Early in the match Berbatov had two great chances to put the Red Devils on top, however both were squandered. The first came from a perfect ball from Park through to Berbatov who found himself one on one with the keeper about eight yards out, but Joe Hart proved equal to the task by getting off his line early and making the save. The second came just seconds after – on a throw in Nani slides the ball across the six yard box and an onrushing Berbatov finds some way to miss from about 3 yards out. That certainly should have been the opening goal, but Dimi opted for a sliding finish versus a strong one-time strike.

The wheels came off for United in the 52nd minute. A poorly conceived back pass from Ferdinand to Van der Sar sees the keeper rush his clearance, which only makes it just past the 18 yard box, deflects off of a David Silva back to Carrick who proceeds to gift a soft pass to Yaya Toure who exploded into the box on a slight diagonal run and put the dagger into the heart of all Red Devil fans by sliding the ball through Van der Sar’s legs and into the back of the net. Great run, great goal. Advantage City.

From this point on, Manchester City always looked like they would go on to win with only one other bright spot coming in the 66th minute. United’s only real second-half opportunity came from a free kick from Nani. Joe Hart made a great save and pushed the shot off of the cross bar, On replay you could see the ball deflected off of Mario Balotelli allowing the save.

United’s hopes of finding an equalizer would suffer a huge blow in the 72nd minute. Paul Scholes put in a horribly timed, studs up, tackle on Pablo Zabaleta and earned himself a straight red card. Game, set, match.

United play again this Tuesday and we’ll see how/if they manage to bounce back from this defeat.

You can see the full highlights below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy0NxOxNdAs

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In 13 meeting between the two clubs, United has won all of them. Scoring 41 goals and only conceding 4 in the process.

This day was no different, it took Chicharito 17 minutes to score the opener and justify his start of Bulgarian strike partner, Dimitar Berbatov. With this goal you could tell why Chicharito is such a great goal-scorer. He’s not the biggest, or fastest but his movement is amazing! He makes and times his runs to perfection!

Although United were up, it really was Wigan who was playing the better football in the first-half. Edwin Van der Sar kept United in the game, by making some key saves in the first half. To be honest United were lucky to end the first half up 1-0 and still have Rooney on the field after Rooney caught McCarthy with a vicious elbow off the ball.

But the second half was all United. Hernandez scored his second after a one-two with Rooney. Van der Sar punted a ball to the center of the field and Hernandez stepped in front of his defender, won the ball and continued his run before Rooney fed him a brilliant ball and Chicharito did the rest. It was a great play started by Van der Sar, who United will not have next season. It will be be a huge loss, and hopefully United will not turn into an Arsenal, post Jens Lehmann.

Rooney would score the third thanks to the help of two subs, Gibson who came on for Scholes would feed a great ball to Berbatov, who came on for Hernandez. Gibson would find Berbatov behind the dismal Wigan defense and Berbatov would play Rooney after drawing both the defender and keeper.

Fabio would come on for Nani and would only need 1 minute to score United’s forth. Fletchers center across the face of goal found Fabio on the back post, and Fabio kept his composure to finish very calmly.

It was a great performance by United, but they will have a true test on Tuesday as they take on Chelsea, who are very eager to prove they are not out of the title race and jump start their comeback.

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“Ever since I arrived at United, it’s been a dream come true playing here,” Evra told manutd.com.

“I’ve won a lot in the last five years, but I want to win more and I know that’s the mentality of everyone here.”

Since Evra joined United in 2006 he has won 3 Premier League titles and a Champions League.

“Patrice has developed into a key character in the dressing room,” said Sir Alex Ferguson.

I think Evra is the greatest left back in the world and this is great news for United. But there is one person who may not be to thrilled with the news and thats Fabio who doesnt get much playing time because Evra is so good. Lets just hope Fabio decides to stick around cause he’s also an amazing talent.

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“Macheda has easily filled the void left by Cassano, he will definitely do well,” Garrone said.

“In these five months we will try to treat him well. With him here, the enthusiasm has increased tenfold.”

