pitch.
Once again we couldn't dominate possession in the middle of the pitch and apart from the first ten minutes we posed the home teams rearguard no real problems. I wouldn't go as far as to say they deserved to go in at the break a goal up, but Southampton definitely took all the plaudits for their first half performance as they played some nice football and created one or two decent chances.
Having picked Hernandez he was given aboslutley no service in a midfield where there was only Scholes playing to any kind or acceptable level. Anderson's run of form seems to have fizzzled out and he was no more influential than Gibson. Ferguson picked the right two men to take off, as once Giggs and Nani came on we really started to play and dominated the game.
The reversion to 4-4-2 after the bizarre decision to start with a diamond shaped midfield undoubtedly helped us change the game as well. Once again it took the introduction of Giggs to completely change the game, this time playing alongside Scholes in the middle of the park.The first goal had an element of fortune as Nani's cross took a slight touch which put it straight onto the head of Michael Owen who made no mistake. The winner was more like it though, as Giggs stole the ball and set Hernandez free with the kind of service he hadn't seen in the preceeding seventy five minutes. Hernandez made no mistake prodding home with his left foot, and United saw out the game reasonably comfortably.
Lindegaard had a pretty useful debut, looking confident and making no errors. He looks like he could be a good addition to the squad. Whatever happens during the rest of this season i'm looking forward to next season when we get Cleverley and Welbeck back and hopefully we'll see some transfer activity with regards to our central midfield. Even if Scholes stays, which i hope and think he will, we are in desperate need of strengthening  in that area of the squad. It would be nice if we had something coming through the ranks, which indeed we have but Pogba, Tunnicliffe and maybe even Petrucci if he can get over his injury problems are two to three years away from the first team squad yet. I'm not sure how good Matty James is going to be i haven't seen enough of him.
I'm expecting to see more exciting football next season and who knows may be even a dominant away performance or two.

The Telegraph's match report

Are United going to go Dutch again as Stekelenburg seems to have emerged as the favourite to replace Van Der Sar as United's next number one. I haven't seen much of him apart from last years world cup but i have read that he is good with his feet. He seems to have impressed Van Der Sar when he has been with the Dutch squad which is a feather in his cap.

The Guardian's new secret footballer column gives us a football insiders view of Gray and Keys sacking and their views of football pundits in general, they aren't much impressed. I turn off as soon as the games finish as they never tell you anything you can't already work out for yourself. They are all as bad as each other, though maybe the BBC is unfortunately the worst with its jobs for the boys approach. I mean how bad is Alan Shearer.
Paul Hayward argues that the British public is short changed by its football TV punditry and wonders why Sky can't replicate its Excellent cricket coverage over at it' football department.
A very interesting article on the all Jewish football club Hakoah Vienna that eventually bit the dust under the Nazi's. I find the inter war years Danube football school fascinating. Though i'm not really a fan of a Jewish football club, or a muslim one or whatever. You will eventually end up with a Glasgow situation, Celtic and Rangers and the sectarian overtones involved with that, which is not what football should be about.

I don't know credibility this report has but if there is anything in it, United will lose another tranche of real fans who they will never get back this summer. My ticket will be getting perilously close to unaffordable that's for sure.

Lancashire's horrible ground redevelopment plans saw the club lose £2 million last year as the delays hit the club hard.

Roy Hattersley has been impressed by Miliband's low key start as Labour leader but warns him that now is the time get noticed and be heard. To be fair that is what he and Balls have started to do, Osborne seems to be more than a little rattled to me.Andrew Grice uses his Indie column to tell us that the coalition is rattled as the fears of a double dip stalk the coalition, but there is still no sign of a plan B. It's not as if they would announce it if there were though, is it.
The bad news came thick and fast for the coalition last week as Friday saw consumer confidence stats hit the floor. What happens when the cuts really start to bite.
Mehdi Hasan argues that Labour has regained it's appetite for power again.
Paul Mason gives his overview of where the economy and where the political situtation are at in his latest BBC blog. I read that as him thinking that the coalition will break up if the economy does double dip.

Bernanke told the financial crisis inquiry commission that all but one major US bank was on the brink of failiure during the 2008 credit crunch meltdown. That's probably what they wouldn't have wanted to come out during their attempts at reputational rehabilitation at last weeks Davos get together.
David Blanchflower certainly gave his critics both barrels last week after the weeks bad figures gave credence to his views that the coalitions policies will send the economy into a double dip recesion. He certainly gave Torygraph political writer Bennedict Brogan a going over.

