Manchester United

[nev]

city the better team fact.

without rooney we do not look the same team, 5 loses this year without him.

fergie said we will play like the babes and put on a show, yeah right, the babes must be turning in there graves watching that!!!!

newcastle next away hope we can get back on track and keep in touch with arsenal.

[mrbojangles]

Good morning all

[MSingh]

newcastle next away hope we can get back on track and keep in touch with arsenal.

I'm sure you will, they're atrocious & don't have a Manager that can make them any better..

[MiG16]

eXcu-sie moi????

[mrtoad]

Good morning all

What can i say?

The final ball, and carless loss of possesion throughout the game cost us dear. I was suprised tha we even manged to score a goal.

Now, this is where we see what this squad is made of. After a game like that, how will they respond?

[mrbojangles]

Good morning all

What can i say?

You don't need to say anything buddy. And i won't rub it in.

Well, i will but not for too long

[redrus]

Manchester United 1 Manchester City 2

by Footymad

Manchester United's players of 2008 fell flat on the day Old Trafford paid a moving tribute to the victims of the Munich air disaster, as Manchester City won the derby 2-1.

It has been an emotional week for United with the 50th anniversary of the disaster falling last Wednesday.

But expectations that the United players of today would mark the event by beating neighbours City in style lay in tatters after the champions failed miserably in their task.

City had not won at Old Trafford for almost 34 years - in fact their last league double over the Red Devils was in the 1969-70 season, yet it was the Blues who played with determination.

The minute's silence for the 23 victims of the air crash was impeccably observed.

It came shortly after both teams had been led out by a lone piper and United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and his City counterpart Sven-Goran Eriksson had both laid wreaths on behalf of their clubs in the centre circle.

United, playing in a replica kit of that worn by the Busby Babes before the crash, made a bright start and came close to scoring in the seventh minute.

Nani's cross from the right was touched down by Carlos Tevez to Ryan Giggs at the far post and his blistering shot from 12yards was well tipped over by City goalkeeper Joe Hart.

City's Stephen Ireland tested United keeper Edwin Van der Sar with a far-post header from Martin Petrov's left-wing cross after a quarter of an hour, but things got even better for City in the 24th minute.

Benjani Mwaruwari, making his debut for City following his protracted move from Portsmouth, found Petrov on the left.

The Bulgarian winger guided a brilliant through ball to Ireland inside the United box from wide and, although Van der Sar blocked his effort, the ball fell to Darius Vassell on the right side of the penalty area.

Van der Sar blocked Vassell's first effort, but the rebound fell to the City striker who scored with a crisp left-foot shot from ten yards.

Hart produced a magnificent save to keep out Tevez's ferocious drive from the right edge of the City box three minutes later.

But City could sense United were below par and that a second goal was there for the taking and they made it 2-0 in the closing seconds of the first half.

Cristiano Ronaldo's clearing header on the near post from a Petrov corner fell to Ireland on the right corner of the box.

He returned the ball to Petrov, who whipped in a superb cross which went in of Benjani's shoulder eight yards from goal.

The expected United onslaught after the interval never materialised. City looked comfortable, although United netted a consolation effort seconds into injury time.

Paul Scholes threaded his pass through the middle to substitute Michael Carrick 12 yards out and he scored with a right-foot shot into the bottom corner of the City net.

Barclays Premier League, Sunday, 10th February 2008 @ 13:30; Old Trafford

Carrick 90

Vassell 25

Mwaruwari 45

Starting Line-ups

1 Van der Sar

6 Brown

5 Ferdinand

22 O'Shea (Carrick 73)

15 Vidic

8 Anderson (Hargreaves 73)

11 Giggs

18 Scholes

17 Nani (Park 64)

7 Ronaldo

32 Tevez

Substitutes

29 Kuszczak

25 Simpson

16 Carrick (O'Shea 73)

4 Hargreaves (Anderson 73)

13 Park (Nani 64)

19 Goal Attempts 9

9 On Target 7

10 Off Target 2

0 Hit Woodwork 0

7 Offsides 0

8 Corners 7

6 Fouls 11

Starting Line-ups

25 Hart

4 Onuoha

3 Ball

22 Dunne

2 Richards

28 Fernandes

21 Hamann (Jihai 84)

15 Petrov (Garrido 87)

7 Ireland

27 Mwaruwari (Caicedo 75)

12 Vassell

Substitutes

1 Isaksson

17 Jihai (Hamann 84)

24 Garrido (Petrov 87)

8 Geovanni

20 Caicedo (Mwaruwari 75)

[MiG16]

MrBoJ is worse than me

hes all over the place.

