The Devil In Me

There has been an a tendency amongst United fans to be optimistic over recent weeks. We should all know better. A wobble has been coming and a wobble has arrived. It would conflict with everything that is good and true in the universe if Chelsea were to snatch the title from here, but we must look at our cups of tea and know that it is a possibility now.

Horse-racing fanatic Alex Ferguson has gambled again, and considering the fixture list over the last week I do not blame him. Nonetheless it has backfired.

The trophies are still there to be won, the thing is we are going to have to win them, Chelsea will not hand them over. Perhaps this is the way it should be.

The bravery of Vidic and the heroism of Rooney are for discussion another day, as is the dubiousness of the penalty.

It is showtime now, and we have to stand up.

Exaggeration is a dangerous thing. And in football so is comparison to things, matches and players of different eras. We only need to take a look at the whole Ronaldo/ Best non-debate (George) to see that.

The greatest match ever played was that between Brazil and France in the quarter finals of the 1986 world cup. It would be churlish to compare this game to that. It would be arrogant to even put it in the same category, but it was close. We just watched a game of football gentlemen.

Before we move on to analysis let me just say that Arsenal were brilliant. They are a truly great team and when they start winning the trophies they deserve no sane person has any right to begrudge them. Good news United are better than them really isn’t it.

They really made us shake, sans Vidic I may hear you say but shake we did, and they were good for a goal right up until the death. What won the match? Attrittion, looks like Ferguson might have learnt a thing or two about tactics over the years.

On this form Park should start every game.

Exhausted, I go to bed.

Allez les rouge

I have heard no reports of crowd trouble, is this correct? Hope so.

The suntan drained from my face as soon as I saw the team sheet for this game. The mighty Reds have a history of conceding early in Europe and if that happened it would all be on. I honestly believed they were about to age us unnecessarily. It is a delight to report that I was wrong.

They were immense and completely dominated the game straight from the get-go, making chances all over the place. Granted, Ronaldo would have probably scored some of them but Carrick’s through balls and Park’s trickery both deserve great credit. Giggs also put in a long overdue performance.

The penalty miss finished Roma off in spirit, but if they had scored it would have counted as one of the larger injustices in the history of mankind. It was a fine tackle from Wes.

Carlos Tevez single-handedly brought the diving header back into fashion and then all we had to do was cheer on Gary. He could barely keep the smile off his face and when Rio threw him the armband I nearly burst into tears. Manchester United are a club who do things the right way. Speaking of which, De Rossi’s professional foul on Rio in the second half was a disgrace, ultimate cynicism.

I have just finished watching the highlights of Barca and while they do look undefendable they also look like a team you can attack against. I have high hopes that these will be good games. Either way the final will certainly be a case of the irresistible force against the immovable object. Who said the draw was fixed? Who cares? The Reds go marching on.

They were bound to do this to us and we should all have known better. Borough were excellent and could have scored many more than they did. So why has the skimpiest defence in the country gone to pot? Probably just an off day but the Rio/Vidic axis is a handy one to have in working order and now they are both crocked. I don’t want to sensationalise how significant this is, but it is a problem. Heart can be taken from the fact that Peter Cech has also managed to injure his face in another accidental, freak challenge and that will weaken our closest chasers.

Again though, we need to beat Arsenal and in all honesty we need to win at Stamford Bridge now too. If you can do that you deserve to be champions. In the meantime I will be crossing my fingers.

This could well be the cleanest, most efficient, most professional result United have produced in Europe in my lifetime. Two nil away in Italy is an astonishing feat. Poor Roma didn’t even look like they were in it towards the end. It waned as a contest but it is their own fault as they should have scored a couple. Were I a coach at that club I would be deeply ashamed of my side’s inability to take corners. They could have damaged a Vidic free United from one of them.

World’s no.1 John O’Shea fan thedevilinme was very pleased by the Irishman’s contribution but if Vidic gets injured again at the same time as last year then I can honestly see silverware turning into runners up medals.

Park played well and deserves another start. Why does Fergie prefer Carrick to Hargreaves in all of the big games? Does he know something we don’t?

Well it’d be pretty tough to complain if you were a United fan right now. Being the Lord of cynicism that I am this fixture looked like it might be trouble. Villa gave Arsenal one hell of a game in December and the law of averages suggests they are due a result over us. It is something ridiculous like 27 games since they beat us. The last one I can remember is the opener of the 95/96 season when they won 3-1. Our one was scored by a floppy haired teenager called David at the death, it was an absolute screamer that nobody seems to mention anymore.