Mark Mardell highlights the tricky issues that arise from current events in Egypt. Let's hope he puts his faith in democracy and the people of Egypt however messy that may be. As Peter Oborne argued yesterday this is for the people of Egypt to decide, that will go against the grain for that portion of the US political establishment that led the neocon project.
Robert Fisk reports from the streets of Cairo as the people rise up against Mubarak, even Fisk seems taken aback by the strength of the uprising.

Bruce Guthrie gives an insiders view on why Murdoch's word is not to be trusted. You only have to read Harold Evans book on his editorship of the Times to know that his word is never to be trusted. Stephen Glover writes how about Murdoch lost control of his own story and praises Nick Davies even though he doesn't agree with Davies's views on the rotten state of the British media. The new statesman's resident Tory argues that News international is now Cameron's problem. Whilst Alexander Chancellor asks why Cameron like Blair before him is so deferential to Murdoch. A lack of cojones.

The Guardian interviews the Coen brothers, the makers of a host of my favourite films, as their remake of True grit is about to open. Maybe i shouldn't call it a remake as apparently they have stayed closer to the book. It's bound to be worth watching they always are.
The Telegraph talk to Steve Buscemi star of HBO's latest probable hit Boardwalk empire, a pity it's on Sky, i'll have to find a way of watching it. The storyline sounds great.
News that a new film is to be centred around the legendary Stone roses Spike island is interesting. I didn't go to the gig which according to many wasn't actually that legendary, but the premise of the film sounds promising.

The filmakers behind the Folk Britannia and other Britannia music documentaries look like they have come up with another gem with this new effort, Reggae Britannia.
Jon Savage remembers the Roy Harper classic Stormcock, 40 years on. It certainly is a classic.
The Quietus interviews the main man of heavy rock Lemmy.

Roy Harper

Van Der sar to call it a day

The dreaded day has arrived where our big Dutch number one has announced that he will be retiring at the end of the season. I have said before that i think he has been a very under rated part of the success we have seen since we regained the title in 2006-07.
I have always thought i wouldn't see a better keeper at Old trafford than Peter Schmeichel. I still think as a pure goalkeeper the big Dane was the number one, but Van Der Sar was such a different goalie it is hard to compare them.
Some pundits talk of a back five, meaning the back four plus the goalie. But in Van Der Sar's case that literally was the case. He is so good with the ball at his feet, that he became almost an extra outfield player. He gives the back four total confidence because they knew they could always give him the ball. Something they so obviously didn't have in Foster and don't have in Kuszczak. Vidic and Ferdinand have been as good as centre half pairing as there has been in Europe in recent years but having Van Der Sar behind them sweeping up undoubtedly made them even better.
Replacing him will be no easy task, that's for sure. I have absolutely no idea who will be the best replacement, but i can't help thinking there will be times next season when we wish he was still here.

He has apparently told the club he is going to take a complete break from football after he hangs up his boots. Apparently the club would have liked him to go onto the coaching staff and still hope to persuade him to when if he returns to the game.

With Giggs confirming that he will be continuing to pull on the red shirt next year and now Van Der Sar confirming he is to hang up his boots that only leaves us to find out what the ginger prince will be doing next season. Apparently he has told MUTV that he still doesn't know what his plans are going to be, at the moment he just wants to concentrate on the rest of this season.
On the evidence of this season if i was Fergie i would be desperate for him to stay. He is still by far the best midfield player at the club. I would also like Cleverley and Welbeck to have the chance to play and train for one season with such a great player.

The Telegraph use Tuesday night's escapdes to run a piece on United's great escapes this season. We have had as many go the other way this season. A better piece would have been asking why our away form has been so awful this season. With all due respect to Blackpool, who i admire for the way they have approached the game on their return to the top flight, we only really played for twenty minutes after they had run out of legs. We have yet to go anywhere and give a real performance for ninety minutes. And it all stems from out toal inability to dominate possession.
At Blackpool as at West brom we were out fought in the middle and in fact all over the pitch. I know no team is perfect an there will be times in a season when you go away from home and this happens, as it has in the past. But this season it's almost every game. Where would we be without the contribution of Giggs and Scholes.

Good news from Tuesday is that Rafael only suffered concussion, nothing else and whilst he will miss the weekend trip to Southampton he should be fit for next Tuesday's game at home to Villa. Really good news as i'm sure he would have been rested on Saturday anyway.

