VIEW: United vs Tottenham. 2-0

Dodgy goal?...Give a fuck?

Good.

Still unbeaten. The only team in the League to have not lost a game, and the first time we've gone the first 10 games unbeaten since the beginning of the 90/91 season.

Nani. First the assist - a beautifully floated free-kick that met Vidic's crafty bonce nicely - then a goal of his own - which I'll obviously get to later. It was an awesome, well grafted display by our season's top performer that was so nearly fittingly capped with a beaut in the final moments that hit the cross-bar.

Van der saar at 40. The big man made a vital, and athletically challenging stop even for someone half his age, against Modric at the stoke of half-time; restoring the United fan's faith that was somewhat tarnished after his howler vs. Bolton, and instead reminding us (as if we really need reminding) that he truly is one of the all-time greats.

(...but who cares about the good points after the way the match ended?...)

Bad.

As seems to be a regular occurrence in recent times when facing the might of Tottenham at Old Trafford, the game and, consequently, final result was unnecessarily stained by a hearty dose of controversy after Nani's hilarious goal won it.

I can't be bothered to write-up a full blown essay analysing all the points for and against the goal (obvious by the delayed status by which I'm posting this, as well as the good old sloppy 'Good' and 'Bad' format of the piece). So instead, keeping to the sloppy format mentioned within the brackets in the previous paragraph, I'm simply going to bullet-point a hybrid of points: from everything that's been said condemning the goal/referee..to why Spurs really should just shut the f**k up:

• Let's face it, Tottenham hadn't been in the game for ages before our second, 84th minute goal. Yes the late goal killed the game and doubled the advantage, but we all know the game was already over.


• The one piece of sympathy I have toward Spurs' cause is that, in fairness, it should have been a freekick.....however...


• ...Clattenburg didn't blow for a free-kick. He would never have seen, nor acknowledged, Nani wrapping his arms arround the ball. as he was concentrating on making his initial poor decision...


• ...on that note, it's worth remembering why exactly Nani did go down in the first place. As Fletch said after the game, Kaboul's challenge on Nani was a stonewall penalty, and everyone knows it. Justice, as far as any red is concerned, was done.


• The boring, tired, same-old-excuse cliché about 'ref's at Old Trafford' is becoming embarrassing on the away fans that can't resist using it. Apart from Mendes' 'goal' which was genuinely ridiculous and will never be forgotten by the Spurs faithful (it was nearly 6 years ago!), by falling back on the classic 'same old OT refereeing decisions' it just highlights even more so their team's inability to compete and their pathetic, arrogant style of never admitting honest defeat. It is therefore the mythical conspiracy theories of the past that hold teams like Spurs back. By keeping that chip on their shoulder and never admitting that sometimes, just sometimes, they genuinely can't beat United, they will never progress.


• Besides, I don't think Spurs would have argued too much about anything had Gomes rolled it out and then hurriedly pelted it to Modric, who then squares it to Crouch to score a late equaliser. Would they have said 'oh what an unfair goal. Not only should that have been a United penalty, but it wasn't even awarded as a free-kick. We're so ashamed' ? Don't quite think so.


• The summarising point was stated by Jonathan Northcroft in yesterday's Sunday Times. He began his match review with the most obvious and significant point of all: '"Play to the whistle" is one of the first lessons any footballer is taught and Gomes forgot it'. And that, I'm afraid, really is the bottom line. Gomes, as well as Nani, and any Tottenham defender in the vicinity, didn't hear a whistle blown or any gesture signifying that Spurs were awarded a free-kick. So rather than criticising Nani and calling him a cheating bastard as some angry facebook status' did after the game (explain someone??), we should be praising his awareness and surely, as Northcroft did, looking at Gomes' mistake in simply presuming Nani's handball resulted in a Spurs free-kick. Ian Danter on TalkSport ridiculously made the point last night that Gomes is Brazilian, so maybe he's used to playing the game by a different set of rules (which is surely just clean-cut racist!), but I think if Gomes is to blame, its more a case of carelessness and a lack of maturity in assuming that Clattenburg simply had to give a free-kick to Spurs.

Nani State, by Early Bath