I don’t normally watch much Spanish football because, quite frankly, it bores me but I decided to check in on a couple of the teams last night who lead the betting for this season’s Champions League (prompted by a little conversation I had had with Red Football Guru earlier in the day).

First up was Barcalona who travelled to Almeria. Barca were two points clear at the top of La Liga and were thoroughly expected to beat Almeria but it was Almeria who took a shock 1-0 lead. No panic for Barca though and they plodded on but as the half drew towards a close, things were starting to look a bit desperate until they were awarded a free-kick just outside the area and up stepped Messi.

The free kick he took showed just why he is such a great player. Most players, perhaps younger players, would have hit the free kick with pace but Messi showed incredible composure and maturity to rely on his skill and basically dinked the ball into the net with hardly any pace. The Almeria keeper was rooted to the spot and could only stand and shake his head in disbelief.

So, the second half started and Barca were expected to go on and press home their superiority but Almeria again took the lead via a Puyol own goal. Normal order was resumed a few minutes later however when Messi again brought Barca level. Barca huffed and puffed for the remainder of the match but were unable to break the deadlock and Almeria took a well deserved point from the match.

Immediately after this match, Real Madrid were up against Sevilla at the Bernabeu.

They knew that a win in this match would take them top of the table.

Imagine the scene then when Sevilla went 1-0 up after just ten minutes. Like Barca, there were no panic stations but Real could not seem to break down the strong and organised Sevilla defence. 1-0 at half time what could they do in the second half?

Well, whatever they had planned, it didn’t work and it was a complete stunner when Sevilla stretched their lead to 2-0 after 53 minutes.

This was where Real Madrid got impressive though and what happened in the next forty minutes has me believing that they are not only the team to beat in Spain now but in Europe too.

I hate to admit it but it was Ronaldo who inspired the comeback and got one back after 60 minutes and then Ramos brought the scores level after 64 minutes. Higuain could have scored a couple of his own but luck deserted him. It was basically wave after wave of attack from Real Madrid as they battered Sevilla looking for the winner.

Sevilla looked like they had been poking a sleeping Rottweiler with a stick and it had suddenly woken up, very angry and had broken free of its chain. In other words: Brown trousers time.

With the clock running out and the referee twiddling with his whistle, Real eventuall got the third for a remarkable 3-2 win.

And I thought Spanish football was boring! This was one of the best matches I have seen all season.

The thing that struck me about Real Madrid though their never say die attitude. They played to the final whistle. They left gaps at the back but such was their control and possession that Sevilla never had the opportunity to exploit them and besides, it is hard to hit back when you’re a cowering wreck huddled up in a corner.

Dare I say it? The way Real Madrid played to get themselves back into this one was not a million miles away from the Manchester United spirit of 1999 when we blew away everything in our path on the way to the Treble.

I know that you can’t judge a team on one performance (anyone who saw our performance against Wolves yesterday would hardly be going overboard on our own chances in the Champions League this season) but if this is squeaky bum time in England and Spain then it looks like Real Madrid are coping with it better.

I think the winner of the Champions League will come from us three (I would normally include Chelsea in the mix but with Hilarious in goal, they are looking very vulnerable at the moment – if they can sneak through against Inter Milan and get their players back, they might be back in business though) but Real are looking the better, I have to admit.

We have Rooney, Barca have Messi and Real have Ronaldo. Three of the best who can single-handedly change the course of a game but behind them, I just feel that Real have more.

Arsene Wenger has never been one known for praising the opposition. Any defeat his side suffers is usually down to some dodgy refereeing, his opponents “cheating” (i.e. playing long balls and/or tackling his players) or because his side played poorly.

After our win against Arsenal yesterday, he was not willing to concede an inch in our direction and put the defeat down to his side playing poorly and “we know we are better than that”.

Well, Arsenal have put in some very impressive performances this season but they have generally come against the sides lower down the league. When they have met one of the quality sides towards the top, they have generally come unstuck. To be quite honest, probably their most impressive result of the season came in October when they beat a flying Spurs side 3-0 at The Emirates.

I’m sorry Arsene but this season is starting to look very much like every other season for the last five years as far as Arsenal are concerned… all over by March.

This is something I have mentioned on several occasions on this site (here for example, or here).

Of course, if Arsene Wenger and his boys want to prove me wrong then I would love to publish an entire post praising them for their victory over Chelsea next weekend…

Sepp Blatter was again wheeled out to face the TV  cameras today and I think that is two days out in the last month for the old man now and with the cold weather we’re having, I’m thinking they should keep him in his room a bit more. I’d hate for him to catch a chill.

