Old Trafford, we got a problem

OLD TRAFFORD, WE GOT A PROBLEM

Well when I put up my State of Play article a couple of weeks back, United were doing pretty well. Van de Sar was looking solid, the Champions League draw looked OK and now what? 5th in the table, Keano outfor a couple of months and Neville out for a while as well. In theory, we've got enough guys who can take care of business but in practise...well the title of this article is saying it all right now. It may still only be September but we're already needing to turn things round.

Let's start with the Champions League game against Villarreal. I came into this match willing to accept a draw given that 'the Yellow Submarine' are supposed to be mixing it with the big guns of Spain at the mo (though I'd have preffered a win)and a draw is what I got. A 0-0 draw. Not quite "nae goals nae fitba" as they say up in Scotland as both sides looked to put on a decent match though Diego Forlan wasn't as good as I'd heard he was in Spain(hang on, that's a good thing) but we did look to be having the edge in the second half till Rooney's stupid moment. Him being out for the next two European matches certainly makes things 'interesting' to say the least, particularly as winning all our home matches in this group is a must and Benefica, who are next up are no mugs either. Fingers crossed.

Next up for United was a trip to Anfield and another goalless draw with neither us nor the Scousers ever looked like gaining a distinct edge in. This result I was dissapointed about, as I felt that this Liverpool side were the Detriot Pistons of the Champions League last year aka they pulled it out of the bag despite having no real class about them. Nice one to them for doing so but United really should be able to beat such teams when we need to get three points.

And then Blackburn at Old Trafford. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Blackburn have some decent players but that was a complete foul up. It didn't help that Fergie only played the Ruud boy up front(maybe it was to get the side used to playing without Rooney for the Champions League but that gameplan still blew up in our face). How many games can we afford to lose Fergie?

And sure enough, Chelsea are still on fire, I'm not sure how Jose Mourinho is managing to keep his allstar team from imploding they're already looking like they're planning to start where they left off and admittedly, they're going to need to hit trouble before we even start talking about a title race. The Sunk Guns are doing even worse than we are which is no surprise. What is interesting is the Premiership form of Charlton, West Ham and of all teams, Man City. I still reckon those sides have to burn out at some point but it is good to see ex-United man Teddy Sheringham still knowing where the net is at this level.

Elsewhere in the Champions League, Chelsea pretty much cruised against Anderlect to win 1-0 at home, the Scousers busted Real Betis 2-1 away and Arsenal took care of Thun 2-1 at Highbury despite getting Van Persie sent off. The fact that Arsene Wenger's crew could only beat a bunch of Swiss nobodies by one goal at home should be dissapointing to all Gooners but overall the situation for English clubs is best described as "so far so good". My eyebrows did hit the ceiling when I heard about Rangers win over Porto though. OK, how? Who cares. Class result for the Gers and I'll definately be watching their matches against Inter over the Chelsea-Liverpool ties.

Going down a level...NICE ONE BOLTON! I'd heard Locomotiv Plodiv were a decent side themselves but the guys at the Reebok too care of business on their own turf pretty smoothly, though the trip to Bulgaria is still to come and 2-1 still leaves things up in the air. Everton are almost certainly dead aftr their 5-1 mauling in Bucherest but Middlesborough seemed to have cruised over Cypriots Xanthi pretty nicely. Hearts are probably gone after having a goalless against Ukrainians Dnipro.

Going down yet another level, the Carling Cup is up and running. United aren't in it till the 3rd round when they're(or rather United reserves) will go up against Barnet at OT. League Two bunch, the reserves should be able to handle it and if they can't, Fergie's unlikely to care anyway. Highlights of round 2 included, Villa turning things around to whack Wycombe 8-3, Spurs getting knocked out 1-0 by Grimsby and Man City getting knocked on penalties by Doncaster(chuckle, chuckle, chuckle).

North of the border, big up to George Burley for Hearts are still not in a mood to slow down. The Dons are still hanging round in midtable.

Fingers crossed that United are back in business by the time of my next update.

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