Last week Manchester United lost 3-2 at home to Spurs and the reason was mostly due to poor defending. Going into Sunday the Red Devils were looking to get back into second place and with a win in Newcastle that’s exactly what the team achieved.
Earlier in the week United had played in the Champions League against Cluj in Romania and saw themselves go down early, against Newcastle this was not the case because shortly after Danny Welbeck missed a sitter, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men took the lead.
A beautiful corner-kick by Robin van Persie was delivered perfectly onto the head of Jonny Evans who headed it straight into the back of the net. For the next eight minutes United were dominating and Newcastle were barley getting a kick of the ball.
In the 16th minute a Wayne Rooney free-kick was tipped wide by Steve Harper. From the resulting corner Rooney delivered a beautiful ball in the area which Patrice Evra put into the back of the net.
After that Alan Pardew’s side woke and kept on attacking but United’s defence and De Gea did what they had to do to ensure that the hosts were 2-0 down at the break. At the restart Newcastle looked a better side and can count themselves unlucky not to have scored when after a mix-up in the area De Gea clawed back Papiss Cisse’s effort.
Was it over the line? Well if it was, it was knocked out before the officials could see it. Anyway further glory was to come for United when Tom Cleverley struck a fluke-cross towards goal from outside the box with the ball somehow finding it’s way in over Harper and into the net.
That wrapped the game up. A 3-0 win will do very nicely as will a second clean sheet of the season for De Gea who will surely gain confidence going forward as a result. The defence today did what it needed to do in order to get the win and cannot despite injury problems allow their standards to slip once more.
Looking forward to United’s next match after the International break, Stoke City at Old Trafford cannot be taken lightly. They never make things easy for the top teams and it’s vital that the players take care of business. A win of course is what Sir Alex will be demanding.
By Harold Hershman
Did you think this wsa our best performance of the season ?
Playing without genuine wingers will not work at home against teams that crowd the area, and so I think it was a way to win away and the early goals against a defence which was weakened is flattery.
Fergies designed a 1-0 team for Newcastle, and at OT that won't do.