UNITED A STEP CLOSER

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

What does a team do after being knocked out of the FA Cup? Pick up from where they left off in the Premiership, that's what and where we left off was at the top of the league with our rivals desperately flailing. Furthermore with Wayne back in the mixer, surely there wouldn't be much to stop the Reds from reclaiming the title. However mathematically at least, that would still be counting chickens. Not only were Arsenal still in the mixer but Chelsea suddenly fancied their chances of defending their title! For United though we just needed to keep doing what were doing. Steady as she goes and the title would be ours. Time to get back to business.

First up came Newcastle at St James Park. Well the Geordies, now gaffered by Alan Pardew were in no mood to lie down and certainly ran the show in the first half and took the mick out of us with their passing, still, it was goalless at half time. The second half saw a much improved performance by the Reds in terms of both posession and chances but Giggsy n particular missed a lot more than he should. Still the Geordies couldn't hit the net either so the match ended goalless. That result was not exactly what I'd had in mind given the circumstances, sure the players might have still been spooked by the FA Cup defeat but this was certainly two points lost.

Next up came Everton at Old Trafford. United very much ran the show in the first half in terms of opprtunities but while a goal seemed to be inevitable, we found a certain stubborn Yank in the way and for yet another game, came into halftime goalless. Everton got their act together a bit more attacking wise early in the second half but we held them off before getting back to what we were doing in the first half. Our efforts eventually paid off when Hernandez grabbed a late winner. Arguably it was another messy match for the Reds but the fact is that thanks to our Mexican assasin we got three points out of it and turned up the heat further on our challengers.

Elsewhere, Chelsea beat Birmingham 3-1 at Stamford Bridge with the game pretty much wrapped up before half time. Brum got a late equaliser though a penalty but Alex McLeish's crew had clearly been outclassed on this occasion. Then the Bles went on to beat West Ham 3-0 at Stamford Bridge. Again the defending champions openined the scoring before half time but this time a certain Spanish assasin finally got his act together for the Blues. That means that United remain top of the Premiership, six points ahead of Chelsea who have risen to 2nd place. Well if our rivals want to fight it out for second place that's fine by them.

North of the border, Aberdeen continued their SPL campaign. Their last game before the split was a 1-0 defeat to Rangers at Pittodrie with the Blues getting an early winner though the Dons didn't do that badly for themselves. Their first of their final five games was a 1-1 draw against Hamilton at New Douglas Park. The first half was not exactly a classic by anyone's standards and after the Dons missed a penalty early in the second half it was the home side that opened the scoring though it didn't take that long for the Reds to find an equaliser. That leaves the Dons 10th in the SPL, twelve points ahead of Hamilton and relegation and still not quite safe yet.

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