NO MERCY FROM UNITED
Well, after our Cup escapade it was back to the old routine for United and the task of taking back our Premiership title. Amongst other things we had two games in hand to deal with and that meant fitting in a Premiership game midweek while other sides were involved in the Carling Cup. Still, that happens occasionally and it's not like the upcoming opposition was going to give us serious issues. What was starting to become a problem was the lack of goals from last season's deadliest assasin but in the meantime we were still stop of the league, still unbeaten and the only team that looked like they knew how to win a Premiership title.
First up came Birmingham at Old Trafford. Well Berbatov opened the scoring almost immediately and then went on to get his second with Alex McLeish's crew looking pretty clueless by that point. Giggsy went on to join the party before half time. Berbatov then completed his hat-trick in the second half and from there on in the Reds were cruising. Nani went on to make it five for United and McLeish was left to do nothing more than hope his old manager from his Aberdeen playing days wasn't in a gloating mood. Well one of my regular complaints about United has been that we've been stuck in cruise mode for most of the season. I don't think that's a problem now.
Next up was Blackpool at Bloomfield Road. This didn't start so smoothly with Craig Cathcart opening the scoring for the Tangerines early on and while United were still floundering, ex-Brentford assasin DJ Campbell of all people put us two down before half time. The longer the second half went on, the more it looked like we'd slipped back into cruise mode...then came a good old fashioned United comeback, Berbatov got our first, then Hernandez joined the party then Berbatov got his second and the winner. Only downside was a serious injury which resulted in an insane amount of time added on. Other than that, an awesome effort that once again tells everyone else to bring it on.
Elsewhere, Arsenal faced Wigan at the Emirates Stadium. Robin van Persie opened the scoring for the Gunners and overall came up with a pretty smooth performance though they could certainly have been a bit more ruthless. In the second half van Persie went on to pretty much run the show for the hope side, grabbing a second goal, missing a penalty and then completing his hat-trick in the Gunners most impressive performance for a while. Overall that allowed United to not only remain top of the Premiership but extend their lead to five points over now-second placed Arsenal with a game in hand. We're looking pretty sorted right now.
North of the border, Aberdeen continued their SPL campaign. First up came their first defeat of the Craig Brown era in the form of a 1-0 defeat to Celtic with the Greens seeing the Reds off with a first half opener that the Dons weren't able to reply to. The Dons were soon back to winning ways though with a 2-0 win over Inverness CT at Caledonian Stadium. Caley going down to ten men early on certainly helped matters with the Dons getting goals either side of half time. That allows the Dons to remain 9th in the table, five points behind Motherwell and the top half of the table and ten points ahead of Hamilton and relegation. Steady as she goes.
Back south of the border and the Carling Cup semi final 2nd leg matches were taking place. Well Arsenal beat Championship Ipswich 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium in a display that saw the Gunners redeem themselves after their first leg blunder over the course of 90 minutes. Birmingham then beat West Ham 2-1 at St Andrews after 90 minutes despite the Hammers opening the scoring, Alex McLeish's crew turning things round in an awesome second half display. That was enough for the Gunners to confirm an all-Premiership final but for the Brummies it only left them drawing 3-3 on aggregate with their opponents, and that meant extra time.
So, the Birmingham vs West Ham match went to extra time. As it was, it wasn't long before the Brummies completed their turnaround of the tie, with Craig Gardner grabbing his second goal of the game with the Hammers blowing an opportunity to turn the tie back round before half time. The second half turned out to be a winding down affair, both sides getting players booked and in the closing minutes came the chants of "Que sera sera...". Congratulations to Birmingham for making it to Wembley and particularly to Alex McLeish for reaching his first Cup final south of the border. As for West Ham...this must be one of the biggest blown opportunities in their history.
So, there we have it. The Carling Cup final will be between Arsenal(first Carling Cup final since '07) and Birmingham(first League Cup final since '01) at Wembley. Well in theory this may be a relatively straightforward match, after all which team plays in the Champions League and which team hasn't hit the big time for a while? Having said that, the fact is that Arsenal have chocked a bit when it comes to picking up trophies recently and did have trouble dealing with a less classy side in the semis. Yet the Gunners have to be the favourites to lift the trophy, they're certainly overdue one - even though Arsene Wenger may not think in those terms.
Click here to visit the football archive
Comments get emailed here
