Stand Up For The Champions

OH, YES! Life just could not get better? We beat City, we're gonna win the league and the blues set a new record low goal tally at home. Wonderful!

Yes, we were awful today. That's all right. But should I start explaining a victory? No, I won't.

Alan Ball was a man who deserved respect for his footballing skills AND for his personality. On the other hand, Michael Ball is a man who deserves to be suspended from football for a long time.

City's mediocre left-back was handed the role of handling Ronaldo and he was spectacularly unsuccessful in it. His stamp on the Portuguese's chest in the 2nd minute was absolutely disgraceful, one of the worst incidents we had seen in the top flight this season.

Rob Styles missed it but he could not miss the blatant offence that brought down Ronaldo in the box. The winger coolly converted the resulting penalty, thus exacting the perfect revenge on Ball who, miraculously, avoided a booking throughout the game, despite a string of nasty and sneaky challenges.

City proved that they'd love to score but they don't know how. They were so unbelievably bad that our own staggeringly poor performance was enough to see them off. Of course, a ridiculous dive earned them a penalty but Vassell managed to miss even that. Carrick, Scholes and substitute Fletcher ensured we would always dominate possession and the last five minutes were spent at the touchline, running down the clock.

In the end, Fergie and the staff celebrated in a way that showed exactly that they knew: Manchester United are going to be Premiership Champions 2006/07!

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