Things are looking a wee bit different for Arsenal at this stage of this season. No chance of winning the title, knocked out of this season’s League Cup by Manchester City and very likely to be knocked out of the European Cup by AC Milan. Not only that, on Saturday just gone, a spineless performance at a half empty Stadium of Light saw that they were knocked out of the FA Cup, compounded by a heartbreaking own goal scored by Alex Oxlade Chamberlain.

I was at Arsenal a few weeks ago, sat amongst the home fans as United beat them 2-1. That day, some of the natives were unhappy at Arsenal’s performance but were consoling themselves with being in the European Cup and the FA Cup. There were a few mumblings of “Wenger out” and such forth. A decent side of me should be sympathetic towards Wenger and Arsenal. They play good football and have done generally since Wenger replaced Bruce Rioch in the Autumn of 1996. My only thing is that Wenger was picking arguments and giving opinions on things involving United from the start of his tenure as Arsenal manager. Pulling the tigers’ tail so to speak. Nowadays, there’s an entente cordiale between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger but it’s only a recent thing. After Fergie wound up Kevin Keegan to a frenzy during the run in to the 1996 title, Arsene Wenger decided that once incumbent at Arsenal, he was going to take Fergie on in the mind games. Arsene Wenger was a good opponent, but despite winning three league titles during his time as Arsenal, he’s been trumped emphatically by Sir Alex Ferguson whose United team have won the title nine times during the same period. The last time Arsenal won a trophy was the FA Cup final at Cardiff in May 2005, when they held United at bay for 120 minutes. They then went on to win on penalties after Paul Scholes missed in the shootout and Patrick Viera, with the last time he ever kicked the ball for Arsenal, scoring the winner. The only question is now, from where I’m sitting, is which manager is going to be sacked/leave by mutual consent first between Arsene Wenger and Andre Villas Boas. No matter how pretty the football Arsenal play is, seven years for a club of Arsenal’s size and a team of their quality is an intolerable length of time to go without a trophy.

On Saturday, Chelsea played Arsenal’s conquerors in last season’s League Cup final, Birmingham City. If Arsene Wenger’s got problems at Arsenal then Andre Villas Boas position at Chelsea is only an inch or two from being untenable. The problem Andre Villas Boas has got is that he’s inherited an ageing side with a clique of players, in the shape of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, who are probably more powerful than the manager in situ. Felipe Scholari, a World Cup winning manager no less, was ousted by a players’ coup after less than six months in the job in January 2009. They have a similar malignant influence at Chelsea that Alan Shearer had at Newcastle United. Andre Villas Boas is clearly not strong enough a character to take on the likes of Terry and Drogba in his influence over the team. If a robust character like “Big Phil” Scholari can’t assert himself with that lot, Villas Boas has no chance. After losing a three goal lead at home to United a couple of weeks ago, Roman Abramovich turned up at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground and oversaw Andre Villas Boas’ overseeing training. Maybe the photograph below, printed in the Daily Mail the day after the training session is misleading, but on face value, it’s a pretty humiliating photograph for Villas Boas walking behind Abramovich, looking like his lapdog.

At Stamford Bridge on Saturday, Birmingham City, who in their yellow shirts and white shorts, looked like fried eggs where the yoke had burst, took the lead on twenty minutes with a goal from David Murphy. The first true open signs of dissent towards the manager was apparent from the Stamford Bridge stands, especially a couple of minutes later when a Juan Mata penalty forced a brilliant save from Birmingham keeper Boaz Myhill.

At that point, I left the house and jumped on a tram for an occasional visit to Gigg Lane to watch FC United play Frickley. Three days earlier, Frickley had beaten FC United 3-1 in the Doodson Sport Cup and on Saturday, with a penalty and a brilliant strike from 25 minutes from James Ashmore, within 25 minutes, Frickley ran up a 2-0 lead. FC United hit the post more times than Royal Mail job cuts during the game but got back into it after a fantastic individual goal from Carlos Roca when he smashed the ball into the roof of the net from a seemingly impossible angle. With the Frickley penalty area resembling the Alamo, FC midfielder Nicky Platt equalised on the stroke of ninety minutes with a header. The fact that FC United didn’t win was a travesty; if they had lost, it would have been the biggest robbery since Arsenal won the FA Cup from United in 2005.

There have been many friendly matches between United and Ajax but tonight is the first time the clubs have met competitively since 1976. When the draw was first made in the middle of December, my mobile phone was agog with incoming text messages, all basically saying the same thing,”What a draw, R U aving it ?” Having been to Amsterdam several times, a couple of them involving United, I initially was going, come hell or high water. It’s only an hour flight from Ringway Airport to Schipol but, as is the way, flight prices suddenly went through the roof and United were only allocated 2000 (approx) tickets for the match. When I was younger, it wouldn’t have been a problem, I would have gone, ticket or no ticket confident in the knowledge that a jib would have been done easily enough, especially in Holland where, in days of yore, security was famously slack. Nowadays, I want the guarantee of entry to the game before spending at least £250.00 on a flight and going through all the rigmarole and expense of arranging digs. One thing I do know, anybody who didn’t get into the match, should be having a rare old time in Amsterdam tonight, smoking hand rolled cigarettes unique to the Netherlands, possibly enjoying the very gracious hospitalty and welcome that the some ladies in Amsterdam are world famous for providing.

Ajax are a true giant of European football. Tonight, United were (correctly as it turned out)hot favourites  to beat Ajax. All the British and Dutch media were predicting a comfortable victory for United with recent form in mind. I’ve too much respect for Ajax as a football club to take any victory against them as a given, no matter how poor their recent form is. We’ve all seen poor teams beat United. With Blackburn and Liverpool, I’ve seen two mediocre sides bit United since Christmas so I wasn’t taking anything for granted tonight. A 2-0 win, on paper looks like a comfortable win but Ajax, in the first half at least, gave United a scare or two, most memorably on 30 when David De Gea makes another top class save to prevent Siem De Jong from scoring.

