Manchester United climbed to the top of the table in the Barclays English Premier League after defeating Bolton 2-1 at Old Trafford. The defeat of Chelsea at Aston Villa means United get a 1 point advantage over the Blues.
The game started perfectly for United as they were a goal ahead within the opening 5 minutes. The game looked pretty much one sided once the home team had scored their second. Antonia Valencia netting his first goal in the Red shirt at the Theater of Dreams.
After scoring 2 goals, Manchester United were looking very comfortable as they kept winning possession and troubling the Bolton defense. But Jussi Jaaskelainen was in terrific form as he made a series of brilliant saves. And that resulted in winning a lot of corners for United. It was sad to see that United could not score a single goal from more than 5 corner kicks.
I felt Man Utd got a bit complacent towards the end and that's when Bolton picked up there chance. Matt Taylor scored with a header and the last 15 minutes were interesting as Bolton tried to snatch an equalizer while the home team tried to seal the game with another goal. But it was 2 -1 to Manchester United.
Today's game saw the return of Edwin van der Sar in United goal and Michael Owen starting with Berbatov upfront due to the absence of Wayne Rooney. To be frank, Owen never looked in great form and failed to deliver the same performance that helped United win the Manchester Derby last month.
This win and Chelsea's defeat at Villa Park means the Red Devils comfortably sit at the top of the table. But the comfort level is very narrow as they lead the Blues by only one point and if United doesn't improve soon, then I feel we might lose the lead. Teams like Arsenal, Spurs, Villa and City are making the competition tough with back to back victories and that should really trigger Man Utd to show their real class to lift the premier league for the fourth consecutive time.
