EPL Game 14: Frustrating loss to Bolton

Bolton 1: 0 Man United
I'm no crystal-ball gazer, nor am I a pessimist. But something told me things were not right going into the North-west derby. There was no Rooney, Tevez was to play after coming back from a busy international week. Vidic was doubtful and a "not 100% fit" Saha was going to play full 90 minutes. And when the match started, the most shocking news awaited us - Ronaldo was not even in the squad! With all these factors, I wondered how we'd win against a resurgent Bolton side. Well, the same things that caused me to worry turned out to be the contributing factors to the outcome - a shock defeat.
Gerard Pique, the young, talented defender from Spain was replacing Vidic. It wasn't going to be the most eye-bro raising replacement, given the amount of respect Sir Alex has for the youngster. If there was anything he lacked, it was experience. And as luck would have it, that's what led to United conceding the first goal. Pique over-zealously jumped at a looping ball directed at the United box and was beaten by the flight, only to gift Anelka an easy finish, past Van der Saar. But that goal came only 11 minutes into the first half and not even the most skeptical of United supporters was going to lose heart from an early goal. United are known to come back from behind. But it didn't turn out that way, at least in the first half. Bolton just grew in confidence and kept attacking. It's incredible, we never had a meaningful chance created in the whole of the first half. We seemed to miss Ronaldo and Rooney so much, it was just getting as frustrating as the winter cold.
Yet I was sure second half would be different. And so it was going to be. Anderson came in and breathed life into the mid-field. United garnered more possession and began to play with the typical flair. Yet, not many close chances were created, surely not as much as you'd expect with an in-form United team. Hargreaves came close with his curling free-kick which was kept out by Jaaskeleinen. Long range efforts by Nani, Hargreaves, Carrick and the like weren't fruitful. The best chance came in the later stages of the half, Tevez had a tap-in from an Evra cross, which he missed by a few yards. Given the form Tevez was in, he was expected to score there and that miss undeniably cost us the match.
Honestly United looked scrappy without the talismanic Ronaldo and Rooney. With literally the whole of Bolton defending, we found few chances coming our way. On the whole, it was an utterly frustrating evening. With Arsenal winning again (I don't believe they won again through late goals and against my prayers!), and given their form , United have to get back to winning ways and stay tough to keep the title race going.