Thought that was almost the perfect away performance on Monday, tactically Moyes was superb in every department. And when the inventiveness and ingenuity of the players needed to be called upon, they provided. It's the sign of a good performance when you have several man of the match contenders and it was true of this game; personally, Jagielka, Carsley, Yakubu and Cahill were our stars last night. That isnt to say the others had bad games by any means, its just they werent as impressive as the others were (all 9/10s in my book). Osman, Yobo, Howard, Lescott, Hibbert they were all great and didnt put a foot wrong. Pienaar kept the ball moving superbly, what a player he is turning out to be, and even Neville played well (!)
To be a good manager you need to make bold decisions - leaving Andy Johnson out, despite the protestations of many fans, was an excellent decision. 4-5-1 suits us perfectly and this is no denying that it provides a great platform to play our best football. Yakubu gave a master class in forward play and terrorised two of what I thought were the best centrebacks in the business. The first goal, the neat 1-2 between Yakubu and Cahill was excellent. And Carlsey's cross for the 2nd was a peach.
Before this match I always believed we could win, but never thought we could contain them and dominate the match throughout with such ease and familiarity. Familiar, in a sense that we have become accustomed to dealing with teams like this away from home. I can recall similar performances at West Ham (0-2), Nuremburg (0-2), Brann (0-2), Middlesbrough (0-2) and Spurs (1-3). Before Monday I didnt think it possible, but now I am convinced: we CAN finish 4th.
We have built our success on a literally superb defence (Lescott, Yobo and Jagielka were once again a highly proffesional outfit at the back), an interchangeable and creative midfield (the runs of Pienaar, Cahill and Osman, supplied with Artetas creativity and Carsley in the holding role, has been an excellent combination), and one of the Premiership's best centre forwards: the Yak. We have done this kind of proffesional job, not to an average Norweigan side like last week, but one of this season's best English club, who have done the double over United, and were one of our main rivals for the Champions League. We dismantled them. Why can't we do the same to Liverpool in a month's time? I leave you with that thought.
The Anfield Derby win is well within our current ability.