[mrtoad]

MrBoJ is worse than me

hes all over the place.

Yes, Mr Boj's almost like Bird Flu, it keeps lingering around.

[scousemouse]

I know this is a bit late ( scousemouse has been oot on the toon this week ) but as soon as I saw the United teamsheet without Hargreaves or Carrick playing I thought things were looking a lot better for City.

Surely Alex wont make the same mistake against the gooners and I expect Fergie to field one if not both of Hargreaves and Carrick and United to beat the gooners by 2 clear goals ( and then get beat by Liverpool in the final ).

[mrtoad]

I know this is a bit late ( scousemouse has been oot on the toon this week ) but as soon as I saw the United teamsheet without Hargreaves or Carrick playing I thought things were looking a lot better for City.

Surely Alex wont make the same mistake against the gooners and I expect Fergie to field one if not both of Hargreaves and Carrick and United to beat the gooners by 2 clear goals ( and then get beat by Liverpool in the final ).

The first part of your statement is correct, although I very much doubt the last bit. Although, it does look like someone from Liverpool is blowing someone from the FA, given the easy draws in the FA cup.

[mrbojangles]

MrBoJ is worse than me

hes all over the place.

How's about this for being all over the place then M1G.

I do some TV extra work sometimes as a bit of an hobby really. And yesterday i was at Northwich Victoria (Man Uniteds reserve team ground) filming a new Nike advert. I was a policeman in the ad and i must admit Nike spare no money, Guy Richie was Directing it.

Funny enough it was United V Arsenal and all the players who stood in for the real teams, where picked cos they have football skills and look like the real players, i.e Eduardo, Evra, Carrick, Gilbert etc. So i thought it would be filmed with them and then the real players would be super imposed later.

Wrong, Ronaldo and Tevez turned up (Rooney cried off). I had my picture took with Tevez, he's a bit of a weirdo and ugglier close up than i could ever imagine and pretty miserable, so i look hansome next to him.

However i have changed my mind about Ronaldo, i knew he was tall and muscular but close up he's even more so. I also thought he was up himself. But in between takes, he was doing 'keepy uppies' with all the other extras and having a laugh and joke. I was just amazed at the skill he has, he can make the ball do things i have never seen before.

Hat's off to him for that but mainly the fact that unlike Tevez, he didn't keep on going back to his entourage but had a laugh and joke with the cast and extra's. Don't get me wrong, i will always hate him whilst he wears a Man United shirt.................................................but maybe i'll hate him a little less now

[redrus]

Cheers Mr B. I knew that.

Fergie: Title Race Not Over

Sir Alex Ferguson is convinced that United's title challenge is far from over despite Arsenal stretching their lead at the top of the table with victory over Blackburn on Monday night.

The Gunners moved five points clear of United with a 2-0 win against Rovers at The Emirates but Fergie believes that the title race is far from over.

"It was an important weekend for Arsenal in that ourselves and Chelsea dropped points," Ferguson told Sky Sports'

"But points will be dropped by the top teams. There is a long way to go and it makes it interesting now. It's going to be a really good, tight finish.

"It's something the neutrals will all be enthralled by.

"We know the job we've got to do. Arsenal still have to come to Old Trafford and they have got to go to Chelsea.

"It's like I said at the start of the season - I think it will go to the wire."

redrus

[scousemouse]

MrBoJ is worse than me

hes all over the place.

How's about this for being all over the place then M1G.

I do some TV extra work sometimes as a bit of an hobby really. And yesterday i was at Northwich Victoria (Man Uniteds reserve team ground) filming a new Nike advert. I was a policeman in the ad and i must admit Nike spare no money, Guy Richie was Directing it.

Funny enough it was United V Arsenal and all the players who stood in for the real teams, where picked cos they have football skills and look like the real players, i.e Eduardo, Evra, Carrick, Gilbert etc. So i thought it would be filmed with them and then the real players would be super imposed later.

