UNITED SCRAPE WIN IN WIGAN
(Images taken from Manutd.com)
Well, we trashed them at Old Trafford and we trashed them at the Millenium Stadium. Big difference between doing that and busting Wigan Athletic in their own JJB stadium. Chelsea barely got out with a win on the first day of the season and Arsenal's visit forced a classic. Matching up against them so soon after the Carling Cup final was wierd but even wierder was the fact that the Ruud boy was on the bench yet again with Rooney and Saha up front for United.
The first half started even enough with a Ronaldo freekick providing a warning shot for Wigan only for the home side to turn up the heat, forcing United against the wall defensively and not allowing that many oppitunities at the other end, Rooney blowing the main one with a bad pass to Saha. Luckily United's dense was able to soak up what Paul Jewell's crew had to offer.
In the second half though it was clear that despite an improvement in United's attacking play, Wigan were clearly running the midfield and made the most of things in the 60th minute when Giggsy had to blast two shots off the line but couldn't handle the third from Paul Sharner. The Ruud boy came on to put United three up front(this should have happened at half time) and though the hungry Dutchman didn't hit the net, he did set up Ronaldo in the 71st minute to put United level. From there on in, the only question for could Wigan stand firm despite their reputation for end-to-end football? The answer seemed to be "yes and they'll give as good as they get". However, no one had banked on injury time events. A Ronaldo cross found Saha who hit the bar...only for Wigan defender Pascal Chimbonda to bundle the ball into his own net! Gutting for a solid player on the night but I was just laughing at the insanity of the whole thing...it will be a while till we win a game like that again.
Elsewhere, Chelsea beat West Brom 2-1 at the Hawthorns despite the Blues finishing with 10 men and Mourinho going off on a rant as a result. Liverpool could only draw 0-0 with Charlton and Anfield though. Chelsea stay top of the League, fifteen points ahead of United with the Scousers two points behind us in third.
North of the border, Aberdeen got whacked on a visit to Celtic Park, Celtic coming out 3-0 winners despite the Dons keeping a clean sheet for most of the match. The Old Firm side finally broke through though, Stillian Petrov, Shawn Maoloney and Marcej Zurawski hitting the net.
Elsewhere, Hearts scrabbled to a win over Livingston at the Almondvale stadium. The Edinburgh side came in 1-0 up at half time thanks to Bruno Aguiar only for Richard Brittain to equalise in the second half. Edgaras Jankauskas made it two for Hearts, David McKay levelled things for Livingston yet again. Finally Roman Bednar hit a late winner for Graham Rix's crew to come out with a 3-2 win to keep the gap to Celtic at the top of the SPL to 13 points.
And with that, it's back to Europe.
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