When many people saw the centre midfield pairing of the Makelele-esque John O'Shea, and "the Irish Xavi" Darron Gibson we all of course knew they would dominate and easily keep 100% possession, if not 150%. The Da Silvas (pictured) playing on the wing should not have been so surprising to some, indeed they have both played positions further forward previously. The centre-midfield pairing was ballsy though from Fergie. A decision like is either a sign of genius or senility. Genius it was then as United went on to twin 2-0, with the second-half replacing the goalscoring Fabio da Silva with the long awaited return of Antonio Valencia - who played a big part in the build up of Rooney's goal.Perhaps Man of the Match was Edwin Van Der Sar, 56, who made a string of great saves to deny Arsenal from getting back into it. Perhaps Van Der Sar should wait until his son, Joe Van Der Sar, graduates through the United Academy into the first team. Surely now, at about 12 years old he must be about 6"3' due to his brilliant genes.
Perhaps the most amusing story to come out of that FA Cup Quarterfinal is Paul Scholes - who had a cameo of brilliant passes and brilliant "untackles". Which is the new politically correct way of describing Paul Scholes' classic fouls. His 10 yellow cards in domestic competitions before the cut-off date meant he will be suspended and perhaps most harshly.. fined £15. The £15 is a result of the fact that the rule is enforced at all levels of competition. Although your blogger here will volunteer (and be honoured) to pay Paul Scholes' fine for him - if you'll lend me a tenner.
To make things even more interesting the FA Cup Draw has put us together with Manchester City after they beat Reading 1-0, about 2 minutes before that post was published. This meaning 4 teams (3 from Greater Manchester) from the North West have to travel to the South East to watch them play each other, which is quite frankly ridiculous.
As you see, this blog hasn't been updated for a while. Is it on the back of defeats to Chelsea and Liverpool that I am in fact a sore loser? Yes, this is true, but also I'm chronically lazy.
And besides, out defeat to Liverpool has sort-of been avenged. This morning our U18s went to Arsenal and did what our senior side could not, when they were 2-0 down they got back into it. Eventually winning 3-2 with an excellent performance from lets-hope-he-doesn't-get-arrested Ravel Morrison. The game featured 4 players sent off - in what will be remembered as a fairly unheated match by the derby's standards. Paul Pogba got his 2nd yellow for the incredibly cheeky Neymar-style penalty feint after the energetic Tunnicliffe was fouled in the box - in a clear goalscoring position.
There were probably some transfer rumours recently but we all know that we're skint.
Next up then is the 2nd leg in the Champions League against Olympique de Marseille after a bore draw in France last time round.
This blog has been brought to you by;
- The Blizzard. It's actually brilliant, read it.
- Looking forward to the 2nd episode of Wonders of the Universe.
