EVEN when we said last week that we hoped that the action on the pitch during the Manchester United game would overshadow Wayne Rooney’s recreational activities, no one in their wildest dreams could have foreseen how dramatic the football would turn out.
Clearly Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to rest his star striker helped defuse the situation, and only the United manager really knows whether that was to send a message to the player himself or, indeed, to spare him from a certain amount of ribbing from the crowd.
As it turned out, Dimitar Berbatov played a blinder anyway, and suggestions that United would have definitely triumphed if Rooney had been included were tempered by his performance against an extremely limited Rangers side in midweek.
As for Everton, it’s hard to know what to take from last Saturday’s encounter.
At times, especially in the first half, the Blues threatened to repeat last season’s performance against United and completely steamroller them, and the incredible injury-time finale was a testament to this side’s fighting spirit. However, for all the drama and the fact that we once again proved a match for one of the top sides in Europe, some familiar, critical failings were also underlined.
