The defending Premier League champions Manchester United went down 3–0 away to Newcastle United on Wednesday thanks to goals from Demba Ba, Yohan Cabaye, and a freak own goal from Phil Jones.
The win was Newcastle’s first Premier League victory over United since September 2001. Another miserable outing for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men followed on last Saturday’s 3–2 home loss to Blackburn Rovers.
Those fans who traveled up to Tyneside from Manchester would have initially felt confident that their side would put the shock home defeat to Blackburn behind them with the return of Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, and Rio Ferdinand to the starting line-up.
For the home team in the black and white stripes, Ba was no doubt keen to give the Toon Army something to remember before leaving to represent Senegal in the African Nations Cup later this month. However, he completely missed an inviting cross and so uncharacteristically squandered Newcastle’s first chance after only five minutes.
A minute later Cabaye gave United keeper Anders Lindegaard his first test. Newcastle had started proceedings at a frenetic pace and with intent.
The visitors weathered the initial storm and created their first chance after a quarter of an hour when Dimitar Berbatov’s glancing header was deflected past the outstretched fingers of Tim Krul onto the post.
On 25 minutes, Newcastle had a decent appeal for a penalty turned down by referee Howard Webb, but they did take the lead eight minutes later.
A long punt up field from Krul was flicked on by the head of Shola Ameobi; the ball bounced kindly for Ba who volleyed into Lindegaard’s net, banishing all memories of his earlier glaring miss. It was the first Premier League goal the 27-year-old Dane had conceded.
Newcastle Consolidate
Manchester came out for the second half looking determined to turn things around, but it was the home side that struck again. Only two minutes after the restart, Jones took Ba out of the play and received the first yellow card of the game for his trouble.
The free kick was in a fairly central position though more than 25 yards out. Cabaye kept his shoulder over the ball and hit it sweet as you like with power and dip towards the top corner. Lindegaard, at full stretch, got his fingertips to it, but could only tip the ball onto the underside of the bar from where it bounced down well over the goal line.
It goes without saying that Manchester United came back strongly to try and make good the deficit, but the Magpies’ work rate was outstanding as they continued to close down the United attack.
Perhaps the crucial moment of the match happened when Newcastle defender Danny Simpson cleared Rooney’s close range effort off the line.
The return of Fabricio Coloccini has seen stability return to the Newcastle defense and it has to be said that the skipper never put a foot wrong all night.
The icing on Newcastle’s cake came in the 90th minute when Jones misjudged the bounce of another long clearance, and the ball deflected off his midriff into the net with Lindegaard stranded on the opposite side of the goal area.
The lesson to be learnt for all young defenders on this night was that it is better to get under those long balls and head them away before they bounce. Let them bounce at your peril—especially on a damp pitch.
With first choice central defender Nemanja Vidic out for the season, someone else is going to have to take the initiative in those circumstances or the chance that Old Trafford sees more silverware in 2012 will be greatly diminished.
Crowded Holiday Schedule
There is no doubt that the crowded schedule over Christmas and New Year’s makes for a great deal of entertainment for the millions of fans who avidly follow the Premier League.
Having fixtures every couple of days is a great equalizer and certainly benefits the less fancied teams. All of the big clubs have suffered setbacks against sides that, on paper, should be inferior, but the bottom line is that it does make things more interesting for the spectators.
So at the end of all this frenetic activity it’s more or less as you were, with Manchester City three points clear at the top with a goal difference 11 better than their local rivals United.
City bounced back from their setback at Sunderland with a comfortable 3–0 win against Liverpool on Tuesday evening and are now the side with the momentum going into the eagerly awaited third round FA Cup clash with United on Sunday.
And let’s not forget Tottenham Hotspur. The north London club is only three points behind United with a game in hand. There’s plenty to look forward to in the second half of this Premier League season—it’s no longer a two-horse race for the title.
