BACK ON TOP

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

Well cool, we'd gotten back to winning ways in Europe but given that Chelsea were now top of the Premiership, we now needed to get back to business there as well. Headed to Old Trafford were Newcastle, who may still be in the UEFA Cup but are scrabbling around in the lower midtable domestically. Fergie reverted to 4-4-2 with Rooney and Solksjaer up front, Fletcher at left mid, Carrick and Scholes in central midfield and Ronaldo at right mid.

And the Geordies generally looked like they didn't know what had hit them! It wasn't till midway through the first half that they even had a decent shot on target and by that point visiting oalie Steve Harper knew he was going to be in for a rough afternoon, his defence proving utterly useless due to Ronaldo's exploits. The visitors finally caved in the 41st minute when the Portuguese flanker rattled the woodwork and Ole only needed to tap in the rebound.

The Norwegian assasin then claimed his second in the 49th minute though admittedly it was slightly flukey, Vidic fired in a long shot...and it deflected off Ole for 2-0. Overall Solksjaer's contributions can best be summed up with 'Ruud boy, we're not missing you'. Newcastle were never going to make it back, they were lucky we didn't score more! Yeah Rooney's off form but right now that feels like it's a bigger worry for England than United.

Of course it always helps when it turns out that Andrei Shevchenko can't speak English. Jose, I learned that it's no use splurdging on a deadly assasin if he can't speak the lingo when playing a football manager PC game! As a result, Villa were able to get a point out of Stamford Bridge with a 1-1 draw. Didier Drogba opened the scored for the Blues before young striker Agbonlahor equalised for Villa and that puts United level on points with Chelsea but with a +2 goal difference adavantage putting us top of the League!

North of the border, well Aberdeen headed to Ibrox to face an off form Rangers side. The hungry Gers had the best of the chances but the Dons looked like they were going to hold on, despite not having many attacking chances only for Paul Le Guen to bring on Filip Sebo and the Slovakian striker hit a late winner to send the Dons home empty handed, not that they can be too dissapointed in theory, visits to Old Firm grounds are usually tricky.

In practice though, the defeat to Rangers was combined with St Mirren's 1-0 win over Hibs at St Mirren Park which knocked the Dons out of their UEFA Cup spot at down to fifth place in the SPL. Elsewhere, Celtic beat Falkirk 1-0 at the Falkirk Stadium while Hearts beat Dundee United 4-0 at Tynecastle maintaining the three point gap at the top of the SPL table.

Finally, the draw for the group stages of the UEFA Cup has been made, with mixed results for British sides. Spurs face a combo of Bayer Leverkusen, Besiktas, Dinamo Bucherest and Club Brugge. Tough for Spurs but not impossible. It's another matter entirely for Newcastle who have to deal with Celta Vigo, Palermo, Fenerbache and Eintract Frankfurt. The Geordies are surely toast. Blackburn are sorted though, yeah they have to butt heads with Feyenoord but Basle, Wisla Krakow and Nancy Lorraine? They'll make it. 50/50 for Rangers who face Auxerre, Partizan Belgrade, Livorno and Maccabbi Haifa.

And now it's the England ties next up.

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