Reaction to the Tottenham Victory

It is fair to say that United gave their best performance of the season so far in what proved to be a masterclass in how to retain the football in the 3-1 victory over Spurs. Rooney was outstanding, Giggs rolled back the years – whilst Evra constantly bombed down the left providing an even greater attacking threat. I really enjoyed the game yesterday and hopefully this post sums up all the action and talking points.

The penalty decision could have been the turning point of the game and rightfully so – Fergie wasn’t too happy with the outcome:

“It was a terrible decision,”
“He was sent off because his name is Paul Scholes.
“I’ve watched it on a replay twice now and I think the Tottenham boy caught him more than Paul caught the boy.”
“I didn’t see any sending off in what he did at all.”

Have to say that I agree whole heartedly with Fergie, although I have to admit at first I thought the challenge looked quite dangerous – until I saw the video replay later on. Paul Scholes, for all his qualities, has always been rash when challenging for the ball – and as Fergie said that could have been a contributing factor in his dismissal.

Fergie also commented on how United had to concentrate and regain their composure after Defoe’s brilliant first minute strike:

“It was always going to be hard game,”
“Tottenham are in great form and they got off to a fantastic start in the first minutes of the game.
“It was a marvellous finish from Defoe but it was early in the game, there were still 90 minutes to play. We had to gather our game and show composure.”

Defoe is in scintillating form and his overhead kick summed up the confidence of the England striker. However, if you’re going to concede a goal in Football – statistics show that you are better off conceding early rather than in the last ten minutes of the game. United demonstrated why they are Champions of England by retaining possession at lightning speed – whilst counter attacking effectively.

Both Sir Alex Ferguson and Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp were full of praise for Wayne Rooney – who scored the third and vital goal for the Champions:

Sir Alex:

“Wayne’s goal came at a great time, it killed the game for us,”
“We were under the cosh with the ten men and had to defend really well. We had some good counter-attacking play and the third goal finished the game.”

Harry Redknapp (when asked is Defoe the best striker in England):

“I’d say it’s Rooney,”
“He works his socks off, holds the ball up, dribbles and beats people, scores goals, tackles you twice as hard as anyone else and doesn’t stop running around,”
“What else are you supposed to do?”

Some (non United) fans underestimate the work that Rooney puts in for his side – most noticeably over the past three season – which most of the time saw Ronaldo grab all of the limelight. Rooney again demonstrated why he is United’s best player with intelligent movement up from and a superb change of pace on left hand side (especially when United were down to ten men). Rooney scored a superb third goal having latched on to a Fletcher through ball. He then proceeded to nutmeg Cudicini – before running over to celebrate with the United fans.

A great performance was slightly soured (like our last trip to North London) by an incorrect decision to dismiss Paul Scholes. Anderson proved why he is such an exciting prospect and hopefully he will be able to push on this season even further. Excellent freekick by Giggsy who looked a lot more comfortable against Spurs than he did just off Rooney two weeks previous.