Manchester United overcame a spirited display from cross-town rivals Manchester City to beat them 2-1 at Old Trafford. City should've gone ahead as early as the 3rd minute when former United striker Carlos Tevez played in David Silva but the Spanish midfielder shot just brushed the side of the post. The deadlock was broken when Ryan Giggs brilliantly provided Luis Nani to go past Zabaleta & score his 10th goal of the season. With United looking dominant, City manager Roberto Mancini tried to change things with the introduction of new signing Edin Dzeko & Shaun Wright-Phillips in place of the ineffective James Milner & Aleksandar Kolarov. The substitution paid immediate dividend as Dzeko's misdirected shot deflected off the back of David Silva into the back of United's net, leaving Van der Sar stranded at the other end of the goal. However, the game was not over yet as Wayne Rooney made amends for his indifferent form of late to score the winner in the 78th minute from Nani's deflected cross, with a magnificent bicycle kick past a dumbfounded Joe Hart to send the Old Trafford faithful into fits of absolute joy & admiration for the goal. This victory leaves United eight points ahead of City with a game in hand, pushing their city rivals virtually out of the title race.
How The Rivals Fared This Week
Arsenal kept themselves in the title hunt as they overcame giant-killers Wolves 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium, courtesy of a brace from the ever-reliable Robin Van Persie. After this win, the Gunners are 4 points behind league leaders Manchester United.
Fulham & Chelsea played out a 0-0 draw at Craven Cottage as the hosts failed to grab 3 full points at home after Clint Dempsey couldn't convert a late penalty. Chelsea dominated possession all along but new signing David Luiz fouled Clint Dempsey inside the box in stoppage time. Dempsey himself stepped up to take the penalty but Petr Cech saved to salvage a deserved point for the misfiring defending champions.
Tottenham Hotspur moved ahead of Chelsea into the top four with a hard-earned 2-1 win over Sunderland at the Stadium Of Light. Asamoah Gyan sent the hosts ahead in the 11th minute but Spurs fought back with goals from skipper Michael Dawson & Niko Kranjcar to secure 3 points.
Wigan Athletic again frustrated Liverpool this season, grabbing a 1-1 draw at Anfield when Steve Gohouri cancelled out Raul Meireles's earlier strike, thus halting caretaker manager Kenny Dalglish's winning streak of 4 games on the trot.
The current top four league standings are as under:
Man United - 57 points
Arsenal - 53 points
Man City - 49 points
Tottenham - 47 points
The Weekly Verdict:
Team Of The Week: Manchester United
Player Of The Week: Luis Nani
That's all Folks!
Yours,
CJ
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Very well written.
ReplyDeleteSuper blog.
It was fun to see Chelsea draw yesterday. It would have been better if they would have lost. Dempsey's penalty was poor but Chelsea now 12 points behind, I doubt if they can pose a title threat.
I don't think Kolorov was ineffective, I think O'Shea had him in his pocket. He still was doing his bit but with Fletcher covering up for everyone, Kolarov had no chance.
Also, read this:
http://kratik1987.blogspot.com/2011/02/charlie-adam-to-united-done-deal_6825.html
Cheers :)
Kratik
Hey Kratik,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thank you for your comments. Well as you said, if O'shea did have Kolarov in his pocket, then surely he was either ineffective or he was playing in a wrong position. I feel you're suggesting the latter coz many felt he could've done a better job at left-back than Zabaleta, who had a horrible outing against Nani.
Yeah, would've loved it if Chelsea lost last night. Pity Dempsey couldn't convert the stoppage time penalty.
Will check out your post for sure. Liked the earlier one about Dalglish, as far as I recall.
Yours,
CJ