Yesterday, Ryan Giggs powered the ball in to the six yard box, hit at such pace that James Collins didn’t have time to get out of the way, which allowed the ball to bounce off him and beat the excellent Brad Friedel.
Lucky Manchester United, was the conclusion.
Before yesterday, Aston Villa had conceded fewer goals at home than any other team in the Premiership, letting in just 7 goals in 12 games.
With over an hour to play, United went down to ten men. The manager has conceded that Nani deserved to go, but when you compare it with the unpunished horror foul from William Gallas a few weeks ago, it was nothing.
Regardless, whether it should have been a red card or not, it matters little now seeing as though it was given. Still, United went on to have 52% possession of the ball, 3 shots on target to their 2, 7 shots off target to their 5, and 7 corners to their 1. All this away from home, with ten men for over an hour, at the ground with the fewest goals conceded all season.
Darren Fletcher has spoken against the claims of us being lucky, pointing to the fact if you spend a lot of time in the opposition’s box, as we do, deflections and own goals will happen.
“The own goals come from putting teams under pressure,” said Fletcher. “If you put the ball into the right areas, it is difficult to defend. When you look at all these own goals there is always a United player coming in behind them who could easily tap the ball into the net. If we can put the ball between the goalkeeper and the defence and one of your players can get on it, great. But it certainly causes problems for defenders and fortunately for us, they have been knocking them into their own net.”
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