Average Display Dismantles Pompey

It’s not very often a team can be average or even slightly below average and win a match 5-0 in the Premier League. It is even rarer that a team can score three goals while their opponents score only two, but still lose the game. But that is exactly what happened as Manchester United demolished a dreadful Portsmouth side which potted three goals in their own net. Portsmouth was one of the worst visiting sides I have ever seen at Old Trafford. From the onset Manchester United just didn’t look that threatening, but Portsmouth just could not clear the ball. Every time a Portsmouth defender won the ball he just booted it back to a Manchester United player and United launched another attack.

Manchester United actually did a poor job of creating chances and only had two shots on target all match, luckily for them both of these shots went in and so did three Portsmouth shots on their own net. Wayne Rooney had a surprisingly quiet game, but he still managed to score the opener. Berbatov scored a cracker of a goal and put in a decent shot, but was nothing too special. In the end Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick who are both on very good form at the moment were probably United’s top two performers.

Antonio Valencia played his first game in a while and was a little lackluster, but hopefully he will start to get some more appearances and emulate his form he had back in November and December. It is a little disappointing to see Valencia drop off a little since he did nothing wrong other than not being Nani over the past few weeks. Nani who scored the first goal was once again creative, explosive and the Nani that Manchester United bought in 2007. He has been a force over the last few weeks and a big reason why Wayne Rooney is on such stellar form. The service he has been getting from Nani has been second to none.

Manchester United weren’t close to spectacular, but a 5-0 win is always a reason to celebrate, especially when we are so close to the top of the league. We hit top form a little later than usual, but in the past four games our goal difference is +13. Which isn’t too shabby, so it looks like Manchester United could finally have turned the corner this season. Here’s to number nineteen at the end of May!