Ryan Giggs, much to the chagrin of the British media, who’d been writing commemorative pieces for his expected 900th appearance for United tonight, the United fans who’d been singing Giggs is going to Amsterdam (to the tune of Love Will Tear Us Apart) since the draw had been made and to the possible relief of his wife, didn’t travel with the United squad for this game. United could have used Giggs well tonight, particularly in the first half when Nani was having one of those nights, Nani’s corner on six minutes, which went straight out for a goal kick, being spectacularly poor even by his standards.

The second half kicked off with Ajax fans singing Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds at impressive volume. The atmosphere provided tonight by the Ajax fans was fantastic (at least it sounded so on the telly). As much for the noise as Ajax fans made, United started to get a grip on the game and after some sustained pressure, Ashley Young turned the Ajax defence inside out and back in again before putting the ball through Ajax goalkeeper, Kenneth Vermeer’s legs to put United 1-0 up on 59 minutes. The United goal flattened Ajax. After that, despite only being a goal behind, United were in complete control of the game. Ajax were mostly trying shots from distance, whenever they managed to get in the United half. On 86 minutes, United counter attacked again when Antonio Valencia pulled his hamstring winning the ball in midfield before feeding Wayne Rooney on the left flank. Rooney placed a perfect low cross for the oncoming Javier Hernandez to slide ball home for United.

“Thursday night, Channel 5″ has been the ever-so-cutting chant from oposition fans since United were knocked out of the Champions League in December; most of the people who’ve been doing this chanting only get a taste of European/continental football when they’re watching England getting inevitably knocked out of tournaments every couple of years. I’ll forgive them, they know no better. The “Thursday night…” chants reached a nadir at Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago when fans of Stoke City were singing it at United fans. This is the same Stoke City who played tonight, this Thursday night and lost at home to Valencia.

Some things never change, the standard of inane commentary of football matches in this country, no matter what channel it’s on is always the same. My favourite commentary passage tonight came on 35 minutes when the Channel 5 commentator see’s the camera zoom in on Sir Alex Ferguson and asks’ co-commetator Graham Taylor, if he’s sat in the same spot as he was for the Holland/England match in 1993. Graham Taylor wasn’t sure but did say that he was walking on the spot, just outside the penalty area where Ronald Koeman fouled David Plattin the same match prior to tonights match kicking off. What nobody pointed out was that the infamous Holland/England match in 1993 took place in Rotterdam.

Thanks to Rick Kelly of  www.rkellyphoto.com  for the lend of his equipment and his help to me in typing this blog

The rubbish that’s been pouring out of Liverpool FC since this all started in October would have Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid (Chemical Ali) and Joseph Goebbels cringing with embarrasment due to its lack of plausibility. In post match interviews, Sir Alex Ferguson is famously ambiguous and evasive, today he was unusually forthright in his opinions offered after the match. He said Luis Suarez was a disgrace to a club of Liverpool’s standing and history and he should never play for them again. Liverpool may have been a great club when managed by decent and dignified men like Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley & Joe Fagan and they had gentlemen like Ian Callaghan playing for them. These fellas are the exception rather than the rule. What we’ve known for many years in Manchester, the rest of the world appear finally, to be waking up to. Apart from the fact that he’s obviously a good and skilful footballer, Luis Suarez and the person he is, is at the perfect football club and it’s verminous rabble of supporters. Liverpool, a city that originally made its worldwide reputation in the trading of slaves that were stolen from Africa and a city whose Wavertree district proudly hosted the BNP annual conference three weeks after the original Luis Suarez/Patrice Evra incident last October is the perfect place for a man like Luis Suarez to ply his trade.

In a tense and freezing Old Trafford, Liverpool started the brighter of the two sides with Glen Johnson hitting the ball just to David De Gea’s far right hand side on nine minutes. On 30 minutes, Scholes started and nearly finished a fantastic move which left him with a free header which he put straight into the hands of Pepe Reina. The first time I remember Luis Suarez coming up against Patrice Evra in the match was in first half injury time when he performed a brilliant body swerve to leave Evra chasing a shadow. Rio Ferdinand makes a brilliant goal saving challenge to mug Luis Suarez of the ball. Ferdinand had to get that challenge right or it would have resulted in either a sending off or an almost certain Liverpool goal.

I later find out that Jamie Redknapp believed Rio Ferdinand should have been sent off for that challenge as, according to the gospel of Jamie, Suarez did touch the ball. The subtext of that comment is a classic one from a Liverpool player past or present, one who has much chagrin that somebody had dared tackle a Liverpool player as they’re running through on goal. This is the same Jamie Redknapp who’d said in the pre-match build up that Suarez coming back today was identical to the comeback Eric Cantona made sixteen years ago in a match against Liverpool. The similarities were: Cantona like Suarez, wore the number 7 shirt, both players had served bans which involved the number 8, Suarez eight matches & Cantona eight months and also there’s also the racial angle. Eric Cantona got an eight month ban for attacking a racist, Luis Suarez got an eight match ban for being one. I’m literally tripping over the similarities, I think the stress of his father’s recent tax evasion trial has obviously got to him.

After Suarez booted the ball into the touchline in frustration on the stroke of half time, I could see players of both sides making their way to the tunnel with a bit more gusto than is normal. Something was obviously at the very least going to be said in there at half time. There’s been plenty of rumours since half time as to what happened, but I’m sure in the couple of days  what really happened will all come out. As for Suarez’s petulant kick at the half time whistle, I believe under normal circumstances that would incur a booking under the rules of dissent (funny how Jamie Redknapp never pointed that out). Last Monday, Suarez kicked Scott Parker of Tottenham Hotspur in the stomach which I believe he should have been sent off for. For all the bullshit that Liverpool churn out about Suarez’s victimisation, I think referees are treating him with kid gloves at the moment.

