Bad Start For United And Rooney

It wasn’t the best of starts to the English Premiership for either Manchester United or Wayne Rooney.

The current Champions were held to a very frustrating 0 - 0 draw at Old Trafford by the surprise team of last season, Reading and it looks as though the Royals have started were they left off last season!

What made it even worse for United was that Reading were reduced to just 10 men and then to cap it all off, their England striker Rooney suffered a hairline fracture of his left foot. From memory, isn’t this the third foot injury Rooney has had now? And he’s still only 21! His mates call him “Lucky”!

The injury to Rooney looks like casting a huge shadow over the opening few weeks of the Premiership season for United. The fracture was sustained in a tackle from the Reading defender Michael Duberry towards the end of the first half. Rooney went straight to the hospital where a scan confirmed Utd’s worst fears.

Rooney knew something was seriously wrong.

It hasn’t been been revealed how long they think Rooney will be sidelined but it looks a certainty that this will also be a major setback for England and their crucial up coming Euro 2008 qualifiers.

The Man United manager Alex Ferguson is already without Louis Saha, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer through injury and the new signing Carlos Tevez isn’t properly match fit. It looks as though Tevez is going to have to shoulder a lot of work and responsibility in the coming weeks.

During the game at Old Trafford the home team did have most of the possession but failed to make any of it count against a Reading team that had a their stand in striker, Dave Kitson, sent off in the 72nd minutes. He’s only been on the pitch about a minute but obviously took an instant dislike to Patrice Evra and that was that!

After the game Ferguson conceded, “It just wasn’t our day. We created chances but we just didn’t take any of them.”

Elsewhere, Man Utd’s main rivals fared a lot better. Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard produced a classic free-kick with only minuted left at Villa Park to secure a well deserved victory against Aston Villa. It had looked a like the same old “away” story for the Merseyside who just a couple of minutes before looked like they were yet again going to rue all their missed chances when Jamie Carragher gave away a penalty for hand ball. To be fair there wasn’t much he could do about it but the travelling away fans must have thought, “Here we go again!” However, the stage was set for Gerrard to step up and place an unstoppable free-kick past a helpless Taylor in the Villa goal.

Meanwhile Chelsea opened their challenge to regain the title with a 3 - 2 win at home to newly promoted Birmingham City. Looking to wrest the title back from United, Chelsea took all thrre points with a late strike from Michael Essien. The victory set a record in the top flight of 64 unbeaten home games in a row. The run dating back to February 2004 and beat the previous record held by Liverpool which was recorded between February 1978 and January 1981.

Whilst Arsenal also produced a late winner to see off London rivals Fulham. However before that the game saw a goalkeeping howler from German Jens Lehmann in the Arsenal goal that gifted Fulham a first minute lead at the Emirates Stadium. Lehmann’s “clearance” handing a tap in on a plate to the Northern Ireland striker David Healy.

It was until the 83rd minute that Dutch striker van Persie gave Arsenal hope with a penalty which left the Belarus midfielder Hleb to become the hero with a 90th minute winner.

Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger must have been a relieved man and said after the game, “Better later than never! We were physically and mentally strong and didn’t give up. That kind of result can change a season for a team and certainly strengthen the belief.”

So this weekend’s action left Man Utd as the only one of the “big four” not to win on the opening day. Their three main rivals all got late winners and it will be interesting to see how all that went on at the weekend will effect each of the teams involved.

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Many thanks
Rik