Shaky United already off pace
The last time Manchester United made such a bad start to the season, they went on to win the league. But even with Wayne Rooney in their midst it is increasingly difficult – some would say nigh impossible – to see how they can emulate the class of 1993, or even get close.
Sixteen days into the new Premiership campaign Sir Alex Ferguson’s team are already seven points behind Arsenal and Chelsea, and the deposed champions were so desperately unimaginative here, so torpid in attack and unaccomplished in midfield my canada goose jacket, that there was nothing to suggest the gap will not become a chasm.
Not only have United won only one of their opening four league games, three of them against teams widely expected to clutter up the Premiership’s lower reaches, they have managed three goals compared with Arsenal’s 16.
Rooney’s arrival buy canada goose jacket toronto might offer Ferguson an attacking quartet rivalled only by Real Madrid’s but there are so many deficiencies elsewhere in the team that the impending 25m transfer will be regarded at Highbury and Stamford Bridge with only passing interest rather than a best mens canada goose jacket genuine sense of trepidation.
Why, for instance, should Arsenal or Chelsea be fearful when there are telltale signs that Paul Scholes and canada goose coat – victoria Ryan Giggs are no longer the force they once were, that Mika?l Silvestre has brought his wretched Euro 2004 form to Old Trafford and, most tellingly, that ordinary teams such as Everton can now go to the home of England’s biggest club believing their opponents to be at their most vulnerable there since Ferguson’s early days in office?
Everton might even have made the inquest more painful had the referee Dermot Gallagher punished Silvestre for handling the ball in a congested penalty area rather than awarding the home side a dubious free-kick, best mens canada goose parka apparently for a push by Duncan Ferguson. David Moyes shook his head sadly as he reflected on Gallagher’s decision, but he will be equally aggrieved that his attackers did not profit from one of the three occasions that Silvestre gave the ball away 30 yards from Tim Howard’s goal.
Silvestre should be grateful to Everton’s failings in attack, otherwise Moyes’s players might have left Old Trafford with their first victory against United since the FA Cup final in 1995. Instead, having lost 19 of their previous 23 meetings, this was their first point at Old Trafford since 1996, when a 10-year-old Rooney sat in the away enclosure wearing a Junior Blues T-shirt. “I’m proud of that performance,” said Moyes. “It was a great team display and we’ve shown how united can you wash a canada goose parka we are.”
As for Ferguson, the United manager refused, as usual, to share his views with the text media but his mood was made abundantly clear when he blanked the club’s in-house television and radio stations. buy canada goose jacket online cheap
There were few mitigating factors, even if Ferguson could point out that they struck the post twice in the second half, through Cristiano Ronaldo and Alan Smith, and that Louis Saha’s mistimed header squandered the best opportunity of the opening canada goose coat – victoria 45 minutes.
But the near misses did not disguise the fact that their performance lacked any fluency, shuddering to a thoroughly unsatisfactory buy canada goose jacket toronto climax with a succession of long balls punted hopefully into the Everton penalty area. Where were the Manchester United who once backed themselves to outpass any other team in the country?
Had they not been so devoid of ideas they would surely have concluded that an aerial bombardment was a futile ploy, playing directly into the hands of Everton’s robust centre-halves Alan Stubbs and David Weir, who needed six stitches in his forehead after an early clash with Smith.
But perhaps the most alarming aspect for Ferguson was that his players did not have the nous to appreciate Alessandro Pistone’s shortcomings at left-back or Nigel Martyn’s occasional hesitance in goal. As Moyes said: “They ended up playing long balls, which suited us.” No wonder Old Trafford watched in solemn silence.
Even the are there any canada goose outlet stores arrival of England’s most exciting player can i wash my canada goose jacket cannot lift Mancunian melancholy at the knowledge that his first season at the club is unlikely to finish with a championship winner’s medal.