Well….that could not have gone much better!! At 1.30 pm on Saturday afternoon things were looking grim. United were losing at Upton Park by a scoreline of 2-0 and Arsenal were due to welcome Blackburn Rovers to the Emirates later on in the afternoon in a game which had “home win” written all over it. Chelsea would have taken encouragement from a United loss too and the “live” league table was not pretty reading.
Lets put this in perspective. If the scoreline remained 2-0 United would have been 4 points clear of Arsenal and 9 points clear of Chelsea having played two games more. Crucially United still have to face both sides and with the games coming thick and fast for Fergie’s team, as we’re the only team fighting on all three fronts, the critics and ABU’s would be sharpening their knives.
Welcome back Wayne Rooney! As we all know United produced a sensational come back with Wazza bagging a 14 minute hat-trick to claim all three points. Arsenal and Chelsea both stumbled to draws and United’s lead at the top was increased. This was one of those games where the feeling at the end was that a crucial blow in the Premier League title race had been landed. There is no doubt that Wenger and co. were following things at Upton Park and as the players walked out at the Emirates knowing United had produced yet another comeback from 2-0 down it is hard to imagine that this did not in some small way affect their mindset.
April 2011 is huge for our season. Gary Neville commented during the week that he can’t remember as big month since he joined the club 20 years ago. United will play a minimum of 7 games in April with the possibility of an 8th game if they see off Chelsea in the Champions League. The fixture list for the month reads as follows:
April 2 – West Ham (a) 4-2
April 6 – Chelsea (a)
April 9 – Fulham (h)
April 12 – Chelsea (h)
April 16 – Man City (n)
April 19 – Newcastle (a)
April 23 – Everton (h)
When you also factor in that May kicks off with back to back trips to Chelsea and Arsenal you realise that the squad is going to be pushed to the very limit in the coming weeks. If United had slipped to a loss at West Ham it would have been a savage blow to confidence before the tie against Chelsea. Questions would have started to surface about whether or not United had too much on their plate and were about to potentially blow the lot.
A few hours later United are sitting pretty, have opened up a 7 point lead at the top and Chelsea’s title challenge is in all likelihood dead and buried. We face into this weeks trip to Stamford Bridge with confidence levels high and with a score to settle after the 2-1 loss at the Bridge last month. Chelsea played well in that fixture but considering the performance that United put in and some of the decisions which went against us I think we are right to feel that the very least we deserved from that game was a draw.
Another massive positive is the form of Wayne Rooney. There is no doubt in my mind that Rooney seems to be gelling much better with Hernandez than Berbatov. Hernandez is stretching the opposition defence and huge space is opening up between the defence and midfield which Rooney is exploiting with ease. He has steadily produced better and better performances since the turn of the year and has now started to add in goals. Rooney has scored 6 in his last 6 games and has also scored in big games (Chelsea and City) and at times when we really needed them like at the weekend. There is no doubt that Rooney will have a spring in his step when he reports for training this week and there could not have been a better point in the season to get such a confidence boost.
As we look at the schedule over the next few weeks there are many tough games ahead. It has been said a lot that this United squad is far from vintage and many cannot understand how we are 7 points clear considering some of the performances this year. One thing though cannot be disputed, this side has that Man United “never-say-die” attitude and no matter what happens this month we can rest assured that Sir Alex and the boys will give 110% between now and the end of the season. We are in the mix for 3 trophies and I think it’s important that we land one of the big two, preferably the league title and finally knock the scousers off their perch!!!
What do you think? Would you pair Berba or Chicharito with Wazza up top on Wednesday? What silverware do you think United will pick up this season and what silverware do you want to pick up the most?
Submitted by Glory Glory Man Utd