I’ve become that used to United getting corners and the ball failing to beat the first man that I rarely, if ever, get excited when United get one nowadays. In the first minute of the second half, Antonio Valencia wins a corner from Luis Enrique and Ryan Giggs runs up to take it. My mobile phone goes off in my pocket, I pull it out to see what it is and out of the corner of my eye I see Wayne Rooney volley United into the lead. I jump around like a lunatic (I always do when United score against Liverpool) but it’s not ’til later I see the goal properly. It seems, for once, Giggs has taken a decent corner and Liverpool have left Rooney free in the six yard box. Four minutes later, ecstacy as Antonio Valencia seizes on a mistake by Jay Spearing to set up Wayne Rooney again who slides it through Pepe Reina’s legs. On the hour, Rooney misses what in my opinion was the easiest chance when through on Liverpool’s goal, he spools it wide of Reina’s left hand post but at this moment, United suddenly look in danger of running riot. Immediately after that miss, Kenny Dalglish brings on the pony tailed lump Andy Carroll and the ageing but still dangerous Craig Bellamy.

Liverpool fans who were over my right hand shoulder in the old L stand (or for the real vintage, the Old Trafford paddock) were predictably in full and blind support of Luis Suarez in the first half. Whilst there were lulls in their support, after United went 2-0 up, they were silent. Compared to the Arsenal fans who visited earlier in the season and witnessed eight goals being put past them, Liverpool fans’ support at Old Trafford today was pathetic. After singing a song about Wayne Rooney’s wig, there was an abundance of paper airplanes being thrown onto the disabled fans whom were seated immediately in front of them (Scouse wit) and they dug up the Munich song from the old songbook. A song that, in true Liverpool style, they nicked as it was Leeds United fans who originally did it. It just like how they nicked the Rogers and Hammerstein classic, You’ll Never Walk Alone from fans of Glasgow Celtic after they originally sang it in the late 1950s following the release of the film “Carousel”.

Michael Carrick commits a silly foul on Luis Suarez on 80 minutes which earns him a booking and subsequently a goal for Liverpool. Charlie Adam placed it randomly in the United penalty area and the ball bounced off a sleeping and dumbfounded Rio Ferdinand. Falling beautifully for Luis Suarez, he made no mistake from five yards to prod the ball past a despairing David De Gea and gave United fans a nervous last ten minutes. The expected bombardment of the United goal after Liverpool scored didn’t transpire. The worry from my perspective is that any team that has Craig Bellamy, Steven Gerrard or Luis Suarez in it is capable of scoring a goal. Early in injury time, Glen Johnson forces David De Gea to make a brilliant fingertip save for the second match in succession. A minute later, Luis Suarez gets a free header in the United six yard box but heads it over after his teeth were flagged offside.

The final whistle is blown and relief around the ground is palpable. Patrice Evra celebrates boisterously in front of the United Road stand, K stand, the old main stand before doing his reverse Pete Townsend windmill impression in front of the Stretford End. Evra is criticised on BBC’s Match Of The Day by Johnathan Pierce for his provocative celebration in front of Luis Suarez. At no point during his post match celebration did Patrice Evra look at Suarez. Presumably in Johnathan Pierce’s book, celebrating a win over bitter rivals should be forbidden. I don’t remember anybody in the media getting too upset over the behaviour of Liverpool players facing the United fans in front of the Anfield Road stand after the recent cup match.

Kenny Dalglish was interviewed post match and gave an interview which could go down in history the same way that Kevin Keegan’s infamous outburst at Elland Road in 1996, Mike Summerbee’s rant after last season’s Old Trafford derby and Rafa Benitez’s notoriously innaccurate & counter productive facts press conference in January 2009 is now viewed. With Kenny Dalglish spending a combined total of £71,000,000 on Jordan Henderson, Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing, I want the second coming of King Kenny to last forever. He can take that club back to the righful place it was before Bill Shankly came and rescued it from the abyss in 1959. I’d love that like Kevin Keegan.

Any United fans who were denied entry to Old Trafford today through being in possession of Red Issue, or anybody who had their copy confiscated in the ground by GMP or the OT security goons, please email redissue@btinternet.com ASAP as they’ll be consulting with solicitors tomorrow.

Today, I’ve paid €5.00 to go and watch Union Deportiva Lanzarote host CD Mensajero in the Tercera division, group 12 of the Spanish league, a match that UD Lanzarote eventually win 3-1. I couldn’t get a ticket for United’s match at Stamford Bridge so I decided to go on holiday to Lanzarote for a week as I didn’t fancy spending another £1000.00 (at least) to be sat near a load of Dwayne’s and Tristan’s, like I was the other week at Ashburton Grove.

On Saturday night, I watched the City-Fulham match in Lineker’s pub in Puerto Del Carmen, a bar that is world famous in England. Watching the match via an Abu Dhabi cable channel, It was an awful match that was surpassed in it’s mediocrity by the mealy mouthed analysis provided by ex Leeds and City full back Danny Mills, who provided no boon or insight to the match apart from going out of his way not to express an opinion. He was that bad, that I promise not to slag off Alan Smith (the big nosed one) for at least two paragraphs. In the studio post match there were three people in the studio, one was baffled looking ex Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour (the Romford peel, sic) , whom in comparison to Mills, sounded like Brian Clough and two other geezers whom were wearing traditional Arabian attire and talking in their native language. There was a blank look on Ray Parlour’s face as these two fellas were talking then suddenly, he’d burst into life, voice an opinion and then shut up. I have no idea what the other two fella’s were saying but I’m confident it made more sense and was more enticing than anything Danny Mills had to say. City merely went through the motions and easily beat a game but poor Fulham side.