Anyway, he was speaking about video replays again (yes, I know, I know. Leave it already, TRD!) and … well… read for yourself, this is a transcript of his comments…

“The referees are human beings and in football we advocate, and definitely the actual leadership of FIFA, I am not only speaking about the Presidency [i.e. himself - TRD] but the whole executive committee, we are advocating that referees shall remain human and we shall not have monitors to stop the game to have a look if it was right or wrong. But what we are open and also the International Football Assocation Board, they are the guardians of the laws of the game, is on goal-line technology.”

Make of that what you will but it reads like a complete contradiction to me. For the above to make any sense, Sepp Blatter should be saying:-

Did the ball cross the line or not? Make a decision, Ref. Consult your assistants if necessary. If you get it wrong, you are only human. There’s no need for goal-line technology just as there is no need for video replays to assist with other major decisions.

The goal-line technology thing is weak anyway. Did the ball cross the line or didn’t it? How many times do we ask that? Once, twice, three times per season?

Did the player dive? Did the player get the ball? Did the player use his hand? Was the player offside?

How many times do we ask those questions? Once, twice, three times PER GAME?

Last night, Mick McCarthy came to United and fielded a completely under-strength side. Of the eleven that started against Tottenham at the weekend, only the goalkeeper remained the same.

Wolves play Burnley on Sunday and Mick McCarthy’s thinking seemed to be, “Well, it doesn’t matter who I put out against Manchester United, we are going to lose the game anyway so I might as well rest my ‘proper’ team for the far more winnable game against Burnley”.

Thoroughly understandable, I suppose, but Premier League rules do state that “In every League Match each participating Club shall field a full strength team“.

We all know that this doesn’t always happen and in these days of squad rotation, it isn’t always easy to say what exactly is a club’s “full strength team”.

It was probably Fergie who started all of this squad rotation mallarky but the difference when Fergie does it is that he still puts out a team that he fully expects to win the game.

With the team Mick McCarthy put out last night, there was absolutely no chance of them beating Manchester United at Old Trafford and the 3-0 scoreline could have been a lot worse had United taken full advantage of their chances and possession.

For the 2,400 travelling Wolves fans who had paid around £40 each to watch “their team”, you can only have sympathy. They shouldn’t have bothered because their manager certainly didn’t.

My main concern about this is that it could start a trend amongst the “lesser” clubs in the division.

The integrity of the league demands that every team gives 100% in every game and puts out the best team that they possibly can.

If the lower clubs start to effectively “throw” the matches against the top teams and decide that the best thing to do is just battle it out amongst themselves in their own “mini-league” then it just makes a farce of the whole thing.

I am also quite sure that anyone connected with Chelsea last night were absolutely fuming that Mick McCarthy basically handed us the three points.

As for his players, one of the things about achieving promotion from the Championship to the Premier League is that even if you are eventually relegated, you do at least get to pit yourselves against the Manchester Uniteds of this world, to play in the biggest stadiums in the country in front of the biggest crowds. He denied his players that opportunity last night.

I suppose we now have to wait and see if Wolves do actually beat Burnley at the weekend and, in the longer term, avoid relegation. If Mick McCarthy achieves both of those outcomes then we probably have to say “fair enough” but if he doesn’t then I hope he regrets last night (and any other times he might do it between now and the end of the season) because he will have cheated his players, his fans and the Premier League as a whole.

Over to you Mick.

Tuesday, 15th December 2009 – KO: 20:00

After Saturday’s miserable defeat at the hands of Aston Villa, we now have a quick chance to make amends against a Wolves side we have already beaten at Old Trafford this season (1-0 in the Carling Cup a couple of months ago).

Up until Saturday’s game, we had been in good scoring form and whilst we played well enough on Saturday, a combination of bad luck and Brad Friedel (yet again) meant that we couldn’t make the breakthrough in front of goal.

Against a side that generally concedes a couple of goals per game away from home, we could get back to scoring ways here tonight.

For some reason, however, I see this being a tight game. Having lost on Saturday, United are now under a bit of pressure and with this being a home game, we really will be expected to take the three points.

I expect Wolves to come here knowing that anything apart from a complete hammering will be a decent result for them and they are going to make it extremely difficult for United to score, packing the defence as much as possible and working hard in midfield to deny us the time and space to get into our stride.

