One silly South African moment hands Manchester United all three points. Tough and tight at Old Trafford. Everton go behind and manage to come back
quickly. They withstand intense home
pressure and throw away the chance o####reat point with a ‘moment of madness’.
Cold and cacky Old Trafford has a
good crowd to see Everton; unbeaten in thirteen; visit a less than
full-strength Manchester United who need to keep up the pressure on Arsenal.
Ferguson has three changes to make; all due
to injury; Kuszczak keeps goal, Simpson gets a first Premier League start at
rightback, Brown moves inside alongside Vidic, with Evra keeping his leftback
spot. Carrick comes into midfield for
Hargreaves alongside Anderson, Giggs and Ronaldo. Rooney and Tevez play up front.
A RARE SMILE FROM LIVERPOOL'S BLUE EYED BOY!
Moyes; also hit by injury; still
manages a decent eleven. Howard keeps
goals with Hibbert back in at rightback, Yobo and Jagielka make up the centre
back pairing and Lescott moves out to leftback.
Neville, Carsley, provide the meat in the middle with Cahill and Pienaar
providing attacking options and width respectively. Yakubu keeps his place alongside Johnson.
Vidic begins with intent; giving
Yakubu a strong challenge. Ronaldo’s
early incursion down the left is well met by Everton, Carsley and Yobo leading
the clearing charge.
Rooney gives us a flash of his
physical side with a hard, late tackle on Cahill and gets a yellow. The Australian gets another physical
challenge from Carrick and Everton’s first opportunity is a free kick on the
left. Pienaar’s delivery is easily
cleared by Manchester United. The first
few minutes are cagey with Everton looking solid and Manchester United failing
to dominate in midfield.
CAHILL HANDLES THE WINTRY COLD BETTER THAN TEVEZ!
A long ball from Simpson for
Rooney is cleared by Jagielka; the utility player doesn’t get a great deal of
distance but Tevez snatches at the ball to send it high and wide.
Yakubu and Brown take turns in
giving the ball away cheaply.
Evra’s challenge on Hibbert gets
him a yellow but the free kick is well cleared and Ronaldo bursts forward on
the right, Lescott is in attendance but can’t prevent the near post cross,
Howard gets his hand in and Jagielka clears from Tevez.
Simpson has to defend at the
other end, Yakubu gets forward with Pienaar but his lay off is too soft and the
fullback intercepts.
Pienaar is provider soon after
playing in Lescott; the centreback plays well on the left but isn’t the best
crosser of the ball; true to form his cross can’t pick out an unmarked Johnson
and Kuszczak smothers gratefully.
Cahill picks up a yellow then
Manchester United loses possession in the middle allowing Everton to come
forward and apply some pressure. Hibbert
gets a yellow for a full blooded and ball winning tackle on Evra. Manchester United comes forward but Simpson
can only get a goal kick under pressure from Pienaar and Lescott.
Pienaar, full of energy and good
touches; gets forward in the middle but dallies, Anderson doesn’t and his reward is to come
away with the ball after a good tackle.
Everton’s edging of the first minutes of the game is evidenced by
Brown’s hopeful hoof up to an isolated Rooney.
Everton come forward when Johnson
robs Anderson, the striker plays in Yakubu who feeds Pienaar with a nice touch,
the South African holds up the ball long enough to complete the one two through
a flat footed Manchester United defence, Kuszczak is alert to Yakubu’s run and vilifies
his defenders after he smothers the cross.
Manchester start to apply some pressure
but Ronaldo crosses behind, Anderson then brings it from defence and plays it
into Rooney, the English centre forward feeds it out to Ronaldo who has a cross
cleared, Manchester retain possession, Tevez finds Ronaldo but Carsley is too
sloppy in closing down Ronaldo and the Portuguese goal machine delivers the ball
perfectly over the Everton defence and wide of Howard for a stunning
opener.
RONALDO'S STUNNING OPENER LEAVES HIT BOOT!
No Manchester United Onslaught
appears despite the goal clearly injecting the home side with some extra
pep. The visitors stick to their tasks
well and work hard to play their way back into the game. The reward comes quickly, Lescott gets
forward on the left and plays a couple of one two’s with Pienaar, the South
African, bamboozles Brown to enable him to loop a ball onto the penalty spot,
Cahill; one of the better leapers in the Premier league, out jumps the bigger,
stronger Evra and heads the ball past Kuszczak for a hard won equalizer.
THE TWO MANCHESTER UNITED MOTM TUSSLE OVER A LOOSE BALL!
Carsley and Rooney, bantering
amicably moments earlier face each other over the rarest of Premier league
incidents, a genuine drop ball, the Irishman wants it more and the violence of
his attack on the ball sees Rooney, arms aloft, whine in protest.
Webb denies Anderson the chance to run into acres of
space on the Everton left, he brings play back for some argy-bargy shirt
pulling between the Brazilian and ####ian when advantage would have been
better. Poor decision referee!
Pienaar, Yakubu and Johnson
combine to pressure Manchester
united but the ball comes out to ex-manc Neville, he is unable to exert control
over his shot and the decent chance sails well high.
Giggs and Rooney combines up
front and the striker finds the space for a dink to the back post, Howard is
beaten but Lescott is quick enough to head the ball off the line. Anderson
relieves the Manchester United pressure with a needless hand ball.
Everton come out of defence and
feed the Yak! The cross is well held by Kuszczak.
The final fifteen minutes is more
open with Manchester United pushing forward and Everton responding with some
bright counter attacks of their own.
