Sunday, 31st January 2010 – KO: 16:00

As expected, Chelsea did win yesterday’s game against Burnley (full credit to Burnley though, they gave them a few problems) and now sit at the top of the table, four points ahead of us.

There are still plenty of games ahead of us (fifteen including this one to be precise) and plenty of points to play for but you just get the feeling that if the gap widened any more than four points (certainly if it got to seven points) then we might just be seeing our title slipping away.

It’s a tough ask and after the recent performances of Manchester United, it seems almost unfair to ask them to climb another mountain but I do think that we need the three points from this one. Those connected with Chelsea might be sat at home rubbing their hands much as we were when Chelsea came to the Emirates a couple of months ago.

On that day, we were all quite stunned to see Chelsea not only beat Arsenal but turn The Emirates into a scene from Cloverfield.

We need to try to pull off something similar (I would settle for 1-0 – 3-0 isn’t totally necessary) but the problem is, of course, that United wins away to Arsenal are rarer than Glazer fans at a MUST Christmas party.

The good news for us going into this one is that Rio Ferdinand aside (banned), Fergie has just about everyone available for selection. Vidic should be back to fill Rio’s spot.

Arsenal have a couple of injury problems that could be significant – perhaps the main one being Vermaelen and I am not sure what the situation is with him. If he remains injured then Sol Campbell could step in and I am not quite sure how I would be feeling about that if I were an Arsenal supporter right now.

Eduardo is another missing due to a torn hamstring and, of course, Van Persie remains injured.

Not that this will stop Arsenal being a potent attacking force. With Fabregas, Arshavin, Rosicky, Nasri and (dare I say) Bendtner, Wenger has plenty of attacking options and despite Chelsea and Manchester United seeming to have beaten everyone they have played recently by a cricket score, Arsenal remain top scorers in the Premier League.

To say our defenders will need to be on their toes is an understatement.

Van Der Sar, Evra, Vidic and Evans appear to be certs for this one but Fergie perhaps has a decision to make at right-back. Stick with the mobility and attacking threat of Rafael or go with the strength and experience of Brown?

Rafael’s youth and inexperience got the better of him in our first Carling Cup game against Manchester City but Fergie showed great faith in him to throw him in again in the return leg and he didn’t disappoint. Fergie may well decide that in Vidic and Evans, we have enough size and strength in defence to deal with most of Arsenal’s attack (they’re not the biggest or most physical of sides in the world) and will stick with Rafael.

The midfield is guaranteed to feature Fletcher. The one thing Wenger hates is anyone spoiling his team’s pretty play. Fletcher does this better than anyone.

I don’t see any reason to play anyone other than Carrick alongside him and I hope he plays in a more advanced position and helps Rooney out, this worked well in the City game.

There are probably three other midfield places up for grabs with Rooney playing alone upfront.

For all of Nani’s good form in his last few games, it looks likely that Valencia will resume on the right and Park might just get the nod on the left for his ability to get in amongst opponents. I’m sure Fergie would like the experience of Giggs or Scholes in there too.

As for a prediction, well, it is just the same as whenever we meet Arsenal. Toss a coin. We beat them at OT earlier in the season but Arsenal deserved at least a point in all honesty and if they had walked away with all three, we couldn’t have had many complaints.

However, we are definitely playing better as a team than we were back then and the result against City will have done wonders for the players’ confidence.

I think we have the players required to scupper Arsenal’s slick passing game here and if they are going to win, they might have to “win ugly”… not something Wenger’s teams have been renowned for down the years.

At the same time, we have more than enough going forward to cause a few problems of our own and the goals are starting to flow once more.

Picking out a decent bet for this one isn’t easy, statistically, there is very little to choose between anything you care to mention and the record between Fergie and Wenger is as close as it comes (I think Fergie just got his nose in front thanks to our Champions League games last season and the League game earlier this season).

As I say, you could probably toss a coin for a bet in most markets concerning this one and judging by the prices on most markets, the bookies feel the same way and there’s very little in the way of value to be found.

