Wayne Rooney expressed his delight last night after another masterful performance for Manchester United. The striker scored two goals in the 3-0 win over West Ham and dominated the game from the front.
With 27 goals already, Rooney is enjoying his most prolific season in a United shirt and is hoping his form continues to the end of the season. He did admit though that it’s frustrating being substituted when chasing a hat trick, but that he understands the manager’s reasons for doing so.
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Foster – 7 He was only called into action on a couple of occasions, but dealt with everything that came his way. Kicking is still suspect.
Neville – 7 One of his better performances recently. West Ham’s reluctance to attack left Neville free to get forward and he did, to good effect.
Brown – 7 Nothing to trouble him.
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Manchester United play Host to West Ham this evening after a crushing 3-1 defeat at the hands of Everton in their last Premier League outing.
The Champions will be hoping to bounce back in style after the disappointing result at Goodison Park, by beating a West Ham side currently just 4 points above the relegation zone.
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The foundation of any title winning team is built firmly on the shoulders of a solid centre back pairing. From the early days of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign it was evident that he also shared this philosophy.
Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister were the foundation for much of our early Premier League successes, while Ronny Johnsen and Jaap Stam starred in the famous treble winning side of 1999. More recently, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic have forged arguably the best central defensive pairing in world football, propelling Manchester United to 3 consecutive Premier League titles and back to back Champions League finals.
That foundation has been rocked this season by the losses of both Vidic and Ferdinand for sustained periods. Vidic has played a part in 13 Premier League games this season, while England captain Ferdinand has managed just 6.
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Following the 3-1 defeat to Everton on Saturday, Michael Carrick isn’t getting too downhearted. The midfielder admits the result was shocking, but believes it was just a blip and United can still retain the title.
The defeat shouldn’t really have come as a huge surprise. Everton have found their form at just the right (or wrong depending on who you support) stage of the season. David Moyes’ men headed into the game on the back of impressive results against Portuguese side Sporting and league leaders Chelsea.
And while Manchester United have been in impressive form in the league since the turn of the year, their make shift back four has shown to be an Achilles heal on numerous occasions against teams that don’t just sit back and play for a draw. Whenever teams attack United they’ve looked vulnerable without the assured class of Rio Ferdinand and the all action style of Nemanja Vidic.
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Here are my 5 reasons why I believe Michael Owen was a poor signing. If you disagree, feel free to abuse me in the comments.
1. He isn’t playing enough
We were led to believe Owen would be used sparingly. His injury record over the last few years has made Louis Saha look like the Iron Man, so Sir Alex was expected to rest Owen’s aging legs as often as he could. The problem is he’s barely used at all. Since scoring a hat trick against Wolfsburg he’s found his way into the starting line up twice. That’s twice in 16 games. For a player Sir Alex expected would score 15 goals this season, he simply hasn’t been used enough.
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Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that he still keeps in contact with Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, and that the Portugueser texted him to tell him he misses him.
Sir Alex had texted Ronaldo to wish him a happy 24th birthday. The way he responded could give some fans hope that he may one day return to Old Trafford after realizing the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
“I got a text from him last week saying: I miss you so much’. sir Alex said”
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Van Der Sar – 6 Not at fault for any of the goals, but no impressive saves to note.
Neville – 5 Showed that his crossing ability is still fantastic, but his defensive ability leaves a lot to be desired. Completely flat footed when Donovan threaded the ball through to Pienaar to setup Dan Gosling for the second goal.
Brown – 6 Dealt with most things that came his way on the ground, but struggled aerially when the long balls were pumped up to Saha.
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Everton emerged as deserved winners at Goodison Park today in a match Manchester United needed at least a point from if they were to put pressure on Chelsea at the top of the league.
The visitors opened the scoring through Dimitar Berbatov early on, but Diniyar Bilayetdinov equalized minutes later and second half goals from substitutes Dan Gosling and Jack Rodell put the match beyond United.
The United fans started in good voice, before being drowned out by Everton fans claiming for every decision (presumably perfecting this technique at the dole office) and booing every decision that went against them. That’s my only criticism of Everton today though as on the pitch they were fantastic and were good value for their win.
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Manchester United line up
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