When Vidic hauled down Agbonlahor in the penalty area today, it looked for all the world like it was a penalty and as Vidic was clearly the last defender, a red card should have followed.

All eyes went towards Phil Dowd. What was he going to do?

He immediately pointed to the spot (revealing that he obviously saw the incident and was in no doubt that a foul was committed) but bizarrely and inexplicably kept his cards in his pocket.

Vidic had escaped the early bath although Villa had won a penalty.

Technically, the ref got it wrong. For a moment there, he took the rulebook and, I think, made a conscious decision to throw it out of the window.

This was Wembley, this was a Cup Final and I truly believe that he took the law into his own hands and decided that no one wants to see ten against eleven for eighty-five minutes of a Cup Final.

I must admit, I am not quite sure why this “last man, red card” rule should always be applied. I am fully aware that it was brought in because a striker could be through on goal and the defender could chop him down from behind – a “professional foul”. No one wants to see that, especially if the offence is committed outside the area (because there is absolutely no reward for the victims – not even a penalty) but sometimes I don’t think both punishments are necessary.

Today, had Vidic not brought Agbonlahor down then maybe, just maybe, Agbonlahor would have scored (he still would have had a bit to do, Evra was getting back and Kuzscak was well positioned). He may have dragged his shot wide, he may have blasted over the bar, Kuzscak may have saved his effort.

All this is speculation and irrelevant. What happened was that Villa were given a penalty kick which was duly scored and so they came out of the incident in as good a position as they could have hoped for had Vidic not brought down Agbonlahor in the first place.

Five minutes gone and one goal to the good. That’s a one goal start in anyone’s book.

However, the talk coming from Martin O’Neill after the match was that Vidic should have been sent off too as if the whole match hinged on this one thing.

Sure enough, ten against eleven on the heavy Wembley surface would have given Villa a tremendous advantage but call me old fashioned here but isn’t it considered pretty unprofessional to want to see players sent off?

As a result of the offence, Villa were gifted a goal start. United roared back, scored twice and hit the woodwork twice whilst Villa never gave Kuszcak much to do at all.

I can fully understand O’Neill’s disappointment at reaching a Cup Final only to come away with nothing but a loser’s medal but for the good of the game (on the level of this individual match and on the greater level) I am delighted that Phil Dowd got it wrong. If United had had to play with just ten men and finished the game 2-0 losers and dead on their feet, that wouldn’t have been much of a spectacle or an occasion would it?

It would have been a massive anti-climax for United, a hollow victory for Villa and a poor advert for one of the showpiece occasions in the English game.

Would I be saying this if it was a Villa player who had dragged a United player down in the box?

Well, if we got a penalty and scored from it for a 1-0 lead, then yes, I think I would.

In front of the watching England Manager, Fabio Capello, Michael Owen was given a dream Cup Final starting berth today.

His goal-scoring record when starting games has been great (he hasn’t started many though!) and this was just the chance he needed to show just what he can do on the big stage.

After twelve minutes he did just that. A loose ball came into his path and he didn’t even need to think about it, his striking instincts took over and he delivered a strike which gave the diving Brad Friedel no chance.

One chance – one goal. That is what the advocates of Michael Owen have been touting as the main reason to take him to the World Cup.

After forty-two minutes Owen was again through on goal but this time we saw every argument for taking Michael Owen countered quite spectacularly. It looked at first like the ball wouldn’t “sit” for him although it did look on for him to have at least a swing with his left. Replays showed the problem clearly… he had felt something in his hamstring and simply could not kick the ball.

Two chances – one goal and an injury that is going to keep him out for weeks. This is why Capello remains unconvinced.

Owen was quick to play down the injury after the match, saying that it is the first such injury he has had for “five or six years” and Fergie was quick to take the blame himself for the injury saying that it was probably a mistake to even play Owen on the unforgiving Wembley surface.

Take away the injuries and Michael Owen remains one of the deadliest finishers in the world and a must for any England team – unfortunately, you can’t take away the injuries, they are part and parcel of Michael Owen these days.