Howard saves a fierce drive that
Tevez fires right at him; good hands. A
Giggs stepover comes to Tevez a little too unexpectedly and the chance goes
begging. Neville gives away a free kick
and a mouthy Anderson
is carded by Webb.
Ronaldo fires one straight at the
wall. Giggs combines with Ronaldo; Yobo
puts enough pressure on the Portuguese winger to fire the difficult chance
wide.
Ferguson brings on O’Shea for more experience
in defence and Moyes keeps his side the same.
Pienaar show good strength in
midfield and comes forward with the ball, he finds Lescott who wins a corner
off O’Shea.
Hibbert has another lapse when he
fails to meet Evra’s through ball on the Everton right; Rooney plays the ball
in but Jagielka, fitting in well at the heart of the defence clears the
danger.
Manchester United is looking for
the third goal and pile some concerted pressure on the Blues. Webb’s cack advantage does Everton no favours
when they manage to push forward.
Ronaldo takes advantage of a
Jagielka slip and crosses for Tevez; the Argentinean is sharp but gets a deflection
for a corner.
Howard leaps to claim a cross
whilst under pressure from Ronaldo.
Howard claims well after Tevez’s shot takes a deflection off
Lescott.
Yobo steps authoratively in front
of a Rooney to prevent the shot and clear the ball.
Everton are pushed deeper but
have the skills to repulse a not quite at their best Manchester United.
A good clearance sees Johnson
turn Vidic; with no support his cross is much too heavy. The two players had a fine tussle throughout the game.
WHAT CAN BE SAID ABOUT THIS LOVELY IMAGE!
A neat turn from Yakubu takes Brown out of
the game, the ####ian flails wildly with the goal in front of him and send the
ball harmlessly and wastefully high and wide.
Hibbert clears well under
pressure from Ronaldo; Lescott’s clearance is not as good and allows Ronaldo a shot,
which block falls to Carrick who skies it.
Everton have weathered the United
storm and are back to working the ball and looking to create something
upfield.
Everton get in a good position
but fail to pull the trigger and any chance o####oal or corner kick goes
begging.
Saha comes on for Carrick in a
bid to grab the winner, Manchester’s
formation changes to be more attacking.
Johnson takes advantage o####ood
advantage call and cuts in towards goal, Yakubu’s run pulls the defenders and
the ball comes out to Pienaar off a Vidic challenge, the South African can’t
keep possession and the counter collapses.
A clumsy Hibbert challenge sets
up a dangerous placed Manchester
united free kick. Training ground stuff
as Ronaldo plays it laterally to Rooney, the ex-Blue gets under the ball and it
skims Howard’s bar.
Manchester still has more possession but the
game is drifting away from them, Everton’s defenders remain obdurate and feisty
whilst the home sides’ attacks lack conviction.
The home side is keeping the ball as well as keeping the pressure on
Everton, the visitors remain solid in the second half.
A moment of madness hands the
home side the victory with two minutes to go.
Pienaar is back defending and
Giggs has beaten him but is heading for the touchline, really tired, sloppy
play from a pro; he lashes out with his trailing leg and fells Giggs, Webb
points to the spot and Ronaldo bags the winner from the spot.
IT WAS A PENALTY STEVEN!
NOW TO ADD STEVEN PIENAAR TO MY CHRISTMAS CARD LIST!
Two points for free for Ferguson. Happiest of the two manager’s he’ll take the
gift and probably some credit. Yet again
his team isn’t at its best but takes the three points. An admirer of Moyes he is decent enough not
to gloat. Queiroz is less
munificent.
THE BEST EVER PREMIER LEAGUE MANAGER - GETS ANOTHER WIN.
Moyes is gutted; just check out
the photos; his side played well whilst not at full strength. They fought back from a goal down at Old
Trafford and lost the game on a silly leg flick.
I’m more disappointed that we had
Hibbert at rightback and not Neville which would have allowed Gravesen to play
in midfield, Yakubu stayed on the pitch for too long as well. Pienaar created the second and third goals so
whilst any Blue should be annoyed with him his contribution throughout the
entire game can’t be discounted.
NO CHRISTMAS BONUS FOR YOU, STEVEN!
Webb showed why he is England’s representative
at Euro ’08. A few early cards set his
tone and after the initial flurry of rash and hurried challenges things settled
down. His card for Anderson was a good statement. Everton may have looked like they got the
worst of Webb but the away side defended more than attacks so more fouls
against is to be expected. Webb’s only
blunders really were two wrongly called advantage calls. He let an Everton one go when a deep free kick
would have been a better reward and he called back Anderson when the Brazilian had space in
front of him. Hardly more than a blemish
on what was a fair and measured performance.
Manchester United:-
Kuszczak
Simpson (O’Shea 46)
Brown
Vidic
Evra
Ronaldo
Carrick (Saha 70)
Anderson (Fletcher 85)
Giggs
Rooney
Tevez
Bookings:-
Anderson
Evra
Rooney
Goals:-
Ronaldo 22, 88 (P)
Everton:-
Howard
Hibbert
Yobo
Jagielka
Lescott
Cahill (Anichebe 84)
Carsley
Neville
Pienaar
Johnson
Yakubu (Gravesen 75)
Bookings:-
Pienaar
Cahill
Hibbert
Goals:-
Cahill 27
Attendance:-
75749
Referee:-
Howard
Webb
Images courtesy of:- evertonfc.com getty images and manutd.com bbc.co.uk
