UNITED FREEFALLING

 

United were hitting a bad run of form. Just the one Premiership win so far this season and one out of the seven trophies up for grabs before the start of the season having already fallen by the wayside. There was good news though, in the form of the signing of Dimitar Berbatov from Spurs. The Bulgarian assasin looked to be a very useful addition to the United strikeforce, particularly with Louis Saha heading to Everton. The next two games would prove to be a baptism of fire for our new signing though. Two of the "big four" with both games away from home. We needed our A game back and fast. Six points would surely put us in the top four for the first time this season.

The first of these big Premiership games was Liverpool at Anfield. Carlos Tevez opened the scoring for us early on and the first half looked as though the Scousers might get mugged again. However a Wes Brown own goal left us back at square one. The second half was all Liverpool though with United getting hardly any chances at all. However the Scousers looked to have blown their chances before Ryan Babbel found a winner to send the home side nuts. Fergie's men never really looked like finding an equaliser and in the end we finished the match with ten men. An absolute disaster which those from Merseyside won't let us forget about for a long time.

After the Champions League break we faced our second tough Premiership tie - Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. We started well enough and Ji-Sung Park got his first goal of the season to give us the lead and it was only in the latter stages of the first half that the Blues realised there was a football match to be played. The second half was another matter entirely with Chelsea hammering a United goal that didn't have our first choice goalie to rely on. Eventually Soloman Kalou found the net to level the match. However neither side looked like getting a winner after that. In fact the game ended pretty messilly, the United players not impressed with the referee's decision making during the match.

Those two results leave United falling to 15th place in the Premiership table. That's a whole four points behind City and even a UEFA Cup spot while only one point ahead of Stoke and the relegation zone. The optimists will say we still have a game in hand but that will only be of limited use. The biggest unanswered question has to be, what is the best use of Berbatov + Tevez + Rooney. It certainly is not putting Rooney on the left flank. The one thing we can say is that we're unlikely to have a double header like that again but only five Premiership points in late September makes this our ugliest start to the season for a while. Our first teamers will probably get a break for the Carling Cup. Maybe that'll do the trick.

North of the Border, Aberdeen have been busy in the SPL. First up came a 1-0 win over St Mirren at St Mirren Park which was a decent enough result. That was followed though by the Dons somehow losing 2-1 to newly-promoted Hamilton at Pittodrie after a seriously poor performance. Then came the big New Firm derby against Dundee United at Tannadice. A 1-0 defeat there has left the Dons in a similar mess to United, needing a good CIS Insurance Cup result as a morale booster. They lie 8th in the SPL, two points behind Hamilton at the top half of the table though they're still three points clear of Falkirk and relegation. Still, it would be good to see them in the top half of the table.

League Cup action both sides of the border midweek.

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