Well, it took us a while to really get to grips with Wigan in this one but once we got going, we looked quite unstoppable and far more impressive than we have looked in our previous matches.

The first half ended goal-less as Wigan looked solid and a nervy second-half looked to be on the cards.

We had our chances in the first half, though. Chicharito missed a penalty but it has to be said that the penalty decision looked harsh as Welbeck didn’t seem to have been touched by Al Habsi in the Wigan goal and some justice may have been done when the Wigan keeper easily saved Chicharito’s pretty tame effort.

Danny Welbeck really does seem to be playing with enormous confidence at the moment and an attempted overhead shot which went slightly high and wide is testament to that.

Alex Buttner was given his debut, filling in for the injured Evra in the left-back slot and he looks a decent player on this evidence. Sir Alex described him as “a bit raw” after the game and I must say that I was speaking with a Dutch friend recently and he said that almost everyone in Holland couldn’t understand why we had bought Buttner – he felt that he was a long way short of what is required to play for one of the premier clubs in Europe but the lad put in an excellent all-round performance which was later capped off with a terrific solo goal.

He certainly likes to get forward and perhaps some of this will have to be tempered – especially when we face more dangerous opposition – but it paid off for him and us on this occasion.

The second-half goal spree was started by no other than Paul Scholes who was making his 700th appearance for United and was largely down to some excellent work by Nani to beat his defender with a nifty bit of trickery before Carrick, the epitome of coolness in a hectic penalty area, played a great pass out wide before the ball was whipped in again with Scholesy there to tap in the ricocheting ball.

Just twelve minutes later, Chicharito atoned for his earlier penalty miss with a goal that was heavily assisted by Alex Buttner.

Just a couple of minutes later Buttner wowed the crowd with a strong run from well out wide, through the Wigan defence before sneaking the ball in from an almost impossible angle – the lad certainly doesn’t seem to lack confidence.

At this point, Fergie started to ring the changes with Scholes, Giggs and Vidic all going off for Van Persie, Nick Powell and Evans.

Van Persie just failed to connect with a cross that would have surely meant another scoring appearance for our new signing but Nick Powell made the most of his chance with a stunning drive from outside the area to wrap up the scoring and complete the scoring debuts for all our new signings.

All in all, a great result – the clean sheet was particularly pleasing – tougher tests lie ahead but this squad is starting to look like a squad that ticks all the boxes.

I normally like to watch a replay of a match before writing these reviews but on this occasion, I don’t feel it it necessary.

Thankfully, this match was not decided by any dodgy refereeing decisions. In fact, the referee had very little to do. He gave out a few yellow cards but I think all were probably correct. There were no dodgy offside decisions to make. There were no dodgy penalty decisions to make. There was certainly no need for any goal-line technology.

It was all very straightforward, really.

City won fair and square.

And this result puts them in pole position in the title race with just two games left to play.

Of course, every one is assuming that we will both win those remaining games and that City will now go on to win the title on goal difference. I’m not prepared to throw in the towel that easily and I am certainly hoping that our lads can now lift themselves to take six points from the remaining two games and so fulfill our end of the bargain – how gutting would it be for us to drop any more points only to see City drop a couple here or there?

However, the title was not won or lost here tonight. If it has been lost then it was lost at Old Trafford last weekend.

It was probably lost, if indeed that proves to be the case, when everyone believed that it had been won.

We have now dropped eight points in our last four games and that has to be seen as a bit of bottling. At the stage of the season when we normally come into our own and show our experience, we have been the ones found wanting whilst City have gone from strength to strength.

I don’t care what Fergie might say to the contrary, he went for the draw tonight with an eye to catching City on the counter.

I had severe reservations when I saw the team sheet. Giggs is obviously a legend and has been rested somewhat in recent weeks and so he was fresh for tonight. Scholes is another legend who has proven to be the catalyst for our incredible form since his return. Park Ji Sung has often been the unsung hero in some of these big games and he usually saves his best for such occasions.

To see all three in the starting line-up, at the expense of the likes of Valencia, who has been incredible all season and Young who, diving exploits aside, has been a superb attacking addition to the squad and Welbeck who had just had his finest ever game in a United shirt and had seemed to be just getting into an almost telepathic relationship with Rooney – well… I just think Fergie got it wrong tonight.

He went with the past when in the past he would have gone with the future.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and tonight we were as lacklustre as we could possibly have been. We did not have one single shot on target (and I can’t remember too many off-target, either). We were basically trying for a 0-0 with the possibility of a breakaway goal.