Possibly United (draw no bet) @ 2.00 is worth looking at but the fact that we have only drawn one game on our travels whilst Arsenal have only drawn once at home so far this season just has me thinking that a draw here might just be on the cards.

The problem with this one is that for every argument you give for a specific outcome, there is an equally good counter-argument for the complete opposite.

I just think that the strength of both teams in is attack whilst both defences have a question mark above them and I can see at least one goal at both ends.

The price isn’t great and I am not going overboard with the points. This is one I would rather not get involved with from a betting perspective.

The bet is 2 points Both Teams to Score @ 1.72 with Bet365.

Fergie continued to show great faith in Nani by selecting him to play on the right again for this one and Nani can never again complain that Fergie has not played him in a) his best position or b) the big games.

To Nani’s immense credit, he has repaid that faith with the best performances he has put in whilst wearing the United shirt.

He was brilliant today. Especially in the first half.

The first United goal was all about Nani. Two Arsenal players appeared to have him hemmed in but a wonderful bit of skill made mugs of them both. A little shimmy inside the box took another Arsenal player out of the game and then he delivered a wonderful chipped cross in the direction of Park who was running in towards goal.

This put the Arsenal goalkeeper in all kinds of trouble as he attempted to paw the ball over the bar but could never quite get enough on it and only succeeded in putting it into his own net. Had he not then Park would have scored, without doubt.

The goal has to go down as an own goal but it was all down to the skill and composure of Nani.

The next goal, just a few minutes later had shades of the goal we scored here in the Champions League last season when Ronaldo scored. A couple of great cross field passes on the break completely tore Arsenal to shreds and Nani showing great composure again took the ball in his stride, sprinted on and then had the composure again to play the ball into Rooney’s path for him to tuck away.

That was Rooney’s 100th Premier League goal and it is great that he has achieved that without too much attention to the subject because these milestones can weigh heavily on players at times.

We had to wait until the second half for the third and whilst another great goal, it was quite bizarre.

Park started his run onto a through pass in his own half and he ran with the ball… and he ran… and he ran…

I must admit to having some sympathy with the Arsenal defence because I too thought that with Nani, Rooney and Fletcher steaming forward, the sideways pass was going to come and so they all marked the incoming players but as Park descended upon the penalty area, they suddenly seemed to realise that perhaps Park is capable of hitting the target himself and started to head in his direction.

However, completely unchallenged, Park smacked the ball into the bottom corner. 3-0. Game over.

Arsenal scored late on which galvanised them for a bit of a late rally and we had a few scares in the closing moments but we could have scored one or two of our own during that time.

Wenger felt that his side played poorly but I just think United played brilliantly today. Surely not a coincidence.

Rooney continues to be the main man but Nani is rapidly shooting up in the estimation of just about everyone concerned with Manchester United and if he can continue this form then the future bodes well for us all.

That’s not to say that this was a two-man display. Just like the game against Manchester City, there wasn’t an average display by any of the United players today, all did their job brilliantly.

The pre-match hype was centred on Rooney v Fabregas.

I missed the line-ups before the game so I didn’t know who was playing and who was on the bench etc and fifteen minutes into the game, I squinted my eyes and asked my friend, “Is Fabregas playing?”.

75 minutes later, I could have asked, “So when was he subbed?”

Nuff said.

Sir Alex has called this “The biggest game of our season so far”. Whether that was a subtle side-swipe at Manchester City, a call to his players to get their feet back onto the ground and remind them that we haven’t actually won anything yet or his genuine belief, it is hard to say but one thing is for sure, it is a massive game.

As things stand, we are level on games played with Arsenal and one point ahead. Chelsea are at the top of the table by one point but have a game in hand.

I am writing this a few hours before Chelsea kick off against Burnley and, in all honesty, it looks very much like we will go into the Arsenal game four points behind Chelsea.

