24 hours later, watched the game twice all the way through and I am still in a state of disbelief at actually breaking a 26 year old hoodoo at Old Trafford and for our only 3rd win in Premier league history.

I had the pleasure of watching the game live in a pub with a mate and it seemed from all the fans gathered round there was a strange sense of confidence that this would be our time at last 8 months after being cheated at Old Trafford. As the game wore on and apart from a few scares it became clear that the defence were playing brilliantly, Friedel had little do apart from one awesome save and when Collins came on this feeling was only strengthened.

Why did we win there and it was actually comfortable for an away team. In fact why has our form picked up, there is a few factors of course but the introduction of Downing if not only for the last two games has given us a new dimension we did have before. Of course the obvious point is that it allowed us to move Milner
inside and means that Young in theory can not be double marked.

Along with the fact Downing keeps and retains the ball very well it has allowed Petrov to play the more natural role of distributor knowing that he is in a midfielder full of very good ball playing forwards. This in turn has led to us ‘lumping’ the ball far less and playing to Gabby’s and Heskey’s strengths of being fed balls to feet and taking the pressure off from then.

This game was the start of a very tough run and by the end of the Liverpool game at the end of December if we are still in 4th place then it is on. The key is whether we do not have the usual slump in the early part of the year, the season is shaping up very well.