THE SUNDAY TIMES - ROONEY KEEPS UNITED IN THE TITLE HUNT
When you pay £27m for a player you expect a favour or two in return, and Wayne Rooney spared Sir Alex Ferguson’s blushes at Old Trafford yesterday with a winning goal nine minutes from time.
Ferguson rested half the United team that had played against Milan in midweek and came uncomfortably close to finishing with egg on his face. With the score at 1-1 after 80 minutes, the natives were getting decidedly restless at the prospect of dropping two priceless points and missing out on the chance to trim Chelsea’s lead at the top of the league. But cometh the hour, cometh the £27m man and Rooney, who had opened the scoring in the eighth minute, came up with his ninth goal of the season to lift United within six points of the league leaders. Amid an explosion of relief, United’s only concern at the end was the ankle injury that necessitated Gary Neville’s substitution at half-time. The England full-back went for an X-ray last night and may be out of next Saturday’s league match at Crystal Palace and the Champions League return in Milan. Ferguson preferred to dwell on the fact that the lead could be down to three points by the time Chelsea play Norwich next Saturday evening. Hours earlier, United will be looking to pile on the pressure with what would be their seventh league win in succession, at Crystal Palace.
United’s starting line-up was interesting. It is not just for managers, apparently, that a vote of confidence is the kiss of death. Far from keeping faith with Roy Carroll after his latest howler, as he had said he would, Ferguson left the Irishman out of the squad altogether, restoring Tim Howard in goal and promoting Ricardo to understudy him on the bench. Rio Ferdinand and Roy Keane, both rested, were other notable absentees from United’s 16, and Ryan Giggs and Quinton Fortune were on the substitutes’ bench. Ruud Van Nistelrooy, returning to the starting line-up after a three-month absence with Achilles trouble, looked understandably rusty, but Ferguson professed himself pleased with the Dutchman’s efforts.
Portsmouth beat United 2-0 at Fratton Park on October 30, since when the two teams have been on widely divergent paths. Pompey arrived with just four wins from the 17 games in the interim. United, in contrast, had harvested 42 points from the 48 available since then.
The impression that one side were getting stronger and the other weaker was reinforced by a look at the teamsheets. United had their principal goalscorer back while Portsmouth were lacking their cleverest player, Patrik Berger, with flu and in the circumstances, the contest always had an uneven look about it.
STAR MAN: Wayne Rooney (Man United)
THE OBSERVER - ROONEY PROVES A SAVIOUR AFTER UNITED STUMBLES
As any playground combatant will vouch, if you engage in a name-calling contest, make sure your gang are bigger than your rival's. Wayne Rooney again demonstrated that, as long as Sir Alex Ferguson can depend upon his precocious talents, the veteran manager will always have an important weapon in his increasingly entertaining psychological conflict with Chelsea's José Mourinho.
At the end of a week of spiteful interchange between the two managers, two goals from the England centre-forward rescued a lethargic United from disaster in their attempt to overtake the London club at the top of the Premiership. The winner, nine minutes from time, was vintage Rooney, the strong teenager collecting Ruud van Nistelrooy's pass and shrugging off Dejan Stefanovic before converting from six yards.
Ferguson had pledged to 'freshen things up in a couple of places' as United sought to recover from the disappointment of the midweek home defeat against Milan. Certainly, making five changes in selection definitely constituted a thorough freshening up. Still, it was one of the survivors from the manager's cull, Rooney, who swept United into an early lead.
United had threatened from kick-off, Van Nistelrooy winning a corner from which Paul Scholes found Cristiano Ronaldo for a header that Kostas Chalkias caught comfortably. In the eighth minute, though, Gary Neville took a throw, the ball eventually being returned to him near the right corner flag, allowing the England defender to curl in a perfect cross that Rooney tucked away from the edge of the six-yard box, for his seventh goal in his past 11 club games. Even allowing for the low-grade defending, it was a conversion that Rooney made look far more routine than was actually the case.
