Man United have moved level on points with Chelsea after beating Wolves 3-0 at Old Trafford. Wolves manager Mick McCarthy made 10 changes from the team who beat Tottenham 1-0 at the weekend. Man United were without Wes Brown who has picked up another injury that meant that Michael Carrick was back in defence.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s 900th League game in charge of Man United was fairly uneventful. Wolves rarely threatened on goal, I can only remember one great opportunity for them. Man United themselves were hardly at their best but a win is a win and we bagged all three points.
Man United starting XI- Tomasz Kuszczak, Ritchie De Laet, Michael Carrick, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Antonio Valencia, Paul Scholes, Darron Gibson, Gabriel Obertan, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov.
Wolves managed to shut United out for half an hour. It was starting to look like it could be a frustrating night. Rooney was firing straight at goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann, he also had a deflected shot fall just wide of the post.
On the half hour mark, Ronald Zubar handled the ball from Gibson’s corner and a penalty was awarded to Man United. Rooney stepped up and coolly hit it past Hahnemann.
United did have another few chances before halftime, one of which saw Vidic volley the ball over the bar. Vidic made up for that missed volley when he headed the ball into the back of the net from another Gibson corner.
The second half was slightly more lively, but not much. Wolves best chance to get something in the game fell to George Friend who blazed the ball over from 12-yards out.
60 minutes in and it looked like Sir Alex Ferguson brought off Vidic to protect him from getting injured. Darren Fletcher was brought on. The last thing we need is another defender getting injured again, we have just had Brown back and he is injured again.
Man United’s third goal came in the 66th minute thanks to some great play by Berbatov. He was passed the ball down the right side of the penalty area, he then flicked the ball over his head and into Valencia’s direction. Valencia only had to smash the ball past Hahnemann.
With 20 minutes to go Danny Welbeck was brought on for Obertan. Michael Owen replaced Rooney with 15 minutes left on the clock. Welbeck, Gibson and Evra all had shots at goal before the fulltime whistle went, they were either saved by Hahnemann or blasted over.
The game finished 3-0 to Man United. It was a very tepid game, Man United had plenty of possession and there was only ever going to be one winner.
The stats showed that United had 61% of the possession. We also had 10 shots on target compared to Wolves one. United and Wolves both had three attempts off target. Finally, Man United had eight corners and Wolves had three.