A shame.

Another One For Fergie!

Manchester United came back from a pretty disastrous start to comeback and win the Carling Cup Final 2-1 against Aston Villa.

As usual, I’ll be giving my post-match review (and there’s plenty to talk about) in the actual post about the match so for this one, I’ll just extend my congratulations to the team and my hope that there’ll be at least one more piece of silverware to add to it before the end of the season!

I was as sickened as anybody who saw the injury sustained by Aaron Ramsey yesterday. It is sad beyond words that such a fine young player now finds his career hanging in the balance because of such a terrible injury. I do hope that he makes a full recovery although use of the word “speedy” seems a bit pointless… I cannot see him playing again until 2011.

However, I have watched replays of the incident and I have seen photos of the point of impact and nothing has totally convinced me yet that it was Shawcross who actually broke Ramsey’s leg.

I am almost certain that Ramsey had gone over on his ankle before Shawcross even made contact.

Obviously contact was made which meant that Ramsey was then flung through the air but was Ramsey’s ankle already broken?

Let me just make one point abundantly clear. The way Shawcross went for the ball is the way players go for the ball all the time. It was not a studs up “stamp” type of tackle and it was not a two footed lunge with the player flying 12 inches above the ground to hit Ramsey full force on the shin. It was a sideways sweeping tackle and in another scenario, it could well have been Shawcross who came off worse.

Perhaps when Ramsey is on the mend, he can clarify what exactly happened from his point of view but until that time, I think we should all reserve judgement on Shawcross who was clearly distraught at what had happened.

Sunday, 28th February 2009 – KO: 15:00

This of course is now the third time we have played Villa this season and it has to be said that so far they have had the upper hand and they will really fancy their chances. Any notion that Fergie might mess about with the team here and play a few youngsters is nonsense as far as I’m concerned.

I think we will have to be at our very best to win this one.

The one thing I am not expecting here is a goal-fest. Our two League games have produced just three goals between them and Villa and United are officially the two meanest defences in the Premier League.

Add to this the fact that there have been very few goals scored in any of our Wembley appearances in recent years and I think it all adds up to another low scoring affair here today.

As to the team Fergie will pick, I can see nothing other than a full strength line-up.

Van Der Sar, Rafael, Brown, Vidic, Evra, Valencia, Fletcher, Carrick, Park, Berbatov and Rooney.

The big decision is the formation – will he go with Scholes and drop Berby for a 4-5-1 formation?

I think Villa will go with the 4-5-1 formation with Agbonlahor causing havoc alone upfront so we might need bodies in the middle of the park so that we don’t get over-run so it might be that Fergie goes with the 4-5-1 too.

I don’t really have much more to say about this match, I think it is going to be a close one and the first goal could be crucial. Villa have already proved that they have what it takes to beat us but if we’re firing and fully focused thenwe certainly have what it takes to beat them.

I’m going to keep my betting on this one to a minimum and bet only on the belief that this will be a low scoring affair.

The bet is 2 points UNDER 2.5 goals @ 1.92 with Bet365.

Fergie sprang his usual surprise by leaving Rooney on the bench and going with Berbatov and Owen up front for this one. That Van Der Sar was replaced in goal by Kuszcak was less of a surprise. The rest of the team was pretty much as expected although Evans was restored to the centre of defence alongside Vidic.

The omission of Rooney obviously raised a few eyebrows but the partnership of Owen and Berbatov worked well while it lasted.

The game was barely three minutes old when Agbonlahor found himself through with only Vidic for company, he ran quite some distance with the ball with Vidic doing his usual grabbing and mauling and this eventually led to Vidic pulling Agbonlahor’s shirt and dragging him to the ground in the penalty area.

The referee immediately blew for the penalty but did not show Vidic a card. Having now seen this incident several times, I do believe that he was right to do so. Agbonlahor never really shook Vidic off and at the moment that Vidic pulled him down, Agbonlahor had started to go back to his outside and, technically, at that precise point, was going away from goal.

