review: MANCHESTER UNITED 2 v 1 everton

Article by Mark Graham, Stats Nerd
Match Review
Manchester United 2 v 1 Everton, Old Trafford, Manchester, 12.00pm, Sunday 23rd December 2007.
Goals: Manchester United: Ronaldo (22), (88 pen)   Everton: Cahill (27).
Attendance: 75,749

A late penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo saw Manchester United defeat Everton at Old Trafford seeing the Title race "as you were" starting over the Christmas period, Ronaldo seeing himself standing alone at the top of the Premierships goal scoring charts with 13 kept the Reds within one point after Arsenal managed to defeat Spurs previously.

SAF was missing EVDS (groin), Rio Ferdinand (Xmas Party dropping or Gash to knee, you decide) as well as Owen Hargreaves & so in shuffled pack in came Simpson at right full back with Wes Brown moving to centre back, Tomasz Kuszczak deputised for EVDS showing some decidedly terrible distribution, kicking like an old Sebbuteo corner kick specialist & at the same time leaving some United Christmas grumble as Dutch stickman EVDS looks to miss the Festive period with a troublesome groin injury.

David Moyes riding a wave of form with his Everton side had problems of his own as Mikel Arteta missed the game through illness.

The game began high octane with bookings galore in the 1st 15 minutes, Rooney, Evra, Cahill & Hibbert all landed in Howard Webb's notebook.

A close contested even period was finally broken with a stunning Ronaldo goal, as the prolific forward collect a pass from Tevez, Ronaldo moved inside a weak challenge from Carsley and smashed a left footed effort past Ex United keeper Tim Howard breaking Everton's brilliant resistance which up until then had lasted over 5 hours without conceding a goal in the league.

Showing just why the Toffees had racked up impressive stats recently however, the visitors were level within 5 minutes.

Pienaar capitalised on hesitant play from Danny Simpson allowing a cross into the box, whereby Tim Cahill met the ball nodding past Kuszczak after the Polish keeper was caught in two minds to come to collect the ball, and just to add the Cherry on the icing on the cake with regard to poor all round United defending, Cahill one of the smallest men on the pitch beat 2 United defenders to the ball.

United continued to wade & probe through the tough resilient Everton defence & midfield, feeding off what little Merseyside's finest offered, but for all Everton's grit & determination the Reds still managed to create chances.

Joleon Lescott nodded a Rooney chip off the line & Ronaldo grazed the bar with a volley but the game was fairly contested at 1-1 when the half time whistle was blown.

SAF brought on JOS replacing Simpson at the start of the second half after an off colour 1st half performance from the young fullback.

The home side were 1st to the punch to fashion a chance again in the second half as Ex Red Howard stopped a Tevez shot before then saving Anderson's blast through a congested penalty area.

Rooney then hit the woodwork for a frustrated home side after Ronaldo tried to tee up the "Once a Blue always a Red" Striker.

Louis Saha was brought into the game as time was running out for United & several counter attacks came the Reds way until Pienaar Everton's South African stupidly attempted to stop a probing Giggs run with what can only be described as a Chuck Norris reverse leg sweep, Giggs came crashing to the ground, David Moyes had his face in his hands & Ronaldo sent Tim Howard the wrong way claiming all three points for United.

Did Fergie make Rio & Evans sit together to teach them a lesson??
How crap was our reserve keepers kicking??
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United's Man of the Match
I know Ronaldo scored twice but...........for 86 minutes Anderson was outstanding in midfield, not many Brazilians like to get down and dirty, but week after week against impressive talent aka, Gerrard, Mascherano, Fabregas the 19 year old impresses me much.

To put it in a nutshell & Scholes is one of my favourites & the Ginger Ninja has not been missed, but what a new addition &  signing it will be like in the New Year along with Ji Sung Park & Gary Neville!!!!.

MUFC.COM's Reaction
A very hard game, some might say fortunate, but so were Chelsea & Arsenal this week, so three points against the inform team will do the Reds nicely.  The Xmas programme has United pitted against Sunderland (a) West Ham (a) & Birmingham (h) & Arsenal on the other hand have Portsmouth (a) Everton (a) & West Ham (h).

No fixture can be taken lightly, however Id rather have our Christmas opponents than the Gunners.

Was our prediction correct?
No!! We said 2-0. MUFC INFO 3 v 22 Wrong Predictions.

Milestones
Cristiano Ronaldo's 45th & 46th Premiership goals of his United career & 65th & 66th goals overall.

Cristiano Ronaldo is now tied with Wayne Rooney with 66 Career goals.

SAF's 380th victory of his Premiership career.
SAF's 600th Premiership match in charge.

Ryan Giggs's 520th competitive league appearance of his United career.

Ryan Giggs Countdown
Sir Bobby Charlton =753 appearances
Ryan Giggs             =724 appearances

29 competitive Games left to eclipse the All Time Record Set by Sir Bobby Charlton

United's Next Match
Wednesday 26th December 2007 against Sunderland in the Premiership @ The Stadium of Light, Sunderland with a 15.00pm K.O.

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