Stoke Romp

The Stoke wall was not enough to stop the rocket blast from Ronnie's foot

Stoke City paid a visit to Old Trafford over at the weekend. After the loss at the Emirates, Man Utd know that they needed to win, and win by a big margin. However, Stoke City came into the match with the reputation of being now pushovers. Against two of the top 4, they have secured favourable results. They've managed to secure 0-0 draw at Anfield and had even got a shocking win over the Gooners. Rory Delap is starting to have a little of cult of personality over his monster long throws. Apparently the Gooners had ignored his long throw talents to their peril. Even Vidic has to start discussing on how to deal with them. Teams are now having a phobia on conceding throw-ins..hahahaha..btw, it's Sir Alex Ferguson's 50th Anniversary since his first involvement in the game of football as a 16-year-old player at Queens Park Rangers.

Looking at the line ups, regulars like Ferdinand and Rooney could not make it as a result of slight injuries and this allowed upcoming youngster Evans and Carlos Tevez to start. John O'Shea gets to start this time, over the likes over Neville or Wes Brown. It can be seen from his selections that Fergie is trying to put in the big men to deal with the physical aspect of Stoke which depended a lot on aerial powers for their ball. He's expecting a down and dirty game where Stoke may try to defend to the death and shutting out his players.

Nevertheless, Stoke's resistance was breached in just 3 minutes from the start. It's Ronaldo's typical rocket blasting free kick but Sorensen as the keeper should have dealt with it way better. So, it's more of the keeper's fault considering the flight of the ball. Even Ronaldo himself looked bemused that the ball went in. Anyways, that goal marks a milestone for Ronnie as he bags the 100th goal for Man Utd. Afterthat, it looked as if Man Utd struggled to put in a second goal to at least kill off Stoke from making a comeback although Stoke allowed the United players to freely roam around in their own half. Many of Ronaldo's passes failed to find its recipients and the finishing was just not there. There was a slight worry that overconfidence may be creeping in again given the ease the United players were passing the ball. Stoke City did not even bother attacking. The onus was on Man Utd to put the game beyond doubt. The moment of relief for the team came just before the half time whistle. It's Michael once again! Gosh, Michael Carrick picked out Ronaldo's brilliance pass and it's quite impressive that he scored using his left foot. Hahahaha..it seems that Carrick wants to emulate Frank in his midfield scoring aspects eh! It's about time Michael, stop spraying all the weak shots..lol.

In about just 4 minutes after second half is started, United struck again, this time by Berbatov. Some slack defending allowed the Bulgarian to skillfully wheel on the spot to latch onto Tevez's pass and he promptly slammed it into the net. Wonderful skill by Berba and it's a delight watching him in the game. The amount of composure and first touch that he has on the ball is amazing. There was once where he just dribble past 3 defenders in the box silkily through a tight corner but did not have enough space to place a shot. With 0-3 down, there was no way Stoke could make a comeback. So at the 64th minute, Fergie felt safe to put two United youngster on the field, 17-year-old Premier league debutant Danny Welbeck and Darron Gibson. Hmmm..right now, even Rory can't saved Stoke's ass with his throws. And he looks pretty clumsy himself while on the ball..haha. Maybe he should have become a goalkeeper or a rugby player..lol.

Another new face, this time from Angola was revealed in the 75th minute when Manucho replaced Tevez. At the 84th minute, Welbeck scored on his debut as he pops in a screamer from outside the box to the delight of the Old Trafford crowd. Watch this space, this boy could be first team regular in the making..haha. After Welbeck's goal, Fergie can be seen whispering to Tevez and I bet he must be telling him ,"That's how you do it, Carlos!"..hahaha. Ronaldo rounds up Stoke's miserable evening at OT with yet another rocket free kick, his 101st in a Red shirt. A comfortable win for United and they are now in third position, overtaking the Gooners who lost to Aston Villa at the Emirates. Once again, peeps like the Gooners and Scousers can't sustain themselves even after winning against Man Utd..hahaha. Seriously, it doesn't make sense how the Gooners could win against their massive rivals in one match and lost the next and both were
at their own turf. But credit must be given to Aston Villa too. Martin O Neill's side is very impressive. It's just that they need some consistency and they would be even nudge Arsenal off the top four position before long. Next week's game for Man Utd at Villa Park ain't gonna be easy as the Villa players are bound to be in a buoyant mode.