I got a text off big bad Bill telling me that ´Wayne Rooney, Nani, Tom Cleverly and Danny Welbeck were fit and available for United. Couple that with the absences enforced on Chelsea of Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and ex England skipper John Terry for a variety of reasons, I was confident of a United league victory at Stamford Bridge for the first time since 2002. For the third consecutive season, United were on the wrong end of a poor refereeing decision on 13 minutes when ex Bolton centre half Gary Cahill tripped Danny Welbeck with his trailing leg just inside the Chelsea penalty area. Depite a David De Gea wobble in the first ten minutes, I never thought United were in any danger from what looked like a pretty toothless Chelsea forward line. The first surprise I got was that United’s defence were having one of them days where it looked like Laurel and Hardy were guarding our backline. The first Chelsea goal will be accredited as a Jonny Evans own goal after Daniel Sturridge banged the ball hopefully into the six yard box when he couldn’t find a team mate. Jonny Evans is not my favourite centre half but I can’t blame him for that goal, just a bit of bad luck. how Daniel Sturridge got past Patrice Evra so easily is of more concern. Less than a minute into the second half, the to date, £10,000,000 a goal man, Fernando Torres (not including his wages) was allowed to cross the ball unchallenged into United’s penalty area for Juan Mata to smash a first time volley past a startled David De Gea whilst Rafael is moving towards him having been caught ball watching. It’s plainly obvious that Fernando Torres is having a nightmare as a Chelsea player but I do wonder if United’s defence have learnt anything about him. He never did too bad against United in his days at Anfield, one of the five goals he’s scored for Chelsea has been against United, as bad a time as he’s having I’d never take him for a mug. United gave him far too much room for manoeuvre at times yesterday. Out of nowhere, in a game where Chelsea had hardly posed a threat, they were winning 2-0.

Chelsea fans had spent all day showing their true colours and lack of class by booing Rio Ferdinand for reasons that are not clear, but can be easily speculated. On 50 minutes he gave them a reason to be cheerful when he allowed Brazilian full back, David Luiz, to leap like a poodle on a trampoline and head the ball, via Ferdinand´s shoulder into United’s net. The goal actually reminded me of the second goal United conceded to Barcelona at the Rome European cup final in 2009. That goal was scored by Lionel Messi. Even though a lad of Messi’s height shouldn’t really be scoring headers, I’d forgive almost any goal conceded that he’d score due to his sheer genius. David Luiz is no genius and conceding a goal like that due to him being granted a free header is less forgivable. It look like being one of them days.

Six minutes later, Rooney gives United a lifeline to score a perfect penalty high into Petr Cech’s right hand roof of the net after Patrice Evra was fouled from a real forwards tackle by Daniel Sturridge. There was visible twitches amongst the Chelsea players and fans when Paul Scholes was introduced. Sir Alex Ferguson went for broke and replaced Rafael Da Silva with the magisterial Scholes. United won another penalty after Danny Welbeck bought a foul off the slack footed Jovan Ivanovich. Wayne Rooney hits another perfect penalty, and sends Peter Cech the wrong way to score low and hard to the Czech’a left. On 85 minutes, David Luiz graciously returns the favour Rio Ferdinand granted to him early in the second half by gazing at the night stars whilst leaving Javier Hernandez a free header from six yards. Chelsea are now terrified that United are going to cap off a famous comeback and win the game. Whilst that didn’t happen, the much maligned (sometimes, by myself) David De Gea made a magnificent save from a Juan Mata free kick, deep into injury time. I’ve a feeling that Andreas Villas Boas is going to joining his near neighbour Neil Warnock at the football managers dole que pretty soon. With his past record and infamous intolerance, I can’t imagine Roman Abramovich tolerating Chelsea losing a three goal lead under any circumstances.

A great comeback though it was, I can’t help feeling it was two points dropped against a depleted side whom were there for the taking. Still, if you’d have offered me a draw at Stamford Bridge at the beginning of the season, i would have happily taken it. To put yesterday’s match in context, exactly fifty four years ago, a United side had taken a 3-0 lead in an away leg of the European cup semi final at Red Star Belgrade. Like United yesterday, Red Star Belgrade came back to draw 3-3. The following day, after a refuelling stop at Munich airport, the course of United’s history changed in a way that nobody could ever have wanted or imagined.

Remember the Flowers of Manchester

What I hadn’t banked on was just how bad Stoke City actually are. They are a piss poor side but due to the fact that there’s at least three teams in the Premier league who are worse than them (Bolton, Wigan and Blackburn), I expect them to comfortably stay up. That say’s more about the mediocrity of the teams in the lower reaches of this self proclaimed best league in the world than it does about Stoke Citys’ qualities. I’ve got to give the scousers their due after my elaborate blog the other day, regarding the cup match just played, they’re worth talking about. I’ve next to nothing to say about Stoke City fans. One Nick Hancock is bad enough but to have 1500 (they couldn’t sell their allocation) of his clones over my right shoulder is hell. I just thank my parents that I don’t come form there.

United could’ve had four penalties tonight but had to make do with two. I’ll settle for that especially after a dreadful first half hour where I would’ve bitten your hand off for a 1-0 win. Ex Liverpool, Arsenal and Woodhill Prison stalwart Jermaine Pennant unnecessarily fouled Ji Sung Park in the penalty area to give away a soft penalty which, having seen his match of the day interview later, Stoke manager Tony Pulis got even softer about. From the penalty, Javier Hernandez put the ball into the side of the net to despatch the perfect penalty. On 53 minutes, Johnathan Walters drags the magnificent Antonio Valencia in the 18 yard box to gift United another penalty. For some reason, Dimtar Berbatov took the penalty instead of Hernandez, I would’ve understood it if he was on a hat trick, but ultimately, he scored to relax a tense Old Trafford crowd and that’s all that matters. I said to a blue mate of mine the other week that, having looked at the fixtures, if United are within eight points of City by March the 4th, we’ll have a great chance of winning the title.

Suddenly on 65 minutes, I hear a faint cheer go up in the K Stand followed swiftly by the word of mouth which travels around the stadium like a bushfire informing us that Everton are beating City 1-0. A minute or so later, ironic smiles are plastered on everyone’s faces with the revelation that Darron Gibson is the scorer, so he is. The Stretford End and the K Stand sing in sync “There’s only one Darron Gibson” which sounds like a rarely played but very welcome b-side

