SPURS PUT TO THE SWORD

 

 

Well Juande Ramos started out last season as Spurs manager but he soon made way for Harry Redknapp and after that, Harry's side held up to a 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane. We later replied by beating them 5-2 at Old Trafford on our way to another title. The last time we did the double over Spurs though was back in the 06/07 season when they were managed by Martin Jol. First up came a 1-0 win at Old Trafford with help from one of the most useless wall's ever. We followed that up with a 4-0 hammering at White Hart Lane. Despite that, Jol's side had a pretty good Premiership campaign that time around. United still won the title though.

This time around well Spurs seem to be the main surprise package this season, so much so that coming into this Premiership encounter at While Hart Lane they were actually higher than us in the table - 2nd place to our third. Still, if we were looking to defend our title than Spurs had to be just one more teams to be gotten out of the way. For United it was back to 4-4-2 with O'Shea at right back, Rio and Vidic back in central defence, Fletcher right mid, Scholes and Anderson centre mid, Giggsy left mid and Wayne and Berbatov up front. Time to see what sort of reality check we could give this season's upstarts, either way it was definately a must win.

Within 50 second though, Spurs ripped our defence apart and Peter Crouch set up Jermain Defoe to open the scoring. That was enough to wake us up, though Spurs were still giving our defence some problems and there were a few ugly incidents as well early on. You can't keep United down forever though and a 25th minute Giggsy free kick showed that we can survive quite happilly without a certain superstar. It was also only a matter of time before we turned the game round, the identity of our scorer was certainly a surprise though, Anderson slotting in the rebound from a 41st minute Scholes effort for his first ever United first team goal.

Both teams kept up the pace in the early stages of the second half though there were some worries foer United after we went down to ten men. Still, it takes more than that to slow us down and we remained the stronger looking team. Fergie's tactical response to the sending off was to drop down to just one up front, fair enough, we were leading after all. Some assasins though just cannot be stopped and when Fletcher set up Wayne in the 78th minute there was only going to be one outcome. Spurs had no response to that. Chalk up another three points - after that early blip we definately look to be back in business. Reality check delivered.

Elsewhere, Chelsea faced Stoke at the Brittania Stadium. Abdoulaye Faye opened the scoring for the home side before Didier Drogba levelled just before half time with the Blues having the much better game so far despite fielding a weak XI for this game. Chelsea's dominance continued into the second half but the Stoke defence proved their stubbornness till right at the end when Florent Malouda came up with a late winner. That still allowed United to move up to 2nd place in the Premiership, three points behind Chelsea and the top of the league but still level on points with Spurs and a detour through the Champions League preliminaries but with a +3 goal difference advantage.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Falkirk at Falkirk Park in the SPL. The first half certainly contained enough chances with both sides experimenting with their lineups but neither of them were able to hit the net before half time. While Falkirk had the better of the earlier exchanges though it was the Dons that were turning up the heat late on with new guy Peter Pawlett hitting the bar just before the end though both sides wound up settling for a goalless draw. Overall, Falkirk came out happier than the Dons with this result and McGhee was honest enough to admit that it wasn't his best managerial display of all time. Still, there's plenty of time to go I suppose.

Elsewhere, Motherwell drew 0-0 with Rangers at Fir Park with the Gers battering Well's goal for most of the match but it was still the home side who could have had the last laugh had they not missed a late penalty. St Mirren drew 1-1 with St Johnstone at St Mirren Park with both sides getting their goals in the first half. Overall the visitors had the better game but were unable to stick any of their late chances into the net. That means that Aberdeen remain 6th in the SPL, one point behind Motherwell and a Europa League spot and level on points with St Mirren and the bottom half of the table but with a +1 goal difference advantage.

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