I can't tell you how many times I broke out into laughter in that game, it was just too, too good!
Sir Alex took the opportunity to rest a handful of his big hitters and I looked at the team beforehand and thought "This could be risky", how wrong I was...
Arsenal were absolutely dominated, bullied, destroyed and embarrassed. It looked like they only had 10 men from the first few minutes of the game nevermind when Eboue the cheat let his true colours shine again. The commitment and harrying the players showed from the beginning until the end was top drawer and it just never gave
Arsenal the chance to even think about settling into the game... Oh my, did that show...
Rooney showed the reason why I personally think that he's a far more important player to the team than Ronaldo, no contest at all between them in my mind. He didn't have a good a game as the commentators will have you believe, I'll be admissive about that but he wasn't far off his best. His commitment and passion in playing a role which isn't even his was so refreshing to see and let's face it, bullying the second best central defence pairing in the league is no mean feat. In the past week we've been able to see two different performances from
Manchester United, one with
Rooney and one without, and the magnitude of difference between when he is playing and when he's not is immense. I don't believe for one minute that if he wasn't on the field tonight and Tevez or Saha was in his place, that the team's performance would have been near that level. He brings that security to the top level of the pitch for us and without him the team looks incomplete.
But I'm not going to concentrate on just one player the whole team was on fire tonight. I've got to give credit to
Carrick aswell, he's in my ideal first XI every week as long as it's not beside Hargreaves, he intertwines play exceedingly well and when United are on the attack he acts as a pivot in the middle of the park switching play and seeking out passes almost like a quarter back would in the NFL. When he's on form like he was tonight he just looks every bit a United player. It also helps when the player/s playing beside him are in the zone aswell and they were tonight,
Anderson is just quality he plays well consistently and it's got to the point where I'm expectant of a brilliant performance from him everytime. Not bad for a teenager who has just been bought in the past 7 months, doesn't speak English and plys his trade in the centre of the park, that's really testament to how good he is. He can break forward and pass people with ease or he can bed in and do a more than adequate defensive job, most of the time he just does both and I don't think anyone is complaining. One of his attributes which has surprised me the most is his strength, he's very strong and can hold off players much larger than himself which is probably going to be one of the most valuable things for him in this league, I honestly think that he has the ability to become one of the most complete midfielders in the world. But out of the three midfielders today my special mention goes to
Darren Fletcher - he has his critics at the club and some people don't think that he's good enough, he had the opportunity to leave in search of first team football at a smaller club but instead he has stayed to fight his corner and for that I have only respect. He has been frustrated for much of this season and really for most of his career at United but every single time he is called upon he pulls the shirt on and goes out and performs to a high standard. Tonight, and not for the first time, he absolutely ran his legs off for his team-mates chasing every ball in his proximity forcing players to rush and make mistakes, it was great to see. He is going to be a very valuable player for
Manchester United over the years and I don't see how anyone can question his position in the squad.
My man of the match was
Nani by the way, I haven't been
that impressed with him as of yet as I don't really think that he has settled completely but that's understandable. Tonight he showed why £17million was paid for him, over the next few years under the guidance of Fergie and Quieroz he will flourish because he has the attributes to do so. His body will be moulded similarly to that of Ronaldo over the next year or so and he will benefit from it greatly because that has been my question over him, is he too weak? He took his goal tonight with aplomb, controlled with the right, hit with the left and boom back of the net, perfect. He's absolutely lightning fast and I'm starting to warm to his arrogance as long as he backs it up, I mean how could you not love the way he taunted
Arsenal tonight?
He needs to work on his crossing though, it's not good enough but hey he's got loads of time.
But like I said, the whole team deserve credit after a performance like that, I was actually quite annoyed that it was only 4-0... It really should have been 6, 7 or 8 to be fair but I can't complain, can I?
I have to take a pop at
Arsenal to finish off though sorry, their players' petulant attitudes are absolutely pathetic, their true colours always show when the chips are down. It was really embarrassing and if I was an
Arsenal fan I'd be livid at the way they act, some of them really need to wise up. The less said about Eboue the better but I can't begin to tell you how f*cking satisfying it was to see Gallas kicking out at Nani, it just showed how hurt he was and after he'd tried to play mind games in the media today it was so sweet
Another OG for the scrapbook aswell haha, unlucky wee Willy.
Oh and did anyone else see the earthquake during the game? Just as Adebayor was going into the box, the earth jilted and I don't know what it was but maybe because he's so tall he was affected the most but he had the most horrible tumble. I hope we can get to the bottom of this
Regards,
A very happy man.
