Man Utd vs Everton (EPL)

Manchester United vs Everton
English Premiere League

Venue : Old Trafford
Date : 31st January 2009

Manchester United 1
Ronaldo (p)

Everton 0

There are many themes for this game.
Last game in January for the Devils.
12th consecutive clean sheet-extended record.

While in about 24hours after this game, Liverpool will play Chelsea, a game that will determine which team gonna be in the 2nd spot for the time being, which team gonna be THE team to really challenge United for the title race.

With the 1-0 win, United are 5 points clear for 1 day. The points could be reduced either to 4 or 2.

The game was a quick one.

Penalty could be a HOT point of discussion here.

The one and only goal in the match came from a penalty which taken by Ronaldo.
How it happened was, Carrick made a tricky roll-on the ball went through Everton's player's leg in the box, as he ran forward, that player hooked his leg and Carrick went unbalance but still strive to get to the ball and another defender slide-tackled him and that's it!!! A penalty.
I was not sure the penalty was given for which foul. The sliding was actually clean for me. And the hooking situation was penalisable but too harsh to be given as penalty. However, the referee also human, he can make mistake aite? He decide what he saw from his angle. For me, that was not a penalty.

However, there was another occasion where Carrick(again?) was dirty-tackled in the box but not given penalty. That should be a penalty. Fair enough i guess!!!

As for Everton, they also had one foul in Devils' box but not given penalty. I would rather rate that incident as similar case to United's penalty case. It is penaliseable, but not that serious where penalty will be a harsh one.

OK. Enough on penalties. I give Carrick man of the match award for this game. Runner-up, Tevez.

Player's rating
Van Der Saar
Another clean sheet by the keeper. Superb. He did not have to make any dangerous save. But he did well in few occasions through out the game.

Neville
Welcome back. He looked good as ever.

Ferdinand
He looked OK at the back but I believe he is not yet fully recovered because I didnot really see him in the occasions where he used to be in the past.

Vidic
Did well

O Shea
Inconsistency is still his theme. But overall he did well. And contributed a lot to the team.

Park Ji Sung
He played his game the way he does everytime. But it is obvious he got tired as the time clocked.

Fletcher
Defended and delivered the ball well. Good job!!

Carrick
Marvellous game by this lad. Great passes. Magnificient vissions. He was involved in many attacking moves including the penalty incident. He also had few shots unlucky not to went in.

Ronaldo
His quick feet is back. Penalty is always easy for him (except final Champions League haha). But he not back like the 2008 Ronaldo yet.

Berbatov
Dissapppointing in the first half. He lost in action. I did not see him running nor getting the ball. 2nd half, he appeared to make the impact for the team.

Tevez
The busiest player ever. Running all the way 90 minutes. Pressure the goalie for every single back pass. Lucky not to get a goal for himself.

Brown(sub Neville)
Looked fresh but he missed too many matches, so he'll needs time to settle back in. For this game, he did OK.

Giggs (sub Fletcher)
Combination of him and Carrick was great. 2 great mind. 1 by nature, 1 by experience. Marvellous to watch.