This was all changed when Kompany headed City ahead on the stroke of half-time.

As the second half progressed, Fergie gradually went with something more like the line-up I think he should have started with. Scholes went off, Park went off, Nani went off. Valencia came on, Young came on, Welbeck came on but it was all too little too late for me.

On the night, City were always that extra 5% better than us in all areas. They looked more threatening in attack, their midfield were more than a match for ours and their defence never gave us a sniff. It’s hard to rate Hart because he had next to nothing to do.

And that is what is so disappointing about tonight. If this was the final act in our title challenge then I hoped it would have been with a bang and not a whimper but … it was a whimper in truth.

I’m not going to say any more until the title has been decided one way or the other. At this moment in time, it does look to be City’s but they do still have the tougher games than we do to play and it could still swing in our favour. It’s not over yet.

Let us hope that we take six points from the last two games and, if it ends with us second on goal-difference, well… so be it but please don’t let us drop the same number of points as City, should that be the case. That would be really hard to take.

Firstly, apologies that there was no preview to this game. With the early kick-off, I simply didn’t leave myself enough time to get it done. I may well have gone for the Over 2.5 Goals in this one but there was no way on earth that I would have predicted what eventually happened in this game.

I thought I’d seen it all from Manchester United this season but this result was up there with a string of strange ones we’ve witnessed at Old Trafford this season.

Firstly, Everton have to be congratulated for the way they played. In a material sense, their season was as good as over as they had nothing tangible left to play for after being dumped out of the FA Cup just a few days earlier but this was a team playing for all those things that you want to see from your team – pride, the badge, the club, the fans. In an age of mercenary players and agents, of dodgy referees and a governing body that has been proven corruptible, it was refreshing and re-assuring to see a team play with such honesty and professionalism.

I do believe that David Moyes used our home ties in Europe this season as his blueprint here because there was something very similar to those games about the way Everton went about their business here. From the first whistle, Everton put us under enormous pressure as they played with no fear and an adventurous formation and it didn’t come as an enormous shock when they went 1-0 up through Jelavic who was to prove a handful all afternoon.

I don’t know if our players expected an easier game than this (apparently, the title had been ours for a couple of weeks now and three points in all our games except perhaps the City game were guaranteed… or something) but going a goal down was an enormous wake-up call but, to our enormous credit, we reacted to it superbly, roaring back into a 3-1 lead thanks to some of the best attacking play I have seen from us this season.

This point does deserve special mention. The interplay between Nani (who looked back to his best after a spell out), Rooney and Welbeck was brilliant to watch and the Rooney/Welbeck partnership in particular looked as close to Yorke/Cole as anything I’ve seen in ten years (although Tevez and Rooney looked capable of becoming something special at one point a few seasons ago).

At 3-1, the game really should have been over. There was half an hour left to play but we’d been doing so well defensively of late that I couldn’t really see Everton scoring another two, let alone three (remember, Everton hadn’t scored a single goal at Old Trafford since 2007!) but within seven minutes or so, Everton were right back in it with an excellent finish from Fellaini.

Just a couple of minutes later, however, Rooney had restored our two-goal advantage and surely this time, with just twenty minutes left to play, we had sealed the three points.

Once again, however, Everton completely failed to read the script written two weeks ago by all and sundry and scored two more (excellent) goals of their own in the final ten minutes or so.

Without wishing to take anything away from Everton, whose attitude in this game was exemplary, it has to be said that some of our defending in this game was every bit as bad as our attacking play was good. On several occasions I had to ask myself where Evra was playing. Left-back would normally be the easy answer but so often in this game, the ball would be over on that side, with an Everton player in possession and Evra nowhere to be seen.

This was evident for Everton’s second as Fellaini crossed the ball in from our left virtually unchallenged (I think it was Nani who was the closest to him). However, Rio did seem to just allow the ball to come in without even an attempt at cutting it out.

Evans, who has rightly received enormous credit for stepping up to the challenge of replacing Vidic and has generally been passing the test with flying colours once again, I feel, jumped into an aerial challenge totally unnecessarily. Rio Ferdinand seemed to be in a decent enough position to deal with Fellaini but Evans seemed to crash into Rio leaving Jelavic unmarked to volley in the second ball. Perhaps had Evans stayed where he was, he would have been in a position to deal with that second ball instead of lying on the ground in a heap with Rio and Fellaini. Having said that, if he heads the initial ball out, we are all praising him for his bravery and no-nonsense defending.

