The game lived up to expectations and was full of goals and incidents.  Vincent Kompany’s two-footed challenge was in every way a fantastic, clean tackle.  He won the ball and didn’t touch the player.

However, both feet were off the floor.  To the letter of the law, that is a red card offence.  Ridiculous though it may be, the referee had to make a split second decision, and got it spot on.  Even though a red card is unwarranted for such a clean challenge that in no way was reckless or dangerous.

Man City were clearly shaken at losing their influential captain in the 12th minute not long after conceding an early headed goal from Wayne Rooney.

Ferguson and Manchester United fans were probably looking to avenge the thrashing from earlier in the season when they found themselves 3-0 at half-time.  But in the second-half Manchester City showed how far they have come as a team rather than a group of individual players and fought back to within an inch of saving the game.

A brilliant free-lick from Aleksandar Kolarov gave the blue half of Manchester hope while Paul Scholes was introduced to tighten up the midfield.  Unfortunately a lack of match fitness showed, and when Aguerro scored a second, it was City that looked the more likely to score again.

It ended 3-2 to Manchester United who will now face Liverpool in the Fourth Round.

Paulo Di Canio’s Swindon Town caused the upset of the round as they beat Premier League Wigan; and when Sam Allardyce announced a weakened West Ham team, it wasn’t a surprise to see League One promotion contenders Sheffield Wednesday win through to the next round.

FA Cup 4th Round Draw

•    Brighton or Wrexham v Newcastle
•    Sunderland v Middlesbrough
•    Dagenham & Redbridge or Millwall v Southampton
•    Hull City v Crawley Town
•    MK Dons or QPR v Chelsea
•    West Brom v Norwich
•    Blackpool v Sheffield Wednesday
•    Arsenal or Leeds v Aston Villa
•    Stevenage v Notts County
•    Watford v Tottenham
•    Liverpool v Manchester United
•    Derby v Stoke
•    Everton v Fulham
•    Macclesfield or Bolton v Swansea
•    Sheffield United v Birmingham or Wolves
•    Nottingham Forest or Leicester v Swindon

All matches to be played over the weekend of the 28th & 29th January.  Too soon for a Suarez v Evra rematch. Though don’t be too surprised if Sir Alex Ferguson is calling Edwin Van Der Sar & Peter Schmeichel.

What with Chelsea continuing to stutter under the ‘leadership’ of Andre Villas-Boas as he attempts to stake a strong air of Mourinho-like authority and dampen any dissenting voices from the old guard, going into the Christmas period it seemed that Manchester United & Manchester City were going to sprint away from the chasing pack.  That was until last weekend when both clubs lost.

Unfortunately for the chasing pack didn’t take full advantage.

After scoring no less than 10 goals against Fulham & Wigan, Manchester United lost at home to bottom of the table Blackburn Rovers 3-2. Take nothing away from Blackburn whose mix of young and experienced players appeared to be playing out of their skins for under-fire manager Steve Kean, Manchester United were shocking; and Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to leave Wayne Rooney out of the squad for some petty disciplinary decision backfired.  Why when it comes to Ferguson making blatant mistakes do football pundits & journalists alike not tell it as it is? Yes he’s the most successful manager English football has ever seen.  But when he gets it wrong, say so!

Chelsea & Tottenham failed to capitalise on Man Utd losing points (Chelsea lost at home to Aston Villa 3-1 & Spurs drew with Swansea 1-1), leaving Arsenal as the only top 6 team to win last Saturday.

To cap a weekend of surprising results in the Premier League, Manchester City failed to take advantage of Ferguson & United’s blunder on Monday, knowing that winning at Sunderland would have opened a three point gap at the top.  But they failed to beat a rejuvenated Sunderland on Monday as Martin O’Neil continued to steer the Black Cats away from the threat of relegation & into the top half of the Premier League.

As the busy Christmas & New Year fixtures reached a final round of matches this week there were wins for Manchester City (Liverpool 3-0), Spurs (West Brom 1-0) & Sunderland away to Wigan 4-1 on Tuesday; and yesterday was a chance for Bolton to start the New Year with a win and for Man Utd to make amends for ending 2011 with their tail firmly between their legs.