The dirty propoganda forever oozes out of fans of Liverpool Football club when United are about. Today’s rumour, started on Facebook, stated that United fans were spitting on the Hillsborough memorial stone on Anfield Road after the match. The main problem for the lying Scouse bastard who initiated this hearsay was that United fans were still locked in the Anfield road end of the ground when they started this rumour. That didn’t stop a load of self righteous Scousers (is there any other kind), getting on commenting about what scum United fans are. Yesterday, over the tannoy at Anfield, to loud scornful laughter from United fans, it was announced to the crowd that homphobic or racial abuse would not or ever be tolerated at Anfield. This from a club who stoutly and in the face of overwhelming evidence, have continued to support and pay a player of their’s who’s been proven to racially abuse an opponent several times in a match. We’ve all heard racist remarks used in the heat of the moment, it’s wrong in every circumstance, but it happens. Luis Suarez continually racially abused Patrice Evra over a ten minute period yet claims to be victim of a misunderstanding and comically, claims not to be a racist. As United fans sang several times to Liverpool fans and players yesterday to the tune of Sloop John B, “Always’ the victims, it’s never your fault“. The perfectly innocent Patrice Evra was subjected to boo’s from an Anfield crowd who openly and proudly support a proven racist. However, compared to the abuse that Norman Whiteside used to get from Scousers when playing in a United shirt, it was quite tame. In Liverpool in the 1980s, there were children in Liverpool who thought Whitesides’ given name was fuck off. Kenny Dalglish described all the noise as good banter. Evra was blatantly racially abused at Anfield yesterday by Liverpool fans with the clincher being (pictured below) a Liverpool fan making a monkey gesture to him. Presumably Dalglish thought that was just a bit of harmless banter from a lovable Liverpool fan, displaying the wit that they’re forever deluding themselves they’re famous for.

Having expectedly drawn a blank in the ticket ballot for this match, I was delighted to get a phone call three days before the match from an old pal of mine, Scott, telling me that he had two spares at face price. When we got into the ground it was to our relief that we were under the canopy of the Liverpool fans above, in the upper tier of the Annie Road. Liverpool fans, having been found collectively responsible for the deaths of 39 Italians in Brussels 1985 have, in some sort of Freudian pennance, started behaving like Italians by throwing objects onto visiting fans on the Anfield Road stand below. In Italy, particularly in San Siro, they throw hard fruit, sharpened coins, stones and the coup-de-grace, bottles of urine. Scousers being Scousers naturally have to go one better and in an FA Cup match between Liverpool and United in February 2006, they not only threw bottles of urine onto United fans, in a classic case of Liverpudlian ingenuity they threw a plastic cup onto the United fans that was loaded with excrement.

On 21 minutes from a corner taken by Steven Gerrard, David De Gea, distracted by the world’s most expensive carthorse, Andy Carroll, was caught flapping like a drowning duck for Daniel Agger to head in to an unguarded net to give Liverpool the lead in a game that they’d hardly touched the ball. United had most of the possesion both before and after that goal but were far too cautious with it. Anybody watching the game without knowing the score would have thought United were defending a lead, not attacking a deficit. Patient, calm and controlled play is all well and good in normal circumstances but when chasing a deficit at Anfield is not one of them times. Any good oportunities for a devastating counter attack were scuppered by United’s apparent charitable disposition to give Liverpool players time to get back into position. Only once, when Valencia hit the post on 16 minutes did they look like scoring. On 39 minutes, a brilliant flick from Valencia set up Rafael who refreshingly and for once, threw caution to the wind to cross for Ji Sung Park. The plucky South Korean hit the ball sweetly first time to have Pepe Reina grasping at thin air on his near post for United to equalise in front of the McDonalds sponsored Kop.

Just like the game in the previous round at the Bradford Gasworks stadium, the half time whistle was inconvenient for a United side who had all the momentum. As the second half approached, United fans must’ve looked like a platoon of 5000 American Marines with us using our hands as sun visors to block out the dazzling low sunlight hovering over the roof of the McDonalds Kop. For this reason, the second half boded well for United who were attacking the Anfield Road end of the stadium. Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina was constantly seeking shade in his eighteen yard box and the sunlight was obviously a nuisance to him. As with the first half, United dominated possession without looking threatening. Why United didn’t attempt to exploit Reina’s obvious difficulty and put more pressure on his goal is a mystery to me. The match had replay written all over it until Liverpool scored in the 87th minute from a classic route one move. Reina pumped the ball upfield and Carroll won a header to set up Dirk Kuyt to sprint past a sleeping Patrice Evra to slam the ball past David De Gea’s near post. It was a goal that would have Dave Bassett purring,

If there’s one silver lining on this week’s events it is that it will buy Kenny Dalglish more time to destroy the club, a destruction he started in his first spell. The appointment of Kenny Dalglish a year ago was a knee jerk appointment based on sentimentality. They may win the League Cup, possibly the FA Cup but I’ll show my arse in Debenhams window if he ever wins the title as a manager again. In his first spell, Dalglish inherited the side that Bob Paisley built, the ex Manchester City player Joe Fagan, took care of and then he took all the credit for winning three League titles with a team that he didn’t create. When Dalglish had to build another side, he saw the way the wind was blowing and resigned suddenly in the middle of an FA Cup tie between Liverpool and Everton having just signed David Speedie and the laughable Jimmy Carter. He did a runner citing pressure, left Graeme Souness a complete mess and also the blame. The perfect metaphor for this would be the one about farting then moving away sharply letting somebody else take the blame/credit (in this case, Souness). Even the most Liverpool hating United fan would admit that Dalglish was a great footballer but he has been proven time and again to be a bottler of a manager. I’m just waiting and relishing to see what kind of carnage he leaves behind at Anfield next time he abruptly resigns.

As for us, we can now concentrate on the league and the potentially happy and healthy distractions that a visit to Amsterdam and possibly Bilbao will throw up.