Arsenal looked to be out of the title race about six weeks ago but a decent run of results and a bit of a wobbly period from both Chelsea and Manchester United and they have found themselves right back in the thick of it again.

A win for them tomorrow will put us under enormous pressure. A win for us would be the same for them.

The difference is, our next game is against Portsmouth at Old Trafford whilst Arsenal take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Their next game after Chelsea is Liverpool at The Emirates.

A tough sequence of fixtures for Arsenal and Wenger will no doubt see this period as crucial to their title bid.

Nine points from those three games and they could well be at the top of the League. No points and their League title bid could be all over.

Under normal circumstances, a point at The Emirates would be seen as a good result for us. We beat them there last season in the Champions League but that remains our only success at The Emirates. I think we have to go there with the ambition of taking all three points.

This would keep us hanging onto Chelsea’s tail but it could also have another knock-on effect that could benefit us…

Arsenal will know that they will probably need to do what few have achieved at Stamford Bridge in recent years and come away with all three points.

That will keep Arsenal in the chase but it would benefit us almost as much as them.

I was watching a Fergie press conference last week and he said that he felt that 82 points could be enough to win the title this season. I am not too sure about that at this stage.

Chelsea are currently on 51 points and have 16 games left to play. That is a potential 48 points which means that they could end on 99 points. This obviously is not going to happen but can you really see them dropping more than 17 points between now and the end of the season?

They have dropped just 15 points in 22 games so far and the early part of this season was remarkable simply because of the number of points the “top” teams dropped.

At this stage, I would be very surprised if Chelsea dropped 14 points between now and the end of the season (and even then I am assuming that we beat them and they draw in all the other games they have against the other top teams).

I put them on at least 85 points by the end of the season.

We need all the help we can get to overturn this (likely) 4 points gap. We need to beat them ourselves and we need to give the likes of Arsenal every reason to go there and beat them too.

A defeat for Arsenal tomorrow would give them every incentive to go on and give Chelsea the game of their lives.

Ancelotti started it last week with his observation that an injury to Rooney could shatter Manchester United’s hopes of winning the Premier League this season.

I suppose it didn’t take too much imagination from our lovely press to translate this into “Ancelotti: United Are A One Man Team”.

This is a theme that has now been taken up by others but we’ve heard it all before.

For the last few seasons, we had Ronaldo and we were a “one man team” – without Ronaldo, we would be nowhere (and this despite the fact that Rooney was also playing for us at the time!)

Before Ronaldo, we had Van Nistelrooy who banged in more goals than either of them. Perhaps we were a “one man team” then too?

I think it is fair to say, however, that is he the main man at United at the moment and he was the main man even when Ronaldo was here.

Everyone loves Rooney because his skill and ability are backed up with a tremendous work ethic and a true commitment to the cause.

We all know that Rooney is an Everton man but he has become an honorary Mancunian during his time at Manchester United. He embodies the spirit of Manchester United just as much as anybody else.

Sir Matt Busby was Scottish. Sir Alex Ferguson is Scottish. Roy Keane is Irish. Ryan Giggs is Welsh. Sir Bobby Charlton is a Geordie. Steve Bruce is a Geordie. Eric Cantona was French. I could go on and on. These people from such disparate places took Manchester United into their hearts and we took them into ours.

Ronaldo never quite felt like “one of us”. He came to United from Sporting because he recognised it as a step up, a place to improve himself as a player and put himself onto a bigger stage. He made no secret of his dream to play for Real Madrid and the better he played for us, the closer his dream moved towards reality.

The difference between the two in the eyes of the supporters was confirmed to me when I was at the Champions League semi-final against Arsenal last season.

Rooney attempted a fairly ambitious long ball to Ronaldo. It didn’t quite come off. Ronaldo turned in the direction of Rooney and gave him an angry verbal blast. I don’t think he actually finished whatever it was that he started to say because the crowd immediately went berserk at Ronaldo.

I obviously couldn’t hear what every supporter in the stadium wes shouting but certainly those around me in the Stretford End were screaming things along the lines of “Don’t you dare have ago at him!” (the language was slightly more colourful than that).

