Well, well, well. . .talk about a reverse of fortune for Queen and Country. Manchester United, Arsenal, and RANGERS (waaaahhh????) came out and won their games. More on United in a second, but Arsenal shows that they could win the treble this year. Arsenal, as much as I DESPISE them, looks like an absolutely cream of the crop team. Contenders for Europe? If they play today like they did against Sevilla (a 3-0 win by the way) then Liverpool might have to move over.
But Rangers (equipped with yank DaMarcus Beasley who played from the 67th minute on) showed the most class by beating Stuttgart with an effective scoreline of 2-1. And I thought Rangers were a guaranteed out and Celtic a gauranteed advance. . .hmmmm, football is a tricky thing to predict.
The UNITED Front: 100 Wins/Fear the Future
Well, United won 1-0 for the fourth straight time and Van der Sar recorded his fifth clean sheet in seven games. More historical, this proved to be United's 100th win in the Champions League. But once again, while the defense was superb (with minor cracks here and there due to Ferdinand acting like a lazy idiot) ManU just couldn't get the ball in the back of the net more than once or for the first 60 minutes.
First of all, while Van der Sar seems to be having a renaissance in the winter of his career, Paul Scholes is starting to show his age. For one his vision is fading. Scholes has given away so many balls this year it is terrifying. Anderson, the new signing for ManU, has played little and when he has played he has not impressed but I feel Scholes needs to get out of this rotation during the big games like upcoming Chelsea and the revenge-seeking Roma.
I am still uncomfortable with United's play on the offensive end. One day, if it continues like this, the defense will have a bad day and ManU will drop points either in the Champions League or in the Premiership. The next step is beating Chelsea and since both ManU and Chelsea are playing so poorly I suspect the usual draw. Remember, ManU beat Chelsea once this year but if it wasn't a trophy competition the teams would have tied and cancelled each other out. I pray for the future. The Premiership is still in reach but even with the slightly impressive win today, ManU has no shot AT ALL of winning the Champions League.
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