Somehow, someway, someone up there is smiling down on us for the first time in about two weeks.

Wayne Rooney, despite his Mascherano-esque behaviour after being sent off for two yellow cards against Fulham, has escaped any further ban other than the compulsory one-match ban for two yellow cards from the FA.

Rooney was given his second yellow card by Phil Dowd for throwing the ball ‘away’ in the direction of the free-kick that was about to be taken. Some say he deserved to be sent off, some say it was harsh but it’s irrelevant.

Honestly I’m really surprised that he’s evaded extra punishment. His anger afterwards, however warranted, was more exuberant than is usually accepted by any Premier League ref.

So, as it is he’ll only miss the upcoming home match against Villa. And how glad are we that he won’t miss anymore matches, he was the only player who showed any heart against Fulham and we’ll need his attitude (perhaps without the outbursts) during the run-in.

(Photo by Getty Images)

We lost 1-4 at home today to the Scousers. It was a game with calamity after calamity with every one of Liverpool’s goals (except Dossena’s cracker) a direct result of a stupid United mistake. Vidic let the ball go past him and Torres drift in for the first goal. Evra uncharacteristically let the ball go past him instead of dealing with it before Gerrard stole the chase, only to be hacked down by the wee Frenchman. Liverpool’s third goal was from a free-kick; once again Vidic (who had his worse in a Utd shirt that I can remember) didn’t deal with the ball and Gerrard ran to close it down. Vidic, however, didn’t see this as an option. He came into contact with Gerrard with a tackle that would have been more at home at Murrayfield today than at OT. Maybe he thought getting a red card was worth not conceding again…Hmmmm…Not so lucky, he was sent off (for the second time this season against ‘Pool) and Fabio Aurelio knocked it an extraordinary free-kick.

Oh yeah, and United took the lead through a Ronaldo penalty after Reina dragged down Park. It was the one good thing Ronaldo did today, he was awful. So were most of United’s players; Roo was AWOL, Carrick off the boil, the only two players worth their salt today were Rio and Park who both worked their arses off for the ultimately fruitless cause. Most of those players out there should be ashamed of themselves for such a shambles of a ‘performance’.

So, a 1-4 defeat at home. Apparently our heaviest home defeat since New years Day 1992. There’s a bright side though, we’re still four points ahead with a game in hand. The title’s still in our hands.

Congratulations to Liverpool, they did well and ripped apart a Man Utd team who were out of sorts and appeared to be believing their own hype. They deserved their win and were ruthless in claiming it.

Just thinking though, what sorta odds will I get on Liverpool losing to Villa next weekend at Anfield?

I’ll think I’ll put some money on it.

(Photos: PA Photos)

So we host ‘Pool at Old Trafford today. It’s a huge match that, if we win it, will end Liverpool’s title dreams for another season and bring us one step closer to that eighteen titles mark that’s currently held by Liverpool. Let’s do it..

Here’s a few quotes from Fergie regarding today’s match:

“I won’t be holding anybody back,” he said. “It’s United-Liverpool, it’s not the time to hold back. It’s the time to go forward, to enjoy it, to express ourselves in the way we have been doing, and not to fear the situation.

“That’s what we’ve been doing for the past two or three years. This team is full of optimism, with great belief in themselves. They’re young and only going to get better.

“These matches don’t change. No matter what happens, it doesn’t make it any more intense. This game will have all the usual intensity.

“It will be fierce and competitive, it’ll be a wonderful atmosphere and one you don’t want to miss. The number of people who have phoned me up for tickets… one lad, who I haven’t spoken to in 20 years, phoned and said, ‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you for two weeks’. I said, ‘Really, what for?’ He was just thinking about coming down for the Liverpool game. I said, ‘You can keep thinking about it, because you’ve got no chance!”

Some typically jumbled words from Rafa:

“We are both in a good position and have done well. You can say yes, but it would just create headlines. Looking at Europe, you can see the four English teams are still there, but I’d rather be in the final and then we can talk about these things.

“Yes, this is the kind of game everyone wants to play in. It was the same against Real Madrid. They all want to play.

“Clearly we’re still the title race, if we can beat United you never know what can happen. If we can reduce the gap it will give us more confidence and we will approach the forthcoming games with positivity.”

Sorry for the bad quotes, couldn’t find anything better.

Anyway, in the spirit of the match here’s my starting XI for the match, as I’d pick it.

GK: VDS
DF: Evra – Vidic – Rio – John O’Shea
MF: C-Ron – Scholes – Carrick – Nani
FW: Berba – Rooney

It probably won’t be that line up but that’s what I’d like to see, with Scholes pulling the strings in the centre and Nani plundering the wings.

C’mon United!

Sorry for my ridiculous absence on here lately. The guys here at the The Offside know the reason and have been great guys, seriously. But I thought the fitting time for me to return to the Man Utd blog was now.

After a fairly poor (okay, terrible) first half performance against Bolton from the boys in red, they pulled out all the stops and…wait…What? Bad second half performance too? Are you sure? Really? Okay.

So we sucked pretty much in the second half too, but the main reason we are considered the favourites for the title is that although we played very badly we still came away with an incredibly important victory against a tough bottom-half team. Watch a tape of the match Rafa, that’s why you put your best team out, no EPL game is easy.

Did Fergie leave Berba and Tevez on the bench in favour of Danny Wellbeck? No. He knew what was at stake and put his best team out. Saying that, he was about to sub Carlitos just before he set up Berba’s goal.

But as the title of this post suggests, we are now back on top of the EPL, the first time we’ve been there since the end of last season. A long time, no doubt, but it’s all about who’s there at the end, not at the beginning. All hats off to Bolton who were very good today. They stood strong and put the game to Vidic and co., but as they did against Arsenal, they stepped back in the last 10 minutes and paid the ultimate price. Once again, Jonny Evans was incredible and the guy really looks like not only one for the future, but one for right now.

So, back on the summit. Noses are dry. Sure the air is less dense up here, but United are used to that. Vidic doesn’t even need oxygen to live.