Nani pulls out a stunner as Manchester
eke out their first win of the season; Spurs show some style but fail to score
in a 1-0 defeat.
Old Trafford was packed, a
healthy away following joined the noisy home crowd in what was billed as a
‘must win game’ for both teams.
Sticking with the side that lost
to City last week Ferguson bet his team would find the net this week and win
the game; van de Sar; nicked in midweek; kept goal; Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic and
Evra; fresh from a France call up; made up the back four; a five man midfield
of Nani and Giggs out wide; Carrick and Hargreaves in the middle with Scholes
as the link man sat behind the lone figure of Tevez up front.
Jol’s side had plenty of threat
up front with Berbatov and Keane, a midfield of Malbranque, Jenas, Huddlestone
and Bale has plenty of attacking flair; Chimbonda; good at getting up and down
the flanks; Rocha, Gardener and Lee filled up a back line in the continued absence
of King; Robinson; with a howler in midweek under his belt; would look to
improve between the sticks.
Keane hits the woodwork off a
well hit opportunity, Jenas and Berbatov created the chance for the
Irishman.
Giggs has United’s first chance
and skies the ball.
Robinson beats Tevez to a good
ball from Carrick.
Spurs start brighter, looking to
get forward and test van der Sar, United’s approach is more patient; Bale shows
Brown a clean pair of heels wide left and wins a corner of Ferdinand, Jenas
delivers a good ball in but it skims off Chimbonda and Gardner can’t connect at
the far post; Ferdinand is sloppy at the back; twice; as Spurs cause problems
inside the United area, Vidic and then van der Sar cover for the hapless
defender.
Manchester start to play a little
more and apply a little pressure to the visitors; Rocha concedes a corner kick;
Robinson saves acrobatically from Ferdinand; Tevez and Ferdinand combine before
Rocha steps in; a Giggs delivery spoons over off a stunned Scholes; Robinson
claims the ball ahead of the aerial threat that is Tevez and Rocha intercedes
again after Giggs and the Argentinean combine.
United are playing too narrow;
all their work is done in front of Spurs; the width is their for Tottenham;
particularly Bale and Chimbonda.
The frenetic first half settles
for a while into a game played between boxes, neither team getting any sort of
upper hand.
The home team re exert some
pressure as the half ends but only in front of a well manned Spurs back line;
the final ball in is inevitably poor.
Everton manager Moyes is in the
Director’s Box checking out his upcoming opponents, or is the miserable looking
Scot putting a word in to Levy for a job.
Chimbonda wins the ball from Evra
with a skillful tackle in the area and Hargreaves fires well wide.
Both managers seem content with
their respective sides and keep the substitutes on the bench.
The second half starts cagey with
United applying patience, although when Spurs get the chance they attack; Lee
and Bale combine on the left but Huddlestone fails to hit the target.
Bale goes down softly with
minimal contact from Brown as he wins a 50/50 ball in the middle after
Carrick’s slovenly pass, the youngster will learn what areas of the field you
go down easily in time; Spurs wasted the free kick; the youngster does deliver
a superb ball in which Rocha heads wide after beating Vidic and timing his
leap.
United are still able to apply pressure;
in patches; they just make it easy for Spurs to defend; Spurs attack lack venom
and Berbatov wants more from his team mates.
Bale picks up a poor ball from
Vidic and runs at United, he delivers neat through ball for Berbatov and the
Hungarian scoops it over van der Sar and flick it towards the empty net, Brown
comes in and the ball flies off him and out for a corner kick; no penalty is given
even after Webb consults with his assistant.
Spurs are furious and Berbatov sees yellow.
Check out the replays; do a frame
by frame; I think it his Brown on the chest; Webb wasn’t sure and his assistant
didn’t commit so he doesn’t award a penalty nor send Brown off. Pretty much the correct decision.
Spurs attack again, Malbranque
and Jenas combine to feed Berbatov in the right channel but the Dutch ‘keeper
is quicker to the ball.
United break after a Spurs
corner; Tevez plays in Nani who reaches the ball when Robinson hesitates; he
parries Nani’s effort and Jenas saves off the line from Tevez’s shot.
Brown plays a ball into Eagles
who plays it forward for Tevez, the ball pops out off the Argentinean and Nani
collects from 25 yards out, he takes his time and picks his spot before Spurs
can close him down, his swerving shot beating the diving ‘keeper.
Spurs continue to push on in the final
twenty minutes, all to no avail, Jol shakes things up with substitutions, all
to no avail, United are more content with hanging on but do enough going
forward to keep Spurs at bay, any opening the Londoners may create doesn’t
trouble United; Huddlestone almost finds Jenas clean on goal but the ball clips
the midfielders heel, Bale produces a strong run which takes him deep on the
left; his cross picks out a red shirt; three of his team mates were in the area
with two more hurtling in.
Ferguson will be delighted with the first
win; the team’s confidence will increase after bagging three points. They played well at times but looked flat and
uncreative more often that not, Tevez is not suited to being the lone striker,
Nani continues to impress as does Evra and Vidic, the lapses Ferdinand exhibits
should cause concern.
Jol will be please with Bale and
Chimbonda; and probably the rest of the players, they just didn’t have the
luck, skill or touch to score and they let United score a pretty soft
goal. He will moan about the penalty
decision but his side failed to take advantage of an underperforming
United.
Webb stopped play two or three
times when advantage would have been a much better choice, he officiated the
penalty claim legitimately; he carded Giggs when a warning should have sufficed
and he carded Gardner
when he went in for a 50/50 ball. Apart
from that he was OK.