Milner scored the penalty to givehis team a dream start.

The lead didn’t last long however after some great work from Berbatov saw him dispossess the usually excellent Richard Dunne. Dunne was not to be outdone (!?) though and got back to tackle Berbatov in kind. His tackle only saw the ball come infield in the general direction of the ever-ready Michael Owen who did not need a second invitation and swept the ball first time into the far corner.

From this point onwards, Manchester United just seemed to get stronger and stronger whilst Villa’s grip on the game seemed to be slipping.

Just before half-time, Michael Owen found himself through on goal again but just as he might have been about to pull the trigger, he felt his hamstring and that was his game over. Desperately bad luck for Michael Owen but it did see Rooney take to the field as his replacement.

Much of what Rooney did was not great to be quite honest. He was giving the ball away and generally found little success with anything he tried to do.

However, he was not to be denied as he scored with his head (again) in the 74th minute from another great cross from Valencia.

Villa piled on the pressure in the closing stages but could not quite make the breakthrough and so we ran out 2-1 winners and the first trophy of 2010 is now in Manchester United’s cabinet.

Martin O’Neill was not happy at the end of the game because the referee did not send off Vidic and I had to laugh when I saw one or two interviews with the players who felt that the incident was the “turning point” in the game.

Quite how an incident that happens in the third minute can be classed as a turning point is beyond me. Especially when that turning point results in you taking the lead!

Well, who would have thunk it. Our deadly local rivals did us a massive favour today and dropped Chelsea onto their backsides with all the ruthlessness of Mike Tyson in his heyday.

I was hoping rather than expecting that City would remember that, these days, they are expected to go to places like Stamford Bridge and look for a result.

The table now shows that we are just one point behind Chelsea again and I wish I had put a post up last week when Chelsea were just 1.50 to win the League. I thought then that was ridiculously low with more than ten games still to play.

A few things are just starting to conspire against Chelsea at the moment and it is probably fortunate for them that we are about to go into an International break.

Cole injured, Cech injured, John Terry a shadow of his usual self. Chelsea ended today’s game with just nine men on the field as Belletti was given a straight red card and Ballack was shown a red after two yellow cards.

They remain top by the slenderest of margins but if anything else goes against them in the next couple of weeks, they might just start to wonder if it’s just not meant to be… again.

Just for today, I’ll count myself as a honorary Manchester City fan.

Manchester City, of course, travel to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea in the early Saturday kickoff.

Since we knocked City out of the Carling Cup a few weeks ago, it all seems to have gone very quiet from over there. I certainly haven’t noticed any more provocative publicity stunts going on around the City Centre (such as the Welcome To Manchester Tevez poster) and, if I am quite honest, I haven’t noticed much football going on, even though they have played a few games since the Carling Cup semi-final.

In short and despite the fact that the team now costs five times more than ever before, they seem like the same old Manchester City to me.

Their away record has been pretty poor of late whilst Chelsea’s home record is second to none so I don’t hold out much hope that City will actually do us a favour and take a couple of points off Chelsea but the strange thing is, they just might.

They beat them quite convincingly at the Eastlands and, despite looking as underachieving as ever, they might just realise that they still have something to play for this season and give them another game here.

I won’t be putting any money on them but I will probably give the Red Mancunian air that surrounds my house a little punch should they take the lead at any point.

And if at the end of ninety minutes, they have restricted Chelsea to a point or less, I might even be moved to congratulate one or two of my Blue friends on their fine performance.

Here’s praying… (So this is how it feels to be a City supporter).

UPDATE: Something strangely predictable about this as City suddenly produced perhaps their best performance of the season to utterly thrash Chelsea 4-2 (they were 1-0 down at one point and roared back into a 4-1 lead.

This is the good old Manchester City… thrashed by Stoke one minute and then thrashing Chelsea the next. It will be interesting to see if normal service is resumed when they play their next match (away to Sunderland).

Anderson's Agony

Anderson has been ruled out for the rest of the season after severely damaging his cruciate ligament during Tuesday’s match against West Ham.

