What. A. Game! If there ever was a marque game for the Premier League it was this one. Great goals, drama, penalties, a wonderful comeback, and horrible refereeing. A lot of people are of the opinion that Howard Webb was Uniteds best player of the day, but the “best referee in the world” had an off day for both sides. United and Chelsea got crucial decisions against them, some more obvious than the other, but as most great United games go the ABU fanbase quickly came out with refereeing decisions to try and overshadow a wonderful comeback. Who can forget the 5-2 comeback win against Spurs in 2009, the first goal coming from a penalty that was given “only because it was at Old Trafford”? Or the 3-2 comeback at Blackpool last season, with literally everybody trying to point out how Rafael should have had a penalty awarded against him rather than look at Fergie’s brave, and decisive decision to take Rooney off for Hernandez with 30 minutes to go?

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New year, new resolutions! 2011 brought United their long awaited 19th League title, an 8-2 win against Arsenal, a dramatic Charity Shield win versus Manchester City in August, and much, much more. No doubt Sir Alex Ferguson will want to make 2012 an even better year for the club, as the now 70-year old manager looks to build yet another footballing force at the kingdom that is Old Trafford. However, the year did not start well for the Red Devils. Not at all. Despite City dropping points against Sunderland, they managed to ghost past Liverpool just two days later and get a three point lead over their neighbors. A win against Newcastle would be vital for the reds, especially given the unnecessary loss to Blackburn Rovers just this weekend. United usually respond after losses, but fell short to Newcastle who dominated themselves to a 3-0 win.

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Manchester United’s victory against Wolves saw the club manage to score more than 3 goals in a single game for the first time since visiting The Reebok in early September. After possibly one of the hardest weeks in Sir Alex’s career, he must be overjoyed to see his players play with the swagger and determination that’s been missing at Old Trafford for quite some time now. Despite not being the most talented side in the League, you cannot say that the Wolves lacked fighting spirit. It was going to be a challenge for United, but if there was a time the West Midlands outfit would have dreaded to face the Red Devils, it would have been on a day when they had an awful lot to prove.

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“Thursday nights, Channel 5!” was a chant designed by Manchester United fans when Liverpool failed to get a top four spot in 2010, but expect it to be heard more often the next few months. United’s loss to Basel was excruciating, humiliating, and painful. Memories of Benfica and the failings of the 2005/06 season were reminders for Ferguson going in to the game. “Back then we had a lot of injuries and young players trying to break into the squad, this time it is totally different” were the words from our manager before the Basel game. But was it different? Just like then we lost 2-1 in our final game, going out in the group qualification.

Why? How did this happen? Fergie blamed injuries and inexperience for our failings back then, but are they good enough excuses after what we saw on Wednesday?

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Three days since Sir Alex Ferguson’s midweek remorse, Phil Jones opened his account for Manchester United scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory at Villa Park, much to the delight of the boss himself.

Ater the shocking display against Palace on wednesday night and with City putting 5 past Norwich earlier in the day, United knew that a positive result was a must against the Villains.

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“How did Manchester United not win this game?” is the question on everyone’s lips after an amazing 1-1 draw at Old Trafford between the Red Devils and the Geordies from Tyneside. United created tons of chances, with everything from a great goalkeeper and posts, to miraculous goal-line clearances keeping them at bay. It must be frustrating for United to see their two best performances in a while end in draws, after strangling out poor 1-0 wins for many games running now.

As United-Newcastle games go it was a fairly entertaining game as both sides played well, and all players performed their duties admirably well. But what did the separate teams go out to do exactly?

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Danny Welbeck’s deflected header was enough for United to claim all three points against Sunderland but the day belonged to Sir Alex Ferguson.

Old Trafford welcomed Fergie in style today, with a new banner unfolded on the Stretford End listing all the trophies won in the 25 years and the crowd belting out a loud “Every single one of us loves Alex Ferguson”.

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Manchester United are top of group C in the Champions League, after goals from Antonio Valencia and Wayne Rooney secured a 2-0 win at Old Trafford.
It was a largely uninspiring performance by Fergie’s men and, with the greatest respect for Galati, against a slightly better organized United could have paid the price for their mistakes.

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When I was offered the chance to write about United’s best ever centre-backs, as part of a Best XI feature, I jumped with excitement at the opportunity, without realizing that I was facing two huge tasks. The first is that compiling a list (no matter the subject) is never easy and always likely to leave somebody disappointed or with enough ammunition to argue the choices that have been made. The second, and more practical, is that for a club such as United, whose tradition has largely been built on an attacking approach, with all the flair and panache of midfielders, wingers and strikers, it’s easy to forget how blessed the team has been over the years, with some great centre-backs gracing Old Trafford’s turf. This is a list of (arguably) United’s best 10 centre-backs: some might seem obvious choices, some might not, some might even seem totally unjustified and spark a debate, but isn’t this the point of writing a list?

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