VIEW: United vs Tottenham. 3-1

Yet again, as if the 9 hour round trip
isn’t enough of a struggle for us cockney red’s (according to latest stats
99.99999999% of United fans are from London?),
my fu*king team – YET again – made us suffer and live through every agonising minute. Evra and Nani
were allowed to throw up on their boots when the pressure got to them…well how
about us? Somehow I don’t think the old dear sitting in front of me would’ve been
too keen if I expressed my nervous disposition in the same way.

After a first-half where chances were
created but not converted, and facing a Tottenham side who, surprisingly, failed to really threaten
(you wouldn’t have thought that both teams had everything to play for), frustration
turned into anxiety until finally the breakthrough came: in the form of a
penalty (stonewall) and a certain Ryan Giggs (up and coming youngster).

Yet at 1-0, things are never ever
safe; especially against a team that has been so incredibly converted into the
real deal by their under-respected gaffer.

Their sporadic spell of dominance with
around 25 minutes left of the game was rather unfairly rewarded by a goal. Still,
after dominating against the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea, it’s fair to say that
on the day their overall performance was a poor representation of what they can
genuinely achieve and, seeing as their threat fortunately ended there, it has rather
cruelly reduced those last two formidable results to history.

Kings header was powerful and watching
it back, it can be argued that his handling of Carrick was a tad affectionate, yet
it was Raf’s immaturity that will be how he'll  be remembered for this one.
Despite his proactive and overtly energetic performance, his inability to stick
on the post for the Tottenham corner was potentially detrimental
and showed why, at times, 64  year old Gary Neville is still first choice at right back.

But at certain moments, at certain times of the season – and
as long as the title is still there for the taking – their will undoubtedly
emerge a certain, divine hero. The Guardian wrote: 'This was the day an unknown 17-year-old kid, brought on
as a hunch, took the game, the season and his entire life by the scruff of the
neck and decided: this is mine" about last seasons hero the day
after Kiko psychologically won us the title at home to Villa. And, just as our legendary
vet did last week against City, Nani stepped up, taking the game, season and
his entire life by the scruff of the neck – darting into the box and chipping
Gomes ludicrously – as he decided: ‘this is mine’. Thank f*ck for that…but
still, with 9 minutes remaining, the game was not over for either side.

With
the momentum well and truly with one side, Giggsy converted the second
Premiership penalty of his career(!) to round it off minutes later; yet it will
be Nani’s goal– rather fittingly set-up by Macheda himself – that will truly be
remembered as the winner, and potentially the moment he fully converted from a useless
waste to ‘pivotal match winner’.

The comparisons
with Ronaldo were unsurprisingly overloading every review in every paper this
morning; and to his credit, he deserves it. Whether Fergie sat him down around
January time and said ‘sort it or you’re out’, or whether he simply realised that
his place at United was in jeopardy after 2 and a half seasons of under-achievement,
something happened in this second, crucial part of the season that allowed him
to finally realise and fulfil his potential. And now, those early comments
about him ‘one day being the new Ronaldo’, via ‘poor mans Ronaldo’, have transpired
into 'Nani now looks the real thing' and 'Having stepped out of Ronaldo’s shadow, Nani has been in nobody’s except Wayne Rooney’s'.

That
beautiful, oh so daring goal is indeed what this quality player is really all
about – who also incidentally grafted all game long in pursuit of victory (take note
Berbs you bell). And if it contributes to winning the title, it will be the
most perfect two finger salute to myself and anyone else who ever doubted him.

3-1,
top of the league (for now) and thankfully a whole 8 days to recover. With Sunderland
(10th) and Stoke (13th) playing for nothing, lets pray that things will be a
lot more straight forward than they have been the last few weeks. Ah who am I kidding?! I’ll be as
gutted as the next pathetically besotted fan if we don’t win each game with a 96th
minute tap in. Is anyone else seriously starting to look forward to the summer and that
relaxing, far less meaningful kick about in South Africa??

Good.

Nani.
Bored of singing his praises (and slightly embarrassed seeing how much I’ve
openly slagged him in the past). See above.

Top. If
only for a day. Where we belong and, God willing, where we’ll end up.

Vidic.
His best performance of this injury-ridden and distracting season. Thankfully
the Barca rumours have died down (for now…) as he’ll hopefully keep it up to
help us do our job and get the 6 out of 6 we need to stay in it.

Bad.

Berbs.
What an awful, awful first half that was only slightly wiped out of memory as
he dusted off a spot of flair to ‘set-up’ Evra for the opening penalty. Generally
though, isolated and, yet again, pointless as a lone striker. How much more
time after this season is he going to have to show us exactly what Spurs were
thinking when they valued him at £30million?

Chelsea. Where as the euphoria of
last Saturday’s incredible win was enhanced and allowed to trickle through to the
following week when Chelsea lost and Wigan ruled Arsenal out of the race, we
were annoyingly brought right back down to earth earlier today as Chelsea reclaimed
top spot and took the piss after raping Stoke 7-0. Bollocks.

Plain
weird.

Evra
and Nani chundering. Seriously. What the f*ck?!

Player
Ratings.

Van
der Sar 6; Evra 7, Vidic 9, Evans 7, Rafael 7; Nani 9, Giggs 7, Fletcher 8, Scholes
7, Valencia 7; Berbatov 6.