United They Fall

I don't exactly know what it is about Manchester United, but I absolutely love seeing them lose. I have done as far back as I can remember. They were playing Zenit St Petersburg -- a team I have zero affiliation with, and have never even seen before -- in the European Supercup tonight, and I was desperate for Zenit to win. Desperate. Never mind the fact that it's a completely worthless, meaningless cup. Rationality seems to just go out the window when United are involved. Heck, Man Utd could be playing a team made up entirely of former Auschwitz guards in a one-off friendly, and I'd still want the Nazi's to win. In fact I'd be disappointed if they didn't.

Like I said, it's completely irrational, and in the case directly above, even debatably immoral.

Well Zenit did win in the end, so happy days. I only saw the second half, but from what I gather they deserved it, with United only coming to life when they went 2-0 down. After they pulled one back I was like 'Aw man - here we go again', but they failed to convert some half-chances, and in the end it all finished up rather comedically, with Paul Scholes getting sent off for a second bookable offense - his first was a vintage Scholes tackle (read: repeated kick into the opposing players calf muscle) and his second was a very impressive handball which resulted in the ball flying into the top corner. It was one of the most unsublte handballs I've ever come across, with Scholesy making absolutely no attempt to in any way conceal it. He basically just spiked the ball into the net, and received his marching orders as a result. Very funny indeed.

One thing that remains abundantly clear is that United need to buy a striker. If not Berbatov, then someone else. Ronaldo coming back will obviously be a boost, but he can't be relied upon as heavily as he was last year. He just can't. Getting in a good target man is a must, and it may spark Rooney into life, because in all honesty if a new frontman comes in and it's a toss up between Rooney and Tevez to start, then Tevez is way ahead of him on the basis of form over the past year or so. And what's more, Tevez is even showing more of a work ethic than Rooney these days, so a little competition for places might just be the best thing for the former Everton prodigy.

Moving slightly off topic, with United out of action in the Premier League this week, Chelsea have the opportunity to go 5 points clear of them as they play Tottenham at Stamford Bridge, a game I'll hopefully be watching on Sunday lunchtime. The other game I'll be keeping a close eye on is Arsenal v Newcastle at the Emirates. With Newcastle on a bit of a high these days, I'm interested to see how this potentially fragile Arsenal team square up to them. Part of me thinks Arsenal could annihilate them, but I also have that sneaky feeling that Newcastle may just get something from the game. The ambiguity of my feelings is, I suppose, the reason for my intrigue.

There is another big game over the weekend, as Aston Villa take on Liverpool. I honestly don't think I'll watch that one though. I can only take Liverpool in very small doses you see, and having watched them for about 50 minutes in midweek, I feel like that's enough Dirk Kuyt and co. for one month.