ManU misses another opportunity!!

Yesterday, Manchester United missed another golden opportunity to close the gap with Chelsea and Liverpool and also surge ahead of Arsenal.
Liverpool and Arsenal struggled and drew their matches. ManU played later. So they knew that if they win, it would benefit them immensely. Yet they failed to capitalize on the situation and drew their away game with Tottenham.
The result is that Chelsea now has a superb opportunity to widen the gap between the others and become the leaders in EPL.
A few back too, ManU threw away such an opportunity when all the top four drew their matches and failed to score. I do not think that they will get such a chance again this season.
Yes, this season is full of surprises. The top four have hardly been consistent with their performances. But of the four, Chelsea are the one who are the most consistent.
And so though I hate to say it, I think the EPL cup is going to Stamford Bridge this season.

Ronaldo does it again !!

Was watching ManU's home match against Bolton Wanderers Yesterday. The game was 0-0 almost a third into the 2nd half. Though ManU had a lot of possession, Bolton were holding them quite well.
At that time, Ronaldo was in the penalty area. An opposition defender took the ball away from him cleanly. This would of course unbalance him, but he decided to take a theatrical dive. The referee also decided that it was a deliberate foul and awarded ManU a penalty.
Ronaldo scored from it and that was all ManU needed and they scored another thorough Rooney to win the game.
Though I am a Man United fan, the penalty decision was definetely wrong. Ronaldo has been winning dodgy penalties from 3 years. Yet referees continue to point to the spot. The sooner they stop it the better. Also the sooner Ronaldo stops his theatrics the better. The day is not far when a referee will deny ManU a genuine penalty.

Liverpool win

So Liverpool have finally won against Man U in some 8 Premier league games. Though the result is not to my liking, I did expect it.
For starters, Man U have bought only one player in the transfer season. That too at the last minute. Secondly the Ronaldo transfer saga would have unsettled the team. All this has resulted in the team not being fully motivated and in some doubt.
As for Liverpool, they really played very well in the second half and kept testing the United defence and Van Der Sar. Vidic was good as usual and Van Der Sar did all he could to keep Utd in the game.
But ultimately, you have to score goals to win and the attack was disorganized. Possession was given away easily, there were a couple of clumsy tackles also.
So United have only 4 points from 3 games. Though this is bad, its better than the 2 points from 3 games last season. Here's hoping that they recreate the form of last season and go on to win the League.

A twist in the tale?

Yesterday's drawn match between Bolton and ManU has given Chelsea a good chance to capture this year's EPL. After the draw, Chelsea are just 3 points behind ManU with 3 matches to go. Add to this the fact that the next match of ManU is away at Chelsea, and we might just have an exciting end to this season. Though speaking of Chelsea and exciting in the same breath might be exaggerating to say the least, it cannot be denied that this season has provided its share of thrills and spills.
A team that had the worst start of the season since many years (2 pts of 3 games) , now is in the position of capturing its second successive title and is also in the line for a double.
Talking of which the match at Nou Camp is very important for ManU as Barca are a strong team and it is vital that ManU try to score at least one away goal and prevent Barca from scoring too many. Also Barca's defence is a bit suspect at the moment. So the differential factor will be how Vidic and company handle Messi.

Red Devils almost there

Man Utd have taken another step to repeat their EPL victory of last year. They did this in the best possible fashion for a ManU fan by beating Arsenal 2-1. Though they were not at their best and failed to produce the big match form that has been their style this season. But thankfully they did not have to pay a price in terms of points, though their performance will require some thinking if they have to really win this.

Arsenal begin as they did against Pool last week, by firing on all cylinders. They put the United defence, missing Nemanja Vidic under a lot of pressure. This ploy would have worked if they were some more accurate with their finishing. United, it appeared were in a disarray by the constant attacks but somehow held their nerve and began counter attacks of their own. It made for fascinating stuff and by half time the honours were even.

Arsenal stuck quickly in the second half through Adebayour and it looked like United would have to really pull their socks. But like it happened against Pool, after Arsenal took a vital goal, they conceded a penalty. Amidst high drama when he was asked to take the penalty twice, Ronaldo scored. 1-1

This brought the crucial time in the game, the time after a hour. ManU made two changes. Tevez and Anderson brought an attacking nature to the game. Arsenal were stringing passes but were no longer appearing too threatening. United kept attacking and got a free kick just outside the Arsenal box. Hargreaves scored the goal through a wonderful free kick. 2-1!!

Wenger brought on Theo Walcott and suddenly there appeared a new edge to Arsenal. Wonder why he is not starting games though. ManU did well to prevent the gunners from scoring and ended high and dry.

All in all, a wonderful game and no one deserved to lose. Arsenal threw away the lead yet again and ended second best.

So ManU are truly on to winning their second consecutive title after the worst start to their season in many years while Arsenal who started on a dream note are to end their season empty handed.