Bolton was captained by Gary Cahill at Goodison Park as they took on an Everton side that included American Landon Donovan in his second loan spell from LA Galaxy. Cahill was probably playing his last match for the North-east side before moving to London.  Though it was interesting to see Harry Redknapp & his chief scout at Goodison, as personal talks between Cahill & Chelsea appear to have stalled.  I expect Redknapp to do everything in his power to sign Gary Cahill. The decision I believe is going to be down to Cahill.

The match produced the most bizarre goal of the season as Tim Howard hoofed a big clearance downfield only for the ball to get caught up in the gusty wind & end up in the Bolton net.  Howard becomes only the fourth goalkeeper to score in the Premier League after Brad Friedel, Peter Schmeichel & Paul Robinson.

The other Premier League game saw Manchester Utd travel to St. James Park (yes, I kmow its been renamed!). Newcastle were in the midst of a bad run with only one win in their last three games, so I was thoroughly expecting Manchester Utd to hit them for four.  Wayne Rooney started along with Dimitar Berbatov.  But United played worse than they did last Saturday.  While Newcastle played with confidence and bossed the midfield.  Alan Pardew’s Newcastle went on to win 3-0.  Another shock result. United have leaked 6 goals in two games.  But more than anything else I believe they are missing a midfield general.  I wonder what Paul Scholes thought of Man Utd’s performance.

At the weekend Manchester United play Manchester City in the FA Cup.  I can’t wait!

Amazingly Man Utd went into the game without Rio Ferdinand & Nemanja Vidic.  But Phil Jones, Johnny Evans and Chris Smalling joined Patrice Evra along with new goalkeeper David de Gea in keeping a weak Spurs attack with Jermain Defoe offering no threat as the lone striker.

In fact, if it wasn’t for veteran goalkeeper Brad Friedel, playing his league debut, Spurs could have lost by a whole lot more.

Both City and United have now won back to back Premier League matches and have thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the chasing pack.  After this display, is anyone foolish enough to bet on the Premier League title going anywhere else but Manchester come May?

The only team to soak up the pressure for 80 minutes and then attack Barcelona in the last 10 minutes with any success were Arsenal at the Emirates. So, yes it can be done and Barcelona are beatable.  But can Manchester United play such a tight disciplined game?

Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola has singled-out Wayne Rooney as the main threat, and it’s true to say Manchester United have been on a role since Wayne Rooney returned to form.  But don’t underestimate the sheer brilliance of Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez who has formed a great striking partnership with Rooney which has seen Premier League top goals corer and big sulky pants Dimitar Berbatov sidelined for much of 2011.

If Ferguson is true to his word, he will name both Rooney & Hernandez in an attacking formation of 4-4-2 with Rooney dropping into midfield for a 4-5-1 when they lose possession.  The plan will only succeed if Man Utd can keep this up for the whole game and in the process saturate the midfield and suffocate the genius of Xavi & Iniesta as they look for space to feed Lionel Messi between the midfield and defence. But it only needs one sloppy pass or one moments’ lack of concentration and Barcelona can punish even the best of sides, which is what beat Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho’s plan in both legs of the semi-final.

When the two teams met in the 2009 Champions League Final in Rome Manchester United started brightly enough but were punished after just 10 minutes by a Samuel Eto’o goal and completely outplayed by the better side.  Barcelona went on to win 2-0 with Messi, the smallest player on the pitch, heading a second goal in the 70th minute.

Wembley is a fitting stadium for the final as it was where both teams were first crowned champions of Europe.  Barcelona beat Sampdoria in 1992 1-0 and for Manchester United, who were the first English team to win the European Cup (as it was called), beat Benfica 4-1 after extra-time in 1968.  That day they managed to stop the brilliance of Eusebio.  But in fairness they did have Bobby Charlton, George Best & Denis Law!

For the neutral a Barcelona v Manchester United Champions League Final promises to be an exciting open and high scoring game.  3-2 would be good. Let’s hope it lives up to expectations.

When Sir Alex Ferguson took over as manager of Man Utd in 1986 they had won only seven League titles and none since 1967.  Ferguson went about building Manchester United into arguably, the biggest football club in the world.

Under his leadership they now hold the record for the most FA Cup wins (11) and the record for the most FA Cup Final appearances (18).  They have also won the Champions League (was the European Cup) a further two times, and two seasons ago equalled Liverpool’s record of 18 Football League titles.  In the next two games Sir Alex Ferguson will have officially taken Manchester United back to the top of English football.

