Men against Boys - Arsenal 1 - 3 Manchester United

Arsenal 1
Vermaelen(79).

Manchester United 3

Nani(33), Rooney(37), Park(51)

It was what they call 'end-to-end' football. The only difference being that the 'Men' from the Red side of Manchester completely outplayed and outclasses the'Boys' from North London. Manchester United sounded a warning signal to fellow title contenders Chelsea with an emphatic 3-1 away victory over Arsenal and marked their first away victory against a top-4 side since 2007 and their first league win at Emirates.

Sir Alex's side started with the same 4-5-1 formation with Nani and Park both given a start. At the back Wes Brown and Jonny Evans handled the defence in the absence of Vidic and Ferdinand. It might be noted that Vidic and Ferdinand have started only 4 games together as a defensive pair this season!!! Both sides started positively early on with Andrei Arshavin missing chances from close range. Both sides kept up the pressure with some quality end-to-end football with Rooney, Song and Nasri all coming close to scoring. It was in the 33rd minute however that the tide turned.

The 'born-again' Nani showed some superb skill to ward off two defenders and then launched a chip over Almunia. The ball hit his glove and went inside the post. And thus, the re-birth of Nani was complete. A player who was most certainly in Sir Alex's bad books has suddenly transformed into a magician producing quality display of football.

Rooney added another one 4 minutes later with a counter-attack he started and finished. After having got the ball in the opposite half, Rooney passed it to Nani and then ran almost 70 yards to finish off what was according to me.. the goal of the game. Pure Class. Nothing less.It was his 100th Premier League goal and what a time to score it.

Nothing much changed after the break with United going 3-0 up in just 51 minutes with Park scoring his 15th goal in a United shirt. After that, one was wondering what next? Clearly there was no way back for Arsenal. Even the subs Walcott, Bentner and Eboue failed to make an impact. United appeared to have put the foot off the gas pedal a bit and that allowed Arsenal to build up some momentum. This pressure eventually paid off with Vermaelen scoring from his acrobatic shot which appeared to have clipped Jonny Evans on the way. Arsenal attempts for a further push failed to produce a result. In the end, one was left to wonder. This is just the start of the Title race.

Chelsea watch out !!! The Red Devils are out to get you.

Glory Glory Manchester United.

Latest Signing : Chris Smalling

Manchester United completed the signing of highly rated central defender Chris Smalling from Fulham this week. Smalling, 20, will head to Old Trafford this summer in a deal that is being rumoured to be valued at around 14 million pounds. United though have declined to comment on the fee and the amount is speculative at best. It is claimed that Sir Alex abandoned the preparations of his own team on the eve of the Carling Cup Semi-Final 2nd leg to make a personal plea to Smalling.

This England under-21 international will join United in the summer under the conditions of his 4-year contract.

Chris has played only 10 times for Fulham and was turning out for non-league side Maidstone just 18 months ago. Yet Fulham manager Roy Hudson is full of praise for this bright young talent he claims is England's future.

Smalling described his moved to the Red Devils as an"unbelievable opportunity".

Arsenal V Manchester United Preview . 31st January,2010

This is what Manchester United are all about. One day you thrash you lousy neighbours out of the Carling Cup and the following weekend is the fixture against Arsenal. No wonder Sir Alex has touted this fixture as United's 'biggest game of the season'. It has now become a three horse race to the Premier League title and the outcome of Sunday's match would appear to have a huge impact on both teams. Thus, the importance of this game need not be stated.

United go into the match high on confidence after winning the derby against Manchester City. Sir Alex should be pleased by the performances of the players. Nani in particular has shown improvement in the last two games and should be handed a start against the bitter rivals. Meanwhile in defense, United welcome back Vidic , though Ferdinand is unavailable due to his four-match ban. In mid-field , Scholes and Giggs might be given rest after the derby game.