There was no doubt in the minds of the supporters just who, exactly, was the main man at United.

It was obviously very nice to have both Ronaldo and Rooney in the team but if we had to lose one of them, I would have chosen Ronaldo without a second thought. I suspect that this was the view of the vast, vast majority of United supporters at the time Ronaldo left and is almost certainly the view of 100% of them now.

No, we’re not a one man team and anyone who suggests this has obviously not been watching us this season.

But I do agree with what Ancelotti said in that if anything were to happen to Rooney, we would have a problem.

This is the problem when you have the best player in the Premier League playing for you. It’s quite a nice problem, really.

I don’t normally read too much into press reports regarding players coming and going but there have been a few stories about players going out on loan recently that have all been proved correct.

The latest is the news that Anderson is on the verge of a loan move to Lyon.

There’s enough about the whole situation with Anderson to make this one quite believable.

Anderson is struggling to make a real impact at Manchester United. You could argue that now that Fergie appears to have settled on Fletcher and Carrick as his first choice, he isn’t being given enough games to prove himself in a decent run for the team.

The counter-argument, of course, is that Fergie hasn’t decided on Fletcher and Carrick at the expense of Anderson by drawing their names out of a hat.

The fact is, Anderson has been given opportunities and has often been found wanting, especially against the better opponents.

There was a bit of a problem with him at the start of the season when it was reported that he had a bit of a clash with Fergie. He found himself playing for the reserves the week later. I watched that reserve game and he was head and shoulders above everyone else on the field and he is clearly too good for that level but is not quite good enough to play at first team level regularly.

This latest development comes on the back of reports that he completely failed to turn up for training the other day and has been handed a substantial fine.

Fergie’s patience with the lad finally seems to have run out.

An interesting side-note to the story (and this is the bit that I wouldn’t be too surprised to discover is a figment of a journalists imagination) is that French international keeper Hugo Lloris could be coming in the opposite direction.

Watch this space…

Rio’s appeal against the three match ban for “Violent Conduct” incurred when he appeared to lash out at Fagan during our game against Hull has failed and backfired.

He now faces a four match ban – the extra game coming as the FA felt the appeal was frivolous.

Fergie has been reported as saying that he felt Rio had a good case because he was being “punched and wrestled”. Looking at the images, it looked like Fagan perhaps gave him a particularly nasty nip becuase Rio swung around suddenly and lashed out. It looked like an instinctive reaction to something Fagan was doing to him.

However, you can’t go around whacking people around the head in any walk of life and certainly not on a football field.

I think Fergie really, really wanted him to play in the game last night because Vidic, whilst on the bench, was obviously not fully fit to start and play in such a high-intensity game but it looks like he could be back for Arsenal on Sunday.

He’ll have to be or we’re down to the bare bones again in defence and bare bones against Arsenal at the Emirates is not good. Not good at all.

Sunday’s clash with Arsenal at the Emirates will be the first football match anywhere in the world to be screened in 3D.

Nine pubs in the London area will be screening the match live in glorious HD 3D.

This is great news for the Southerners who will at last be able to see their heroes as though they are really there.

And yes, I am talking about the United fans!

It is far easier for me to write this post because we won the tie. Perhaps if we had failed to reach the final, I would not be writing it. I don’t know. I like to think that I always give credit where it is due, win or lose but I do have red-tinted glasses on most of the time.

However, tonight (and indeed in the first leg at Manchester City’s ground) we saw a brilliant example of the English game.

It might not always have been beautiful, there were some ugly moments, but it was breathtaking, spellbinding and brilliant.

In the blue corner we had the up-and-coming Manchester City. In the red corner, we had the Champions, Manchester United.

Both teams gave their absolute all over two terrific legs of a semi-final of the League Cup.

The fact that these were two massive local rivals just added more spice to the whole occasion.