MUST have submitted their thoughts on the future of football governance today as the governments select committee continue their inquiry into the future of football governance. I wish i could have some faith in this, but with a government who believe in as little government inteference with market forces as possible, it's impossible. It's not as if they got anywhere with the last lot.

It doesn't seem that how to win friends and influence people was a motto that Gray and Keys lived by, the number of articles by Sky insiders annonymously puching the air that they have been booted out and exposed as not very nice pieces of work. Whilst there is no doubting they both had to go, and not particularly having that much time for either of them, i can't help feeling Andy Gray was punished as much for his court case in the phone hacking scandal as he was for his off air sexism.

With Mourinho allegedly at loggerheads with Real Madrid director of football Valdano will he last more than one season. And what will that mean for those that allege his plan is to take over from Fergie at United. Could it mean that this will be Fergie's last season as well as Van Der Sar's?

Iain Martin thinks Ed Balls, described as a killing machine to him by on cabinet minister will not find Osborne easy prey. Well Osborne's defence of the GDP figures, blaming the snow, wasn't exactly Norman Hunter defending. That description of Balls as a killing machine does tend to lead you to believe that not all the tories or their friends in the press were jumping for joy when Johnson stood down.
With long term youth unemployment around the million mark and approaching the kind of figures we saw in Thatchers first term when the tories decimated British manufacturing, ( the manufacting that has suddenly become fashionable again ) Martin Bright asks if the coalition hates young people. Well young people certainly hate Nick Clegg, though Cameron and Osborne seemed to have escaped their ire, another poor piece of positioning by the Lib dem leader.
Let's hope that this is the year that Cameron and especially Osborne get found out, because things haven't got anywhere near as bad as they are going to get.
Telegraph columnist Benedict Brogan describes the Lords crisis as at boiling point and wonders who will blink first. Good question, i would think the pressure within the labour party is to make sure Miliband isn't first to blink.

Whilst Europe and the States stagnates, though the US is supposedly showing signs of coming back to life, the Chinese economy grew by 10%, boosted by a £trillion of new money and easy credit. Stephen King warns the US in the Indie that it can't keep blaming the Chinese for all it's woes and argues it will have to learn to advocate the Chinese dragon. This Economist article seems to argue the exact opposite. Chinese foreign policy has become too tough and could prove dangerous and counter productive and the Chinese need to learn how to acknowledge the favours that US foreign policy occasionally does Chinese interests.
Whilst in Europe a Chinese shopping spree is rasing fear and hope in Europe, with Europe arguing that they want to see reciprocity for European maunfacturers in Chinese markets. French bank and others start to bet on a Chinese hard landing as it bets that the Chinese have let their economy rip too far and will have to rein it in, possibly slamming the breaks on hard. That is the one thing i can't see them doing. The overheated Chinese economy has the markets spooked as they are hit and fall on the news of the 10% growth.
I can't begin to understand the analysis but Gavyn Davies of the FT thinks the Chinese economy has exceeded its speed limit but too much has been made of it. He argues as a country in the process of catching up with the west it's growth figures have to be treated differently.

Music
Amy Winehouse - Back in black: I have heard virtually all of this individually and liked most of it but hadn't listened to it as an album up to now. It's even better all together on one disc, a superb album.

Caribou - Swim: This made it onto a couple of the best album lists of 2010 and i can see why. The last album was pretty good and this is an excellent electronica album for want of a better categorisation.

Panda Bear - Person pitch: Animal Collective's NoahLennox in his solo guise delivers Brian Wilson meets electronica. I like this, but that is a pretty good description, nicked i'm afraid. Not anywhere near as good as the last Animal collective though.

Portico quartet - Knee deep in the noth sea: Cracking modern jazz heavy on the percussion side of things. According to the wiki sire devoted to them their distinctive sound is created through the use of the Hang a 21st century percussion instrument used on all their tracks. It's an excellent album, though you would like to hear a future album without the Hang, just to see what it would be like.

Spoon - Ga ga ga ga ga: A highly thought of US indie rock group this album froma couple of years ago sold well in the States apparently. It's easy to see why with a radio friendly sound and and the songs to match.

The duke and the king - Long live the duke and the king: Another radio friendly US act, this time a second album effort, and what an excellent one. I haven't heard the first so i can't compare them but i love the americana meets occasional southern soul of this. I'll have to go back and listen to the first. I didn't know that the group was created by Simon Felice of The Felice brothers. I liked his first group but i think this is a cut above that.