Black Cats hold unconvincing United

What was supposed to be a rather easy game for United almost turned out to be a nightmare for them, as after being led twice by Sunderland, they managed to rescue 1 point following an own goal from Rio Ferdinand’s brother, Anton, in injury time.

Sunderland started off as the better side, putting pressure on United’s back line, and Bent opened the score on the 7th minute after a pass from Cattermole found him, and he managed to get his shot past Foster from the edge of the box. United were so stunned that they could not muster any reply in the first half, wasting a lot of possession, and unable to play collectively as they are used to.

Sir Alex must have switched on the “hair-dryer” at half time, as a more inventive United team started the second half, and on 51st minute, Berbatov acrobatically equalized following an O’Shea cross in the box. But the revival lasted only some minutes, as on the 58th minute, Jones rose higher than Foster and his marker to head home a Reid’s cross at the other end, sending Old Trafford yet again into shock mode. Although Anderson was introduced at half time, followed by Valencia and Carrick in the last 15 minutes, United looked toothless against the Black Cats, who even had Richardson sent off following a second yellow card for kicking the ball away after the ref’s whistle on 85th minute. It was only in injury time, on 92nd minute, that a shot from Evra, actually going wide, was diverted into his own net by Anton Ferdinand, which gifted United 1 point, and an undeserving one too!

May be this match will teach Sir Alex a lesson, that of at least leaving Giggs on the bench so that he can be played in games like this one, and not leave him out completely of the squad like today, where United needed him the most to create passes and run at defenders, something which Nani yet again failed to do properly!!!