Everton’s fourth was a well-worked move with some lovely inter-passing but, again, fingers will be pointed (probably at Rafael) and the question asked how Pienaar found himself in so much space right in front of goal.

It’s true to say that all four of Everton’s goals were extremely well-taken but when we’re letting four in at home, questions have to be asked about our defending somewhere along the line.

And so, from a seemingly unassailable position just a few games ago, we have now opened the door for City. I would not go as far as to say that we have handed the initiative to City as Fergie said following this result – we still have the initiative – but should City beat us next Monday then it will once again be theirs to lose – then they will have the initiative.

On a day when it started with a dive and ended with a back-flip, this one could end up being remembered more for the gymnastic performances of one or two of our players but there was a lot more to this performance than that.

Yet again though, most of the talk is about the way Ashley Young bought us a penalty which got our scoring underway and I have to say that for him to do it once the other week was embarrassing, for him to do it twice is not only doubly embarrassing, it also makes you wonder what the referees are seeing in these situations.

The problem with this one being given as a penalty is that Ashley Young moved his foot towards the defender’s foot in order for contact to be made. The defender did not “leave his leg in”. If anything, he was trying to get his leg out of the way but he obviously can’t make it vanish into thin air and I feel that this is where the referee has to use his brain a bit.

Yes, there was contact, yes it was inside the box but if this is a penalty then it seems that all anyone has to do these days is get the ball in the box and throw themselves bodily at the first defender in the vicinity. A season of that kind of nonsense would kill the game stone dead so I hope that these type of incidents are given close scrutiny over the summer.

As I said in a previous post; whilst we may have been the beneficiary of these two dodgy decisions, as long as they are being made then it is only a matter of time before we are the victims.

Anyway, that aside, there was a lot to be thoroughly proud of in this performance from all of our players. Perhaps getting that penalty to allow Rooney to put us 1-0 ahead with the game barely begun settled any nerves we might have had and made the afternoon easier but we seemed to be at it from the very first whistle here as the Wigan disaster was well and truly put behind us.

Scholes was back in the starting line-up and completely ran the show and when he took a clattering that left him needing some treatment to a leg injury on the pitch, I think every United fan feared the worst – we simply cannot afford for him to get injured at this stage. He has been crucial to our resurgence and is going to be crucial to our success in the last handful of matches.

How the hell we replace this guy when he finally does call it a day for real I have absolutely no idea and I don’t envy Fergie or whoever’s decision it might be when the time comes.

I could go right through the team on this occasion though as there were some superb performances from many of the players. Jonny Evans continues to go from strength to strength and is now adding an effective attacking aspect to his game and his ball for Nani’s goal towards the end of the match was sublime.

If anyone was a bit off-colour today, it was Rooney. Some of his passing was appalling at times as he gave the ball away time and again (although there was a period when half of our players were at it – but Rooney did it over and over). Despite generally having a stinker, he still managed to score two goals though so it can’t have been all bad.

What was most impressive though was the way all the players stood up to be counted. Villa were never going to be the toughest opponents we have played this season but they still had to be beaten. We had reached the point where we simply could not afford to make any more mistakes because that would have seen the pendulum swing sharply back in favour of City and would have left us under enormous pressure, especially going into our next couple of (tough) games.

So, we restore our five point lead at the top of the table and there are now just four games left to play.

Whilst totally against all known form and historical records, there was something not entirely surprising about this result.

This is Manchester United. We just don’t do straight-forward. Never have, never will.

I did actually feel that Wigan, of late, were playing as well as they had done all season and I had a hunch that they would make it a diffcult night for us and their goal did not come as an enormous shock. What was shocking, however, is how poorly we played and Fergie was quite right in his assessment that the better team won – even though we did probably deserve a penalty for a clear handball at one stage.

However, provided that we go on to win the title this season then this result will have provided one fantastic plus point.

Basically, the City fans were all crying themselves to sleep over the weekend as their title dreams were well and truly blown for another season. Now they have a small ray of hope as the results of the weekend have all been reversed.

This means that we get to dash their dreams all over again before the season is out. It’s like two for the price of one.

I’m not going to dwell too much on this result. It was just up there with several bad results we have had to endure this season – we just have to hope now that there will be no more and that it will be business as usual against Villa over the weekend. With City still to play, we cannot afford any more slip-ups.

Well, this one was painful to watch. At the end of the day, we got the three points and I’m certain Fergie would take eight 1-0 wins in our last eight games but hopefully not like this or we’ll all be on medication for nerves and stress by the 13th May.

On a night when I hoped United would sweep Fulham aside and show City that not only do we mean business but we’re actually getting better as the season draws to a close, we actually just looked very nervy at times.