As happens so often in such games at Old Trafford, the goal seemed to dispossess the visitors of what little confidence they had brought with them, United apparently left just to work their way through the gears towards the finishing line. Certainly, in the free, roaming roles afforded Ronaldo and Rooney - here's Ronaldo on the left, now he's in the middle with Rooney playing right-wing - the game took on all the vitality of a glorified training match.
Man of the match
Wayne Rooney Not one of his all-round better performances, but he still provided both United goals, an indication of what a force he has become, domestically at any rate. Both exemplified his major strengths: solid decision-making, a good reading of the game, composure, physical strength and an unerring ability to find the back of the goal.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - ROONEY RULES SUPREME
Amid the flurry of team changes that characterise the modern game, some players are irreplaceable. Wayne Rooney is rapidly assuming that distinction with Manchester United.
Ruud van Nistelrooy made his long-awaited return to United's starting line-up, but it was his young accomplice who secured victory and sustained the pressure on Premiership leaders Chelsea.
Sir Alex Ferguson made five changes from the side beaten by Milan in the Champions League, including a recall for Tim Howard in place of the hapless Roy Carroll in goal. However, the United manager resisted any temptation to give Rooney a rest and last night was grateful for that crucial decision.
Rooney's goals, expertly taken after eight and 81 minutes, scarcely camouflaged the inadequacies in this weakened United team, enough to close the gap at the top to six points. By the time Chelsea resume league business, on Saturday evening, their lead could be down to three points.
Portsmouth, the last team to beat United in the league, threatened to frustrate them again when Gary O'Neil scored a spectacular equaliser. But Rooney kept his head to despatch the winner and extend United's run since that Fratton Park reverse to 14 wins and 17 unbeaten matches.
THE INDEPENDENT - ROONEY TURNS THE HEAT UP ON CHELSEA
If Chelsea are looking anxiously over their shoulders - and Sir Alex Ferguson insists they are - then the increasingly large image of Manchester United will be intruding upon their view. And in the vanguard will be Wayne Rooney.
The England striker scored his 14th and 15th goals of the season to push United to within six points of the Premiership leaders and by the time Jose Mourinho's men play in the League again the gap could be down to three points. Chelsea have an advantage in terms of games played but nothing makes a healthy lead look more sickly than United bearing down.
Not than it was an easy day at the office for Ferguson's team, far from it. Indeed, when Gary O'Neil equalised for struggling Portsmouth it seemed that Ferguson's plans to find Chelsea's blip-side by putting pressure on them were going to implode. But cometh the hour, cometh the boy and, with 10 minutes to go, Rooney got the winner.
Anything that happened yesterday was set against United's defeat by Milan in the Champions' League and the result hung over no one more than Roy Carroll. The Northern Ireland goalkeeper was blamed for the only goal on Wednesday and the price was his place in the side. For one accident-prone goalkeeper, there came another and Tim Howard was restored for his first Premiership start since September. Whether that counted as a dropping is a moot point, because the home side rested Rio Ferdinand, Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs but at least one undisputed No 1 was restored and it was perhaps Portsmouth's preoccupation with Ruud van Nistelrooy that led to United taking the lead after eight minutes.
Gary Neville's left foot is not always a thing of beauty but his cross from the right flank was, and with Pompey concentrating on the Dutch striker - Arjan de Zeeuw was climbing all over Van Nistelrooy, Rooney nipped in behind his colleague and won the race to the ball with Andy Griffin to half-volley past Kostas Chalkias with his right foot.
The goal could have acted like a pebble at the start of an avalanche but United are becoming like the fabled British workmen of the Seventies in that they will do enough and no more, and for the rest of the first half they sat in their easy chairs and supped their tea.
Only once did they threaten to stir themselves, after 39 minutes, when Rooney's cross from the left was deftly knocked back by Gary Neville into Cristiano Ronaldo's path. The Portuguese winger is not always noted for his brain and it was absent again as he blazed over.
In the 81st minute, however, United finally got the goal they needed. Van Nistelrooy turned De Zeeuw and then passed to Rooney, who skipped past Dejan Stefanovic, dummied to shoot to lure Chalkias into committing himself and then rolled the ball into the net.
Such cool from someone so young. It was a goal worthy to win any match.