Well, we didn’t win the match but I was so proud of the team today. We never stopped competing despite being a man down for most of the game and only lost because of a penalty that never should have been awarded. Not for the first time, Howard Webb was the catalyst for a Man United victory.
The penalty he awarded them in the second minute for Dimitar Berbatov’s pathetic dive was a shockingly poor decision. He was too far away from the incident to have a clear view and rather than consider the view of the linesman who was much closer and did not flag for a foul, the crooked official couldn’t point to the spot quick enough.
To compound matters he dismissed Steven Gerrard with an hour of the game still to be played. By the letter of the law, Gerrard’s challenge was made with excessive force and by jumping in with both feet and studs showing it was dangerous and worthy of a red card. However, had Carrick not also lunged for the ball at full stretch, there would have been no contact and no danger. It is clear from replays that Gerrard took the ball first. It seems a one-sided view to dismiss Gerrard but not even caution Carrick. There is also the matter of context to consider. Webb, remember, was the referee in the World Cup Final who refused to issue a red card despite a number of blatant red card offences being committed – the worst being Nigel de Jong’s kung fu kick into the chest of Xabi Alonso. Given the ferocious nature of this fixture, surely there was an argument for the referee applying some discretion in order to keep 22 men on the pitch?
The fact is, had Webb punished the equally dangerous two-footed lunge by Rafael on Meireles earlier in the same passage of play, the Gerrard lunge never would have occurred. I’m not excusing Gerrard. He was stupid and should have known better than to lose his head. However, Webb’s handling of these incidents decided the match and it was clear he showed no consistency and his decisions totally favoured the home team. Before the red card, we looked the stronger team and played some brilliant football.
Even after the dismissal, I thought we battled hard and ran ourselves into the ground. We showed more attacking intent and better passing of the ball with 10 men at Old Trafford than we did in most games under the Rectified Mistake [I don’t want to say his name anymore]. I thought Martin Kelly was superb today and was our man of the match. Reina was also awesome and Agger and Skrtel looked a very effective partnership. Agger in particular impressed while Aurelio was very welcome back and unlucky not to score with his free-kick. Kuyt, Lucas, Meireles and Maxi all worked hard though perhaps lacked a sprinkle of star quality between them. Torres had a thankless task playing as a lone front man which became tougher following Gerrard’s dismissal but he stuck to the task and deserved his rest when replaced by Ngog.
Overall, this was easily our best performance of the season and there were so many positives to take from it. United may have cheated their way into the next round but we have got our club back. Ours is by far the greater victory.
Welcome back King Kenny!
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