Cracking under pressure

Grim faces at the United bench as they sit through a gloomy period

The rot didn't stop at the 4-1 mauling as expected. Man Utd ended another match shamefully at the Cottage as they were left with 9 men after the final whistle was blown. Scholes was sent off for a straight red for handball and Rooney was off too for a second yellow at the last few minutes for some bad attitude display. I'm sure all United fans are as clueless how Man Utd could end up losing that match. At least a draw would have been decent. Nevertheless, one could have still seen that United will always end up at the backburner after Paul was sent off with just 17 minutes into the game. There was little chance that they were gonna get back with 10 men and having more than an hour left to play. Divine intervention was not there to save them too, and probably all their credits have been used up in churning out all the 1-0 wins. This is a crazy massive turnover, from being an impregnable defence of 15 clean sheets to the one now that can't seem to stop goals from leaking in.

This was the first time United had suffered back-to-back defeats since April 2005. It's not a blip. There was no immediate bouncing back. It's starting to look as if decomposition has set into the team. Things are starting to heat up for Fergie as Vidic, Scholes and Rooney are all unavailable for the next Premier League game. Berbatov is apparently nursing an injury, and so, he's off too. Given this situation, Rooney would have at least alleviate his team's suffering if he had shown some sound judgment in keeping a cool head at the end. I mean, Come on, it's just a couple more minutes to the end of the game. That one second of bad decision making meant that Fergie will have a shortage of strikers. Tevez will no doubt be pleased coz he's definitely and confirmed to be on the team sheet against Villa.

It was heartening to see on the same night that Chelski had failed also to get one over their London neighbours at White Hart Lane. Spurs came away with a narrow 1-0 win to give Guus Hiddink his first defeat since coming to England. The Scousers were however, are still flying high after seeing both of their rivals stumble. They responded by smashing Aston Villa 5-0 but that was due to the fact that Villa were left with 10 men for a majority of their game after having their keeper sent off. I guess that's some good mojo for the Kop at Anfield ehhh. They have red cards flashing to help their cause..haha.

From a possible 10 point lead, it has now being reduced to a possible 4 only. Currently, it stands at 1 point lead with 1 game in hand. Of course mathematically speaking, a lead is still a lead even if it's 1 point or on goal differences. Man Utd could still have the leeway in stumbling in that they are allowed to lose 1 more time and draw another before the Scousers can catch up. Till then, if Man Utd wake up their idea and win all the way or the Scousers stumble another time, it will be hard for the current leaders to be dislodged.

It will be interesting if Man Utd once again left it late like last season to win the Premier League. But the games ahead won't be easy. Aston Villa may have been whipped by Liverpool and are currently on a bad run, but their attacking play should never be underestimated. And there's still the Gooners who will be travelling to Old Trafford and Man Utd have shown that they aren't really that invisible at the Theatre of Dreams against their rivals especially at the moment. Considering that the Champions League opponents are against Porto, Man Utd definitely had an easier time than Chelski or Liverpool who will be once-again (like forever lovers..haha), self-destruct themselves against each other at the quarter-finals. Gosh, if Man Utd did succeed to reach at least the final of the Champions League and the FA Cup, they would have played an astounding 60+ matches in a season. This is sheer amount of fixtures for any club in a season and fatigue would naturally set in for anyone.

Anyways, it is rather commendable on Fergie's part considering that Man Utd's second string squad aren't that decent and some of them wouldn't even make it to Aston Villa or Everton's first team. This is coupled with the fact that Man Utd's first-team had already contain folks like Fletcher, Park, O Shea and Carrick who are playing on quite a regular basis plus ageing old horses like Giggs, Scholes and Neville. Perhaps the overstreched squad is starting to creak already at this stage and hopefully it can hold the water at least until folks like Nani and Anderson start stepping up to be matured and dependable players next season. And Fergie better start thinking of a new striker buy as it is looking even more likely every minute passing by that Carlos will be taking the flight out of Manchester at the end of the season.