What will be mentioned in the future is Ronaldo’s opener. Judge Crinkley maintains that every time you watch him play the guy does something to make the price of the ticket worth while. That is a very difficult comment to disagree with. I thought immediately after the goal that we would have to start playing him as a striker, so of course he immediately sets up Tevez with a cross that David chap would have been more than proud of. What on earth are we going to do with him?

I do have a slight concern over his attitude at certain points. Alas, he has a habit of clutching parts of his body that weren’t touched when he goes down and I thought I saw him showing a bit of dissent to Giggs at one of the free kicks. Paranoia you might say, but you only have to annoy Ferguson the tiniest amount for him to look at Real Madrid’s 100 million pounds and think, ‘maybe’.

It was great to see Rooney score two and he could have had a hat-trick but the way the press are going to town is irksome, we have still won nothing yet.

Looking at the table our goal difference is the stuff of fiction at the moment, +53 and twenty ahead of the rest, it is surely worth a point.

On a sadder note, although two of their goals were lucky Arsenal were thoroughly good value for their victory. They never gave in, two down with ten men and it was the perfect response to Bolton’s ‘throw on the defenders’ approach, my respect has been earnt.

Bring on Roma.

In the previous group e-mail I outlined my thoughts on the game as they pretty much still stand.  Reina was doing his best Barthez impression, Ferdinand was supreme and Masherano may possibly be in cahoots with a bookmaker somehwere. 

My utter joy about this result has been replaced by something far more familiar for us Reds though, trepidation.  The press seem to be having a field day on this one and already we are being hailed as the new sliced bread and those in Fleet Street are headed for Premier League headquarters with engraving kit in hand at great pace. 

Well hang on a second.  Our beloved United have a habit of making us suffer now don’t they?  We still have a very tricky run-in which from here is starting to look like it has more banana skins than a gorilla enclosure, two of the best teams in the league, a local derby against a tough old bunch and the eternal thorn in the paw that is Middlesborough.   

I remain optimistic about the league, but only in that ‘we ain’t won nothing yet, keep calm’ kind of way that we have been brutally taught to adopt. 

Mr. Tevez, Mr. Saha, Mr. Rooney: the goal is the net like thing surrounded by the white sticks, please go and introduce yourselves. 

I didn’t see the game but I am frankly astonished by the scoreline. I thought that there was absolutely no way in hell we would emerge from this victory with anything other than a defeat.

The stabbings appall me, this is not Millwall and it is not the nineteen seventies, World Champs or not the Italians have got to get their act together with this stuff and as far as I concerned Roma and their ultras are a bunch of scumbags. I hope we never meet them again.

Few things give me more pleasure than being able to travel to Old Trafford for the match with the group of elder statesmen United fans whom I refer to as The Crinkleys. The Crinkleys were on better form than both the Reds and the weather. I got complete the experience with extra knowledge that you just can’t do without. For example did you know that United have never lost a home game after being four nil up? You do now, yet you have learnt this without having to experience the man with omnipotent knowledge of our fair team. Lucky you.

It was pretty lacklustre from our boys today and talk was centred around Wes ‘the contract rebel’ Brown’s suicidal unsigning of document. He will, I am sure, enjoy Sunderland very much indeed. Old Trafford looked like a pond with all of the rain on it and I think you just about forgive them for not lighting the blue touch paper in those conditions. It should be noted that the move for Giggsie’s century had a bout twenty passes in it and was the child of never say die work from men called Evra and Anderson.

In Anderson the Crinkleys have new favourite, in Tevez I have one also. These guys look like they will die for the shirt and to all intents and purposes that makes them United.

He dived. Hate to say it, but he did. I will forgive him if he destroys Liverpool next week

One month ago we were conquering all before us, despite the injuries, and it seemed as though we would score four in every game. The very large bump that could be heard as we hit the ground at Bolton on saturday was still echoing around Old Trafford for the vast majority of this game.

Absolutely fair play to Lisbon who came and put a team out to score, which they duly did against a pretty feeble United showing. Kuscak was completely to blame for their goal but I rather disagree with most observers who say it was a freak. Their right back hit a tremendous shot which beat our dozy keeper. We deserved what we got there and credit to the guy. In fact if I had been a Lisbon player after that I would have been shooting from everywhere as young Thomas was doing something of a Scott Carson/Croatia impression.

One wonders if Kuscak’s OT career will survive much longer if he is willing to blunder like that in Europe, there have been World Cup winners whose haven’t.

One man who will make it is that boy Ronaldo. Is it an exaggeration to say that he does something in every single game that is outrageously beautiful? Is it sacrilege to say that I understand why opposing fans despise him? Is it okay that I enjoy that fact?

Who cares. He plays on the left…