What a goal by Rooney….but Sir Alex keeps him on his toes…..Have United won the Premier league?
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Old Trafford was a dizzy place by the time Wayne Rooney had finished scattergunning our senses. This was the moment Rooney clambered back to the top of his trade, the reminder why Manchester United were willing to grit their teeth and forgive him for his roving eye earlier in the season. It was a goal that left their supporters feeling intoxicated, as though the blood in their veins had turned into red wine.
Ferguson talked of it being the best goal in the club’s history, which was some statement given that even in his quarter of a century in Manchester we have seen the Ryan Giggs slalom through Arsenal’s defence, Eric Cantona’s chip versus Sunderland and not forgetting the way Mark Hughes used to make a habit of these kind of lacerating scissor-kick volleys. Then we are going back to Sir Matt Busby’s era, and George Best alone would probably have half a dozen contenders. All we can really say for certain is that Rooney’s prodigious winner deserves its place in the portfolio of great Manchester United moments and will never be removed.
Ferguson has been known to lose his spectacles celebrating goals with that little hop, skip and jump routine, like a man fighting off a swarm of invisible bees. On this occasion the defining image was the clip of him shaking his head, blowing out his cheeks, as if constantly bemused by the way this sport can grab you by the lapels.
Yet, even in the warm afterglow of appreciation, there was a reminder of the way Ferguson is always thinking of the next assignment, ticking off the boxes, never totally satisfied. First came the compliments but then his voice hardened a little, the furrow creased and there was a clear message not only for Rooney but for Dimitar Berbatov, too.
“I hope that is Wayne back to his best,” he said. “But I have to say, what I need to get out of Wayne and Berba are those performances away from home. They have not been as good for us away and it’s a quandary for us because they should be dictating games away from home. If they do, it will make a hell of a difference.”
The statement felt carefully prepared – Ferguson repeated the same, virtually word for word, in every interview – and undoubtedly formed from the knowledge that in the next three weeks United’s schedule incorporates a trip to France for the first leg of their Champions League tie against Marseille followed by games at Chelsea and Liverpool.
Rooney has managed only one away goal in the league in the last year, while 15 of Berbatov’s 19 league goals this season have come at home – and a direct correlation can be made with the team’s results. The team’s record at Old Trafford is formidable, with two points dropped all season. The flipside is they have won only three times on the road, fewer than Newcastle United and fifth-from-bottom Blackpool.
It is certainly an unusual set of events that Berbatov can be the most prolific scorer in the league but so routinely left out of the bigger matches. “I had to sit him down and I didn’t enjoy it, I can tell you,” Ferguson said. But it has become a trend: Berbatov has started only 21 of the club’s 43 “big” games since joining the club – “big” in this sense meaning Champions League knockout ties, the league matches against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and City, the Carling Cup finals and semi-finals and the Club World Cup.
His position at the top of the scoring charts has created the illusion he is United’s outstanding performer this season. In fact, it is Nani, with 10 goals, setting up 13 and being involved in another nine of the 32 the team have scored in his 30 appearances.
As for Rooney, he acknowledged that his has been a fitful season, dedicating the goals to the supporters as a form of apology. Yet with that prodigious leap, the arching of his back and the slash of his right boot, he demonstrated why Ferguson has always refused to contemplate his talent being burnt out.
One by one, the City defenders shook their heads afterwards and smiled ruefully. “That’s what he can produce, and that’s why United did everything they could to keep him,” Micah Richards said. “When he was up there in the sky I was thinking: ‘What’s he doing?’ And then when it went in the net I was speechless for about five seconds.”
That encapsulated the moment. Everything happened so quickly, and yet it was as if time had gone into slow-motion. Every superlative has been used by now and, in his inimitable style, maybe Rio Ferdinand summed it up the best, making it sound like a cartoon strip to his half a million followers on Twitter. “One dirty strike … POW … what a strike, what a goal, what a netbuster!!” The Goal of Dreams.
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