BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE: Crystal Palace 0-2 Manchester United

I don’t remember when I enjoyed the match this much last time. After 5 days training in warm weather of Dubai, I guess every fan of United was expecting something magic today. At this point, every game becomes crucial and you have to win every one of them. After Everton lost against Chelsea, United fans and players were already excited to win and move up to 6^th position. It was also important day for Rooney: his 300th premier league appearance for United and his first game since his new £300,000 per week contract.

When I first saw the team line up, I wasn’t happy. I don’t know whether it's me or something else, I have never been impressed with Januzaj’s performance. He just looks too weak and you can never play like this for 90 minutes. Moyes seems to like him bit too much. People keep addressing him “Man of the match” sometimes but I don’t see at what aspects they say that. May be I watch different game than them. I thought Valencia would have done better job.

I must say, in the first half, I could really see some magical difference in the game though they struggled to score. At some point, they looked like they have forgotten how to score. Once upon a time, I used to criticize their defensive skills but now, I am talking about the strikers. I even asked myself “What happened to our Van Persie who used to score when he wanted to?”. Crystal palace might not have been in Dubai for the training but they certainly had similar training as United. They were defending very well. One of the closest target shot from United's side was by Fellaini. He got great chance from 10 yards but still couldn’t find the net. Isn’t that depressing? Well, we haven’t seen much of him anyway.

Second half was lot better. It all started when the penalty came in. I tweeted- “Thank you Evra for getting injured”. Speaking from an experience (I missed penalty once L), penalty is nerve dreading for both striker and goalkeeper. Since United has a reputation of missing penalty, I actually closed my eyes during that time and peeked through the gap of my fingers to see if they were celebrating. Then I knew it went through! And of course, Van Persie, a golden boot winner of last two seasons can never afford to miss penalty. Then came magnificent missile by Rooney; another goal for Manchester United.

So, that was the highlight. Moyes later brought Valencia and Giggs in and took Van Persie and Januzaj out. I didn’t actually understand what he was trying to do there. I got confused on whose territory is which after that but it was another 10 minutes to go and I wanted them to defence as much as possible. In 5 minutes remaining, Fletcher came in. I must admire Vidic today. Boys! if you can defence like that, we might just want to focus on mid field and striking, and we are done.

In conclusion, great game today! Van Persie and Rooney both scored and clean sheet for De Gea. The most important thing is United escalated up to 6^th position (Yay!) :D. David De Gea made some amazing saves and for me, either him or Rooney are eligible for man of the match title.

PS. Crystal Palace fans were bit rough though. I know its a big competition but you don't treat guests like that. Let them do their job. You just sit back and cheer for your teams but do not discourage others.