Since its inception in the 1991-92 season, Manchester United have won a staggering 11 Premier League titles.  Next Saturday, away to Blackburn is destined to bring a 12th; and later this month Ferguson will lead his team out at Wembley in an attempt to win his third Champions League title (was the European Cup) and Manchester United’s fourth.

Ferguson’s rants and at times shockingly one-sided views annoy me but there is no getting away from the fact that his achievements at Manchester United are second to none.

Castrol Edge performance data shows that Michael Carrick was a key member of the United team in the first leg, the midfielder made seven interceptions on the night, three more than any other player on the pitch.

The England international was also impeccable in his delivery, completing 36 of his 41 passes, an 88% success ratio that no other United midfielder could match at the Bridge.

Ryan Giggs was the highest beneficiary of his passes (seven), a fact that reaped rewards with Carrick’s long diagonal ball to the Welsh wizard being the catalyst for the only goal of the game.

On a near perfect night, he also won all seven of his duels, including the two dribbles he embarked on. Physical but fair, he was the only United outfield player who didn’t concede a foul.

The question that Chelsea fans will be asking is where are the goals going to come from for the Blues if they are to beat United and progress in the competition.

There appears to be a general frustration with the contribution of Fernando Torres since his move from Liverpool, he has taken time to adjust to the Chelsea style, but he has not been helped so far by Carlo Ancelotti who has only just got his head around how best to utilise Drogba and Anelka in the team.

However, Castrol EDGE Performance data shows that no player has had more shots on target than Fernando Torres in the Champions League knockout stages this season.

The Chelsea striker has tested the ‘keeper eight times, a tally only Lionel Messi can match, although the Barcelona wizard has scored from two of those chances.  Surely it is just a matter of time before Torres breaks his duck for the Blues in Europe and Old Trafford could be the perfect arena for that.

At the moment though, he is the player who has had the most attempts without scoring in the knockout stages of this season’s competition, ahead of teammate Didier Drogba and Tottenham midfielder Rafael van der Vaart.

A goal fest for Torres or another clean sheet for Carrick?

In fact the Chelsea strike force has been nowhere near as potent as you would expect from a world class trio of strikers, Drogba, Anelka and Torres and the blues will be looking for a change of fortune tonight, if they are to progress.

According to Castrol EDGE Performance Analysis, Chelsea’s strikers haven’t clicked since the arrival of Fernando Torres.

Nicolas Anelka scored two goals in the Champions League against FC Copenhagen, but Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres haven’t managed a goal between them.

In the Champions League, it has not been for the want of trying as the three strikers have mustered 13 shots on target in the two matches against their Danish opponents.

But in domestic competition, it has been a different story with the three forwards managing just two shots on target between them in over 16 hours combined.

The struggle to find an effective combination is also demonstrated by the fact that they have only two assists in that time, both for Drogba, prior to last weekend’s games.

While Manchester United have experienced few problems in front of goal in the Premier League, Rooney and Berbatov have been scoring for fun, in the Champions League they have not been at their sharpest.

Castrol EDGE Performance data shows that Manchester United have struggled in attack in the Champions League this season and they will need to improve their goalscoring record when they go up against rivals Chelsea in the Champions League quarter finals tonight if they fancy their chances of taking an advantage back to Old Trafford in the second leg.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side scored on average one goal for every nine shots in the Champions League compared to one in for every 5.6 in domestic games, and as a result have scored nearly twice as many goals per game.

Chelsea have won all three Premier League meetings with Manchester United since Carlo Ancelotti arrived at Stamford Bridge, with United scoring just two goals in the three games.

So if you are looking for goals it looks like the best bet maybe in the other game between favourites Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk.

But with just eleven Premier League fixtures left and only one lost game this season Man Utd look destined to win another Premiership title and in the process surpass Liverpool’s record for winning the most Premier League / League One titles and, as far as their fans are concerned, be hailed as the best team in English football.

On paper Manchester United’s fixtures don’t look too difficult.  Aside from the two crunch games this week they play West Ham, Newcastle, Arsenal and Blackburn away, and Bolton, Fulham, Everton, Chelsea and finally Blackpool at Old Trafford on 22nd May.  All of those games are ultimately winnable but although Man Utd look favourites to win another Premiership title they have had a few lucky escapes this season and drawn too many games when a few more victories would already have them sailing home.

