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Another massive win, another slip up by our title rivals, this Sunday is also another Giant step as draw Specialists Arsenal face a game against Chelsea with everything on the line.

Victory is essential for the Gunners or they will have to take third place, a draw is probably a gambling mans best bet.
 

Article by Mark Graham, Stats Nerd
Manchester United 2 v 0 Bolton Wanderers, Old Trafford, 20.00pm, Wednesday 19th March 2008.

Goals: Manchester United: Ronaldo (9), (19) - Bolton Wanderers - n/a.
Attendance: 75,476

With title contenders seemingly floundering in the form of Chelsea & Arsenal, Manchester United took a stride toward retaining their Premiership title after beating Bolton on Wednesday night taking a clear 3 point lead at the top of the table with all teams 30 games played.

Another fixture, more goals, the Captains armband & another spectacular free kick and oh yes the  breaking of a George Best record all in one night was on the agenda for Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese winger at his very tender age broke a club record set by Best in the 1967/68 season (see below) which is testimony to the ability of the young forward.

With an opportunity of pulling away from the chasing pack up for grabs many fans were shocked at SAF's team selection with Owen Hargreaves at right fullback, O'Shea for Evra, Pique for Ferdinand & Saha for Rooney to name but a few changes from the Derby game.

Bolton struggling at the wrong end of the table had Nolan missing & Kevin Davies playing with a bad back adding more problems for Megson.

It only took the United 9 minutes to take the lead and the opening goal could so easily have came from Carlos Tevez after encouraging link up play from Saha, Tevez with his chest, controlled the ball beating the Bolton defence, but the Argentines touch was just too much as the ball was blasted into the crowd by Ricardo Gardner for a United corner.

The resulting corner was then converted by Ronaldo who finished exceptionally well through a congested penalty box, Tevez tried a overhead kick which saw the striker miss & land on his head & from the resulting melee to clear the ball , Ronaldo with still much to do found the back of the net through a wall of bodies.

Bolton were by no means out of the game and with the score at 1-0 Davies from a cross from Guthrie found his shot well saved by Tomasz Kuszczak, Gretar Steinsson also tried to pull the Trotters level but his poor shot went wide.

The next goal came from what is beginning to be a regular occurrence as an arrow like free kick from Cristiano Ronaldo lit up the Old Trafford sky's once again, Meite who must have wished he was taken off at the opening kick off tackled Ronaldo hard resulting in a free kick for the home side, a bad mistake on any opponent these days as Ronaldo like his Portsmouth free kick found the back of the net with devastating fashion.

The technique Ronaldo uses to strike the ball is of a last, minute swerve or dip which now on more than one occasion make a fool out of goalkeepers as Al Habsi learned.

United however were in comfortable control of the game and Tevez shot after neat work only found  Al Habsi, the hosts continued to push as both Darren Fletcher and then John O’Shea saw chances missed before the interval.

With in only a matter of seconds of the restart Nani forced Al Habsi into a save as free-kick and this only seemed to spur on Bolton who suddenly burst into life making Kuszczak earn his wages.

A tip over from Nicky Hunt's long range effort & dive to stop Gavin McCann kept the United keeper working.

Senegalese Spitting Sensation El-Hadji Diouf then had the ball in the net after a free-kick but the referee made the former Liverpool star take the free kick again only for Kuszczak to save with a diving catch.

With few chances in the rest of the game Ronaldo was thwarted by Al Habs from bagging a hat trick & Matthew Taylor with less than five minutes left made it easy for Kuszczak as the Polish keeper kept an impressive clean sheet when the Bolton played could have done much better.

The night would be made a touch better for all United fans & players etc alike as late drama at White Hart Lane saw Robbie Keane score a fantastic goal to give his team a share in the spoils & dent Chelsea's title ambitions with a loss of two points after being ahead 3-1.

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