Full credit must be given to Manchester City for playing an excellent couple of matches. Beating City during their wilderness years might have been sweet but beating a Manchester City side full of quality feels even better.

I thought there might have been a sending off or two in tonights game but to the players’ immense credit, the game was played with intensity and aggression but was never dirty. A credit to both teams.

I think I like their new manager. While some of the other bigwigs at City are behaving with all the class and decorum of a spoiled brat who has just won the lottery, he at least, is behaving with class and dignity.

When he arrived, he laid down his intentions to knock Manchester United off their pedestal (not dissimilar from a claim made by a certain Alex Ferguson many years ago) but realises that words are cheap and the business has to be done on the pitch more than off it.

I have no doubt that City’s long wait for a bit of silverware is nearing it’s end and if the off-field excesses of both spending and boasting perhaps don’t truly deserve the reward, the passion of the fans and the conduct of the players and their manager does.

There will be no gloating about tonight’s victory on this site.

This semi-final tie illustrated perfectly why we love this game of football so much and it does take two teams to make a great game.

We now march onwards to the final where we meet another team whose manager is a believer in the beautiful game.

It promises to be a cracker and I, for one, am very happy to know that we will be a part of it.

I read quite a lot of stuff on the internet, mostly about football, mostly about Manchester United. Most of it is pure fiction and some of it is outright lies and misrepresentation.

There were headlines a couple of weeks ago that  “Gary Neville agrees with Fergie – Tevez not worth £25 Million.”

This was what Gary Neville had said in his Sunday column which appears in the Times of Malta.

At the time, I just took it as the truth and that Neville was up to his old winding up opponents trick. In short, I trusted what the English press had written (always a mistake) and didn’t check it out for myself.

Today, I decided to have a search around the net to see if I could actually find the offending article.

I did, and here’s what it says:-

Was it a mistake to let Carlos Tevez leave Manchester United and do you think United should buy a striker in this transfer window? John Refalo, Attard

The manager over the years has made many decisions with regard to players coming and going, and he has almost always been proved correct.

Over a period of 20 years he may have got one or two wrong, and I think he has admitted that himself, but he knows exactly what he’s doing and he understands when a player’s time is up.

I can’t disagree with his decision on Tevez. He was a good player for us, but if the financial demands are too big then that’s just the way it goes. Other good players have left this club in the past; it’s not the first time it’s happened.

Firstly, notice that it is written in response to a question from a reader. This answers Tevez’ question “Why the hell is that idiot talking about me?”

Then he doesn’t specifically say that he agreed with Fergie’s decision to let Tevez go, only that he couldn’t disagree either.

It is quite likely that Neville is not in full knowledge of the facts surrounding just how much Tevez and his pimp agent were asking for but Neville is simply guessing that their demands were too high and Fergie was either unwilling (or unable) to meet them.

Neville then goes on to compliment his former team-mate, “he was a good player for us”.

I know Tevez’ English isn’t too good but if there’s one thing he needs to know more than anything in England it is to never trust the Press and in particular, don’t believe that the headlines are in anyway indicative of the content of the story.

Something I need to remind myself of from time to time, it seems.

I said yesterday that I couldn’t possibly see how Ferdinand could appeal the charge because the offence looked quite blatant.

However, Manchester United have appealed against it.

What this means is that Fergie either has some very compelling reason for why Rio appeared to try and knock Fagan’s head off or he is putting an awful lot more importance on tonight’s Manchester City game than he puts on the Premier League matches against Aston Villa and possibly Everton.

By appealing, he can play in tonight’s game but his ban will take him through the Arsenal, Portsmouth and Aston Villa games.

If the FA decide that the appeal is frivolous, then the ban could be extended to four games which would mean that Rio also misses the Everton game.

Under any other circumstances, you would expect Fergie to take Rio’s ban on the chin, make it start tonight and then he would miss just two Premier League matches (Arsenal and Portsmouth) but tonight’s match is not only a semi-final but a semi-final against Moneybags City.

