THE INDIE
Wigan Athletic have defined Manchester United's season. Not in Cardiff, where Sir Alex Ferguson's squad placed old priorities aside to chant "champions" as they lifted the Carling Cup, but last night at the JJB Stadium where they found relief in stealing three points from Paul Jewell's side while Chelsea supporters congregated on Las Ramblas and the Champions' League hoardings were being put in place at an expectant Highbury and Anfield.
Ferguson insisted he felt no envy as he watched his greatest English rivals on the playing fields of Europe a fortnight ago but a cold night in Lancashire was not what he would have had in mind when he prepared his February schedule at the start of this campaign. Nor Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was again left on the substitutes bench by the United manager but helped create an undeserved equaliser for Cristiano Ronaldo within two minutes of his second-half arrival and then saw the desperately unfortunate Pascal Chimbonda bundle a clearance over his own goal-line in stoppage time. As in Cardiff, however, United hid their embarrassment superbly, their coaching staff and substitutes celebrating hysterically as Wigan players collapsed to the floor in despair.
With the bitter disappointment of their Carling Cup final defeat only eight days old Wigan required little incentive to vent their emotions on the United defence, though when late arrivals among the visiting support disrupted a minute's silence for Lee Ellis - a former apprentice goalkeeper at the JJB Stadium who was killed while serving in Iraq last week - their thirst for retribution merely increased.
Wigan dominated a fiercely competitive opening and were thoroughly deserving of the standing ovation that greeted their performance at the interval. The quality of their delivery from both flanks and the physical presence of Jason Roberts through the centre posed a range of problems to United, who required the continued impressive form of Wes Brown to remain on level terms.
THE GUARDIAN
Manchester United may be famed for their last-minute goals but never before can they have scored one that was laced with so much good fortune. Sir Alex Ferguson, showing a level of grace for which he is not always renowned, even made a point of apologising to his Wigan counterpart Paul Jewell after Pascal Chimbonda's own-goal, two minutes into stoppage time, won them a match in which they had been thoroughly outplayed. "You didn't deserve it," Fergie said to a disbelieving Jewell.
"He's right," volunteered Jewell, "but it's no consolation." Wigan had dominated the match, gone ahead just before the hour and were entitled to be aggrieved by a draw never mind a defeat. Having leapfrogged Liverpool back into second position, United will just be grateful to have somehow turned the match upside-down, though Ferguson is entitled to wonder how his side can thrash Wigan in the Carling Cup final and then be so vapid against the same opponents eight days later.
Even their equaliser was sugar-coated with enormous luck. Ruud van Nistelrooy, again consigned to the role of substitute, horribly miscued a shot only for the ball to squirt across the penalty area and transmogrify into an inch-perfect through-ball for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Gallant to the end, Wigan sought a late winner but the decisive moment came at the other end, with the ground emptying, as Louis Saha slashed a shot against the angle of crossbar and post. The ball ricocheted on to the goalline where Chimbonda, under pressure from Van Nistelrooy, accidentally bundled it into the exposed net.
Jewell could reflect on at least half a dozen presentable opportunities before half-time. There was the sight of a panicking Gary Neville conceding a corner from 40 yards and Ronaldo having a tantrum after being denied a free- kick after throwing himself to the floor one too many times. "We've not had a harder away game all season," Ferguson said at the end. "They kept coming and coming and they deserved to go in front when they did."
It came just before the hour from a Bullard corner and a classic goalmouth scramble. Ferguson will be appalled by the defending, with Paul Scharner the third Wigan player to swing at the ball unchallenged once Giggs had blocked the initial header from Arjan de Zeeuw.
United's comeback coincided with the introduction of Van Nistelrooy, replacing Park Ji-sung, and the Premiership's leading scorer will be glad he could at least claim a telling contribution. It is clear, however, that he is no longer considered a mandatory first-team pick and that it is now a case of Rooney plus one. "If you play in a cup final victory and score one of the goals," Ferguson explained of his decision to prefer Saha, "then you expect to keep your place."
THE TIMES
It cannot sit comfortably with Manchester United that they were making their first competitive appearance at the JJB Stadium while Chelsea were gearing up for a crucial Champions League assignment in the Nou Camp. There were times last night when they seemed to be wishing they could be anywhere else, but, to judge by the celebrations on the bench and in the directors’ box after Pascal Chimbonda’s own goal deep into stoppage time, they are determined to make the most of the poor hand they have dealt themselves this season.
That goes for Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored the equaliser after being kicked from pillar to post for much of the game, for Ruud van Nistelrooy, who set up that goal within minutes of his belated introduction after being left out again, and for Wayne Rooney, who, as after the Carling Cup final victory over the same opposition eight days earlier, celebrated at the end like he had won the World Cup. Second has always been viewed as first-last by Sir Alex Ferguson, but it seems that finishing runners-up behind Chelsea, in another supposedly "freakish" Barclays Premiership campaign, would have its merits.
Outplayed and outfought for long periods by a Wigan Athletic side thirsting for revenge after their 4-0 defeat in Cardiff, United trailed to Paul Scharner’s goal when Van Nistelrooy was belatedly sent into the fray with 19 minutes remaining. Within two minutes the forward had made his impact, his mis-hit shot turned in by Ronaldo, and, to the horror of Paul Jewell, United snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when Louis Saha’s shot crashed down off the crossbar and bounced in off the luckless Chimbonda.
THE TELEGRAPH
While Jose Mourinho was steeling himself for the Nou Camp and Arsene Wenger was plotting a way past Real Madrid, Sir Alex Ferguson found himself in Wigan, staring at hoardings advertising Uncle Joe's Mint Balls.
If the reality stung, the result would have been rather more soothing. A late goal fashioned by Louis Saha, whom Ferguson had again controversially preferred to Ruud van Nistelrooy, and deflected into his own net by Pascal Chimbonda via the post, demonstrated that if United were no longer a force in the Champions League, they had still not lost the habit of scoring late winners.
This was enough to give them a two-point and one-game cushion over Liverpool in second place.
As he had in the Carling Cup final against Wigan, Ferguson inflicted another calculated snub to his leading scorer. Whatever his motives and whatever the result, these were dangerous tactics. "If you score in a cup final, as Saha did, then you expect to play in the next game," Ferguson said. "That is what this decision is about."
However, there is little question that Van Nistelrooy expected to start. For the best part of 70 minutes the man who has found the net 148 times for United sat motionless with his arms folded, barely exchanging a word with his team-mates. When he came on, with his side a goal down and floundering, the game and United's fortunes changed.
Van Nistelrooy's first touch was a shot, so dreadfully directed it looked like a cross, which did, however, find Cristiano Ronaldo, who clipped in an equaliser. Until the 92nd minute, Saha's contribution had been minimal.