United manager Alex Ferguson said he would like to see Macheda gain more first-team experiance. And though many clubs in both Italy and England were interested in the 19 year-old former Lazio trainee, it was Sampdoria who secured the U21 Italian international.

I think this will be good for Macheda, he is not likely to get much playing time at United, since it seems that Hernandez has secured that “Super Sub” position.

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“They have made tentative moves before with little success, but this time it looks like they could be going for it,” said an expert in Middle East football, who is convinced that the time is right for the Qatari purchase.

“Now they have landed the 2022 World Cup, the country wants to expand its influence in the game across the globe.”

What do you think a purchase like this would do to a club like Manchester United, who are already so successful?

We’ve seen billionaires take smaller, typically unsuccessful clubs and invest millions if not billions with some success. But what would an owner or owners with relatively endless funds do to one of the worlds most succesful clubs?

The most important detail is United already have Sir Alex, so bringing in a high profile manager who starts buying all kinds of players, for ridiculous amounts of cash wont happen. This is where most most billionaire clubs fail. They hand the keys over to a single person, typically one with not enough experience in handling that kind of money.

Sir Alex has been around long enough to know who and when to buy, and wont buy 5 star strikers in a single transfer window.

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“We are aware that there is intense public and media interest on the club at the moment, but there are no developments of note to report today.”

“I can confirm a number of meetings have taken place today, including with the player’s representative. The outcome of those meetings will become clear in the near future. In the meantime, fans are asked to be patient.”

Source: http://www.manutd.com

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Talks with David Gill about renewing the Rooneys contract at United stalled back in August and with only one year remaining on his contract the 24-year-old has made it clear he wants to leave.

Sir Alex is “shocked and bemused” as to why Rooney would want to leave “The best club in the world”

So, “where to” for Rooney? Like I said before in “The start of Rooney to Real” there are only a few clubs he could actually go to.

Real Madrid, Manchester City and maybe Chelsea are the only clubs I think he would go to. He wouldn’t fit in Barcelona, and he wouldn’t go to Italy, cause it doesn’t fit his style of play.

Both Real Madrid and Chelsea have successful striking duos. Real have Ronaldo and Higuain, and Chelsea have Drogba and Anelka. Manchester City have Tevez, and every other striker they have is expendable (Santa Cruz, Adebayor, Balotelli, and Jo) and we’ve seen what Rooney and Tevez could do together.

Where do you think Rooney will go?

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Wayne Rooney will continue to work with Coke, according to a statement released by the company, stating “Last month we amended our marketing plans on Coke Zero. Given the situation at that time we did not feel it was appropriate to run an on-pack promotion featuring Wayne Rooney.”

“Our relationship with Wayne Rooney is ongoing. We are currently working with Wayne on Coke Zero Street Striker – an award winning programme which over the past 3 years has encouraged thousands of young people to get involved in football”

Although I agree with Coke’s decision to cancel Rooney’s campaign, obviously because Wayne Rooney is looked up to by millions of kids world wide, and what he did is unacceptable and is not the message we want to be giving to our youth. I disagree with what society does, in putting these athletes on these pedestals.

What do you think, should Coke and other company’s pull endorsement deals or drop campaigns the moment an athlete gets into trouble?

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Sir Alex has stated “The operation has been successful and the break was clean, which was the major concern for us at the time,”

When asked when we could expect Valencia back, he said “You can never be 100 per cent accurate in these situations and it is a bad injury, but we are looking at the end of February, which is better than we thought on Tuesday.”

“He is a strong boy, who is very positive about it.”

“Being positive helps you in these situations, so we are very hopeful we will get him back then.”

Valencia was in great form leading up to this injury, and unfortunately I don’t believe he will find this type of form again, but I do wish him the best and I hope all his recovery is a speedy and successful one

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I was almost certain Real Madrid would lure the big Serbian away from United.

Real Madrid, who are the only real option for a player like Vidic had all the resources to do so, but I’m sure it came down to the staff and football at United.

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