Here I predict the possible lineup:

Formation 4-4-2 :

Van Der Saar

Rafael Vidic Evans Evra

Valencia Fletcher Carrick Nani

Berbatov Rooney

Manchester United 3 - 1 Manchester City - 27th January 2010

The Old Trafford is called the Theater of Dreams for a reason and we saw that on wedesday. A truly dream of a game was witnessed between the old rivals leaving us all wanting for more.
The 2-1 loss at City of Manchester Stadium didn't seem on the our player's mind as United were the dominant team in the match. Honestly speaking, looking at the 4-5-1 formation and how that has not worked for us this season, I was a little worried but our players really got going second half. We dominated possession, dominated the chances and quite frankly deserved the win.
As usual, Rooney played an important part in the game, with the most crucial goal in the 92nd minute when everyone was thinking of extra time. A 4-3 aggregate win for United and yet a another League Cup Final. GLORY GLORY MAN UTD!!

Manchester United 1 - 2 Manchester City 19th January 2010

A typical derby match. If you look at match tapes again you can say that United played really really well. But again, we weren't able to finish off the game when we had the chance to do so. This has been the typical pattern for us all throughout this season and quite frankly, its starting to piss me off a little. After the win against Burnley, I was extremely excited about this game. I thought that with this game, we are going to start gaining some momentum which will lead to us winning some silverware, but NO.
Despite what many thought, Sir Alex Ferguson's starting 11 was not filled with youngsters but he went in for his old heads given that this was Derby day and winning at all costs was the order of the day. Looking at the team, I was a little skeptic as a 4-3-3 formation didn't go down well with me. But the early goal did calm my nerves a little bit. We continued to dominate possession all throughout the game but the stupid wrongly given penalty and wrongly given penalty kick took us back big time.
The fact that we did get an away goal is soothing but we really need to pull up our socks for Saturday's game and what is to be a very tough week to follow with City and Arsenal being next after Hull. Glory Glory Man Utd!!

Manchester United 3 - 0 Burnley - 16th January 2010

They always say that only those teams are champions who get the job done even if they aren't having the best of days. This was one of those days. United's striking quality came in handy today with 3 of their strikers scoring today. The inclusion of Van Der Sar was a welcome change for us as we have seen how his absence has affected the team's performance. Nani starting after a long time and perhaps this was his only chance to prove himself to his manager. Sadly, Nani performed miserably showing lack of creativity and lacking the sharpness in his passes which often led to angry looks from his fellow players. Surely, Nani hasn't done himself any favours today.
Now coming backing to the game, the first half was very evenly poised as both teams enjoyed possession in each other's halves throughout the first half but weren't able to take those opportunities to take the game away. Burnley showed a lot of flair and created the best chances of the half. But the lack of quality in their finishing meant that instead of being 2-0 up at the break, it was still 0-0 at Old Trafford. United had a relatively poor half, as the midfield except Antonio Valencia (who easily was the best player of the match) weren't able to show penetration into the box with the two strikers failing to convert some long distance efforts. In the second half, Burnley started well but to the later part of the half, United started putting some pressure on the back four of Burnley with both the strikers (Rooney and Berbatov) applying constant pressure on the Burnley defense line. Finally, after the break of the hour, Rooney slipped in a great pass for Berbatov was was able to break the deadlock at the 63' much to the pleasure of the United fans. United scored again with Anderson and Berbatov setting up the goal for Rooney at 68' and surely it was over for Burnley now. After the 70th minute, both goal scorers were taken off (probably with the Carling cup semi in midweek in mind) and Owen and Diouf came onto the park. Diouf showed a lot of pace and in the end was rewarded when he scored in extra time after 90 mins. A great start for the young lad who surely will have a great future at Man Utd.
Burnley, although losing 3-0, will surely feel that they could've put game to bed well before United scored but a hard earned 3 points for United nonetheless. Now, with Chelsea winning at Stanford Bridge 7-2 against Sunderland, the title race is surely on.....

Do You Think We have the Fire Power to Win the Premier League?

This is one of the major questions today in the head of a Manchester United Fan. I am going to be honest here. My heart says that we will win but my head says that we do not have the fire power this season to win the league. Our defense line has been prone to injuries all season. Our midfield is not at its best form and our strikers excluding Rooney have failed to show any flair. With the debt that our club is in at the moment, I don't see any new transfers coming to the club this month. But I do think that out of the three trophies we are playing for now, ie the Premier League, Champions League and Carling Cup, we will be able to win at least some silverware this season. But me being an eternal optimist would say, GLORY GLORY MAN UTD and we would Win all of them!! But then again the fact of the matter is that this might not be the season for us..