They also have the added distraction of the FA Cup, where they are likely to meet Arsenal in the Quarter Finals (Saturday 12 May) followed by a Champions League second leg tie against Marseille (Tuesday 15 May).  Both games are at Old Trafford.

Pre-season I predicted Manchester United would win the Premier League but I think the Champions League will be a step too far.  As for the FA Cup, if they can beat Arsenal they have a great chance to win the double; and as a neutral I would love to see the red and sky blue of Manchester meet in the FA Cup final in what would surely be a great way to end a fantastic season.

mirror football

The revelations yesterday that Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney no longer wants to stay at Old Trafford and has refused to enter negotiations for a new contract with the club have shocked the football world.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says that he had been informed of Rooney’s decision back in August, but presumably expected to talk the player round with his sweet talking charm.

The news has alerted the top teams in Europe that one of the best strikers in football is up for grabs and many have already responded by adding Rooney to their January sales wish list.

United will be keen to off load the want away player in January rather than let him go for nothing when his contract ends in the summer.

Manchester City are believed to be interested in Rooney and are possibly the only English club that could afford to make the sort of bid that would interest United.

But will the United really want to sell to their unsettled star player to their hated Manchester rivals who have already shown that they are better equipped than United to win the Premiership title this season, or would they prefer to lose the player to another of their Premiership rivals such as Chelsea for instance.

Barring a move abroad, which maybe what Rooney desires, United have to weigh up the offers from their premiership rivals an make the all important decision while they can.

So how would you deal with the situation?

Football Manager 2011

In the latest edition of Football Manager 2011 you can put yourself in the shoes of Ferguson and play out similar situations to see whether you have the ability to out think the top managers in football.

Football Manager 2011 will be jam-packed full of new features such as real-time contract negotiations for more realistic dealings with agents, a new set-piece creator, and a completely overhauled training system, the game is released on November 5th, but readers of Mirror Football will have access to the new game before anyone else, from October 21st.

To take advantage of this incredible offer and get your head around the new Football Manager game before your mates have a chance to, simply visit the Mirror Football website on Thursday and claim your free download code.

Check out Football Manager in advance with Mirror Football and while you are about it take a look at Mirror Football Goals – A free Facebook fantasy 5-a-side football game in association with Renault, where you are invited to pick your team, setup your own mini league and invite your friends to join in the fun.

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As has been well documented, Owen Hargreaves has suffered with chronic injury problems over the last two years. So, even though any talk of a comeback is encouraging, it won’t be happening quite yet.

On Wednesday, Dr Richard Steadman made the bold claim that “Owen should play some part on Saturday”. Sir Alex Ferguson has responded to this statement though by saying “We are having difficulties with the doctor coming out with statements that are not accurate.”

The Manchester United boss continued to vent his frustrations about the Doctor’s revelations. He said: “It is ridiculous. I pick the team and I have been doing it for quite a while. He is out with a calf injury.”

Sir Alex Ferguson will be hoping that Owen Hargreaves didn’t get his hopes up too much about an appearance this weekend. He has had a ridiculously difficult time with knockback after knockback and this latest one would have caused some frustration for him.

Regardless of not playing this weekend though, Owen Hargreaves will be hopeful about turning out for Manchester United soon. He hasn’t done so since May and this was only for three minutes of a match against Sunderland.

There were suggestions that he would be back for start of the campaign, but as has been his luck, the former Bayern Munich man suffered a setback during his recovery and had to go back for more work with his surgeon.

As for Dr Richard Steadman, he may have angered Sir Alex Ferguson with his comments, but he did have some good things to say about the player himself.

Speaking about the way Owen Hargreaves has conducted himself during the rehabilitation process, he said: “It’s been a long road back and there have been some setbacks along the way.

“But I’ve got a lot of admiration for the way Owen has responded – he’s worked very hard and has never given up. Things are looking good for him
now.”

Perhaps he can target a place in the Manchester United squad for the game at Stoke City on Sunday 24th October. Then, once he gets an appearance under his belt, it will be about staying fit for a significant period of time.

Follow Thomas Rooney on Twitter.