TOP OF THE LEAGUE

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

Well, in between making the last steps to what we hope will be a trip to the Carling Cup final, United still had a Premiership campaign to keep on the road. The good news was that our next couple of games were in theory relatively straightforward. More good news was that we had Rio back from injury at last and van de Saar having restablished himself in the team. Furthermore, the silver lining to the very dark cloud of an early FA Cup exit meant that wewere due to get a free run at the top of the Premiership for the first time in hell knows how long. However the amount of games we should have won and didn't was getting to be annoying.

First up came Burnley at Old Trafford. The Clarets had previously mugged us at our place and now had Brian Laws in charge but this time around, United ran the show - it's just that we couldn't hit the net before half time. Then the floodgates opened in the second half. Berbayov opened the scoring, Rooney made it two soon after and though in theory that was job done, Senegalese substitute Marme Biram Diouf added some personal magic with his first goal for the Reds. Nice and smooth and easy and after that we had hopes of banishing some of our dodgier form of the past couple of months into the history books - such hopes have been dashed before though.

The next visitors to Old Trafford were Hull. It wasn't long before Wayne once again proved his class and showed how deadly an assasin he is. United then should have got a penalty soon after and dominated the first half anyway but no more goals came before the break. Hull game us much more of a fight in the second half but eventually our deadlist assasin sealed their fate, Wayne getting first a second goal, then completing his hat-trick and then for the first ever for United, grabbed his fourth of the game right before the end. An amazing late display from the England assasin and the Reds look like they've eventually found top gear.

Elsewhere, Arsenal had a double header against Bolton to deal with, can't remember the last time the fixture computer came up with that combo. Anyway the Gunners started by winning the first match 2-0 at the Reebok Stadium. After that the two sides headed to the Emirates Stadium where Arsene Wenger's crew grabbed a 4-2 win with the Gunners having to come back from two down in the second half after Wanderers took an early lead. That leaves United top of the Premiership for the first time since October, two points ahead of 2nd placed Arsenal though the Gunners have a game in hand. Maybe we'll manage to defend our title yet.

North of the border, Aberdeen continued their SPL campaign. First up came a 1-0 defeat to St Mirren at St Mirren Park with the home side hitting a late winner despite the Dons running the show for most of the game. Then Kilmarnock, now gaffered by former Dons boss Jimmy Calderwood heading to Pittodrie only to be beaten 1-0 with Mark McGhee getting bragging rights over his predecessor relatively smoothly and the Reds had a god chance to make it two late on. That leaves Aberdeen 7th in the SPL, two points behind Motherwell and the top half of the table(though with a game in hand) and eleven points ahead of Falkirk and relegation.

Back south of the border and the FA Cup 4th round took place. Mugs of the round were Burnley who were beaten 1-0 by Championship Reading at the Madjeski Stadium. Some all-Premiership ties were also decided at the first time of asking. Everton were beaten 2-1 by Birmingham at Goodison Park, Portsmouth beat Sunderland 2-1 at Fratton Park and Stoke beat Arsenal 3-1 at the Britannia Stadium. Still that leaves 11 Premiership sides still standing to make it into the 5th round draw. However with a whole load of big guns having already fallen by the wayside, this could yet be another twilight zone Cup.

Still the 5th round draw has been made. Either Wolves or Championship Crystal Place will face Vila at either Molineux or Selhurst Park(Villa to reach the quarters). Man City face Stoke at the City of Manchester Stadium(Blues to go through). Championship Derby face Birmingham at Pride Park(Brum to go through). Bolton face either Spurs or Leeds at the Reebok Stadium(Bolton to make the quarters). Chelsea face Championship Cardiff at Stamford Bridge(Chelsea to go through). Fulham face either L2 Notts County or Wigan at Craven Cottage(Fulham to make the quarters). Reading will face West Brom in an all-Championship tie at the Madjeski Stadium(West Brom to go through). L1 Southampton face Portsmouth at St Mary's(Portsmouth to go through). Right now, the safe bet is still for Chelsea to win the Cup.

Back north of the border and SD1 Raith Rovers finally got to face Airdrie in an all-SD1 tie at Starks Park in the Scottish Cup 4th round. John Baird opened the scoring for Airdrie early on and Raith's cause wasn't helped by going down to ten men before half time. However they still got an equaliser when Airdrie defender John Smythe scored an own goal. Either side could have wom the match but in the end, the contestfinished a stalemate. Not an ideal situation given that the match had already been postponed due to weather concerns. That forces a very quick replay so that the delays to this tie don't interfere with the running of the next round.

So, we can now take another look at the 5th round where Aberdeen will face the winner of the all-SD1 4th round replay between Airdrie and Raith Rovers at the Excelsior Stadium. My hunch says that having failed to do the job at home, Raith have blown it. That would lead to a 5th round tie between Aberdeen and SD2 Airdrie at Excelsior Stadium. Well Airdrie may have home advantage, they're also in the SD1 relegation scrap. Therefore it's very unlikely that they'll be able to give the Dons a serious match. Mark McGhee's team should be able to reach the quarter finals without breaking sweat, unless the gremlins of the Calderwood era repeat themselves.

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