0-0 would be an excellent result for Wolves here tonight and having sneaked a 1-0 against Spurs at White Hart Lane over the weekend, they might just fancy that they can do something similar here.

This one really could go either way in that I think we will win but will it be one of those sloggy 1-0 games or will it be one of those where we score three or four?

The bookies are expecting a high scoring game here tonight and whilst I would not be too surprised to see a few goals, I do believe there is value to be had in going for the under here.

The bet is 3 points Under 2.5 Goals @ 2.41 with Bet365.

No one could quite believe what Wolves Manager, Mick McCarthy did here as he changed his entire outfield ten from the ten that started against, and beat, Tottenham at the weekend.

I’m sure when Fergie saw the Wolves teamsheet, he wondered if his own line-up was overkill.

Still the name of the game here was three points for United and they duly delivered, brushing the shadow team of Wolves aside with some ease in the end.

The first goal came as the result of a bizarre handball from a Wolves defender in their penalty area. Rooney stepped up and blasted the ball past Marcus Hahnemann.

The second goal was the killer however as Nemanja Vidic headed in a corner just before half-time. The game was as good as over at that point and it was now just a case of how many United would score.

Wolves came out quite brightly in the second half and were enjoying a decent spell of possession when Paul Scholes lofted a neat pass into Berbatov who controlled and then played an audacious overhead pass into the path of Valencia who blasted home on the half-volley with the outside of his boot.

Sixty-six minutes gone and we were 3-0 up. With the rain starting to pour down, I’m sure the Wolves players would have been happy for the ref to blow the final whistle right there and then – their own manager had thrown in the towel before a ball was even kicked after all.

And so we go joint top with Chelsea (although they have played a game less) and the three goals scored tonight has inched us closer in terms of goal difference which is something that could yet come into play in such a tight season.

Ryan Giggs - BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2009

It seems that every week that passes brings with it some kind of achievement for Ryan Giggs and whilst he continues to achieve some kind of milestone with every game he plays for Manchester United, awards off the field have took a long overdue turn for the better.

Tonight, Ryan Giggs was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2009.

This, together with the PFA Players’ Player of the Year which he won earlier this year means that people have finally woken up to the sporting legend that is Ryan Giggs.

Any top sports-person can have a good spell, any of them can have a good year, maybe a good tournament that propels them to the forefront of the sporting public’s attention.

Ryan Giggs has been playing at the very highest level for twenty years.

When he first burst onto the scene all those years ago, he was the talk of football but perhaps with David Beckham arriving shortly afterwards, a lot of the attention was taken away from Giggsy and in the meantime we have players such as Cantona and Ronaldo who have grabbed the headlines.

Ryan has quietly gone about his business on the field and, despite being such a big player at a big club, has been able to seemingly disappear as soon as the final whistle blows.

He doesn’t get involved with nonsense, he doesn’t do anything to bring his own name or that of Manchester United into any kind of disrepute. He describes his personal life as “quite boring”.

As a role model for any young person wishing to embark on a life of sporting achievement, he is, however, perfect.

As I said earlier, anyone can have their day in the sunshine, perhaps a year where everything they do turns to gold but to maintain the hunger and the desire to do it again and again and again, despite having won everything there is to win, despite having broken all kinds of records and despite having all the money you will ever need in the bank requires something extra-special.

Whatever that thing is, Ryan Giggs possesses it in abundance and Manchester United supporters should be extremely proud to call this giant of a sporting gentleman one of their own.

With United losing yesterday, Chelsea dropping another two points (they are now without a win in four games in all competitions), Man City also dropping yet another two points (their eighth draw in nine Premier League games) and Tottenham losing, the only winners (in every sense of the word) yesterday were Aston Villa.

Today sees Liverpool take on Arsenal so at least one of them is going to drop points.

The Premier League Title seems to be crying out for one team – hopefully Manchester United – to go on a long winning run because everyone seems intent on shooting themselves in the foot at the moment.

Arsenal have been written off several times already this season but largely thanks to the inability of United and Chelsea to capitalise on their positions, find themselves heading to Liverpool today knowing that a win will put them into third place, just six points behind Chelsea and with a game in hand. If they win that game in hand then they could well overtake United into second place.

The race for the Champions League places is also showing just why the same four teams make the tournament year after year and whilst Liverpool should have been blown away by the likes of Tottenham and Manchester City yesterday, both of those teams dropped points and a win against Arsenal today will see them move up into fifth place and within touching distance of fourth or even third place.

I suppose it all goes to show just how competitive the Premier League is at the moment and the fact that we are not even halfway through the season but all the top teams have already lost between three and five games bears this out.

