Manchester United Vs Aston Villa : FEB 10 2010

The day when united potentially had a very good chance of going top went begging. It was a 1-1 draw in the end, with united playing for over an hour with ten men. I guess the image tells you who saw RED.

Yes, it was Nani, the most unlikely of players. United started the away game shakily as they always do. Went a goal behind through some uncertain defending in the penalty box. Then, the men in Red (Actually blue tonight) started showing their true colors as if they were waiting for a disaster to happen to wake them up and the goal came soon after. Giggs shot turned in by collins, an own goal. Uniteds 10th own goal of the campaign, the second highest goal scorer :P

United were in the ascendancy and in search of the second, when nani's two footed challenge on petrov changed the game plan. Nani saw red and rooney was left to do more than what he usually does (which by other footballers standard is more). But, united kept attacking and were solid at the back.

United were so attacking, it was hard to say who were playing with ten men. It can be proved by the number of shots each team had on goal after the dismissal. I dint see van der sar make any save in the second half, but friedel had to be at his best to keep out rooney twice. I feel if it wasn't for friedel, united would have won this game easily.

The defense was at its best today. Rafael played with maturity, brown and evans were solid, apart from some mistakes by evans which went unnoticed. I feel we are good in defense for some more years to come. No vida or rio, no worries.

Chelsea lost today to everton, as i expected but united failed to win. I see it as a very good point earned rather than 2 points dropped, taking into consideration we played with 10 men for an hour. The gap is just a point now! I feel we are on our way to fourth title in a row :)