United Make City Wait to be Great

Man City, for all the riches, for all the stars, for every precious silver lock on Roberto Mancini’s head simply cannot outdo their fierce rivals on the pitch. Back in Mark Hughes’ honeymoon period at the beginning of the season, Michael Owen ensured United remained the top dogs in Manchester (for the time at least) and a certain Wayne Rooney last night made certain the new man at Eastlands knew his place as number two.

City have beaten United plenty of times in recent years so there’s no trouble on that front, the problem lies in the fact they haven’t won a trophy in 34 years. United may just have effectively added another year. In the first leg, Carlos Tevez was the difference between the sides in a pulsating encounter. In the second, England’s top hit man Rooney kept the pecking order as we know it. Wayne Rooney, 3-1

At 2-1 down, United knew exactly what they had to do to get to Wembley this year. It took them until the second, but they did it. Or so they thought. Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick scored one each in a 20 minute spell that saw the tie completely turned on its head but the pumped up United crowd weren’t able to mentally map out that long trip down to the capital just yet thanks to the hero of the first encounter, Tevez. The Argentine cleverly flicked the ball home 5 minutes after Carrick’s would-be winner to level the aggregate score again at 3-3. Just when extra time looked like it was required to potentially settle this particular Manchester-on-Manchester score, the man of the moment, United’s man of many moments (the man who could well be sold to settle the clubs turbulent financial predicament) stepped up and nodded the ball home to at last book their place against Villa. It was his fifth goal of a vintage week. The Scouse scorer helped himself to all four in United’s rout of Hull at the weekend and continued his fine form with this all important winner. Heaven help any side facing Sir Alex’s men in the coming games.

The Carling Cup has been inexplicably excellent this year, but City will certainly feel that another trophy – and another year – has passed them by. The Premiership title is hardly a possibility so for Roberto’s superstars, and every fan in Blue, the wait continues.

In other news…

Just like earlier this year, the transfer window has provided no real excitement. Virtually nothing has happened. A past-his-best Viera will now ply his trade at Eastlands while unhappy Robinho joins Santos on loan. The best ‘really?’ moment the clubs of the world have managed is ‘Psycho’ Sol Campbell moving back to Arsenal. Jammy git. He’s come a long way in a short space of time: Notts County v Morecombe one minute, starting place for the Gunners the next. This is a really bad move for the club and one I can’t help but ask why. Against Stoke on Sunday, the aging centre back looked a tall streak of bum-piss and a far cry from the consummate defender of his prime. Why would Arsene bother resigning this chump instead of finding a couple of decent men for his often leaky backline? Oh right… the old media tit-bit – ‘experience’. Alex McLeish has been spending a bit of his pocket money and brought in some womanly named Míchel from sporting Gijon. Great. Controversial forward - sorry big steaming tosspot - Amr Zaki is on Humberside on load for the remainder of the season while young Chris Smalling has left Fulham for United for a healthy £7million. Owen Coyle’s new Bolton policy seems to be ‘loan, loan, loan’ with Yank Stuart Holden and Slovak Vladimir Weiss joining until the season end. Also expect a raid on Burnley before February comes. Chelsea have done buggery, Everton have got Senderos and Donovan until the summer while Lucas Neil and Jo (actually still a Man City player) find themselves in the heat of Turkey. Old man Maxi Rodriguez is now a Liverpool player, Tottenham will probably have six or seven new players soon even though Harry’s been told to bloody stop it by Mr. Chairman while West Ham and their new owners attempt to sign every footballer with a pulse. Last I heard, £100,000 a week was heading its way into Ruud van Nistlerooy’s bank account but I doubt the Dutchman will be coming to Upton Park anytime soon.