EPL Game 7 - Man Utd 2 : 0 Chelsea

The first big game of the season and United come up trumps convincingly! Goals from Tevez, his first for United and Saha were good enough to round up an entertaining, yet controversial encounter.

Going into the match, there was so much controversy emanating from Stamford Bridge. 'The Special One' Mourinho had quit unceremoniously. And there were doubts if his replacement Avram Grant was qualified enough for the job. I was wondering how Chelsea could let their most successful manager go in such fashion! With all the drama surrounding Chelsea, I doubted they would match a United team that had already started to peak this season.

United seemed to make matters worse for Chelsea by showing their inclination to attack right from the start. Rooney almost scored inside two minutes, with a curling right footer, only to be denied by Europe's best goal keeper Petr Cech, who made a finger-tip save. This match was probably the most entertaining between the two since that dead rubber towards the end of the last season. Chelsea too showed that they were prepared to take the fight back to opposition. They too made impressive moves early in the first half, but couldn't penetrate deep enough. It looked that they were badly missing their star striker, Dridier Drogba. Meanwhile, Giggs could easily have opened the account for United when he received a looping pass, but could only put it over the bar. The most controversial incident of the half was the sending-off of Mikel, for a not-so-harsh challenge on Evra. Everybody who was asked to comment on that incident felt it was too harsh a decision.
With United making steady progress with probing attacks, the inevitable happened in the injury time of the first half. Tevez headed off a beautiful pass from Giggs at the near post. A long awaited goal for Tevez and he'll surely settle down now with that goal in his bag.

Second half saw Chelsea sitting back and defending and hoping to break through on the counter attacks. And United were biding their time in constructing their attacks and enjoyed great amount of possession. Giggs could easily have doubled the aggregate in the middle of the half, but couldn't keep his volley down. Joe Cole could easily have seen the second red card of the match when he threw a reckless tackle at a sprinting Ronaldo, catching him on his ankle. He was very lucky the referee chose not the spoil the game any more. When Saha came in as the sub towards the end of the second half, he brought the second goal with him. He was brought down inside the box by Ben Haim, though not convincingly, and that was enough for the referee to award the penalty he had denied United in the first half. Saha stepped in to put it behind Cech and it was curtains to Chelsea's hopes.

Tevez's goal augurs well for the team. It was a much deserved goal too as he's been working very hard from day one at United even without great match-fitness. United looked like they were back to playing at their attacking best. The performance was a hint to how dangerous United could be if they settle down to a 4-4-2 this season. And with the new set of players jelling well - Nani, Hargreaves and Saha could fit easily into this combination without taking anything away. That shows the bench strength that's been built so far, something we lacked last season.

EPL Game 6 - Everton 0 : 1 Man Utd

Hail Vida, the Bravo!! Third victory in a row!!
It was another hard earned victory. It has to be said that in such a well contested match, to come out 1-0, United would consider themselves lucky. And you have to give the credit to Nemanja for the superb goal. The man just puts his life on line be it at the back or near the goal on those risky corners.


The match started with a very lively pace. With Everton, who were higher in the standings compared to United, showing their intent at taking the fight to United, good attacking moves just kept coming from both teams. Yakubu in particular looked threatning in front of United goal, often muscling through the defenders with commendable strength. Evra, who started at the left of the midfield was involved in a lot of United's attacks in the first half. He had United's best chance in the first half, though not a great one. But his left foot shot was too wide to test Tim Howard's replacement, Wassel. One thing to note was that Tevez looked more comfortable playing as the a co-striker, with Giggs. He looks very much at ease in the midfield, where he finds lots space for himself. In fact, I thought he along with Giggs and Evra made a potent combination in the front. In spite of some entertaining football, we didn't see a clear-cut chance for either of the teams in the first half.

The second half saw the Toffees trying to stamp their authority from the word go. They almost scored through a Johnson header, only to be denied through a goal-line clearance from Scholes. That was followed by a decent long-range effort from Osman. As the half progressed, United seemed to gather more momentum. The best chance of the match, I should say, went to Scholes. Tevez and Giggs combined brilliantly to set up a Scholes one on one with the Everton keeper, but Scholes' volley was just over the crossbar. That would have been a beautiful goal had it come off. As we were wondering why the last match's goal-scorer Saha was still on bench, he was introduced in the 63rd minute. Then on, United grew in confidence and I thought Tevez almost got a much deserved first goal, but his shot was just over the top corner. United did have a few chances for Ronaldo through good number of free-kicks from decent positions. But it didn't seem to be his match as he spurned almost all of those chances. Just as it seemed to be headed towards a nill-nill draw, up came Nani with a brilliant dipping corner to find the big Vidic, who bulldozed through the Everton defense, to head home an invaluable goal. The solitary goal turned out to be good enough for another three points.

It wasn't as if we didn't deserve the victory, but United did look the better side overall in the second half. With such dogged performances, I'm happy we're very much remaining in the hunt. United's been showing great character through these hard-fought victories, the absence of important players notwithstanding. The whole team should be credited for the victory. I think one player who has been quitely turning up valuable performances is Nani. It's noteworthy that he's been involved in all the match-winning goals in the last three matches. And though Tevez hasn't found the net yet, I think he's been more than making his presence felt at the front. With such determined performances, I firmly believe that we're steadily regaining the "Premiership form"! Champion's League, here we come!

EPL Game 5 - Man Utd 1 : 0 Sunderland

It's a relief again. One, because United won another scrappy game. Two, because we now have a forward who's fit to play. Welcome back Louis Saha! And thank you for reassuring we can still score goals even without Rooney and Ronaldo.

It was turning out to be another goal starved United performance. Sunderland were happy to sit back and just defend and defend and defend! United had great amount of possession of the ball, which was expected. But there weren't enough chances created. We were winning the ball in the midfield, mostly through Hargreaves, but were not convincing enough in taking it forward.
Debutant Anderson wasn't looking very confident, understandably so for the youngster.
It was only after 35 mins or so that United had decent shots at the goal, one from Tevez and another from Eagles.

Second half saw Saha introduced right away. And that breathed life into United's game. Suddenly Tevez was finding the ball and even go for his shots. There were convincing shots on goal from Louis Saha. Tevez, who has been struggling as the lone forward found more freedom upfront. In no time, both Saha and Tevez had probing shots on goal. Saha's strength in the air meant United could direct longer balls at him. As the run of play would have it, Saha deservingly scored the elusive goal, off a Nani corner. I heaved a sigh of relief really. Because goals were so hard to come by. And you won't see a Nani type of goal every match.

It showed a forward like Saha has sorely been missed by United all this time. With Solskjaer gone, And Rooney being the only other full frontman, I still wonder why Sir Alex didn't go for a forward as the transfer window came to a close. Hope both Saha and Rooney would stay fit enough through the season and our midfield would keep scoring goals through the likes of Ronaldo and Scholes. With that happening, the future looks bright for us. And it looks Red for the opponents!

My Man of the match : Hargreaves.