Tevez has asked some serious question to Ferguson and has made him rethink about his position on the bench by netting four goals in the match against Blackburn in the Carling Cup quaterfinals match today. With this win Manchester United advanced to the semifinals of the competition. The scoreline of the match was 5-3. Tevez scored four goals as Nani scored the fifth. Manchester United are the only top flight team that are still in the competition and they are having high chances of winning the tournament now. Tevez who has been sidelined since the arrival of Berbatov in the team is looking forward to some regular football action with his display today. Other players to be noted in the match were Anderson and Rafael as both of them did their jobs well. In the other match that took place today Tottenham found no difficulty in overcoming their opponents and thus advancing to the semi-finals of the tournament
Much to the surprise of the fans and the players Sir Alex Ferguson who is mostly on the last season at Manchester United after which he is posed to retire from managing teams has ruled out any possible winter transfers in the winter window that is to open in the next couple of weeks. It has been the tradition of Manchester United to sign big players on the winter window. History speaks as players like Evra, Vidic, Larson all were bought in the winter transfer window. But this time he has ruled out that there will be no signings this time as his team is capable of winning the title. Ferguson, who has been linked with a move for Serbian youngster Zoran Tosic, insists there will be no new faces arriving in January. The United chief says he is happy with the squad at his disposal, but he believes City, backed by the Abu Dhabi United Group, will be flexing their muscles.
After much debate and speculation Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United and Portugal who helped Manchester United to win two titles last season has won the most coveted prize that a player could earn which is the Player of the Year award. Ronaldo was a clear winner, collecting 77 votes from the 96 journalists who judge the award, while Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres filled out the placings. It was no surprise that the player won the award as being a midfielder he scored 42 goals last season to help Manchester United to become both English and European champions. Only Messi was giving tough fight to him but he outbeat him with a huge margin of votes. Having bagged this award too the FIFA Player of the year award is only up for grabs and once again the fight starts and it is more interesting this time as no English based player has ever won the title so far in the history of football which favours the Argentinian.
Manchester United won the 151st Manchester derby by a one goal difference and it was Wayne Rooney who scored his 100th goal in an occasion to mark it well. The player scored from a rebound shot from Michael Carrick and he could have added to his tally another goal only to be denied by the goal keeper in the final minute of the game. The match witnessed some rough action from both the team players as they were seen fighting for most of the match. Around 10 yellow cards were issued in the match and it was Cristiano Ronaldo who recieved the card twice and hence had to leave the game. With this red card he will be not available for the next couple of weeks. Though the match took place in the home of Manchester City and they have been in form so far it was Manchester United who dominated most of the game. With this win United have cut down the lead at the top of the table to five points with a match in hand for them. This has boosted the confidence and the chances of Red Devils retaining the title and with a big match between Arsenal and Chelsea taking place later tonight Manchester United will be praying for Arsenal to win the match as the gap between them and Chelsea will reduce.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is confident over his player Cristiano Ronaldo on winning the Golden Ball that he has stated that he is ready to quit his job if the player loses in the race for the title. Cristiano Ronaldo had an amazing season last year when he scored a total haul of 42 goals in all competitions and helped Manchester United win both the English and the European titles. The main rival for him in the race for the title is Lionnel Messi of Barcelona and Argentina but the only disadvantage for him is that he has not won a single title for his club last year. The main disadvantage for Ronaldo is that he let his team when it mattered the most, missing penalties in both the semi-finals and the finals of the Champions League tournament. But he was instrumental in Manchester United reaching that high stage. It was due to the compulsion from the manager that he is in Manchester United at present and there are high chances that the player will be leaving for Real Madrid by the end of the season. Ferguson when asked in a post match interview whether Ronaldo deserves to win the Ballon d’Or, to which he replied (with a smile):”If Ronaldo doesn’t win the Ballon D’Or this season I will quit as manager.” The main contenders for the race are Messi, Casillas and Torres.
Defending champions Manchester United and Arsenal advanced to the next round of the Champions League competition with the results of the matches that took place last night. Manchester United played out a goalless draw against Villareal as Arsenal grabbed a winner in the dying minutes of the matches against Dynamo Kiev. Both the english teams were having the advantage of playing against a team of 10 players as a Villareal defender got a red card for his bad tackle on Ronaldo. Ronaldo seemed to be injured and needed to be replaced soon. It has to be noted that Ronaldo earlier had picked a similar injury in his leg in the match against Aston Villa that took place in the weekend and was cleared to play just in time for this match. Bendtner scored the lone goal for Arsenal. It was a controversial goal as Fabregas set Bendtner up with a air ball. Villareal too advanced to the next round with the draw. Bayern Munich, Lyon, Porto and Real Madrid too won in the matches that took place simultaneously last night.
It was a slaggy EPL this weekend as the top teams recieved a setback in their race and it didn’t matter much in the title race as all the teams drew except for Arsenal who lost their match against Manchester City. It was splendid display from Manchester City who dominated the Gunners who were setback already by the crisis that is taking place in their team due to the public meet given by their ex-captain Gallas. Manchester City beat them by 3 goals to nil in which Robinho and Ireland performed well and scored a goal each. The difference would have been greater had Robinho’s another goal on a back heel been allowed and they also missed out a lot of opportunities that must have been converted. Liverpool also drew their game against Fulham. This weekend witnessed matches for the top teams against the teams that are in form in the recent month in England. Chelsea were held at home to a 0-0 draw by Newcastle United while the double champions Manchester United have to be contented with a draw against Aston Vila at Villa Park. Had Manchester United won the match they could have reduced the lead at the top of the table to well a 3 point and have some chance of winning the title in th second half of the league. As of now it is most posed that Chelsea are the hot favourites for the title. But anything is prone to happen in the game of sport so wait and watch out for the action and drama that is to take place.
