Terrace Talk

I had just walked into the pub about a half hour before United faced Villa looking for a solid omelette and a spot of tea before I went into my pints of Sam Adams. As I went through the door a mate of mine immediately commented on how Arsenal had come back to draw with Bolton. I replied with a quick “Doesn’t matter, they were done last week.” Of course my arrogance was quickly slammed into my face by the Arsenal stool barons next to me minutes later. While party lines were drawn, allegiances made, and bets placed all of this was forgotten for the next two hours, as United with Ronaldo at the helm took over. Every fan in the bar, from the plane Mexican bringing clean glasses, to the staunch Arsenal loyalists could not help but feel grateful that they had had a chance to watch the master class put on display, cleansing our Premiership palette like a smooth glass of wine.

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Absolutely brilliant is the only way to label this United performance. In fact, absolutely brilliant is the only way to characterize Cristiano Ronaldo. From top to bottom, United dominated Aston Villa and did more than they needed to, to deserve the three points. They had just watched Arsenal take a late victory from Bolton and knew they had to put in the work to hold on to their lead. As a fan, this will not be a game forgotten, with Ronaldo playing out of his skin and slowly solidifying my argument that he has already reached legendary status in a red shirt.

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I’ve always thought of myself as a big fan of Wayne Rooney and right away I should warn you that I have a major bias toward the forward. It simply took a spectacular goal against Arsenal, when the lad was still with Everton to win me over. The shot was beautiful, but as I frantically rewound the video and played it from the beginning, it was his intelligent movement into space that really caught my eye. It wasn’t long before he proved his worth for England in the 2004 European Championship, where he scored a handful of impressive goals that would cement his place at the top of Sir Alex’s transfer list. So it comes as no surprise that I call myself “Roonatic #1” a title I was originally embarrassed of, considering the lad is a scouser afterall. These are my confessions; in the face of his brilliance I just can’t help liking a scouser.

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United seem to love playing Aston Villa, whether at Villa Park or at home. It has been over 12 years since Villa has beaten United, a streak that stretches over 21 encounters, with 13 straight victories. With Villa also winless in their last four league games, all signs point to another United victory. However, it might not be so easy….

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Paul Scholes, he scores goals, particularly against Aston Villa. From last season:

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It’s been 19 years since that memorable New Year’s clash between Manchester United and Liverpool. At Old Trafford, Liverpool needed to win the game to come back and have any reasonable chance of winning the league against a rampant Arsenal side. While they may have clawed their way back that season, Manchester United were certainly not going to give them a win so easily. As underdogs, United were seventh in the league and Ferguson clearly had a plan to change the footballing landscape, and in particular “Knock Liverpool off their fucking perch.”

Seventy minutes passed with both teams grinding each other into pulp, with United having the better of possession. Against the run of play a wonderful John Barnes had buried a gem into the back Jim Leighton’s net and Liverpool had their noses in front with 20 minutes to go. The game would not stay that way…

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Introduced in the month of February, United Zone Football Forums has added the man of the match section. This allows members to nominate and then vote for players who they believe deserve the honour for each match.

Player of the Match is tabulated through a two step process. The first step is through nomination. This is done in order from the top player through to the third player nominated. For each match, a point system from three points to one point is assigned to the top player nominated, down to the third player nominated (nominee 1 - 3pts, nominee 2 - 2pts, nominee 3 - 1pt.)
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“We have the belief to go there and win. We are in a good moment now and we have more confidence and more players that can change the game.”- Rafa Benitez in the buildup to this match.

Having lost seven of eight encounters to Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United side, Liverpool faced the daunting task of trying to improve on this terrible statistic at Old Trafford. Against a United side that were more than up to the task.

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Since 2004 the upsurge in United’s fortunes has been founded on defensive solidity centered around Rio Ferdinand. Only allowing 5 league goals at Old Trafford this season testifies to his importance in the current campaign and further underlines his importance to United’s retention of the Premiership trophy. His absence tomorrow would be a massive blow to United and will play a major part in not only the way the punters place their bets, but in the confidence level of each team moving forward.
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So our new video of the day is dedicated to the midfield wonder that we have from Brazil. The Old Trafford faithful have come up with a lovely little song that goes something like this:

Anderson son son,
He’s better than Kleberson,
Anderson son son,
He’s our midfield magician,
To the left,
To the right,
To the samba beat tonight,
He is class with a brass
And he shits on Fabregas.
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