But he did have this to say in a stout self-defence:

Berbatov has scored only four goals in 18 matches in all competitions for United this season and missed two inviting chances late on against Villa, but the Bulgaria forward has defended his form. “I try not to pay attention [to what some people say] because you’re always going to get people who say white is black,” he said.

“I read a book recently and it started by saying, ‘Unless they have beauty and grace in them, they’re powerless to act’, so that stuck in mind because I like to play with beauty, with grace … I don’t like to show emotion sometimes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love the game.”

Well, what else can I say other than “பெயில் ஆகறதுக்கு இப்புடி ஒரு பிட்டா?”

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Il Capitano, Paolo Maldini, the greatest footballer ever

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Video highlights will follow.

Of the three goals United scored tonight, my favorite is the third where Park and Rooney combined brilliantly to set up Ronaldo to complete a move that he had started with a deft back heel. It reminded me of a very similar goal that Rooney and Ronaldo scored a couple of seasons ago against Bolton. It remains one of the best goals of the end-to-end quick counter-attack variety that I’ve seen.

The quality of this video is poor. I couldn’t find a better one.

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A year ago, this same day, slightly before 8 PM in Manchester, Paul Scholes unleashed a trademark powerful drive from his right foot from about 25 yards out towards the East Stand goal at Old Trafford. This fantabulous strike past a despairing Victor Valdes and into the top right corner was that one moment of magic that the champions of England needed to propel them one step closer to (eventual) European glory – a place in the final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

I have watched the video of this goal many hundred times, and each time, Paul Scholes climbs a notch higher in my estimation. The commentary was very good, and probably as a consequence of having watched this so many times, I’ve almost internalized it. Here are those “golden” words, describing that once-in-a-lifetime moment:

“Carrick… Ferdinand… first touch a little heavy… it will run though to Cristiano Ronaldo, and he will run at Barcelona… steps past Toure, but not past Zambrotta (and here, as Zambrotta’s half-clearance is being closed in upon by a galloping Paul Scholes, you can hear Old Trafford buzz increasingly in anticipation as Scholes readies to connect)… given straight to Paul SchOLESSSSSSSSSS! (here, the crowd crescendoes) WHAT ABOUT THAT! W-H-A-T ABOUT THAT! Fourteen minutes gone… breakthrough for Manchester United… an U-N-S-T-O-P-P-A-B-L-E shot from P-A-U-L Scholes!”

Here is the video. A great night. A great player.

* It is a measure of how desperate Rijkaard and Barcelona were to win / score that night that all three of Barcelona’s substitutions were strikers — Thierry Henry, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Bojan Krkic.

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Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur

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The goal was doubtless beautiful. In the heat of the moment, one might even be tempted to describe it as the goal of the season. But such chest-beating is just a waste of time. Macheda’s goal is important not just because it spared United the ignominy of spending a week trailing Liverpool in the league table, but because it is potentially their first step out of the abyss that they have been languishing in since mid-March.

During that period, United have channeled their inner Liverpool by hitting the self-destruct button when they should simply have launched themselves out of such tellurian considerations as retaining their Premier League title into plotting to winning the Quintuple. To Liverpool’s credit, they channeled their inner Manchester United during the same period, banging in 13 goals in three games and yesterday jumping past United with a victory at Craven Cottage. So when United found themselves 2-1 down today and largely toothless, even the faithful would have doubted a comeback with just ten minutes and change remaining. But United being United rediscovered their true selves first through a left-footed strike from Ronaldo and then this wonderstrike from the 17-year old kid from Rome.

Fans of lesser teams would no doubt cast this as a lucky victory, for Villa were the better side for most of the game. The latter part of the previous sentence is unquestionable, but that is how championships are won – when teams eke out draws and wins in matches that were seemingly irretrievable. Just ask Chelsea. I don’t blame those doubters though. After all, when your teams win a trophy once every few years, or worse yet, you cannot recall when they last won anything worth winning, you are so far removed from what is quotidian in these parts.

Survival, though not a word used frequently in Mancunia, has been the motto of the past few weeks. Now is the time to resume normal service, to shift gears and power past Porto and Sunderland. Not even United can afford another slip up.

Update

Video highlights from the game. You can watch Macheda’s goal towards the end of the video — in the 11th minute. Watching it again, I think United should have won 4-2. That goal must have counted as two.

Manchester United 3 – 2 Aston Villa

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Good read from The Times: How Shankly helped the rise of United.

