This, of course, was not the case. With United and Arsenal hot on our tails in the Premier League and facing fixtures they ‘on paper’ should be winning, we were looking at the very real prospect of dropping from the top of the table without even kicking a ball!
The earlier kick-off of the two fixtures was Arsenal vs. Everton. There’s little point recapping match detail as frankly who gives one? The key facts are Everton scored, Arse equalised with a heavily deflected goal. Everton went ahead again – Arse equalised with a heavily deflected goal again. The match reaction from pundits and neutrals was Everton were extremely lucky not to come away from Arsenals third stadium and arguably the most ferocious and intimidating home atmosphere in the country, let alone the world, or indeed potentially the universe, with a win.
So, Arsenals game in hand turned out to be a draw – their proximity to our lead restricted to 3pts. This on the back of a week in which pathetic serial delusion master Arsene Wenger has dropped his pants, bent over and spoken quite loudly about their chances and momentum.
On then to United. Having recently suffered the humiliation of home defeat to League One opposition (and fierce historical rivals) United really needed something from their game away at Birmingham, and could potentially take our position at the top. Birmingham scored, United equalised via an own goal.
On the surface this is a very pleasing result for us. It’s points dropped for United, it leaves us clear at the top of the table with a game in hand, and it further fragments the reigning Champions season.
On this one, though, there are a few details which stand discussion.
First one – Darren Fletcher and Paul Scholes. When are referees going to start taking the reckless and dangerous approach from both of these players seriously and send them off? “Err..Fletcher WAS sent off” you may say. However the very fact he was ON the pitch to suffer a 2nd yellow card is beyond me, having been flying into tackles two footed in situations far worse than we’ve seen Mikel, Ballack or Essien sent off for in recent years.
Scholes has come through his whole career being indulged and humoured by officials for dangerous play. At some point if English football wants to take itself seriously, if ‘Fair Play’ is really pursued and the current ‘Respect’ campaign not to be derailed – the FA needs to take its officials in hand. The current consistency of Premier League refereeing is an absolute joke for a multi-million pound industry.
Then of course we needn’t bother looking at match reports to know there will have been a daft amount of time added on, as United were looking for a winner and their manager – senile f**kwit Alex Ferguson – has only this week berated officials for ‘disrespectful’ amounts of time added on (this the man who had the cheek to brand Chelsea as having an “unsavoury” side to their competitive nature – pathetic)
How long was it by the way? Six minutes? Nah, go on, seriously..
SIX MINUTES!!!?
I really do rest my case. English football panders to certain players and certain managers. That there hasn’t been a proper look taken at the relationship between certain refereeing performances and certain clubs is beyond me. But I will say this, if corruption in football can be found in evidence in other countries then why, given all the questionable decisions, would anyone think it couldn’t happen here?
And finally, to our own fans. United and Arsenal, our two main title rivals, have today reproduced two of the results present within our ‘slump’ – a home draw with Everton and an away draw with Birmingham.
Perhaps that gives a little perspective to the situation in which we found ourselves, and can be a shot in the arm for the more fickle and whiney present among us. Remember people, it’s a long game and it matters over a season, not over a few weeks of poor football and not being able to drink from your branded mug in the office.
Grow some balls and support the manager and players to a title winning season.