Stoke City 0 : 1 Man United

It was one of those games which was too deceptive to predict. Stoke haven't exactly set the Premier League on fire since their promotion this year but they have come across as a very disciplined defensive side at home. Unted were coming off a successful World Club Championship campaign in Japan and everybody was quick to point that they could be affected by fatigue and jet-lag! As it turned out, Stoke seemed to be playing for their lives on the Boxing day eager to capitalize on the United situation and get a valuable point which could help their survival cause.

Stoke looked resolute in defense and the strength of their home support, supposed to be the loudest in the League, was indisputable. United found it difficult to create chances and instead it was Stoke who had better chances at the other end where Van der Sar was kept busy as Stoke's forward Fuller was giving him a tough time. Yet they didn't really come too close to scoring. So it was no surprise that it was nil-nil at half time.
Second half saw much the same from both teams. The game didn't have a definitive tempo to it which was predictable going by Stoke's defensive approach as they tried to curtail United's movement in their half through through harsh tackles. As United were going goal-less in the second half, they were growing more and more frustrated. United's star players Rooney and Ronaldo could both have got their marching orders as they were seen to vent out their frustration at their opponents but were lucky to escape with no harm done. On the contrary it was Stoke who suffered the fall out of the incidents - Wilkinson tried to take up the matters himself and went for a rather foolish challenge on Ronaldo and had to be sent off as it was his second bookable offense. United had about 15 minutes to utilize the advantage of numbers they had on their side. A tactical substitution of bringing Berbatov for John O'Shea only showed United's desperation for that elusive goal. And it turned out to be a dream move - Berbatov found space in the Stoke penalty area and got a smart cross across the goal to Tevez who was waiting to pounce on it. Tevez gleefully put the ball into the Stoke net and like so many occasions last season, he turned out to the man with the golden foot scoring the all important goal when it mattered most. United closed the game down comfortably from then on and at the end it was a real hard-fought victory and the kind of result one that could really matter looking at how easy it could have been for United to drop points against a rejuvenated Stoke side.

With the season pretty much at it's half-way stage, United don't really look in bad shape for title defense. They are technically only a point adrift from the leaders Liverpool, assuming they are going to win the matches in hand. The brighter side of a tough fixture list is that United have played most of their difficult away games already. The onus really is on the title challengers Liverpool and Chelsea to make sure they stay in the hunt as it could really get tough for them come the fag end of the season. For me United look set for another season at the top. Glory Glory !!