Darren Fletcher could have easily got on the score-sheet in the Community Shield fixture against Pompey a couple of weeks ago. He did, however make up for that by scoring our only goal last week against Newcastle. Yesterday, he marked his third competitive start in as many games this season and once again got the crucial goal that has now seen United to their first league win of the season. At this rate, Fletcher could be our Cristiano Ronaldo for this season(and the best part is that he will not want a move to Real Madrid next summer). Anyway, Portsmouth away was always going to be a difficult fixture for a depleted United team. Fratton Park, is one of those stadiums in which it is almost a norm that we do not leave with maximum points. It is therefore not surprising that Sir Alex refereed to the points as 'bonus points'. He clearly acknowledges the fact we are already ahead in terms of points compared to last season(4 as opposed to 2). We could have conceded a goal right from the kick-off as Diop found reasonable space with just 16 seconds played. Having said that, United played the most sumptuous football that any side can ever play and also had the lions share of possession. It was testament to the class of the Champions as eight of their superstars were missing from the stadium all together. Avram Grant must have come to terms with what Abramovic meant by entertaining football as he was an interested spectator. EVDS had his hands warmed on a couple of occasions by 'African power' but thank goodness they were never really burnt. The 0-1 lead only served to keep Pompey in the game but it could have been settled if the lines-man had not wrongly flagged Rooney offside--another poor decision in favour of Pompey when playing against United! Fletcher is not one of the names we United fans are eager to see on the team-sheet but he has now got two telling contributions to our season already. What about Patrice Evra who besides providing the assist, run down that left-wing as though he was a natural winger. Anderson, in my eyes will never play poorly for United. He is just Brazilliant. And now that Portsmouth is beaten, FULL SPEED AHEAD TO MONACO!Labels: REVIEWS
