So it's back to normal after the long international break which thankfully saw England confirm their qualification for next year's World Cup in Germany. Today's challenge for Manchester United, as we look to continue building a decent run of form, is a journey across England to the North East to face struggling new boys Sunderland.
Continuing our recent tradition of fielding a different team every week, today's lineup features Edwin van der Sar in goal, a back four of Barsdsley-Ferdinand-Silvestre-O'Shea (Bardsley is in because of Richardson's injury), an attacking midfield of Park-Smith-Scholes-Ronaldo with Rooney playing a free role behind van Nistelrooy. On the bench are Howard, Fletcher, Miller, Rossi and Pique. I presume Giggs is injured although nothing has been said by club or media.
For the record, Sunderland line up like this:- K Davis, N Nosworthy, G Breen, S Caldwell, J Hoyte, L Lawrence, D Whitehead, T Miller, A Welsh, S Elliott, A Gray and their subs are C Robinson, J Stead, B Alnwick, D Collins, A Le Tallec. Full squad details for them are here.
What's clear right from the start is that Sunderland, having not lost their last three games, are keen not to lose again and so defend deeply. I think it's going to take a while to break them down, even with the attacking lineup we have today.
Sure enough, things tend to bog down in midfield as Sunderland appear to be playing practically 5-4-1. Over 15 minutes have passed before the home team even try and look at the United penalty area but they never looked like scoring.
It carries on like that for what seems like forever until, with only a few minutes to half time, Ferdinand, who is playing better than of late, clears a rare Sunderland free kick and the ball reaches Rooney who steps forward and slams the ball into the corner of the net from close range. It's a GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL and 0-1 to United!
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