To be fair, Fulham made it very difficult and, even when 1-0 down, refused to come forward in any numbers until the closing moments which made breaking their ten man defense down almost impossible but we didn’t help ourselves on so many occasions as almost everyone was guilty of under-hitting passes, misdirecting passes and just sometimes failing to even make the pass.

Only on two stand-out occasions did we play our more instinctive, free-flowing passing and on both occasions, it very nearly led to a goal, the rest of the time, we looked very deliberate, very cautious and this, ironically, made us look more careless.

So many final balls were poor and when we did get an opportunity, Fulham had a block on or the keeper produced a save which meant that despite us having 19 shots (16 on target!) we only scored the one solitary goal.

Obviously, this made the closing minutes extremely tense as Fulham finally decided to have one last throw of the dice which very nearly paid dividends as Danny Murphy was tripped in the box by Michael Carrick for what, probably should have been a penalty.

However, the ref waved it away and, to be fair, after so much dominance, it would have been a cruel blow had we ended up sharing the points here because there was only one team trying to score for the vast majority of this match.

On the Murphy penalty appeal though, I must say that whilst it was technically a penalty (there was clear contact by Carrick) it looked very much to me like Murphy was trying to buy it. Clear through on goal, it looked like he could have had a blast at any moment but he seemed to jump strangely upwards so that his forward momentum stopped (meaning Carrick bustled into the back of him slightly) and then, on landing, his legs went off in some very strange directions (meaning that Carrick’s foot made contact with his… or was it the other way around?). I just don’t think Murphy had any intention of actually shooting and was looking for the penalty all over the place.

Anyway, we got away with it and we now sit three points clear of City at the top of the table.

A few weeks ago, we went down to London and played Chelsea and sat there scratching our heads as to how we found ourselves 3-0 down. This time, we went down to London and sat there scratching our heads as to how we found ourselves 3-0 up!

Well, I know which one I prefer but this was a weird one. The game was actually much more open than I’d anticipated but there were few clear-cut chances created for much of the first half although Adebayor appeared to have put Spurs ahead towards the end of the first half only for it to be ruled out because he used his hand.

I’ve seen replays of the incident since and there’s no doubt in my mind that he knew exactly what he was doing despite claims by some that he “couldn’t get his hand out of the way”. Well, I’m sorry, deliberate or not, a hand was involved and it gave him an advantage because the ball dropped at his feet which enabled him to flick at it from about a yard out and score.

Isn’t it funny how when a player knocks the ball past an opponent and then deliberately runs into them in order to gain a free-kick for obstruction, the plea of “I couldn’t get out of the way” always falls on deaf ears? Anyway, I digress.

Shortly after this disallowed goal, Rooney put us ahead with a headed goal from a corner. The goal came just before half-time and I believe the timing was crucial. From a position of generally being the better team (although that isn’t saying much) Spurs were a goal down and had fifteen minutes to reflect on how the hell this had happened.

The second half started in much the same vein as the first but a double whammy from Ashley Young in the 60th and 69th minutes put us firmly in control – even if no one was actually sure how it had happened.

What was most pleasing about this was how well we took our limited chances. Young’s second was a peach of a goal – almost identical to the goal he scored against Arsenal at OT earlier in the season and I hope that he can add a few more between now and the end of the season (I think he’s only actually scored four goals this season).

Tottenham were given a slight lifeline in the closing minutes when Giggs, of all people, played an unbelievably sloppy pass which the deadly Defoe latched onto before blasting the ball past De Gea. A nervy couple of minutes followed but we managed to weather the storm and came out 3-1 winners and back within touching distance of Manchester City at the top of the table.

Looking at the fixture list, we do seem to have the slightly easier fixtures over the next few weeks but at this stage, nothing can be taken for granted but I do believe that getting this one out of the way with three points under our belt was a major boost to our title hopes.

Well, this one turned out to be every bit as tough as I suspected it would be but the slightly frustrating thing is that we made it harder for ourselves by giving away possession needlessly far too often.

Of course, Norwich played their part in this with their tireless pressing which sometimes led to our players rushing passes but, on some occasions, there was no pressure on the ball and it was still given away.

Our goalscorers on the day were Scholes and Giggs and whilst it made a great story for Giggs to grab the last minute winner on his 900th appearance for Manchester United, it is still a little depressing for me just how much we still rely on these golden oldies.

Welbeck could have grabbed a goal or two with a little more luck and/or composure and Hernandez had a few scraps which he perhaps could have done more with but there were few clear cut chances for us.