Wrong, Ronaldo and Tevez turned up (Rooney cried off). I had my picture took with Tevez, he's a bit of a weirdo and ugglier close up than i could ever imagine and pretty miserable, so i look hansome next to him.

However i have changed my mind about Ronaldo, i knew he was tall and muscular but close up he's even more so. I also thought he was up himself. But in between takes, he was doing 'keepy uppies' with all the other extras and having a laugh and joke. I was just amazed at the skill he has, he can make the ball do things i have never seen before.

Hat's off to him for that but mainly the fact that unlike Tevez, he didn't keep on going back to his entourage but had a laugh and joke with the cast and extra's. Don't get me wrong, i will always hate him whilst he wears a Man United shirt.................................................but maybe i'll hate him a little less now

Nice one Mr B , sounds like it was a great day ( even though it was with some from that lot ).

[mrbojangles]

Nice one Mr B , sounds like it was a great day ( even though it was with some from that lot ).

Yeah it was Scouse. Hopefully i'll do one with City one day

[MiG16]

boys and girls

the weekend approaches.......

i have a slight problem though...

17.02.08/ 4.00AM

4.00AM Live: :OFA Cup Soccer Manchester United vs. Arsenal

Soccer. Old Trafford Stadium (Manchester Utd) Manchester, England. (G)

reddyrussy...you gonna throw some sting-bomb this way (whatever that is...I just made that up...) and wake me up??

[mrtoad]

Well, I think we can safely say the players have given a good response so far, after that <deleted> performance last week. Bloody awesome.

[mrtoad]

Excellent. Nani was outstanding tonight, but all f the players pl;ayed well. 4-0 a good result, but it could have been many more.

[mrtoad]

Anyone heard from Leungken? He's not posted in age.

[MiG16]

<<speaks the sour loser>>

[mrtoad]

<<speaks the sour loser>>

Shame we can't play Arsenal every week. Think of our goal diffeence by the end of the season.

BTW Mig, I'm not going to type anything in the Arsenal thread today, will just put up pictures and smileys.

[mrtoad]

Rooney goes on the rampage to frighten the life out of Arsenal

Kevin Mitchell at Old Trafford

Sunday February 17, 2008

The Observer

Napoleon can hardly have retreated from Moscow with less dignity than Arsenal returned to London from Manchester. This drubbing exposed not only the team's inadequacy on the day in the face of a rampant United side who sensed miserable resistance almost from the kick-off, but also Arsène Wenger's tepid commitment to the FA Cup, whatever his ready-made complaints of depleted resources before and after.

His excuses were limp and unconvincing and did him and his team no great service when his normal candour would have been more appropriate.

This might have been United's easiest win of the season - in any competition - and Wayne Rooney was the man who inspired everyone from Nani, Anderson and Darren Fletcher marauding about up front, to a midfield whose command of territory and possession was almost total.

It was an embarrassingly one-sided victory. What the margin and the manner of the win also showed was that, for all Arsenal's quality, United are stronger throughout their squad going into the business end of the season. The five-point deficit in the League all of a sudden looks more like a hill than a mountain. As Sir Alex Ferguson pointed out, with some glee, it has to be said: 'Arsenal will know when they come here [on the weekend of 12-13 April], they are in for a game.'

Wenger, meanwhile, could offer no more than platitudes. 'Positive points are difficult to find today,' he said in that gnomic way of his that falls between irony and mischief. 'The only one I can see is there are not more injuries than before the game. We need to pick ourselves up quickly because we have a massive game on Wednesday night.' There you have it, of course. Arsenal play AC Milan at the Emirates in a Champions League fixture that so obviously means more to the club than the oldest Cup competition in football. Is that right or wrong?

Tell it to Rooney. The wild young man has matured into a player of manic commitment to the cause - in stark contrast to some of the truly awful football offered up by Arsenal's admittedly injury-hit squad. Wenger sought solace in the state of the pitch, which he described as 'a disgrace'. Nor was he convinced about the sending-off of Emmanuel Eboué after he had all but cut Patrice Evra in half in an aerial assault in the 49th minute that would have done the Red Baron proud.

