THE INDEPENDENT- RONALDO ADDS KICKS TO TRICKS FOR UNITED
Arsenal and Manchester United, it seems increasingly certain, are playing for second place in the Premiership. But that is a prize well worth having these days, a passport to an automatic Champions' League place and all the lucre that goes with it. So there was significance to United's victory yesterday, extending an impressive run to 10 wins and two draws from the last dozen matches and tucking them in behind Chelsea for the first time this season. Too far behind, is the problem.
Failing to bridge the gap is not for want of trying. They had even registered eight successive clean sheets - if a slightly grubby one against Tottenham is counted - until Gareth Barry unexpectedly equalised soon after half-time yesterday. But with Cristiano Ronaldo, the scorer of United's opener, at his tantalising best, superiority was soon re-established with goals by Louis Saha and Paul Scholes. The only downside was a booking for Roy Keane, one of six in an occasionally fractious match, which will rule him out of the FA Cup tie against Middlesbrough next Saturday. Before that comes an opportunity to take some frustration out on Chelsea in the home leg of the Carling Cup semi-final.
Having learnt a painful lesson in selecting a reserve team for the previous Old Trafford game, in the FA Cup against Exeter, and taken fewer chances for the replay last Wednesday, Ferguson went further by restoring Roy Carroll, Rio Ferdinand and Keane to the side. Ruud van Nistelrooy (due back for the Champions' League tie against Milan), Alan Smith and the unfortunate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are still missing, but Saha, coming in for Ryan Giggs as the attacking support to Wayne Rooney looked like a man successfully rediscovering form and fitness.
Saha, lively from the start, created the opening goal within eight minutes. Receiving from Keane, he played a sublime pass forward into the path of Ronaldo, who threaded it with equal accuracy past Thomas Sorensen. That did something to improve the Portuguese winger's reputation as the most profligate player in the Premiership, his previous 69 attempts on goal this season having brought a single success.
The average should have been further improved before half-time, as Villa's defence went missing when Scholes crossed from the left. But Ronaldo's header lacked power and was too close to the goalkeeper. Villa, even though they had not scored in four successive defeats away from home since November, were forced to come out by the early goal, and often supported the lone striker, Juan Pablo Angel, well, especially when Nolberto Solano and Barry got down the flanks.
THE SUNDAY TIMES - WASTEFUL UNITED CRUISE IN
There are days when you remember Ruud van Nistelrooy and the way he might react to the chance of scoring a goal. The Holland striker has not played since late November and with United winning so many matches in the interim, you might think that he hasn’t been missed. Think again.
Yesterday, United won again, but how they missed their best finisher. They were much too good for Villa but after an hour’s football, the teams were tied at 1-1 and the visiting side had every chance of stealing something from a game in which they were comprehensively outplayed.
You could easily list the offenders, and why not. Louis Saha, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney had chances that you would have backed them to convert blindfolded. They might have done better blindfolded. Luckily for United, the goals came when the need was greatest.
There were only 22 minutes remaining when Saha side-footed Rooney’s cross in at the near post to put United 2-1 up and then a minute later, Paul Scholes made the game safe when following up Ronaldo’s stinging right-footed effort. For all the neatness of their counter-attacking, Villa were not likely to score another two, so the contest was over.
Sir Alex Ferguson has been around too long to get upset by low-key performances such as this one. "I am pleased with the result, and some of the football at times was good," he said, before adding that there were difficulties with the Old Trafford surface that would have to be addressed.
Neither was David O’Leary complaining too stridently. It could have been worse for his team. Coming in the eighth minute, United’s opening goal foretold a stroll rather than a match.
That goal, scored by Ronaldo, came after good work by Saha. Roy Keane played the ball through and Saha was allowed time and space to play a good pass through to Ronaldo, who struck with his right foot and sent the ball was flying into the bottom corner.
Saha embarrassed Liam Ridgewell by running at him from halfway, turning him this way and that until the central defender seemed like a human corkscrew. He was saved by the Saha’s poorly-hit shot.
Ronaldo stood on the penalty spot, in wondrous isolation, and from Scholes’s perfect cross he powered his header directly at Thomas Sorensen. Then, early in the second half, Scholes played Rooney through on goal but the chance was lost through the teenager’s poor first touch.
THE OBSERVER - SAHA SINKS LISTLESS VILLA BUT UNITED NEED RUUD REVIVAL
Sir Alex Ferguson insists his players are showing championship form, when they are not being scared to death by Exeter or reprieved by inadequate vigilance against Tottenham, and though Chelsea's lead may make the matter academic Manchester United are still unbeaten this year even if they did concede a goal for the first time in nine games.
Who have they been playing, though? Watching this soporific apology for a top-half Premiership meeting, two other questions sprang to mind. Namely, how did Aston Villa ever manage to climb to tenth place? And why doesn't David O'Leary use what's left of the transfer window to make an offer for the entire Exeter defence?
There is no question that United found these opponents much more accommodating than their FA Cup hosts in midweek. Villa were susceptible to crosses and were opened up regularly through the middle. It took the home side just eight minutes to take the lead and after that the match took place at training-ground pace, which is the only possible explanation for United failing to score more goals before half-time.
Louis Saha in particular must wish he could play Villa every week. He peeled easily away from his marker in the seventh minute to meet Gabriel Heinze's cross, only to fail to keep his header down. A minute later he laid on the opening goal for Cristiano Ronaldo, accepting Roy Keane's pass and taking out two defenders with an exquisite turn, before slipping the ball past Olof Mellberg for the Portugal winger to sprint through the middle and beat Thomas Sorensen from the edge of the area.
THE TELEGRAPH - QUICKFIRE DOUBLE KEEPS ALIVE UNITED CHALLENGE
Only days after agreeing to bury the hatchet with Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, though he did not specify in which part of his anatomy he would like to plunge it, Sir Alex Ferguson showed that you can take cordiality too far, lavishing praise on Premiership leaders Chelsea beforehand and claiming that it was their title to lose.
There was, as there always is with the Manchester United manager, a little sting in the tail, as he reiterated his belief, or hope more like, that Jose Mourinho's side could yet stumble in their five remaining matches in the frozen north, as if this part of the world is still full of dark satanic mills, rather than welcoming nightclubs and wine bars.
Most specifically, of course, Ferguson was thinking of the two visits that Chelsea must make here, the first as early as Wednesday in the Carling Cup semi-final second leg, a splendid opportunity to derail Mourinho's hopes of Chelsea becoming the first English club to complete a quadruple.
How ironic that such a much maligned competition should provide the most significant meeting of the season, since only by bloodying Chelsea's nose can Ferguson hope to sow doubts in their minds about the title.
Although Arsenal will certainly be hoping to make a statement of their own against Newcastle today, United are beginning to look like the only side who can at least delay Chelsea's romp towards the title. This victory carried them into runners-up position for the first time this season and the minor inconvenience of conceding their first goal in nine games proved just that.