In fact, it was Norwich who carved open some of the better chances and we had David De Gea to thank for keeping them out with a few very impressive saves.

I saw an interview with Giggs after the match and he spoke of “not knowing whether to stick or twist at 1-0″ but this goes back a bit to what I was saying after our match against Ajax. By all means stick with 1-0 when you score the goal after 85 minutes but we went 1-0 up in this one after just seven minutes (similar to how we did against Ajax) and, whilst I hate to disagree with the legend that is Ryan Giggs, I would suggest that trying to hold a 1-0 lead for 83 minutes is not the best plan because, as I said the other day, we simply cannot do it. We’re at our best when we’re attacking and this was proved when Norwich got their thoroughly deserved equaliser just six or so minutes from the final whistle.

At this stage, we were staring at two dropped points – points we simply could not afford to drop and so we had to throw the kitchen sink at it and so we did – this resulted in a string of chances for us and, eventually, Giggs’ last gasp winner. In fact, the last five minutes or so of this game was possibly our best five minutes in the game – much of the rest was Norwich’s on points.

Anyway, we got the three points and the day belonged to Ryan Giggs who celebrated his winner in a manner I haven’t seen from him for a long, long time. He described his emotions as relief and joy but it looked more like the venting of frustration to me.

Whether it was frustration at the eventual vanquishing of a stubborn opponent who refused to lie down or frustration at some of his own team-mates who still need him to bail them out of a mire of their own making, I wouldn’t like to say but it was a significant moment – just how significant we won’t know until the points are tallied up at the end of the season.

Well, this one was extremely frustrating to watch.

Going out of the Champions League at the group stage should have acted as a massive wake-up call to the players because I firmly believe that it was down to complacency rather than any footballing deficiency within the team but this was Basel all over again.

We got off to the absolutely perfect start as Hernandez put us 1-0 up after around 5-6 minutes and I fully expected us to push on from there against opponents who should have known at that stage that they had a mountain to climb but we allowed Ajax back into the game by not drilling home our advantage, playing one or two silly little flicks (which didn’t come off) and generally going into our more negative game.

To Ajax’s immense credit they never let their heads drop here this evening and very nearly got their just rewards because, quite frankly, on this display, we didn’t deserve to go through.

This “stopping playing” has been something we have seen from this Manchester United side over the last few years though and it is quite noticable when we’re doing it. Basically, we get a lead and then just appear to want to hang onto it for the remainder of the match and it doesn’t seem to matter if there are five minutes to go (in which case it is understandable) or eighty minutes.

I could list several occasions where we’ve attempted to do this over the last few years and almost invariably, it ends in disaster and this was very nearly another example.

Oh well, we go through to the last sixteen where we will now face Athletic Club Bilbao and I suspect that any similar Old Trafford complacency could cost us this time so hopefully this will finally act as the last slumber press on the alarm clock.

Sometimes you can just tell within minutes that you have put the wrong bet on and this was one such occasion.

I don’t know if we showed Ajax a little too much respect or it was the other way ’round but the opening forty-five minutes of this game was  tedious in the extreme for large portions.

Lots of passing by both sides, very little pressing by either side and barely a shot worth mentioning.

It was probably just as well that this was an earlier-than-we’re-accustomed-to kick-off time – any later and I think I may have fallen asleep.

The second half was a bit more like it and the change on our part was noticable from the kick-off. We just upped the tempo a notch, started to close Ajax down a bit quicker and pass the ball a bit faster and Ajax couldn’t really live with it. Perhaps they’d been lulled into a false sense of security in the first half because at 0-0 they would have felt as though they had every chance of nicking this one but there was an extended period of pressure in the second half which culminated in Ashley Young’s opener where they looked rattled.

By the time Javier Hernandez knocked in our second with six minutes or so left to play, I felt that we looked quite dominant although De Gea was called into action to save a few long-range efforts but was rarely really troubled.

Perhaps it has to be remembered that virtually half of our team here was comprised of players on their way back from injury (Cleverley, Young, Fabio, Jones and Nani) and so this gave them all much needed minutes on the pitch.

It’s symptomatic of the bad luck we’re having at the moment though as Ashley Young was replaced by Valencia who went down with a hamstring injury mere minutes after coming on and he will now be out for around four weeks which is a massive blow as I think he has been our most consistently good performer of the season and it is just as well that Young and Nani are now back from injury.

Overall though, it was a decent night’s work from United and I think we now know that Fergie does indeed intend to give this tournament a proper go.