EPL Match 29 : United scamper home against minnows Derby

Derby 0 : 1 Man United

Man United gained a hard-fought victory against the weakest side in the league Derby courtesy of a, you know who, Ronaldo's goal. It wasn't as easy as it was supposed to have been - Derby put up a decent show at Pride Part and United agonizingly seemed continue on their poor goal-scoring form as if they were carrying on from where they left off in the FA Cup match against Portsmouth.

Credit has to be given to Derby for their efforts - they came very close to scoring on quite a few occasions, specially in the first half. If not for the brilliant show put up by Ben Foster, United could have been trailing against the Rams. The two saves he produced in a space of a minute were probably enough to get him the Man of the Match. United didn't take most of what came their way - Ronaldo probably was guilty of missing far too many. He did manage to come up with decent efforts, specially on the free-kicks but was found wanting on accuracy. In fact, Ronaldo looked so frustrated he almost seemed to lose interest. But with the goal-scoring form he has been in this season, he had to score some time and it came just in time to help United obtain all 3 points. Rooney was the provider this time and his cross towards the end of the second half found Ronaldo in front of the goal and needed a difficult tap-in which the Portugues winger produced to perfection. That goal was enough for United to seal victory and end a frustrating goal drought of nearly 180 minutes.

With that victory United are at the top of the table again. Though equal on points, they are ahead in goal differnce with a game in hand. And thanks again to Middlesborough, Arsenal were held to another draw at the Emirates stadium - it was former Arsenal boy Aliadiare who was back to haunt them!
On the Champions League side, United are going to face a familiar opposition - Roma and I'm happy we haven't drawn any of the other English sides. I am keeping my fingers crossed as far as our chances of getting to Moscow are concerned.
Overall, a great weekend for United and hopefully things will carry on well and we should be able to do a double!