tmonkey

Might be wrong here, but there was another ManU player directly behind Vidic (or whoever it was) when it hit his arm, in line with the direction of the ball. Therefore, the ball would have been cleared. Maybe it's not part of any rulebook, but the Martins handball resulted in an attacking situation from a ball that was set to be cleared out of the box. I.e. it benefitted him greatly. Whereas with the Vidic handball, the ball hit the hand in a similarly unintentional fashion, but had it not, there would almost certainly have been no benefit to Boro. The handball itself provided no real benefit to the ManU player as it did not prevent Boro from getting a chance in at goal or receiving the ball. If I was the referee in both instances of accidental handball, I'd use my common sense and not make a decision that would have resulted in one side getting an unfair advantage.

Noticed him doing it without fail since Given's departure (i.e. when he's had a long run in the team). Just stuck to his goalline as soon as a cross with a moderate amount of pace and bend is played in, almost as though he lacks that ability to anticipate/read the general direction of the ball and therefore doesn't make a judgement call on whether he should come out to claim it, and so looks like he's completely switched off as to that part of the goalkeeping game and is just waiting for the next. Certainly a major weakness in his makeup, and it's something that we took for granted with Given, who was pretty decent at coming out of his box to claim flighted corners with a safe pair of hands.

That would have been a goal had the keeper not been in the way. I don't see how you can blame Michael Owen for not scoring when it's not his fault that the opposition team have goalkeepers guarding the nets.

Dangerous two footed lunge at a player. Nailed on red card imo.

Joey Barton, just fuck off you stupid cunt.

2nd goal came from a corner that resulted due to a fucking tame "challenge" from Coloccini.

Beye - wtf? Stay with the man. Harper - should have been his ball.

Poor from him, poor from Viduka heading it backwards into danger like that, but what was Smith doing trying to control an awkward ball 6 yards from goal??

Smith's fault.

Butt fouled by the ref inside the box. Had that been at Old Trafford, it would have been a penalty to ManU.

Good sub to bring on.

Another example of Coloccini not being able to put a slide tackle in when it's both on and needed.

Fantastic to see Shearer dropping Owen. Barton playing well so far. Such a big difference having someone who can pass confidently in the middle.

Can't wait to see the back of him with his large wages and numerous excuses (lack of service, "unlucky" non-injury-prone related injuries, etc). But should he be dropped? No, not from the current lineup. This 4-3-3 formation with the attacking spearhead of Owen, Viduka and Martins, is probably our only real chance of staying up. If one of them gets their shooting boots on, we could win a match - another week of training behind them and you would hope that Viduka, Jonas and Martins will be slightly fitter. If we drop Owen, the formation probably won't work, as the only player who could realistically play behind Viduka/Martins with any kind of ability is Jonas, and he simply plays too deep to make use of the freedom that formation would offer him. I'd drop him for the Liverpool game, mainly because the last thing we need is a dejected captain running around with his head down feeling sorry for himself and regretting the numerous bad decisions he's made since leaving Anfield, all whilst the scoreboard reads 4-0. Hardly going to inspire him to do well against Boro and Fulham, and like Given after the St James' mauling by Liverpool, will most likely see the player giving up all hope and wanting to pack his bags by the end of the week.

Should see Caceres playing at the back in the second leg then, Uruguayan centreback signed for around £14m yet who rarely plays. 2nd leg will be where the tempo is at, as Chelsea won't be parking the team bus in front of goal like. To be fair, Premiership sides have done this for the past decade when playing away to an on-form Barca or Madrid. Always a boring first leg.

Blatant penalty. Chelsea have been pulling shirts all game.

There we go again, Cech one of the world's best, even though Eto'o hit it straight at him.

Ridiculous offside decision that, was at least a yard o.

"That's not my lipstick colour...wtf get it off".

Messi has a PhD in cleverness.

Jimmy Saville's A team. http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2007/Nov/Week3/1611583.jpg

Drogba should have finished that second time round. Poor touch.

Barca are a great team, but they really could do with a midfielder who can score from range. Chelsea are just going to camp the team bus in front of goal all game.

Xavi showing Butt how you do a 50 yard through ball.

Still think ManU is a possibility - very unlikely, no doubt about that, but I still think it's possible, for a number of reasons: 1) Tevez will most likely be leaving this summer. He's unhappy at constantly being dropped and ManU will have to pay a big fee to keep him permanently. There's probably a small chance that in between now and the end of the season, Tevez becomes a regular first teamer, and ManU pay a hefty price for another two season loan, but that's looking unlikely right now. Should Tevez leave, who is the replacement? I'm not sure that the likes of Webber are good enough for to step up to first team duties, and for CL games Fergie will want experience to call on should he really need it. Given the debt levels of the club, would he really want to spend big money yet again on another striker who'll probably still play second fiddle to Berbatov/Rooney? 2) Ferguson has shown in the past that he likes the odd veteran striker who can do a good job. Henrik Larsson and Teddy Sheringham spring to mind. Owen may not be as good an all-rounder as both of them were, but he's in a similar mould imo, a player who knows what he's doing, has a solid touch, good movement, so on and so forth. 3) Ferguson has also shown that he likes signing Premiership proven strikers down the years, more so than other managers at top clubs certainly. In fact, bar one or two exceptions, all of his big money strikers have come from other Premiership clubs. 4) Owen could be seen as a Solksjaer replacement - a super sub who uses his intelligence and movement to take advantage of weak defences and score simple goals. On top of which, the spell in midfield last season where his form was good could have opened a few eyes about just how adaptable he is, because previously most would have had him down as a poacher type who stays anonymous an entire game before popping up on the end of a chance. 5) Owen, on the face of it, would probably take a huge wage drop if it meant being able to play for someone like ManU - and ManU would be in the driving seat with this, as it's difficult seeing him having any alternative top offers from clubs within England. He's on a free transfer too, so overall, it could be a pretty cheap solution for Ferguson. 6) Owen's form is s*** right now, but surrounded by top class players, one of the best coaching setups in Europe, top training facilities that clubs like ours probably don't even get close to, so on and so forth, there'd be a good chance that his confidence, form, strength, finishing, etc, would pick up. Again, very unlikely, it's quite possible that Ferguson like other top managers sees Owen as an injury prone luxury who is in truth spent force, but it would make sense for ManU to take the plunge given the circumstances.