The Devil In Me

January is one of the year’s less charming months. The Christmas hilarity is long gone and the Easter break seems a million miles away. The return to work this year has been particularly painful for some of us and, despite the fact that we’ve had so much decent sport to watch, the month ends on a pretty big downer.

The vintage of January 2012 was going so well. The dust was settling on another pulsating clasico, there was a humdinger of a match between Federer and Nadal and we were still basking in the glow of our victory over Arsenal. Then we went to Anfield.

The behaviour of the Liverpool fans was predictably woeful and it is unsurprising that an arrest warrant has been issued for one of their supporters who used a racist gesture. It beggars belief that they remain unwilling to take responsibility for such appalling conduct. That is their business, I suppose.

There were also reports of Hillsborough chants coming out of the United section. I didn’t hear them but if that is the case then I apologise wholeheartedly on behalf of every true Manchester United fan. That is not something we either tolerate or condone.

It was a horrible game to lose, in a horrible way and there was very little for either club to be proud of in this fixture. United played the better football but the story of our season has been that we seem to lack ruthlessness, and it showed again.

Scholes is more than welcome back from retirement. His passing held us together for the first sixty minutes of the match, but he faded visibly after that. It was precisely at this time that Liverpool started to make inroads and Dalglish really trumped Fergie by getting his substitutions out first and more effectively.

We began to look very leggy towards the end of the match and you could sense that our good work up until that point was going to go to waste. Saying that, a replay at Old Trafford would have been unwelcome and I for one will be very happy to see the back of Liverpool after the league fixture in a couple of weeks. They can spend the rest of their season spreading their hatred and racism elsewhere.

So, a frustrating end to the month for United but there is nothing to do but dust ourselves down and face the next challenges with fortitude and lessons learnt. With Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool on the horizon there is never a dull moment. They are still our players, this is still our team and I am proud of them all.

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Manchester United’s capacity for drama is certainly not on the wane. Not every heavily hyped contest lives up to the billing, but this Manchester derby was quite possibly the game that had everything. Even in victory over our bitter rivals, even just three points off the top of the league, United are still yet to convince.

Before the game talk amongst the United faithful was focused on one topic and one topic only. Paul Scholes, no doubt responding to a embattled plea from the club, has stepped out of retirement to return to the playing staff for the rest of the season. This is a bit like Jesus rising from the dead to conduct a couple of sermons at the local church.

“If Henry can return to Arsenal, then why not?” Many of us thought. Within minutes both #paulscholes and #bobbycharlton were trending on twitter, presumably as everybody thought of the same joke. Nonetheless, seeing the name Scholes amongst the substitutes was confirmation that the coffers at Old Trafford really are bare. We won’t be buying any players this January.

At half time it looked like we wouldn’t be needing any new signings. Three goals up and a player sent off for City, it looked like we were about to extract revenge for the travesty at Old Trafford earlier in the season. That was to prove to be wishful thinking.

There were those that thought Kompany’s sending off was harsh. It was, certainly a surprise to see the red card. However, the fact is it was a two-footed challenge; the rules are very clear on this. It’s been a red card in this sport for the last 21 years and it was a red card today.

City have every right to feel that the referee perhaps did them a disservice but he evened things out when denying United a certain penalty late in the second half. By then United were holding on that is borderline embarrassing against a side playing with ten men.

There is still a great deal to cherish in this side though. Scholes played pretty reasonably I thought, Rooney was immense in places and Welbeck’s goal gets better every time I see it.

And Manchester United never die, despite the fact our backs were against the wall, despite the disgraceful articles in the Sunday papers prophesising our demise, the team have delivered a famous victory against the odds. Never, ever write us off.

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Rarely has the rest of the league been so obliging in making up for our shortfalls. Despite our disgraceful performance at Old Trafford on New Year’s Eve it would appear that we are not the only club in the division whose players may have enjoyed a few too many mulled wines over the last week.

Blackburn ran around admirably and Yakuba proved that he remains a handful but in all honesty our lack of personnel won the game for them. Without any recognised centre halves or central midfielders in the line up it cannot be a surprise that we are conceding soft goals no matter whose birthday it is.

Celebrations appear unpopular around the manager at the moment if reports of Rooney’s fine appear to be true. It seems a little “bah humbug” even by the Glaswegian’s standards to fine people a week’s wages for going out for dinner on Boxing Day. However, there is always more than meets the eye in these situations and keeping an open mind is worthwhile.

In other news, Luis Suarez is guilty as hell. What at best seemed the unfortunate actions of Liverpool FC and they fans last weekend can now only be condemned. The 117-page document released by the FA irrefutably proves that Suarez is completely and heinously out of line. It must be intolerable for any sufferers of racial abuse to observe this behaviour in a professional sportsman.

A backlash against either Suarez or Liverpool FC at this point would be in poor taste. It would be far more productive to ensure that this type of behaviour is met with zero intolerance. The FA have gone to great lengths to investigate this thoroughly and they deserve credit for manner in which they have done so.

If only United had been as thorough when entering the transfer market last summer. That lack of midfield reinforcement is looking starker than ever this week. Whilst I have faith in the ability of the squad in the long-term when you put out the eleven that we did against Blackburn you need reinforcements. Nobody needs an FA investigation to prove that.

Follow Mark on twitter.com/markjpayne