Manchester United Dugout

With many of the senior players missing through injuries, Sir Alex had a big challenge when he entertained Tottenham at The Theatre of Dreams. But he kept his promise and we saw youngsters like Fabio and Welbeck in the starting eleven.

The match started on a worst possible way for United as Roman Pavlyuchenko's early opener stunned everyone. Nemanja Vidic got himself in a muddle and allowed Pavlyuchenko to give him the slip and turn home a deft header to give an early lead for the Londoners. But United were always in the game as they moved freely around the park, until they leveled through Paul Scholes.

Carrick spotted Scholes lurking with menace on the edge of the box and coolly rolled a corner into the veteran's path. The shot was pretty fierce and once it had flicked off Tom Huddlestone, Ben Alnwick did not have a hope of keeping it out. Within a minute Carrick floated a pass over the Spurs defence and the ball landed with Berbatov. Berbatov's first-time control was awesome. His second touch was a precise shot into the bottom corner that again left Alnwick flailing. That was it, United had done it. Now they were set to remain on track for an unprecedented quadruple after reaching the last 16 of the FA Cup.

What impressed me in this match was the way Carrick got so much space to play. He has been a very important player in Sir Alex's team. Just in the blink of an eye, he transformed the tie in United's favor. But the game saw some more injury woes as Fabio collapsed in agony in the early moments of the second period after he had landed awkwardly following an aerial duel with Spurs substitute Giovani dos Santos. Welbeck too joined the injured list late in the game.