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.
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