IT'S WHAT WE DO

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

The funeral dirge was being played, a blue robed priest was travelling up to Old Trafford and a burial was generally expected. Inside the coffin however, something was stirring.

Taking injuries into account, it was a useful looking team that lined up against the Chelsea allstars at Old Trafford, though it was the Blues that opened fire first, with early shots that Van der Sar had to deal with. The team as a whole however, then realised that "we're United, why should this bunch get out of Old Trafford with anything?". So Scholesy fires a warning shot to start with that would have made a top class goal in it's own right, Alan Smith starts soaking up the Chelsea attacks single handed and then in the 31st minute, Ronaldo puts in a cross, Darren Fletcher puts up a header...which dips right into the far side of the Chelsea net. The 'corpse' had just thrown the lid off it's coffin and whacked the priest where it hurt.

Early on in the second half, we did wind up dodging a bullet in the form of a Lampard shot that should have hit the target and Var de Sar had to be on his toes. Chelsea always looked like they were up for getting out of Old Trafford with something but the Red Devils were just as determined to make that not happen and Rooney should really have made it two late on though. Bottom line though, even Keano must have been impressed while watching this performance. Good to see you back, Reds, I think we all missed you.

United's win over Chelsea puts the side into a much more respectable third though still ten points behind Chelsea and with Arsenal now hot on our heels after their 3-1 win over Sunderland. The side I still can't get though is the team in second - Wigan, four points behind Chelsea and six in front of United. Yes Athletic's chairman Dave Whelan has supplied a solid amount of cash and yes Kevin Keegan's Newcastle finished third in their first season in the Premiership in 93/94 but David Connolly is nowhere near the quality of the young Andy Cole. Yes, Wigan tend to be up for a game and Connolly isn't the only familiar face in this side but...I guess the bottom line is, United still have to get by them one way or another.

Dropping down a level, the FA Cup 1st round happened today, and the three sides I usually look out for at this stage of the competition are Brentford(local on-form League One side). Exeter(second in the non-League Conference National) and Kingstonian(even more local that Brentford but are in the Ryman's League First Division at the moment having gotten as far as fifth in the Conference in 2000 before nosediving). Kingstonian and Exeter both got taken out in the preliminaries, leaving Brentford to enter the competition with a visit to League Two Rochdale. A Kevin O'Connor penalty just before half time took care of business there in a 1-0 win and they'll go up against either lower midtable L1 side Oldham or nobodies Chasetown.

Heading north of the border, Aberdeen got a point out of Ibrox with a 0-0 draw against Rangers. it doesn't get Jimmy Calderwood's men back into the top half of the table and it gives ex-Dons captain Alex McLeish an even bigger headache. The Gers ran the show but basically couldn't hit the net.

Elsewhere, Hearts slammed Dundee Utd 3-0 at home to return to the top of the Scottish Premiership for 24 hours only for Celtic to then head to Falkirk and pick up a 3-0 win of their own.

And from that word "own", you get the computer gaming term "owned". As in, "United owned Chelsea".

Sounds good.

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