But all that disguises the reality. United wanted this (Ferguson's 100th Cup tie) - even with Cristiano Ronaldo rugged up in the stands and Paul Scholes, Louis Saha, John O'Shea and Carlos Tevez on the bench. In Wenger's defence, his benched stars, Gaël Clichy, Mathieu Flamini and Emmanuel Adabeyor, were injured - although the latter two will face Milan.

It was a bigger humiliation even than Arsenal's 5-1 defeat to Tottenham in the Carling Cup last month. And United's comeback after drawing with Spurs and losing to Manchester City last weekend nailed suspicions of the infamous 'blip' so feared by Ferguson at this stage of the season. They are in the rudest of health, full of running and class.

'It was a marvellous performance,' Ferguson said. 'We passed really well and not many teams will beat Arsenal 4-0.'

Rooney started it and, had he been allowed to finish (United, too, have European commitments coming up, away to Lyon, who lost 1-0 at Le Mans yesterday), he would have ended the rout, too.

Apart from an early chance for Nicklas Bendtner, who had one-twoed neatly with Cesc Fábregas, there was not a moment when Arsenal were properly in the game.

Once United struck, it was horribly one-sided. Rooney, palely loitering, leapt at just the right time in the 16th minute to accept Anderson's simple nod forward, unchallenged, and popped it past the bemused Jens Lehmann.

Moments later, Fletcher went aerial, too, to post the simplest of goals from the simplest of crosses from Nani and Arsenal looked shattered. They would have been utterly devastated only a minute later had Rooney's header from Park Ji-Sung's lifted cross on the right not skimmed inches over.

Wenger was still remonstrating with a touchline official about some perceived wrong from several minutes earlier when United hit them with a third knockout blow, Nani leaving Lehmann for dead with a left-foot shot that snuck under him and into the far right corner.

By now Park and Nani were up alongside Rooney most of the time, so confident were United. They were playing with a freedom and energy that simply blew Arsenal away. When the Gunners returned a minute late after the half-time break, derision and mickey-taking filled the stadium. 'They've given up!' went the cry. They just about had.

Rio Ferdinand was booked as the commitment levels remained extraordinarily high and there was a hunger about United that allowed for no mercy. You had only to look at the expressions on their faces to see how Ferguson was loving it - and how Wenger was mentally curling up into a little ball. Park, perhaps not believing his luck, fluffed a chance near the hour, as his flailing boot failed to connect with Nani's glorious long cross.

Fletcher's commitment earned him a yellow card, but he rubbed in United's dominance with a straightforward header from Nani's cross with 16 minutes to go - and, at the other end, Adebayor was booked for diving.

When the end came, it was blessed relief for Arsenal and interruption to the fun for Manchester United. It was one of those wins that the victors can find tough to enjoy - because there was simply nothing coming back the other way.

Man of the match - Wayne Rooney

In a game so one-sided, invariably the winners have players everywhere who excel. But the most obvious candidate takes the honour: Rooney. He scored, he might have scored again and again, and he ran like the demented youth he is often perceived to be.

[mrbojangles]

Impressive win lads. Well done

[mrtoad]

Impressive win lads. Well done

Cheers Mr Boj, a very different performance compared to last weeks. Just the sort of reaction that Fergie would have wanted. Interesting that some of the less established players like Fletcher, Nani and Park were so impressive.

[Jockstar]

Interesting that some of the less established players like Fletcher, Nani and Park were so impressive.

Proving a point me thinks.

[mrtoad]

Interesting that some of the less established players like Fletcher, Nani and Park were so impressive.

Proving a point me thinks.

They certainly did that.

[redrus]

Foooooooooooooooookin get in................!!!!!

redrus

[martianmartian]

Foooooooooooooooookin get in................!!!!!

redrus

Does anyone know a place where I could watch the MANU-Lyon game in BKK tomorrow? It is on pretty late. Thanks!

[nev]

mate it should be on thai tv on 3 or 7, i am not in thailand at the moment but they always show the champions league games.

[Jockstar]

mate it should be on thai tv on 3 or 7, i am not in thailand at the moment but they always show the champions league games.

I'd agree with that. Scousemouse used to go home, eat then sleep for a few hours. Usually on around 2 or 3ish?Get up and watch Liverpool before going to work.