At this rate, the winner of the League could do so despite having suffered six or seven defeats which is almost unheard of.

So, I ask again, “Who wants to win it?”

Saturday, 15th December 2009 – KO: 17:30

In a serious case for the Department of P. Poor Planning, I have arranged to go out for the day tomorrow, completely overlooking the fact that United play Villa in what could well be a cracker if last season’s game is anything to go by.

So, I am writing this the day before the game because, well, I won’t be here tomorrow, obviously.

Anyway, the story of the week has been the defensive problems United are currently experiencing but there is a bit of good news on that front as Vidic is likely to be back for this one so that should mean a back four of Fletcher, Carrick, Vidic and Evra.

It could be worse, it has been worse and we have still come through the tests with flying colours in recent games.

Up front, Villa seem quite similar to Wolfsburg with three big, powerful forwards to choose from in Heskey, Agbonlahor and Carew and these are bound to give United a few problems, just as they did last season (Carew and Agbonlahor got the goals).

The other good news for us is that Fergie is likely to have a full complement of attacking options available to him with Rooney and Berbatov both shaking off the knocks that kept them out in midweek.

Michael Owen is not likely to be too easy for Fergie to overlook here either and then there’s a certain Mr Macheda who used this very fixture last season to announce his arrival in the big-time and football has an uncanny ability to make lightning strike the same place twice.

Generally speaking, Aston Villa’s record at Old Trafford is very poor and you have to go back to 2002 for the last time they even picked up a point here. This season, their away form has been patchy. Their first away game of the season was an impressive 3-1 win against Liverpool and they followed this up with an away win against Birmingham but since then, they have not won any away games and have picked up just three points from a possible fifteen against the likes of Blackburn, Wolves, Everton, West Ham and Burnley.

Their home form is solid but if they are to achieve that top four finish then it is their away form that must improve although I am sure Martin O’Neill would take a point from this fixture if you offered it him right now.

Our home form (Champions League games aside) has been very impressive so far this season with only two points dropped in our opening seven games.

What has been most encouraging about us in recent games is that we are finding the goal scoring touch again and there hasn’t been a 1-0 win in sight for almost two months now (there have been a couple of 1-0 defeats however).

I can see Villa scoring again here but I can also see United scoring more than one and the likeliest result is a 2-1 win for Manchester United but I would not put it past us at the moment to make it 3-1.

If Villa leave here with anything then they will have to match their goal-scoring of last season and score at least two. Not impossible but from the point of view of my bet, that would be a good thing (in which case a last minute Macheda goal for 3-2 would be the stuff dreams are made of).

The bet is 3 points OVER 2.5 goals at 1.8 with Paddy Power.

I can’t really bring myself to review this game, it is too depressing. I didn’t watch it live because I was away and watching a replay is not so appealing. I have watched some of it and watched the highlights but no more than that.

Firstly, I thought the formation was odd for a home game… we normally go for the good old 4-4-2 at home but Fergie opted for the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation he favours away from home which was showed Villa quite a lot of respect.

Villa took the lead after 21 minutes through Agbonlahor who burst forward onto a Young cross and even Vidic didn’t seem to fancy getting in his way and he powered the ball into the net.

However, we have become used to going behind in games so far this season and with 70+ minutes still to play, there was no need to panic and plenty of time to get back into it but on this occasion, just like the Besiktas game a few weeks ago, it just didn’t happen.

Rooney played well and could have had a goal late on only to see the ball clatter the crossbar from close-range.

Towards the end, Fergie threw on Berby and Owen and Berby did something I have wanted to see him do for ages now. He got the ball, turned and ran at the defence and then unleashed a cracking low drive which Brad Friedel saved extremely well.

Far too many times, Berby has simply played the ball backwards in those situations and slowed the whole thing down which has allowed the opposing defence time to get back into position.

Anyway, this has to go down as “one of those days”. That Villa scored was not a major surprise but that we couldn’t muster a single goal at home despite being in a rich vein of scoring form was a major surprise.

Still, with Chelsea dropping points to the extent that a win here would have put us in join top position this is a massive missed opportunity.

Credit to Villa though, they have started the season well and have picked up from where they left off last season. They should cause everyone they play a few problems for the remained of this season.

Going into the final group games last night, there were still several groups where first and second place were still undecided but now that they are over, we now have some idea of the opponents we could face in the first knock-out round.

