Manchester United demolished Stoke City by five goals to nil in which Cristiano Ronaldo was the star player as he scored a brace in free kick and set up for another for Michael Carrick. The other scorers were Dimitry Berbatov and Welbeck. Manchester United were well aware of the trademark long throw that Stoke City possesed and used as a weapon to get better results against Liverpool and Arsenal earlier this season. Manchester United went into the game without their regular defender Rio Ferdinand who has to miss out the match due to an injury. So Alex Ferguson chose his team with Cris Evans, O’Shea in the back, Ronaldo, Carrick and Fletcher in the middle all averaging over 6ft in height. They were also without the services of Wayne Rooney. Tevez provided the attack up the front along with Berbatov. Manchester United was holding the upperhand right from the start of the match as Ronaldo scored a stunning free kick way away from 30 yards in the 3rd minute of the game. Then he set up a pass for Carrick in the box and he managed to find the back the back of the net even though there were four players surrounding him. It was party time at Old Trafford when Berbatov scored the third and Manchester United was way up by three goals in the early minutes of the second half. Alex Ferguson had plenty of chances with the subtitutes and he provided Manucho and Welbeck a chance. Welbeck played his first match for the senior team and he is a product of the Academy. He scored way away from the D-box and he made his first encounter on pitch unforgettable. Ronaldo sealed the victory with yet another free kick in the dying minutes of the match right outside the penalty area. Stoke City players were no match for the champions and Manchester United has sent a sonding alarm that they are right back in the title race with this win. Manchester United moved to the third place in the table and are eight points behind leaders Chelsea and Liverpool with a game in hand.
Manchester United and Stoke City are to clash today in the Premeier League and Stoke City manager Tony Pulis would be wanting his side to continue its nice form. Stoke City are in the 12th position in the table and they have qualified for the quater-finals of the Carling Cup for the first time in 30 years. They are having a tremendous time and in the last month they have denied Liverpool and Arsenal victories. The important fact is that they beat Arsenal in their home by a score of 2-1. The last time they suffered a loss was about a month ago when they lost to Manchester City. Manchester United will want to win this match and they will do nothing wrong that will ruin the chances of their title hopes. Manchester United will be without Hargreaves who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with an operation. Scholes who has been out for more than two months can be expected to return back and Rooney who too is suffering from fever is expected to come back and start the game. The player to watch will be Ricardo Fuller who is Stoke City’s forward with five goals in the competition so far in the season, one more than the highest scorer in Manchester United which is none other than the contender for the Footballer of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo.