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And now, just like they booted a manager during the previous season, Chelski have shown the World Cup winner the door. The familiar names are back again in the reckoning – Roberto Mancini, Frank Rijkaard, Guus Hiddink, and even Jose Mourinho.

The truth is, and Sir Alex Ferguson captured it well earlier this season, that Chelsea’s core team is probably over the hill. Any of these names will need time to fix this problem. And it doesn’t seem as if Roman Abramovich, who kicked out Avram Grant, who came within one penalty kick of lifting the Champions League, rather mercilessly, has the patience — the most important currency he can offer a top manager as the latter tries to engineer a turnaround.

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One can easily notice two mini-leagues in any league table, oftentimes three. The top three or four clubs race away from the pack; there won’t be much that separates the next six or eight teams, and the rest are fighting to avoid relegation.

This season’s Premier League is remarkable in that when divided broadly, the first six teams, as against the usual Big Four, can be taken as one mini-league. Of course, Man United, potentially on 59 points, are almost 20 points ahead of Everton at sixth. Clearly though, United are battling in a two-team league involving themselves and Liverpool, but there isn’t much daylight between Liverpool and Aston Villa, and Villa and Chelsea. The bottom 14 teams are only separated by 12 points, which makes the dogfight to avoid the drop even more interesting. A couple of wins for West Brom, combined with favorable results, can propel them into the zone of assumed safety.

The Primera Liga though is fascinating in a peculiar way. If one used the metric defined above, one will find three mini-leagues, but then they are: Barcelona (with 59 points) in a league of one, second-placed Real Madrid (with 48 points) in a league of one, and the other 18 teams playing in their own league. Stats don’t lie. Barca’s goal difference of 52 (68F; 16A) is just short of that of the next 5 teams put together, or three times Real’s.

In a way the gulf in class between the teams competing in a league is an indicator of how entertaining it is. Apologists for the Liga do not have much to offer other than the sublime skills of Leo Messi or the occasional great save that Casillas pulls off. While the  best of the Premier League compares about the same with the best of the Liga, beyond the top two, the Liga cannot be claimed as engaging when the top two are not playing, and not as competitive even when they are playing one of the bottom-half sides. The same however cannot be said of the Premier League. Which closes shut the argument about the best football league in the world.

(The apologists don’t stop there. They claim that Everton cannot match Sevilla or Valencia in Europe, so the Liga is better. Wake up. You are lumping the top four teams in England together, and your answer for that is only the top two teams in Spain. And given Real’s dismal European exits over the past so many seasons, Spain’s adventures in Europe are limited to those of one club from Catalonia.)

However, one cannot fault Barcelona for the incompetence of the rest. Not even a fool can gainsay that a club that averages three goals every game is ordinary. A couple of years ago, when Roger Federer was the master of all he surveyed, the familiar argument was to decide if he was indeed the greatest tennis player ever. Inconclusive as such arguments always turn out to be, they also generated an important takeaway, namely other comparable greats — Pete Sampras, for example —  had to overcome much more formidable opponents.

And so it is, the truth of whether Barcelona are indeed the best team in Europe will only be known when they clash with the Premier League’s heavyweights in the Champions League. Whatever the result of those titanic tussles might be, Barca’s prowess alone does not make the Primera Liga the best. The more competitive English Premier League remains the greatest show on earth.

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Update:

The goal from Giggs reminds me of some from the George Best collection, where he twists, turns, swerves and bamboozles defenders. Sir Alex Ferguson in an interview last week thought that Giggs deserves a knighthood solely for his longevity – almost 20 years in the starting lineup at United, 800 games and 150 goals, ten Premier League medals, closing in on 11, in addition to a couple of Champions League medals and numerous FA Cup and League Cup victories thrown in. Well, if this goal doesn’t catalyze that process, I fail to see what will.

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Manchester United have been swashbuckling ever since I wrote a draft entitled “WTF is wrong at United?” It is still unpublished, and I hope I won’t ever need to publish it. If they win tomorrow against Everton (who might be without Cahill and Fellaini), and Liverpool and Chelsea cancel out each other, United would be firmly in the driver’s seat to make it a hat-trick of League titles.

Simon Barnes has this fantastic piece in The Times on why ruthlessness is the most important characteristic in sport. A really good read.

… every victory in sport is based on a willingness – an eagerness – to see the other guys lose. Victory in sport has its basis in a readiness to cause disappointment, suffering, pain and, yes, humiliation. This is not entirely admirable, it must be admitted, but the fine and admirable things we find in sport would not be possible without it.