This will also mean that any lingering hopes he had of representing Brazil in the World Cup this summer have also gone out of the window.

He appeared to do the damage sometime around the seventh minute of the game and quite how he managed to play on for a further ten minutes is beyond me. In retrospect, he probably should have come off immediately.

It is particularly galling for him because he had been given another opportunity to impress by Fergie and with Carrick suspended for the AC Milan game, he would almost certainly have found himself lining up alongside Fletcher for that one.

However, in a strange way, it could be the makings of him.

He arrived at United from Porto in 2007 for a fee that is reported to have been around £18 Million – a massive fee for a 19 year old prospect and despite being quite impressive during that first season, he has not really kicked on and has found himself completely out of favour for most of this season.

There may have been a suggestion that he believed it was all too easy and that he didn’t necessarily have to seize every opportunity that was open to him with both hands.

It is a cruel way to learn but he will now realise that all opportunities can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye in this game and he will be hurting badly.

Hopefully, he will make a full recovery from this injury and come back a stronger player mentally who will never again take anything for granted.

Hot on the heels of losing Ashley Cole for the rest of the season, Petr Cech tonight had to be substituted with what appeared to be a pretty serious injury.

It looked innocuous enough as he jumped to catch a harmless ball but immediately on landing, he signalled to the bench with a sort of pulling motion as if something had pulled and snapped.

We probably won’t find out until tomorrow the extent of the injury but it could keep him out for at least four weeks and if it is a serious muscle strain or ligament damage then his absence will be even greater.

Whilst I don’t like to make a big deal about injuries to our rivals, we have had to struggle through a complete nightmare in terms of injuries to our defence for much of this season (and it continues to this day with Rio Ferdinand now apparently injured again) so we’ll now see how Chelsea cope with a John Terry who appears out of sorts and two of their most important defensive players out for a lengthy spell.

Incidentally, Inter Milan beat Chelsea 2-1 tonight and I would have thought Chelsea have enough to turn that around in the return leg.

I certainly hope so. I don’t want to see Chelsea win the Champions League but I do want to see them stay in the competition a little longer than this or they’ll be in a position to give the Premier League their 100% focus and attention which wouldn’t be good news for us.

There It Is!

Following on from my exclusive investigation into Wayne Rooney’s sudden glut of headed goals, I can now announce that I have made an even greater discovery this morning.

It is a discovery which, in football circles, is not too far removed from the discovery of the Holy Grail or the Loch Ness Monster.

We all love Antonio Valencia. He has come in with the unenviable task of replacing Ronaldo and has been consistently very good all season. He’s banged in a few goals and has provided many assists. His running down the right wing has put opposing defences on the back foot over and over again but he doesn’t neglect his defensive duties and always tracks back to help out the full backs when needed.

I can however reveal that he has been doing all this with a significant handicap – he doesn’t have a left leg!

Yes, it is true. He only has a right leg. Or does he?

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I have been able to identify what does appear to be the missing appendage and I reveal my findings in the enhanced image shown above. I am sure you will agree that if you look very closely you will be able to see what appears to be a left leg (it is slightly obscured by the right leg but look closer and I am sure you will see it).

Excited at my discovery, I attempted to contact Antonio Valencia but was told he was currently unavailable to talk. The spokesperson did, however, say this:-

“We have spoken to Antonio on your behalf and he is very grateful for your efforts. He said that the missing limb had been a cause for great concern for him over the years but is extremely relieved to receive the reassuring news that he does actually have a left leg. Now that he knows it is there, he has promised to make every effort to use it in the future.”

I think I’m on a roll here and before the season is out I hope to solve a few more mysteries such as:-

Why does Paul Scholes think that sliding four yards into the back of someone’s legs constitutes a great tackle?

Why can Anderson play a forty yard pass and land it right on a team mate’s toe but cannot hit a target measuring approximately 192 square feet from ten yards?

And perhaps the biggest of them all… I will be investigating the rumour that Gabriel Obertan is actually a marionette which is controlled from a blimp above Old Trafford!