It’s still largely up in the air however because of the eight teams, the only one we cannot face is CSKA Moscow (as they were in our Group).

That leaves:-

Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Lyon, Stuttgart, Porto, Inter Milan, Olympiacos.

Some very big names amongst that lot and the chances of us getting an “easy” tie are pretty slim and I can see one or two of the teams who won their groups actually going out in the next round.

As winners of our group, we will be playing our opponents at their place in the first leg and back to Old Trafford in the second leg which is the way we all like it and is the main advantage of winning the group.

Our Champions League campaign this season gives some pause for thought in this regard however because it has actually been our away form that has got us through.

In our first home game against Wolfsburg, we went 1-0 down before eventually scraping through to a 2-1 win, in our second home game, we went 3-1 down against CSKA Moscow before eventually scraping through to a 3-3 draw and in our third home game, we lost 1-0 to Besiktas.

We won all three of our away games.

The draw takes place next Friday (18th December).

Should be interesting…

Apologies for the headline.

I was going to write about Michael Owen’s hat-trick in the post-match review but I have been thinking of writing something on Michael Owen for a couple of weeks and now seems as good a time as any to do so.

When it was announced that Michael Owen had signed for Manchester United in the summer, it was met with all kinds of reaction.

Surprise by most, anger by some and dismay by others.

Some of us thought that Fergie had just pulled off a masterstroke.

In a crazy transfer market where even young, inexperienced and unproven players are being bought and sold for tens of millions, to get a seasoned, proven goal-machine for FREE seemed too good to be true. What exactly was the downside of signing Michael Owen?

The worst that could happen would be that we could end up paying the guy to keep the physio’s table warm in the week and the bench warm at the weekend.

This was never going to happen though. After five years in the wilderness that took him on a downward spiral from Liverpool to Newcastle via Madrid, Michael was hungry for the kind of success that the eighteen year old Owen looked destined to achieve.

Part of the anger from the United fans when we signed him was because of the “Liverpool Connection” but it is five years since he played for Liverpool and the manner of his departure from there and the fact that Liverpool didn’t take him back on the free transfer suggests that the relationship he had with his former club is now well and truly over.

The other reason for the anger was more down to a weird kind of vanity on the part of some Manchester United supporters.

We always like to think that we support the biggest and the best club in the world and some seem to believe that this should mean that we sign the best players for the biggest amounts, not “has-been crocks on free transfers.”

The indignity felt was increased because our City rivals were spending money like it was going out of fashion whilst we appeared to be rummaging through the bargain bucket. Having just sold our star player for £80 Million, few could understand why Fergie didn’t just go out an spend it on a couple of “stars”.

It didn’t even seem to matter to these people if the names they were touting would even work out at Manchester United and genuinely add something to the cause. They just seemed to want to see Fergie spend £50 Million on someone to show that United are still one of the big boys in the transfer market.

Showing the kind of financial restraint that would have brought tears of pride to any self respecting Scotsman, Fergie stubbornly kept his hands firmly in his pockets, brought in a winger from Wigan and a virtual unknown from Bordeaux.

And Michael Owen for free.

The stats show that Michael Owen has now scored seven goals in twenty appearances for Manchester United and a 1:3 goals to games ratio isn’t too shabby by any means but when you consider that the majority of those appearances have been as a late substitute, you realise that Michael Owen has actually scored one goal every 112 minutes which is almost a 1:1 goals to games ratio.

Last nights hat-trick was pleasing for all kinds of reasons.

Firstly, all three goals were different as Michael showed off the array of goal-scoring talents he possesses.

The first was a header (hardly the sort of goal he is reknown for), the second was great movement to make an ocean of space which meant that Obertan merely had to get the ball into that space, the third was a great run with the ball at his feet before clipping it coolly over the keeper.

This third was probably the best of the lot because it showed that whilst he is not as fast as he was ten years ago (who is?) he was still quick enough to get away from the defenders, it also came in the last minute of what had been a tough ninety minutes for Michael as he had to do a shift for us in midfield as well as attack. With our depleted defence, there was no room for passengers in the team and everyone had to do their bit defensively, Michael worked as hard as anyone out there.

After all that, he still had the legs to make the run and the presence of mind to finish it off.

When Michael first arrived at United, he wasn’t fully fit and it has taken him this long to get to full fitness but he is clearly as fit as he has been for years right now and this suggests that the best is yet to come from Michael.

Yes, a £50 Million striker would have been nice but give me Owen on a free any day and on last night’s evidence, who is to say that the £50 Million striker could have done any better?