Baron de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, had other ideas. For him, sport was a religion, a source of inner improvement. Sport for him was a meeting between the body and the soul. Up to a point, Baron. Sport can showcase and even encourage great virtues, but it can do a great many more things as well.

… victory in sport doesn’t go to the most virtuous contestant. It goes to the best player, the best team, the one that had the luck, the right decisions, the strength, the speed, the bloody-mindedness. We like to think that the good guys win, especially when they’re England or British or they are a team or an individual we have an interest in.

But sport doesn’t reward virtue. Virtuous people sometimes win, but never because of their virtuousness. Nasty people sometimes lose, but not as a punishment for their nastiness. Sport is not a morality play… there is a sense in which the quest for achievement acquires its own morality. If you look too long at sport, you find yourself seeing such things as obsessive preparation, narrowness of vision, uncompromising competitiveness, willingness to cause misery and a taste for playing the flat-track bully as virtues in themselves.

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Rafael Da Silva, the young Brazilian right-back, has already been one of the finds of the season for United, so much so that injuries to Gary Neville and Wes Brown have hardly caused Sir Alex Ferguson a headache. Rafael’s brilliance and maturity defies his age, and as an attacking wingback in the Neville mold, he has, through his performances, already led many to conclude that he can make the right-back position at United his own for years to come.

But today’s find was Fabio Da Silva, Rafael’s twin brother, who made his senior debut for the club, filling in for the injured Patrice Evra. To claim that Fabio was outstanding would be an understatement. He outshone Cristiano Ronaldo on the left flank today, and the World Footballer of the Year would have been pleased to note that the precocious Brazilian teenager wasn’t playing against him. Just ask Chris Gunter who was overrun time and again by young Fabio today.

It might be too early to say this, but my bet is that the Da Silvas are the next Nevilles at United.

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The fireworks do not end there.

Liverpool have drawn Real Madrid. Given Pool’s formidable record in the Champions League under Rafael Benitez, and Real’s dismal performances in the same period, I would put my money on the English team. Can Ramos work juanders?

There are two other Anglo-Italian clashes. Arsenal v/s Roma; and Chelsea v/s Juventus. It seems like a million years since AS Roma drew a team other than United. In any case, I don’t see them progressing past the Gunners. The Chelsea-Juve tie should be a fascinating contest. The team from Turin have been absent from Europe’s top club competition for some years, while Chelsea have made it to (or past) the semis in 3 of the past 4 seasons. Tough one, but I think Chelsea might prevail.

Barcelona take on Lyon. Barca under Guardiola are seem the best team in Europe at the moment, so they should make light work of the French champions. I expect Villareal, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid to reach the quarterfinals, edging out Panathinaikos, Sporting and Porto in their respective ties.

What are your picks? Who do you think will progress?

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Redknapp’s arrival though has turned fortunes around at White Hart Lane. And today’s win over league leaders Liverpool makes it 7 points out of a possible 9 under the new manager. Belief is key to victory, and Spurs seem to be finding their feet.

The loss for Liverpool is good news for Manchester United, who are within 5 points of the top two, and with a game in hand. United though made it tough for themselves allowing Hull City to come back within striking distance after leading the visitors 4-1. While the Red Devils did win the points, the manner in which they won it raises doubts if they are up to the task of making it a hat-trick of Premier League crowns.

And Chelsea’s form is cause for concern at Old Trafford. The Blues romped home 5-0 against Roy Keane’s Sunderland. Poor is an inadequate adjective to describe the Wearsiders; abysmal sounds just about appropriate for a side that has stuttered in their aims to break into the top half of the Premiership. This could be another long season for Sunderland, as the relegation battle looms large.

Arsenal, who could only manage a draw in their midweek derby against Tottenham (4-4, after leading 4-2 with just two minutes to go), continued their poor streak with a loss to Stoke. Given Chelsea’s form, Liverpool’s ability to win games and Man United’s resurgence, it seems doubtful if the Gunners will be able to mount a serious challenge for the Premiership.

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My friend Eshwar popped up on Google Talk, and I asked him to hold on for a couple of minutes till the spectacle ended. He was following it on BBC’s website. At 4-4, John Terry stepped up to take Chelsea’s final penalty kick. If Terry converted his penalty, Chelsea would have taken home the crown.

Eshwar typed in “it’s over”. Apparently BBC had reported on its website that Chelsea had won, that Terry had sealed it. But that smart aleck at BBC, with all due respects, forgot a simple lesson in football – “Never count United out!”

Terry missed. And Moscow was painted red!

Never, ever count them out!

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