As I say, perhaps Fergie is privy to some information that has not yet been released to us. If he isn’t then this looks like a bit of a gamble to me.

Wednesday, 27th January 2010 – KO: 20:00

There has been quite a lot of talk going into this match as to who has the advantage after the first leg scoreline.

As City come in 2-1 ahead, they have an obvious advantage but as we are at home and know exactly what we need to do in order to progress, some feel that we have the advantage.

The away goal rule that we all know from the Champions League works slightly differently in the Carling Cup.

In the Champions League, if we were to win this one 1-0 after 90 minutes we would be through but in this game, it would go to extra time as the aggregate scores would be level (2-2).

If the scores are still level at the end of extra time, then we would go through on the away goal scored.

If the match ends 2-1 to us at the end of extra time then it goes to a penalty shoot-out.

If this does happen, we could have 90 minutes of normal time, 30 minutes of extra time and 20 minutes of Fergie time, add to that the penalty shoot-out and we could all be here until midnight!

I have a feeling that this tie will be settled in ninety minutes, however.

I thought we were more than a match for City last week and should have gone in at half-time 1-0 ahead. A dodgy penalty decision that favoured City just before half-time must have been a blow for the United players.

In fact, there were several little decisions that went in City’s favour throughout the game.

Hopefully there will be no dodgy refereeing decisions in this one and if there are, the majority will favour us to balance things up from the first leg.

Probably the weak link in the City team last week was young defender Boyata and with Toure returning from Africa, he could take his place in defence.

City also have Adebayor back and he could well play a role here tonight. The main men for City at the moment however are Given, Bellamy and Tevez and all three were certainly thorns in our side last week and Bellamy was a thorn in our side in the Premier League fixture. Fergie must have been scratching his head for the last week or so, wondering what exactly to do about him.

With a bit of luck, Mancini will play Robinho!

As for us, we are starting to tick again recently. The goals are flowing and Wayne Rooney is on fire. That Rooney will spearhead the attack here is beyond question. The decision Fergie has to make is who to play alongside him.

Personally, I would have no problem with Owen, Berbatov or even Diouf although I think that initially, it could well be Berbatov who gets the nod with Diouf coming on if necessary.

The other big decision for Fergie is who to play on the right.

He rested Valencia against Hull at the weekend and brought Nani in. Valencia has been Mr Consistency this season with regular 7-8/10 performances week in, week out.

Played over on the left, Nani has been giving 5-6/10 performances when picked (and that has been quite rarely).

However, against Hull, played on the right, Nani put in a 9/10 performance and probably did better than Valencia has done at any point in the season so far.

If Nani gets the nod tonight will we get another 9/10 performance or will we be back to square one with him?

Nani won’t like it and will wonder what he has to do to impress Fergie and get the chance to play in a big game but I suspect Fergie will opt for the safety of Valencia. If he does give Nani another go then I will have to rethink my theory that Fergie has become too afraid of losing.

Personally, I would like to see Fergie realy go for this one and put ut the following team:-

Van Der Sar, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Fletcher, Giggs, Rooney and Diouf.

If Nani and Giggs can supply the ammunition, Diouf will do the rest and his pace will give the dodgy City defence problems all night long.

As for what Rooney could do tonight…

This could end up a tight and cagey game (if Fergie packs the midfield and plays Rooney upfront alone, he is going for the 1-0) but I just cannot see that happening. The atmosphere here tonight will be electric. Both sets of players will be high on adrenaline and I can see mistakes. Possibly even a sending off.

I think United will win this one and, that being the case, I see no reason why we can’t win by two clear goals and I was thinking of making this the bet because whilst the bookies make United clear favourites to win the game (1.66), the price jumps up considerably for a United two goal winning margin (2.87) and whilst it might at first seem a crazy bet, I think it represents good value and worth considering

However, I am going to stick with the corner markets. We have been getting plenty of corners recently and with two attacking sides such as these, a glut of corners would not be a surprise (there were 17 in the first leg and 12 when we met City at OT in the League earlier in the season).