A pretty smooth ride to Ashburton Grove was wrapped up by about 1.30 where I then started searching for a ticket. Bumping into a couple of lads that I know who are ticket brokers outside Arsenal tube station, I was told that the ticket was costing for the United end, something between £250.00/£300.00. I met up with Red Peter in the Worlds End pub near Finsbury Park, he’d got hold of a ticket from an Arsenal mate of his, sat amongst gooners and was trying to find one for me. After watching the City match in a pub full of Arsenal fans, who greeted the City win with expected glee, I walked back to the ground to see what the score was. I got a phone call off davids who was working the ticket near the North Bank, telling me he had an Arsenal fan next to him who wanted £100.00 for his ticket. With tickets for the United end being like rocking horse shit and tickets elsewhere, hardly abundant, I told davids that I’ll have the ticket, sods law would dictate that I was at the polar opposite end of the ground from where he was but I raced round there as fast my slighly knackered 38 year old legs would let me. It was a surreal experience being sat like a trappist monk amongst Arsenal fans, I don’t as a rule, make a habit of watching the match with opposition supporters. In March 1993, I paid what was at the time, the astronomical sum of £20.00 to sit in the Kemlyn Road stand at Anfield among Liverpool fans. Mark Hughes scored with a header from a Ryan Giggs cross and I, with the wisdom that you can expect out of a 19 year lad, jumped up and down in celebration. Liverpool fans close to me were not in a very hospitable humour and in the ensuing confusion, a scouser who’d grabbed hold of me had somehow ended up with a busted nose. Nowadays, I’m a lot wider both mentally and alas, physically too.

United ran Arsenal ragged in the first half yesterday, Nani, Giggs and Valencia were cutting through the Arsenal defence, Johan Djourou in particular, like a hot knife through butter. It was murder trying to maintain a poker face whilst United were attacking Arsenal with such vigour but worse than that, a few times I wanted to scream at Nani over his sometimes abysmal final ball, but I’ve kept my mouth shut whilst Mount Vesuvius is spilling over in my chest. Arsenal had chances in the first half but due to Walcott’s ball control looking like he was playing with a rugby ball, they were wasted. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with the exuberance of his eighteen years, gave United’s defence an awkward time in the first half yesterday. In first half injury time, Giggs had so much time to look up and pick out Antonio Valencia, that he just stopped short of lighting up a cigar before delivering the ball. Around me, Arsenal fans were screaming in horror when they saw the space and time that Giggs had been allowed on the ball. There was a demeanour of resigned inevitability from the home support near me when Valencia, unusually for him, scored with a free header in the six yard box. Too easy was the cry from the gooners around me, it wasn’t the first, or the last time this afternoon they lamented with them words.

Half time and early second half was a real eye opener, I reckon when the second half kicked off, a third of the home supporters were down in the concourse. At Old Trafford, I don’t expect everybody to return to their seats on the nose for second half kick off but I wouldn’t expect that many to be not watching. The middle tier of the Emirates stadium was virtually empty for the first five minutes of the second half. Then we have the Arsenal fans themselves. It’s no lazy stereotype that Highbury was known as the library for it’s atmosphere. Whilst the seats, view and facilities at Highbury made it one of the best stadia I’ve ever been to, Arsenal fans have always had the too cool for school attitude when it comes to supporting their team. It dosen’t help their cause that they have clueless bigots like alleged comedians Alan Davies and Rory McGrath plus Piers “the truth” Morgan as their most famous fans. Whilst I came across one or two genuine and decent Arsenal fans yesterday in the pub, most of the people who occupy the Emirates stadium appear to be the kind of people who host dinner parties in their Islington townhouse whilst having Lighthouse Family CDs as background music, drinking mid priced red wine and swopping spouses.

I was in the top tier of the Clock end, literally just above the United fans on the bottom tier. The noise volume coming from the United end was very disapointing especially as United have always had a very boisterous travelling support. According my friend Neil who was in that part of the ground, the regular away faces spread out too much behind the goal. A load of tourist’s were in the United end, the type of people that Roy Keane famously lambasted after a Champions League game at Old Trafford in 2000 against Dynamo Kyiv.

After Robin Van Persie on 51 minutes, missed a sitter after Tomáš Rosický had capitalised on Chris Smalling falling over, he made no mistake twenty minutes later, sweeping the ball past a despairing Anders Lindegaard for Arsenal’s equaliser. All around me, Arsenal fans erupted whilst I’m stood clapping my hands through gritted teeth that must have made me look like a horse. I couldn’t believe that United had conceded an equaliser yet again in a game we should’ve been out of sight in. Arsenal, while they ain’t going to win the league anytime soon are no mugs, they beat one of the best teams I’ve ever seen, Barcelona, in the first leg of a European Cup match last March and in the process, completely naused up my betting slip. They’re a fragile team but one that when their confidence is up. are a real danger. I quietly feared yesterday that they’d now take control of the game but next thing I remember was a chorus of boos from the home support over the introduction of the well known feminist, Andrei Arshavin brought on in place of the lively Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Seconds later, Antonio Valencia goes past Arshavin like he’s invisble before crossing the ball for Danny Wellbeck to slam into the Arsenal net from ten yards. There is definetly a growing undercurrent of discontent amongst the Arsenal fans with Wenger. It won’t get to the disgraceful campaign that Blackburn fans have waged against Steve Kean, at leat I hope it dosen’t but there was a lot of people calling for Arsene Wengers head walking out of the stadium yesterday. Like last August, United could’ve made it a cricket score against Arsenal but despite that minor quibble, a win at Arsenal is always a great result.

 After a blatant trip on Danny Wellbeck by Zat Knight on 21 minutes, Wayne Rooney forced a great save from Bolton Hungarian goalkeeper, Ádám Bogdán from the resulting penalty. This was Rooneys second penalty miss in a week and this was just symbolic of the day he had. Wayne Rooney had a one of them days where he couldn’t do anything right. Flicks and passes weren’t coming off and his first touch was wayward. As bad a game as Rooney had the great thing is that he never once went missing. Always available, always harrying and always chasing the ball, it was just one of them days. In first half injury time, the other half of United’s home guard, Paul Scholes, scored his first goal for United since a scorcher at Craven Cottage in August 2010. This goal was a more like a goal Javier Hernandez would score than Paul Scholes. It actually reminded me of a goal he scored against the same opposition in September 1995. I saw Scholes make three top class tackles today. There’s been all kinds of things said about his tackling, I’ve winced and squinted myself once or twice when he’s gone for 50/50 ball over the years. It’s as if in retirement, he’s somehow learned to tackle. Whether he could/can tackle or not, Paul Scholes is one of the best footballers I’ve ever seen, if he could have tackled like Roy Keane, Bryan Robson or Remi Moses, he would’ve been the best player I ever saw. There’s been a lot of moaning about Scholes coming out of retirement and I like the circumstances of him coming back as much as anybody else does. The fact is, desperation or not, Tom Cleverley is too inexperienced to take on his mantle at the moment and Scholes, whether he’s 27, 37 or 47 is by some distance, United’s best player on the ball.

