Manchester United 2 Stoke City 0

Match corresponding to the FA Premier League and played at Old Trafford.

After the debacle at Anfield on Saturday and our elimination from the FA Cup (update on blog was not forthcoming as we were moving into our new house on Saturday) David De Gea called in ‘sick’ yesterday and to make matters worse Anders Lindegaard has apparently hurt hos foot quite badly in training. As such Ben Amos was fielded in goal by SAF, a rather telling moment in the career of our Polish goalkeeper! Needless to say it was a game of two penalties, that for once were as clear as the light of day, and the penalty that was the clearest of the three and not given. United dominated this match quite easily and Paul Scholes seems to have turned back the years with quite a masterful performance in midfield. Stoke were uncharacteristically quiet and lacked their usual bite and growl. Hell even Park looked like a footballer for once and won us our first penalty that was transformed by Chicharito, his first goal since the game against Newcastle United in November. Valencia continued in his recent rich vein of form and drove the Stoke left back rather insane with drooping shoulders and mazy runs. Dimitar Berbatov, sporting a new Balotelli style mohican, converted our second spot kick in the second half and that was the end of the game as a contest. Paul Poga came on with 20 minutes to go and rather impressed in his Premier League debut. An evening that was made even better by the news that former Red Darron Gibson scored Everton’s winner against Manchester City at Goodison Park! One can argue that that was Gibson’s greatest achievement for United. The game against Chelsea on Sunday at Stamford Bridge has been nicely set up!

Manchester United Team

40 Ben Amos

3 Patrice Evra

5 Rio Ferdinand

6 Johnny Evans

12 Chris Smalling

13 Ji-Sung Park

22 Paul Scholes

16 Micheal Carrick

25 Antonio Valencia

9 Dimitar Berbatov (Goal/Penalty)

14 Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez (Goal/Penalty)