The bet is going to be 3 points Over 12 Corners @ 1.97 with Bet365.

There was a lot of talk beforehand about whether or not the scoreline from the first leg gave the advantage to City or United.

As this game drew to a 0-0 half-time scoreline, it was quite clear that the advantage lay with City. At that stage, they were 45 minutes away from the final.

We played the better football during the first half and had all the possession and territorial advantage but at that stage, it counted for nothing.

A goal from Paul Scholes after 52 minutes swung the balance in United’s favour and a goal from Carrick 20 minutes later appeared to seal the issue but in reality, City’s job was still the same. They had to score a goal.

When Tevez scored five minutes later, it was completely even and no one appeared to have the advantage although if anything, the goal gave City added belief and resolve. Having had the game in the bag, we were suddenly up against it again.

We upped our game again after around 80 minutes and really piled on the pressure and, as has happened so many times this season, we finally got the goal that settled it through… who else? Wayne Rooney.

Yet again, Rooney will get all the headlines and I will not begrudge him any of them. Whether he is the best player in the world according to the judges of these things or not I don’t care, I cannot think of one player who I would swap him for at this moment in time.

He has soaked in the never-say-die attitude of Manchester United past and now embodies it in the present. Long may it continue into the future.

I wasn’t far out with my team selection although I knew I was wishing for too much with Diouf and Fergie chose Paul Scholes instead and went with the 4-5-1 formation (I refuse to call it 4-3-3) with Rooney up front alone.

As usual, this left Rooney quite isolated upfront at times but Fergie definitely seemed to take action about this at half time and Carrick played a much more forward role in support of Rooney.

The difference for us as a goal-threat in the second half was there for all to see.

It was probably written in the stars that Tevez would have his say in this game and I still can’t quite decide whether it was brilliant skill from him, a bit lucky or a bit of a bad decision by Rio to go in with his head rather than just put his foot through it that led to the goal.

I’ll give it to Tevez because whatever he did, it ended in the back of the net and that is all you want from your forwards.

It was probably also written in the stars that Rooney would have the last say in this contest. He has been in incredible scoring form of late but had yet to score in this tie until well into time added on when he scored the most important goal of them all. The winning goal.

As for other stuff, I thought Fergie was spot on in selecting Nani to start here. He was immense against Hull and he was great again tonight. On the surface, he perhaps didn’t appear to do as well as he did against Hull but you have to take into account the quality of opposition. With all due respect to Hull, Manchester United are a class above but Nani did not look out of place there tonight and did his job well. Again, from the right side of midfield.

Rio Ferdinand was immense in defence and showed just what we miss when he is not playing. I was not very complimentary about him for getting into trouble with the FA immediately after returning from a three month layoff and I still don’t think he will be giving any Mastermind contestants sleepless nights but he remains a World class defender when his head is in the right place.

Giggs was excellent and it is just such a shame that he is now getting on in years and the pace he once possessed is now long behind him because there were a couple of moments when a 17 year old Giggsy would have made a difference but the 17 year old Giggsy might not have played in the cross for Rooney’s winner so it’s swings and roundabouts.

Fletcher was great too. All over the pitch, making himself a nuisance. It’s not pretty but it is incredibly effective. Without that steel in midfield, we probably would have lost this match.

I could go on. I thought everyone had a great game here tonight and we needed it because, make no mistake about it, City have proved in recent years that they can always raise their level a gear or two when we’re the opponents, even when they are not being bankrolled by a trillionaire. Now that they have the quality players afforded them by their new owner, they are even more of a threat and the desire to get one over us is as intense as ever but backed up with true quality.

The bet won quite easily (with four corners in the first four minutes, I had visions of the bet winning within 15 minutes!) so that was good too. If anyone took United to win by two clear goals… yay, you!

A great night, a great game and a great tie. For all the feelings that the Carling Cup is the fourth choice trophy for any top Premier League team, it was probably as good as any Champions League final in terms of excitement and entertainment.