United v Hull - Brilliance And Ineptitude

United beat Hull City 4-3 with a combination of thrilling attacking football, poor defending and absolutely inept refereeing which almost cost us the win. Here are the most important points.

Ronaldo's return to form: Another brace by the Portuguese who is starting to look like his usual self. His opener was cancelled out later and his header might have got a deflection off McShane but his overall contribution was very good.

Berbatov's getting better and better: His superb link-up play allowed us to dominate throughout the game. We created many chances - though I must admit that the Bulgarian is culpable for missing most of them.

Carrick's return: The midfielder's first start since Anfield wasn't exactly scintillating as he often passed the ball quite sloppily yet he took his goal well and generally got better as the minutes ticked on. Huge asset, he is.

Scoring from set-pieces: Two goals from two corners, brilliant! Not what we're famous about to be honest but Rooney's and Nani's delivery was excellent.

Conceding from a set-piece: Cousin's goal was really a soft one to concede. Quite how he did that, with all the defenders around him... something to work at.

The refereeing: Mike Dean was total rubbish. First, he failed to send off Turner who was already on a yellow card when brought down Carrick on the edge of the area, and Michael would have been clear through. Then that penalty... it was ridiculous, never a penalty. It was a similar mistake to that of Rob Styles' but I don't see the media furore now.

Rooney's frustration: Nani and Ronaldo both played well after weeks of abysmal football but they too often ignored teammates in better positions and opted to shoot. This particularly irked Rooney. And there's another thing: it seems that as he's not scored in the last two games his confidence is ebbing away again... terrible. If only he was blessed with Ronaldo's self-belief.

Not finishing Hull off: At 4-1 up it looked like the game was won yet a defensive cock-up allowed Mendy to score. No problem as United pinged Hull back and created chance after chance to kill them off - yet failed to take them. We almost shot ourselves in the foot the way Arsenal ladies did against Spurs.

But it was our day (and Chelsea's, all right): with Arsenal and Liverpool losing, we are now firmly in control of our own destiny. Exciting season awaits I think. Especially if we can't sort out this defensive problems.

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