United take on Arsenal in the crucial Champions League semi-final first leg tomorrow and RedRants’ Stephen Darwin will be here to bring you all the action as we present our brand new Live Blog feature.
Tune in here tomorrow evening from around 19:15 (BST) to follow all the action and hopefully celebrate a United victory!
With 10 Premier League titles, four FA Cup’s and two Champions League trophies to boot, Ryan Giggs has achieved more with Manchester United in eighteen years then Manchester City ever have in their entire history (although chin up Dimitar, you’ve probably won more in half a season with us too).
There are some sporting moments that are for the ages. Moments that, years down the line, one would sit under a chestnut tree and recount with glee; a glint in the eye will betray the nostalgia that, quite obviously, has overcome the storyteller.
Didn’t have the soundest of sleep. So I’m in no position to write a preview. But please, do feel free to continue match discussion here so that the previous thread doesn’t go slow.
Before we start discussing this United legend and his future at the club, let’s get talk of that magnificent milestone out of the way, as only a typically limelight loathing Paul Scholes would want us to do. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you but Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over Portsmouth signalled Scholes’ 600th appearance in a Manchester United shirt. For once in your career Paul, take a thoroughly deserved bow.
When you weigh it up, it really is a monumental achievement. With the days of the one club man now looking decidedly bleak, Scholes may well be the last of a dying breed as he joins Ryan Giggs, Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes to become only the fourth player in United history to reach 600.
Yesterday was a mad game. Sky Sports pundits love to call it a classic; most pundits love to trot that out when they see a rare occurrence of a high scoring game. I thought it was a rubbish game because of some appalling defending. And mainly from Arsenal who made back pass after misjudged back pass to tease Liverpool into scoring goals. The Chelsea-Liverpool tie over two legs was a better contest, despite poor defending. But what do we care? It was a draw, a good result (although an Arsenal win would have been better) and we have something today that could make yesterday’s result count.
I haven’t actually written a match report on this but there was a pseudo report yesterday when Stephen Darwin wrote on Berbatov which also sparked off heated debate on his value.
I’ll try to touch on some of the things I didn’t talk about in the comments over the past couple of days.
We’ve been split down the middle with our opinions of Dimitar Berbatov ever since he made the decision to swap North London for Old Trafford. You’ve had those supporters that are mesmerised by his beautiful touch and close control and then there are fans who continually berate his unambiguous lacksidasical style that, at the end of the day, epitomises him as a player.
The criticisms of the former Spurs man will undoubtedly spread like wildfire after his pathetic attempt at a penalty on Sunday, although after a somewhat average season thus far, can you really argue that these criticisms aren’t justified?
David Moyes, credit to him, did a manful job of getting his point across, casting doubts over Mike Riley’s integrity to referee a Man Utd match. Since then you’ve had people wondering if the accusation carried weight. Scott on RoM did some digging and came up with stats on the number of penalties he’s awarded.
I think it’s not worth dwelling on that because Moyes has done his job. He’s shifted the attention onto Riley, and he’ll likely be doing something to ‘correct’ his public perception.
One hopes he doesn’t over compensate by, say, booking Ronaldo for diving in the box when he really is a victim of a two footed, studs up challenge by an Everton player.
A picture speaks a thousand word. A video speaks, well shows, depending on its length, anything between 10 and quadrillion images. So let’s do this with video exhibits.
Exhibit I:
Inference: Arrogance, good. Contempt, bad. Contempt for Big Walrus-faced manager, worse. Who better to explain contempt and arrogance than our own beloved master mind gamer. (I just made that sound like a cool futuristic game, didn’t I?) On a completely unrelated tangent, regarding contempt and arrogance, it is quite possible that some unhappy men could summon up the courage to walk up to him and say, “Mr Pot, meet Mr. Kettle”. But that will be in a parallel universe, which is why this is an irrelevant tangent.
Exhibit II:
Inference: “I know. We make the best lasgane. Deal with it. Prepared in no time and served by me, the best waiter in Spain.” (Read these lines in conjunction with the video. Helps deconstruct the inner workings of the portly gentleman on view. If it does not, well, humour me now, will you!)
Exhibit III:
Inference: It seems our lasagne inference was wrong after all. It was the wine, Big Walrus-faced manager was after. The crossover of hands meant, no wine for you, making a subtle reference to the soup Nazi. Now anyone being denied the best wine from the best waiter of Spain is bound to be disappointed.
Since this post follows an almost Tarantinoesque non-linear narrative, exhibit I would actually come between II and III in the real world timeline, as Big walrus-faced manager works very hard (but is denied his wine). So Big walrus-faced manager does his press conference while holding onto straws handed over to him by a Scotsman returning from possibly a productive day at the Grand National.
