The Breakdown
United 2 - 1 Stoke
The first half began with a game full of tempo for United. The addition of Rafael and Nani down the right along with Giggs down the left, combined with the creative force of Berbatov, allowed us to fully exploit a Stoke team that looked as if they'd forgotten what time the game started.
For the optimists, it was a game where we started brightly and could only go on to do better. For the pessimists, it would be one where we would waste chances and create sloppy plays. Unfortunately, the pessimists would win out today as we could not make our dominance count on the scoresheet.
The two major threats before the first goal came from range via the right foot of Darron Gibson. One flew over the crossbar, and the other went just wide. Not bad from our new long range specialist. Who knows, give him a couple of years and he may be able to develop some better passing skills and voila, Scholes-lite! Other than that, there was a ball into the box which was chased by Giggs who flicked it up to Shawcross' arm. It was a handball, but in all honesty I wouldn't have given it seeing as there was nothing he could do to get out of the way.
On the 27th minute, a flash of genius from Chicharito made it one-nothing to the good guys. Nani takes the ball out wide and drills it into the middle where an onrushing Chicharito backheels it past the defender and into the goal. Definitely one of my favorite goals of the season. It was a mix of positioning, persistence, teamwork, and creativity. A similar move almost paid off a few minutes later as a ball wide was headed powerfully back into the box by Nani and Chicharito's effort was blocked by the towering Huth.
When the second half got underway, I felt as though we were going to kick on from teh impressive first half. But no, Stoke started brighter than us and I swear at one point, Gary Neville must've been on the field. This period of pressure also included a goal for Stoke. A rare mistake by Vidic allowed Dean Whitehead acres of space and when a cross floated in, he was free to head it past Kuszczak. It was one of those facepalm moments, perhaps not an Eternal Facepalm moment, but it was slack defending from the whole team nevertheless.
We did get back on track a few minutes when Nani had the ball outside the penalty box and gives it to Chicharito who fakes a shot, and returns it to Nani who absolutely hammers it past Begovic and makes it 2-1 to United.
The rest of the game was a bit of a cagey affair as United looked to hold on to their lead and Stoke tried to break through the stubborn Fletcher/Gibson(later Carrick) axis. United clearly didn't reach the same level of domination that they had in the first half, so the best way to describe this match is workmanlike. We did what we had to do, and may I say not in a shy way. Oh no, oh no not United. They did it their way.
Reaction
The United team that walked out onto the Old Trafford pitch a few hours ago was not the sloppy one that played against West Brom a few days ago. We had a confident, bold team that would play a free-flowing attacking game against a visibly weaker side. That being said, I think we were far too wasteful with our possession. Be it in front of the goal or in the middle third creating chances, we need to learn to make every second on the ball count. Mark my words.
As we highlighted in the last game, Gary Neville's time is up. Rafael made a much more solid contribution to the team, bombing forward and then running back to defend. This boy's the real deal.
And one last thing to mention is the presence of Darron Gibson. I was actually impressed by his passing and movement. He didn't do anything spectacular in particular, but he was industrious and did what he was supposed to to. Most people think that all he's good for is his long range shooting, but I think given a bit more time, he'll pick up his game.
Player of the game is gonna have to go to Rafael who made a huge difference in that he provided another outlet for United to attack through as well as stopping plenty of Stoke's forays down our right wing.
Where We Stand:
1|United|20P|24GD|44PTS
2|Man City|21P|17GD|41PTS
3|Arsenal|20P|20GD|39PTS
4|Tottenham|20P|7GD|36PTS
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5|Chelsea|20P|18GD|35PTS
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