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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Manchester United are through to the fourth round of the FA Cup after defeating Manchester City in a pulsating encounter at Eastlands.

Goals from Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck sent United fans into raptures as Fergie’s men reclaimed local rights, while City were left incensed by referee Chris Foy’s decision to send Kompany off.

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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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Dimitar Berbatov delivered a late Christmas present to United fans, scoring three in a 5-0 demolition of 10-men Wigan, to send Ferguson’s team joint top with Manchester City, albeit behind on goal difference.

Park Ji Sung and Antonio Valencia also got on the scoresheet, as Wigan were furious with referee Phil Dowd, whose decision to send off Conor Sammon virtually sealed Roberto Martinez’ men destiny.

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Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick got on the score sheet as Manchester United delivered a great performance to seal a comfortable 2-0 win at QPR.

United were superior in every department and could have easily had five or six, such was the gulf in quality between Fergie’s men and the West London outfit.

Aiming to continue his team’s fine form away from home – 5 wins and 2 draws up to today – Ferguson fielded an attacking-minded 11 with an unchanged back four, Welbeck and Rooney up-front and Valencia and Nani out wide. Jones was, again, chosen alongside Carrick as defensive midfielder and the youngster produced yet another brilliant performance, further sign of his quality and development.

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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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Another Premier League game, another 1-0 win. For the 7th consecutive Premier League game, United scored only one goal against their opposition. But following our horrendous defensive performances at the start of the season, who would have thought that the single goal would be enough to win 4 of those games? Never mind City scoring 6 goals on us, but until the Liverpool game in October we had conceded most shots of all the teams in the Premier League. From being a goalscoring machine without mercy at the start of the season, we have returned to become the defensive force we have been renown for since 2008. As people say, digging out 1-0 wins are what makes a Championship winning team, but the transition this team has gone through since our win against Chelsea is very surprising. We have not scored 3 goals in a game since then, and that was back in September.

Why is that? Is it bad luck, poor tactics, or lack of attacking determination? Against Villa, we got some well needed answers…

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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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