Failed to Capitalise

Zat Knight adds to list of scorers that exposed Man Utd's leaky defence

Chelski got away scot free big time. And Man Utd squandered it big time. On a Saturday where the Gooners shockingly went down 2-3 to West Brom at the Emirates and Chelsea being outsmarted by one Tevez from City plus the Scousers languishing with a 2-2 draw with Sunderland, it was most certainly a good Sunday for Man Utd to demolish the deficit. That turned out to be much more difficult than envisioned within 5 minutes into the game when Zat Knight placed Bolton 1-0 up with a headed goal from a corner. It became a uphill battle for United as Bolton now had the easier job of holding on to their lead. I would say that Bolton came prepared with a certain style of play. The physical robustness of their forwards, Davies and Elmander is clearly causing huge problems for the back four. There were plenty of times when Evra and Evans were outmuscled or when Vidic and O'Shea were a second slower. Rooney continues to misfires and Berbatov does not seem to be putting on his shooting boots.

Nevertheless, United was rescued in the first half by a moment of individual brilliance by Nani who dribbled from his own half, beating several defenders along the way and finishing it off with an amazing goal. This was reminiscence of Giggsy's 1999 FA Cup goal against Arsenal..lol. I would have thought fortunes would have improved in the second half and Bolton, in their disciplined manner, manages to go another goal up thanks to a freekick by Petrov. This is not looking good at all but kudos to Bolton in taking their set-pieces well and really doing the damage when it matters. Meanwhile, I would say that this is obvious signs that the United defence is performing below par. 9 goals conceded in the past 6 league matches with the last three conceding at least 2 goals each. United were further inflicted with 2 injuries to Giggsy and Rooney and Fergie responded by sending out Macheda and Owen in hopes of getting the equaliser and hopefully the winner. Owen had a fine game againt Scuntorpe earlier with his brace and he added a 3rd goal to this year's campaign when he scored an important life-saving equaliser.

Will Fergie look back at this alongside with Fulham and Everton as the defining moments for the title race? Well, one can have two perspectives after this match, one being that United lost 2 points to catch up, or the other positive viewpoint is that they have cut the 4 point deficit to 3. Fergie knows how bad the points that were lost in this match, as shown by the cold handshakes that he had given to his counterparts after the match.