review: MANCHESTER UNITED 1 v 0 Tottenham Hotspur

Article by Mark Graham, Stats Nerd

Match Review
Manchester United 1 v 0 Tottenham Hotspur, Old Trafford, Manchester, 16.00pm, Sunday 25th August 2007.
Goals: Manchester United: Nani (68), Tottenham Hotspur : n/a.
Attendance: 75,696

Ironically United's worst match performance of a spluttering season saw the Champions claim all three points and not playing anything like we have over the past three games.  A 30 yard long range effort by Nani (with help from Tevez) ensured the United would pull themselves out of the RELEGATION ZONE to the dizzy heights of 10th place.  Still with no sign of Saha & Anderson SAF said after yesterdays victory “I think Louis Saha will be available for next Saturday’s game, and Anderson will definitely be fit.

So with this SAF fielded Dong & Eagles as the Reds attacking options for the visit of Tottenham.

Spurs started brightly and within a minute the North London club had struck a post in the form a Robbie Keane shot, however that was to be Tottenham only real chance of the half as the United started to boss the game.

United force Robinson to save after a shot from Owen Hargreaves outside of the box fell to Ferdinand in a forward position & the former team mate of Ferdinand's at Leeds acrobatically saved.

The under fire England keeper again saved his side as Ex Spurs midfielder Michael Carrick went inches wide with a shot after Evra & Giggs combined to set up Carrick.

Paul Scholes was the next United player to go close when EVDS hoofed a ball up field, Carlos Tevez controlled the ball wide left before cutting in and feeding Ryan Giggs, the Welshman send a appetising ball into Scholes path but the Ginger Ninja didn't connect correctly & the ball went over the bar.

In the second half Spurs created much more with Rocha finding space in United's penalty area unmarked, fortunately for United the Tottenham Defender missed the target after an excellent ball from Gareth Bale.

Carrick having one of his less productive games was subbed for Chris Eagles & the former Spurs man was verbally abused by the visiting support with chants of "What a waste of money"

The visitors almost took the lead shortly after a sloppy left footed pass from Nemanja Vidic went straight to Gareth Bale who rampantly ran at United's goal before slipping a pass to Berbatov closely marked by Vidic, the Serbanator then collided with Berbatov in the United penalty area resulting in both player sliding on the floor, recovering quicker than his marker the Bulgarian stuck out a leg as EVDS came to collect and the ball beating the United stickman travelled on its way toward a Tottenham opening goal.

However Spurs would be thwarted as Rio Ferdinand acted rapid & inches before passing the line, the ball was cleared away from goal and away from danger by the England centre half.

The visitor came close again as the Tottenham's classy Bulgarian (please sign for us) gave the Reds another scare, Hargreaves was tackled and lost possession, a secession of passes later saw Berbatov fed in the United penalty area, EVDS was called into action & the Dutch keeper saved only to see the ball fall again to Berbatov who struck the ball goal bound, Wes Brown then seemingly saving with his hand kept the scores even as the Manchester born fullback blocked the shot guiding the ball out for a Spurs corner.

Spurs furious at not being given a penalty, then crowded the referee hoping for a change of decision however after speaking to his linesman Howard Webb confirmed that a penalty was not the order of the day.

Immediately after the resulting corner, United broke with Carlos Tevez who fed a ball toward Scholes just outside the Spurs penalty area, Scholes then attempted a shot which found Nani, the Portuguese winger in the penalty area floated a cross toward the on rushing Scholes but Robinson dived to punch clear, Robinson not clearing found his punch land before Carlos Tevez who's tame shot evaded all but Jermaine Jenas as the midfielder cleared off the line.

United then took the lead in truly spectacular fashion matched only by the scorer's goal celebration as Chris Eagles tried a pass into the box resulting in the ball ricocheting back toward Nani, Nani then with back toward goal dribbled in almost a full circle before creating time & space for himself and unleashing a ferocious drive which made the back of the net bulge (with a little help from Tevez) giving the the home side a lead.

Still searching for a deserved "something" a deep cross into United's area from the excellent Pascal Chimbona saw United only half clear the danger & Berbatov show sublime control & a clean pair of heels to Ferdinand & Fletcher as he constructed a chance from nothing in the form of a turn & shot in one movement only curling the shot agonisingly wide.

So United finally got the spluttering season off to a start & claimed all three points even though it was the poorest performance so far this season, on fair reflection Spurs did deserve something from the game, but as we all know Football is a funny, cruel game.

United's Man of the Match
Hargreaves shades the MOTM from Vidic & Evra after another  impressive game from the ex Bayern midfielder.
Hargreaves also showed his experience by rollicking Ferdinand about his positioning sense, keep it up Owen!!!.

MUFC.COM's Reaction
A deflected long range strike & some luck in our goal, how Berbatov didn't claim a hat-trick or brace at the least the Lord only knows.

Was our prediction correct?
No! We said 2-0. MUFC INFO 0 v 4 Wrong Predictions.

Milestones
SAF's 368th victory of his Premiership career.
Paul Scholes is now 6th in the All Time Appearances List with his 530th competitive appearance for the Reds.

United's Next Match
Saturday 1st September 2007 against Sunderland in the Premiership at Old Trafford with a 17:15pm kick off.

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