Hull 1 : 3 United

What a relief it was to see United secure a victory yesterday. After the twin set-backs against Villa and Fulham (if you take away the gift from Wolves!), I was wondering if United will have it easy at all anymore even if it was against a team like Hull who have perpetually been locked in the relegation battle. The worry was vindicated to a large extent yesterday. United barely looked at their best yet came away with 3 valuable points in the bag!

After the disappointment at Craven Cottage the onus was totally on us to do well against the struggling Hull. To me seeing Vidic and Browne on the starting sheet was such big news. In the wake of the worst injury crisis I have seen United go through, the make-shift defense was exposed against Villa and Fulham (I guess you should ask Bobby Zamora how he felt about playing against our Nth string defense. He looked like Torres' Guru in that game!) and having a traditional 4-4-2 was as if United had been gifted with an unlikely Christmas present! United players had to come to their own, still, and that's where the drubbing at Fulham seemed to be having a hangover effect. It was Scholes' misplaced pass that lead to Fulham's first goal (another one by Murphy) and at the KC Stadium misplaced passes was becoming the order of United's game. The Skysports commentators had lost count of the number of times United gave away possession just in the first half. Hull consequently had a few good chances but their not so accomplished strike force meant they couldn't really capitalize. United, on the other hand, still had a few good opportunities to take the lead luckily they could convert one, late in the first half, through Rooney. In spite of not having played their best football, United had their noses in front at the break!

A few minutes into the second half it pretty much seemed to be the continuation of United's possession-gifting game. Things got worse when Rooney's inexplicable back-pass straight into the path of Fagan lead to Hull's equalizer through a penalty. After the penalty was converted, United had about 30 minutes for redeeming the situation and any United supporter would have been feeling the nerves like I did. Rooney took that task upon himself and more than redeemed himself by being responsible for United's 2nd and 3rd goals. United's second came of a lightning counter-attack (happy to see that after a long time!), though through an own goal and the third was an easy tap-in for Berbatov created smartly by Rooney.

Finally United could boast of a comfortable victory (only going by the score-line mind you!) to somewhat bury ghosts of Fulham. Though we can always argue that the defeats to Villa and Fulham were due to the defensive injuries, United still have to get their act together in other parts of the pitch. Berbatov still doesn't seem to have settled and he is nowhere near the threat he used to be at Tottenham. I still have a feeling letting go Tevez for the Bulgarian (though it seemed to be the logical way) and it really hurts to see him score so many goals for City like they way he has been. More than the goals, I sorely miss Tevez's 'never say give up' attitude and his work rate which Berbatov undoubtedly lacks in tons (he says that's his style but I just don't agree!). Anyways it's Rooney who's doing all the hard work for United by getting on the score-sheet and long may it continue.

We are just 2 points off the top and what a blessing it has been. Chelsea, I would have thought, would have run away with the title by now but thanks to their inept form, we are still in with a big chance to win the title.

With half the season just over for us here is my take on the season so far : I had actually thought that Sir Alex was too ambitious in vying for the title without bringing in replacements for Ronny and Tevez. Though Sir Alex's strategy seems to be working (largely courtesy of others' dropping points), I still feel we need somebody who can account for about 10-15 goals for us. With Berbatov proving to be as less prolific as he has been and Owen being played as little as he has been, I am just not happy with our over-reliance on Wayne Rooney. Midfield (mostly Giggs and Valencia) have contributed some goals but how much can we rely on them to deliver? So the bottom line is that all our fortunes squarely rest on young Rooney's shoulders. Hopefully he will stay fit and keep that scoring rate for the whole of the season.

The midfield has been a mixture this season. Fletcher has emerged as our numero uno. Scholes started the season brilliantly until the game against Sunderland and his form since then has been patchy to say the least. Carrick and Anderson are yet to attain great consistency this season and Hargreaves' absence has been so sorely felt specially when we have lost to teams like Chelsea and Liverpool. Valencia seems to have found some form and I would say he has exceeded most people's expectation.

Our defense has been ultra reliable last 3 seasons. With Ferdinand left injured for most of this season, we have seen holes appear there with or without the likes of Browne and Evans to replace him. Just shows how much of an asset the Vidic-Rio partnership has been for us. To me, Vidic's presence at the back will determine if we are going to win the league or not.

I'm not very bullish about our chances in the Champions' League this season. I will be happy if we can make it past the quarter finals stage. From there on anything can happen!

United 0 : 1 Villa

This is my 6th post for the season and I just can't believe I'm going to post my 3rd on a defeat!

It's been that kind of a season this, United had already tasted defeat 3 times with the season not even at half way stage. Just when United were looking like they will go on a long and healthy run after the bitter disappointment at Chelsea, United came short again, this time at home.

Villa have been United's bogey team for some time now. But they have come leaps and bounds under the ambitious Martin O'Neil, hoping to mount a challenge for a top 4 slot. They came agonizingly close to achieving that as well as turning their record against United around last season. It was only the Macheda miracle that stopped Villa from going back from Old Trafford with some points last season. This time around, one would have thought it wasn't going to be any easy for them to gain anything from this fixture. Surely, with United on the upswing with plenty of goals off late, it was only natural for anybody to think so. If anything, it was United's injury crisis that had led to United having to string a make-shift defense for last few matches that was the worrying factor. And that's how it turned out, unfortunately. A shock first half goal from Agbonlahor, that saw Villa aerially threaten United defense (read Wes Browne), turned out to be United's undoing. United's lack of luck at the other end meant that United just couldn't capitalize on the Golden opportunity Everton had provided us (they drew 3-3 at Stamford Bridge) to go level with Chelsea at the top of the table.