The final score of 3-0 made it look at more comfortable for United than it was. There were a few anxious moments in the second half, standout moment being Rafael’s goalline clearance from a Petrov header five minutes before Danny Wellbeck put everybody’s mind to rest on 74 minutes with an excellent finish from a pass from Rooney. The move to the goal managed to temporarily injure both Rooney and Wellbeck. A clumsy challenge from Adam Ricketts injured Danny Wellbeck and he was down for a couple of minutes before Javier Hernandez replaced him five minutes later. Ten minutes later, Michael Carrick seized on a fantastic pass from Ryan Giggs to casually pass the ball into the Bolton net for his first goal at Old Trafford since February 2010. Carrick is a confidence player, I don’t think he’s been the same since United were well beaten by Barcelona in Rome, May 2009. With two excellent goals in the last four weeks and with United’s wafer thin resources, this would be a good time for him to start playing well again.

As we all now know, United ran rampant in the first half yesterday at the Etihad stadium. Rooney made it 1-0 when City still had eleven men on the pitch. City skipper and Centre half Vincent Kompany was sent off a couple of minutes later. When I was growing up, watching and playing football, the tackle that Kompany did would’ve been at worse a booking and a free kick. Most referee’s would’ve ignored it and called it a fair challenge, but whether it’s 1982, 1992 or 2012, a two footed tackle was the same then as it is now, the only difference is, now it’s an automatic red card. I don’t believe Vincent Kompany did that tackle yesterday with any malice, but malicious or not is not really the point. A footballer of Kompany’s skill and a man of his intelligence knew what he was risking when he went in two footed on Nani. How low his feet were to the ground, whether he got the ball or not or intent is a complete irrelevance. The most alarming thing to me about the whole thing was Wayne Rooney running to the referee, Chris Foy, like a schoolyard grass pointing out the two footed challenge. I don’t like seeing that from any footballer, but when a United player does it, it disgusts me. Rooney, we all love as a player and for his commitment on the pitch but for Christ sake, I hope he turn’s that in.

On Twitter last night, Vincent Kompany said “The fans, the players and every single person involved with Man City FC were incredible today. Definitely the moral winners of this game”. It was a surprise to absolutely nobody that City tried claiming a “moral victory” yesterday. The mentality of the club is of one constantly used to losing so they’ve been claiming all kinds of moral victories since 1976. The only people who ever claim a moral victory are the perenial losers. City won the FA cup last season, they look a good bet for both the Premier League and the League cup this season yet they’re still trying to claim moral victories in matches that they’ve lost. Can anybody remember the last time United tried claiming a moral victory or more accurately, the moral high ground after losing a match. United played Arsenal off the pitch in the 2005 FA Cup final in Cardiff but lost, on penalties. Not one player, fan or official of United claimed a moral victory after Patrick Viera slotted the winning penalty in for Arsenal that afternoon. It would’ve been deeply embarrasing if anybody had, United just went home, correctly feeling robbed but ultimately knowing that Arsenal won, United had lost and C’est la vie. City appear to want the respect, kudos and sympathy from every angle. In City’s world, there’s no such thing as a defeat, just victories and moral victories. When a player from an opposing side to them gets sent off, rightly or wrongly then that’s just how it goes. When one of their players get sent off, at best, it’s incompetence of the worst level or at worst, a conspiracy against them. City now want to be known as a club on the up, a club that’s gonna get used to winning things on a regular basis, a club that’s going to be mentioned in world footballing circles in the same breath as United, Liverpool and Arsenal. They also want to retain the affection of the English public that they’ve picked up over the years through losing games in pretty hilarious circunstances sometimes and as such, they’ve become much lionised for their gallows humour. One thing they’re going to learn is that if they do start winning things, with the regularity that they intend is that they’re going to come up against a lot of hostility in this country. The English mentality is to depise winners, take ‘em down a peg or two. It’s based on envy and resentment but when City players and fans start noticing these emotions will be when they can call themselves succesful. It’s one or the other.

United fans of my age and above, should be able to remember a time when United were the most popular second choice team of a large section of the English population. In them days, particularly of teams fielded by Tommy Docherty and Ron Atkinson, United played exciting, swashbuckling football, won the odd cup, even more friends but more often than not lost agonisingly to teams that didn’t play with United’s flair or free spirited abandon but with more professionalism and discipline. It was OK to like United then because they were relatively harmless. Liverpool were the big bad dull ogre in them days, in 1982, they won the title with such ease, that when presented with the title at Anfield, instead of players passing the trophy along to their teammates, they nonchelantly tossed the cup to each other.

The day that Oldham won at Villa Park in May 1993, to hand the title to United for the first time in 26 years was the day that everything changed. Suddenly, resentment and jealousy reared it’s head from all kinds of unexpected avenues. It reached an hysterical crescendo less than two years later, in January 1995, when Eric Cantona took the law into his own hands at Selhurst Park and provoked a public and media outcry so severe that I was begining to think that England was a massive outdoor lunatic asylum. It was even worse when David Beckham got sent off for a petulant kick at Diego Simeone in St Etienne at the World Cup in 1998. The English public, heavily aided and abetted by a shit stirring tabloid press, decided that not only did Beckham cost England the match, but also the World Cup itself. I can see their point, the England team of 1998 would’ve made mincemeat of the winning French Team of Zinedine Zidane, David Trezeguet, Emmanuel Petit, et al, should they have met. There was police escorts for Beckham for nearly six months after that incident with panic alarms installed in his house. There was efigies of him hanging off a lampost in East London and hundreds, if not thousands of t-shirts printed informing Beckham that “He’s let himself and his country down”, just in case nobody had informed him earlier.

