Well the Sunday football started okay didn’t it….
Chelsea down to 10 men and a goal down to West Ham, things looked quite good for us.
Then a suspiciously jet lagged Hammers fell apart allowing the Russian Mafia the opportunity to roll over them and run out 4-1 winners. To be fair to Chelsea they looked more like champions than they have in recent weeks and played extremely well, for anyone coming in late it would have seemed that West Ham were lacking a player and not Chelsea, such was their domination.
So onto OLD TRAFFORD for the reds game with ARSEnal.
After a disappointing opening 20 minutes, where ARSEne Wengers team passed the ball around tidily and VAN PER-SIE (when a girl says no, molest her) had a couple of decent attempts on goal, UNITED suddenly decided to kick into gear and the match finally resembled an UNITED v ARSEnal match and not an end of season training game.
A couple of good solid tackles followed, which seemed to fire us into action, then came a moment which turned the game into our favor.
After a fantastic through ball from Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney rounded Lehman and fired the ball towards toe open net, only to be denied by a diving two handed save from ARSEnal’s Kolo Toure, who showed his keeper just how it should be done, pushing the ball onto the post.
Incredibly referee Graham Poll waved play on much to the amazement of Rooney and the majority of the record breaking 70,908 crowd.
After the break, UNITED continued to press for the opener, forcing ARSEnal to concede more desperate fouls. Gilberto body-checked Giggs in the 49th minute to earn the games first yellow card.
Wayne Rooney delivered the much deserved first goal in the 54th minute when he deftly controlled Silvestre’s cross and smashed the ball past Lehman from 8 yards out.
After a couple of near misses from ARSEnal, Fergie replaced Ruud with Saha and Wenger responded with a double substitution, Diaby and Henry coming on for Van Persie and Fabregas in an attempt to turn the game around. Thierry Henry, rested from the starting 11 had an immediate chance to get in the game when Poll awarded ARSEnal a free kick for John O’Shea’s challenge on Pires, but fired his shot harmlessly high and wide of the target.
A third change followed with Wenger bringing on Ljunberg for Hleb, who proceeded to cause the most comical moment of the match when he fell over whilst running down the wing, only for Graham Poll to book Silvestre for a foul on the Swede.
All smiles were restored though when a big, Rooney rode a challenge from Senderos close to the right-hand byline and slid a pass across Lehmann for Ji Sung Park to slot home the decisive second at the far post.
Our attention now turns to Fridays game against Sunderland, where a win will see the gap close to just 4 points with Chelsea facing a potentially tricky trip to Bolton on Saturday.
All in all a good weekend for the red;s, just a shame the West Ham couldn’t make it a slightly better one…..
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