I have to say that United going with Rooney as the sole striker was a worrying factor for me as I looked at the starting line-up. But given that United had scored plenty of goals in the last 2 league encounters with the same strategy, you wouldn't really question Sir Alex's strategy. With Rooney coming agonizingly close to scoring on two occasions in the first half, I felt parity would be restored sooner rather than later. But it wasn't to be. Also, introducing Owen right at the beginning of the second half did suggest a little bit of haste in United's decision making (as if there was a sudden loss of trust in the lone-striker ploy). United looked too anxious to equalize and perhaps that didn't help. Villa looked more resolute in the second half and as a result the number of chances we had were lesser than those in the first. So, in retrospect one can only think what would have been the case had we gone with 2 strikers straightaway - perhaps with Owen just fresh from his hat-trick, there would have been a different story to tell. Having said that, I also feel that the one-striker ploy could not have been avoided as it probably was a ripple effect of the weakened defense.

Though United failed to capitalize on the Chelsea slip-up, I wouldn't really mind being just 3 points away from the top. United's patchy performance is not unexpected given that we have not really been able to fill the void left by Ronaldo and Tevez (in the goal-scoring department). I just hope United will learn from these mistakes and avoid further dropping of points. I also hope United get back to the good old 4-4-2 for the simple reason that I feel Rooney, even though he has been brilliant in shouldering the goal-scoring responsibilities, sometimes is overawed by his lack of goals on a bad day at office. If Owen or Berbatov can find some form upfront, I am sure we could see more and more of Rooney's brilliance.

Pompey 1 : 4 United

I wasn't too lucky to witness the whole of this match as I was travelling during most of the game but was filled with immense joy when I got to know, the following morning, that United had won by a big margin (3 goals is quite big in away games isn't it?!) and the fact that Rooney had scored a hat-trick was really the icing on the cake.
I could watch about 30 minutes of the first half and I really was surprised that Avram Grant's appointment as their manager had really rallied them. It showed in their performance upfront with them looking to take the game to United. I honestly felt that playing Rooney alone at the front was a little defense tactic specially after seeing Giggs playing as just a winger and not a support striker.

Portsmouth looked really sharp to begin with and could have had a goal if not for Tomasz who showed brilliant reflexes in front of the goal. I think the first goal (the only one I was able to witness) was all courtesy of Valencia's brilliance. He outrun Hreiderssen so easily with his sweltering pace and it was his pass to Rooney that resulted in the penalty. Was happy to see Rooney convert it in clinical fashion.
I didn't catch up with much of the game after that. But I was able to watch the highlights of the game the following day and man was it satisfying to do that. Conceding the goal through a non-existent penalty notwithstanding (that decision was perhaps the worst penalty decision I've seen!) United I think were outstanding. Rooney's second and third goals were clinical again. I think with these 2 converted penalties, there won't be any arguments further on as to who'd take our penalties from now on. Also, I guess if somebody was due for hat-trick, it had to be Wayne Rooney, for all the hard work he'd been putting day-in and day-out for United specially after goal-scoring responsibility had been thrust squarely on his shoulders. Ryan Giggs was back to his brilliant best, coming up with a goal to remember to score his 100th. Add that to the 2 assists it was another MOM (Man of the Match) performance by the legend. People had been calling for bringing in players like Ribery and Silva to replace Ronaldo. How many of us have realized that Giggs has effectively been playing the role Ronaldo used to play- scoring goals, providing assists and taking free-kicks! I'm already thinking the PPFA Player of the Year is a long gone conclusion if we win the titleLong live the Welsh legend.
I also think Valencia came up with one of his best performances of his short United career yet. He kept running down the flanks all day and was a perennial threat. I like the fact that he is a very traditional minded winger who mainly concentrates on delivering good passes from the wide than trying to be a hero on his own (unlike players like Nani) and that I guess makes him a truly adorable team man. An unsung hero really.
I also think Tomasz Kuszczak deserved a word of praise. I didn't really fancy him to pip Foster for the support keeper's role but this guy seems to have grabbed his chance with an impressive showing. Tomasz has always had sharp reflexes but has been known to be poor on the delivery front. But going by today's performance, I wouldn't mind having him between the posts instead of Foster as he seems to come up with some great saves. As long as he can do that, who cares about the delivery (let's leave the passing work to the mid-field shall we!)
Like I have said above, I thought United weren't achieving much with Rooney as the lone striker but the moment Giggs was there to support him in the second half, things seemed to change for good and I guess it was Sir Alex's tactical genius to achieve a robust mid-field plus some support for Rooney that ultimately clinched it for us.

All in all a great result for us. I would have expected Arsenal to help us out a little by taking some points off Chelsea but they have ended up with an embarassing defeat at home. Though that means the Blues are still 5 points clear, I have a feeling Drogba's absence during the African Nations' Cup will do us some favour (given that he's been doing all the goal-scoring off late). Let's hope that's how it transpires and come New Year we'll be breathing down their necks. Go United! - for a record 4th consecutive title!