At about 5.45 yesterday afternoon, all United fans found out that our reward for beating City in the third round was going to be an away trip to Anfield. Whilst a shaken and stirred Jim Rosenthal was openly salivating at the outcome of this draw, there were wry smiles and grins all around me. Despite Joleon Lescotts attempted sage, but wildly innacurate and desperate assertion on Friday that City were now our biggest match, we’d now been drawn against our greatest enemy and rival. This is a match that in times of relative civility is a big one but after the recent affair of Luis Suarez racially abusing Patrice Evra at Anfield, this is bigger than ever. No doubt Merseyside police, Liverpool FC and the local council will come up with some spurious health & saftey excuse to deny United their right to 15% of match tickets. After United’s allocation for Anfield was slashed by a third for the league match in October on similar grounds, I’m confident it will happen again this month. it’s about time United hit these bastards tit for tat.

Luis Suarez’s comical defence has been made funnier by the chicken mourning followers of his club suddenly becoming knowledgable authority’s on the quirks and nuances of Uruguayan dialect. Suarez’s claim of terms of endearment whilst saying to Evra after kicking him on the knee  ”Porque tu eres negro” (“Because you are black”), “Dale, negro…negro…negro” (“Bring it on, blackie”) and “No hablo con los negros” (“I don’t speak to blacks”) whilst pinching his arm was obviously a touching display of misunderstood bonhomie, to use Evra’s mother tongue for once. Since the guilty verdict was announced, Liverpool went on a robust defensive. Alluding without explicitly saying they’d appeal, wearing t-shirts at the JJB in support of a proven racist and once they’d seen the damning evidence against Suarez released, reluctantly and aggresively accepting the suspension without appeal but hinting at some sinster agendum and misunderstanding which, presumably down to the official secrets act, they’re not allowed to disclose.

What Liverpool have done is the classic default defence of the victim. It is not the first time they’ve done it. At the 1985 European cup final in Brussels, a faction of Liverpool followers were responsible for the deaths of 39 Juventus fans. Nowadays, if you hear any scousers reminisce about that night, you’d think that Liverpool were the injured party and not the club who’s fans had got all English clubs banned from Europe indefinetly, it ended up being five years. In the aftermath of the Heysel disaster, senior officials at Anfield tried blaming a gang of Chelsea fans (whom were never identified) who’d decided to go to Brussels for a Liverpool match against Juventus just so they could have a fight with the Italians. At a Champions league match at Anfield in 2005, Liverpool touchingly created a mosaic on the KOP saying “Amicizia” (friendship), the Juve fans in the Anfield road end turned their back to this when it was presented, some people eh la, just too touchy !

City today, were virtually at full strength. Sure, Yaya Toure has been collared by the Ivory Coast for African Nation’s cup but his replacement, Nigel De Jong ain’t a bad player to have as back up. City rested first choice keeper Joe Hart and replaced him with Costel Pantilimon, they can’t even say that the change of keeper weakened them as there was nothing Pantilimon could have done with any of Uniteds first half goals. Vincent Kompany was sent off for a two footed tackle on Nani on twelve minute’s, two minute’s after Rooney had headed United into the lead. In my opinion, the sending off was harsh, definetly a foul and a yellow card but not a sending off. Whilst Kompany may have been unlucky to have been sent off, the way City collapsed between then and half time is an indictment on them. Today in the first half, the pressure was really on for City and they can’t use the excuse of being a man down for that collapse. Any team with City’s aspiration’s should be able to cope with the loss of one man, no matter how harsh the decision or how important the player is to the team, which Vincent Kompany obviously is. The one City player who scares the shit out of me when he’s got the ball, David Silva, was anonymous throughout the entire game. The other dangerman Sergio Kun Aguero was a menace that was generally kept well under control apart from obviously the 64th minute when he seized on a James Milner cross after he’d capitalised on a mistake by a very rusty Paul Scholes.

I’ve since heard that from pundits and journalists that Wayne Rooney scored for United, against the run of play on 10 minutes. It must have been a similar run of play that the absent today, Mario Balotelli scored at Old Trafford in October as I never felt United were under any serious threat before City scored. Danny Wellbeck scored a beauty on 31 minutes with a swivelling volley that surprised Costel Pantilimon in the City goal. United were going for City with some gusto. Aleksandar Kolarov made a clumsy challenge on Wellbeck on 39 minutes for a definite penalty, Rooney forced a great save from Pantilimon but heads in the rebound. Before the match a win, any win would’ve been more than welcome. We’re now all dreaming of avenging the 6-1 defeat in October, especially when the magnificent Wellbeck just fails to connect in the six yard box in first half injury time. With all the momentum in United’s favour, half time was a nuiscance, it gave City time to regroup. When Aleksandar Kolarov scored with a perfect free kick, after a pretty soft decision from referee Chris Foy on 48 minutes, even with a man advantage, we knew it wasn’t going to be straight forward. Two minutes before Aguero brought the game back to 3-2, Valencia was tripped in the City box by Aleksandar Kolarov, for a blatant penalty which was waved away, by referee Chris Foy. After Aguero scored, it was a very nervous last 25 minutes.

United have had a couple of bad performance’s and defeat’s lately. Before today’s match, any win would’ve been welcome for United, bearing in mind City’s form and the feeling of dread amongst my red brethren for this game. With City’s failure to sell all their tickets for this fixture and with today’s result, it saves the deeply religious City fans of being in the moral Quandary of what to do on Sunday afternoons when their team are at home. Since the final whistle, a couple of hours ago, I’ve had text’s and phone call’s off red’s that I both like and respect telling me that it feel’s like a defeat or at best, a draw after the second half performance. As much as I like and respect these guy’s, I think it’s complete bollocks. United have won a game, back’s to the wall, away from home against a team that on present form, are the best in the country. There’s a lot of talk of papering over the cracks, especially with Scholes coming out of retirement but the crack’s have been getting papered over ever since them parasites seized control of the club in 2005. Whilst City have been running round like Viv Nicholson after too many Babycham’s and financial armagedon might only be round the corner for United, we might as well enjoy days like today as we’ve all known for a long time what’s coming.