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Manchester United 4 Wigan Athletic 0 – A disaster rerun

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Match Reports, News, Other and tagged with , , , , , ,

At times the second half of this  match seemed like a rerun of those intermittent disasters that we have witnessed  over the past three years. Playing at Old Trafford after an international break; against a team keen to get revenge after the 1-0 result in April; with a weak referee — all these factors appeared a recipe for disaster. And so it proved.

Antolin Alcaraz had been ruled out of consideration due of injury, so Latics put out the same lineup that played against Stoke two weeks ago — Ramis, Caldwell and Figueroa comprising the back three.

Whenever Wigan Athletic play at Old Trafford one almost expects penalties and red cards to flow. The penalty only took three minutes to come, Welbeck faking contact  as Al Habsi challenged. The Omani keeper made a good save from Hernandez’s penalty, Figueroa doing well to stop Nani taking advantage from the rebound. Latics continued to be put under pressure but managed to make some headway. Ramis headed narrowly wide and a cross from Beausejour found its way to Kone at the far post but he was unable to get his shot on target. It was to be 0-0 at half time and United had begun to look a little frustrated.

As is often the case it was the first goal that changed the match irreversibly. It came in the 51st minute. Nani was put through by a beautiful ball by Carrick, delivering  the kind of  low cross-shot that goalkeepers hate. It was fumbled by Al Habsi, the ball falling to the feet of Scholes who scored easily.

United’s debutant full back, Buttner, seemed to have the freedom of the park on Wigan’s right. He miscued a shot in the 63rd minute but it went straight to Hernandez who put it in. Buttner had been played onside by Boyce, who had failed to get in line with his defence. United’s new signing was to have even more fortune in the 66th minute after he made a determined run past Boyce, McCarthy and Ramis to get to the by line. The normally excellent  Al Habsi will have nightmares over the way he fluffed Buttner’s shot, allowing it to go in from such a tight angle. The rout was to be completed in the 82nd minute when McCarthy made a casual pass across the edge of the penalty box to Ramis, who just did not react. The ball was picked up by the debutant Powell, who had all the time in the world to put in a good shot from outside the box to Al Habsi’s right. On a good day one sensed that the Omani would have saved it.

In the last 3 minutes Welbeck made an appalling “red card’ tackle on Di Santo. Unfortunately, justice was not done and he received a yellow. It was fortunate that the young Argentinian was not seriously injured by the tackle. The Argentine had also been clattered from behind in the box earlier in the second half, but not penalty was given.

The Good

Despite an horrendous penalty decision against them in the first three minutes Latics held firm during the first half. They managed to keep their discipline and spirit despite refereeing that consistently favoured the home side. Some of Paul Scholes’ tackling during the game has subsequently been described as “thunderous” by certain elements of the media. “Dangerous” might be a more appropriate word.

In the end, each team received two yellow cards. One feared worse for Wigan.

The Bad

All four goals were gifts. Once that first goal went in the match was only going to head in one direction. Latics looked tired and bedraggled in the second half.

From a Wigan Athletic supporter’s point of view this was a match best forgotten. Let’s keep the faith and look forward to a fresh start against Fulham at the DW this coming weekend.

Player Ratings

Ali Al Habsi: 5 – a terrific penalty save, but not a good afternoon for the normally excellent keeper.

Emmerson Boyce: 5 – despite a wonderful jinking run and effort in the first half, it was an afternoon to forget for this player who has been a revelation over the past months.

Ivan Ramis: 5 – together with Boyce, was unable to stem the flow of opposition attacks on the right hand side of defence.

Gary Caldwell: 5 – not up to his usual high standard.

Maynor Figueroa: 6 – the best of an overrun backline.

Jean Beausejour: 6 – played some dangerous crosses into the box but did not look fully fit and went off after 69 minutes to be replaced by David Jones.

James McCarthy: 5 – the Jimmy Macs were unable to wrest the midfield initiative from the experienced United trio of Carrick, Giggs and Scholes. Both gave the ball away on occasion a little too casually.

James McArthur – see above.

Shaun Maloney: 5 – taken off after 59 minutes for Jordi Gomez.

Franco Di Santo: 7 – worked hard and never gave up.

Arouna Kone: 5 – his first half chance was not easy, but it would have changed the game if he had taken it.

Substitutes

Jordi Gomez – ineffective.

David Jones – once more failed to impress after coming on for the last 20 minutes.

Wigan Athletic 0 Chelsea 2: Fatal five minutes mask a promising display

Posted by Ned in Match Reports, News, Other and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

There was a time, not long ago, when conceding two goals in the first few minutes against a top six side almost guaranteed a hammering. Indeed, Chelsea have inflicted two such high-scoring morale wreckers in the last three years. Say what you will about the first five minutes in yesterday’s season opener, this team is lights years ahead of where it was, even a single year ago.

If you’d picked up the match seven minutes in (and ignored the scoreboard), you would have witnessed a pleasing first-half display of cultured possession football. Crosses were flying in from both sides of the pitch, Victor Moses was enjoying himself, the midfield looked comfortable, and but for a heavy first touch, Di Santo might have scored.

Unfortunately, as Roberto did in his post-match interviews, we must acknowledge those hapless opening exchanges. The match had barely gotten underway when Eden Hazard skilfully — but all too easily — turned Ivan Ramis near the midfield circle and found Branislav Ivanovic with a perfect through ball down the right wing. Chased by Figueroa, who was playing at left wing-back rather than his customary left centre-back position due to an injury to Jean Beausejour, the Chelsea fullback finished coolly past Al-Habsi to make it 1-0. Moments later, Chelsea’s marquee summer signing was causing panic once again, tempting Ramis into a lunge in the penalty box. Referee Mike Jones pointed to the spot and Frank Lampard rarely misses.

It was a tough start for the Spanish centre-back, who is not only adapting to a new country and culture, but a new tactical system with three centre-backs, and faster pace of play. All only a week or so after joining the club, and against the defending European Champions. Midfielders and strikers often get the benefit of being given 15-20 minutes at the end of the match to bed in, as new Ivorian striker Arouna Koné did later on. For Ramis, it was straight into the fire. But he improved as the game went on, and indeed cleared off the line brilliantly to deny Fernando Torres a second-half goal. Despite the mistakes — which were not characteristic of his game in Spain — he showed enough to suggest that once adapted, he will be a good addition.

Jean Beausejour missed his first match through injury since signing for the club in January. In his place, Maynor Figueroa performed well enough to suggest we now have cover, not only for the three centre-back positions, but for the wing-backs on both sides as well. Emmerson Boyce, down the right, was great and just seems to get better with age.

Much of Wigan’s momentum was lost when Shaun Maloney had to be withdrawn with a groin injury early in the second half. Roberto has since admitted both Maloney and MacArthur were taken off with little niggles as a precaution rather than due to serious injuries. Jordi Gomez, Maloney’s replacement, drew fouls and got himself in good positions, but ultimately failed with his finishing. Ben Watson, on for MacArthur, looked a little rusty but is a fine option from the bench. Neither of them filled the void left by Maloney, who along with Moses, has become our creative spark.

Things started to turn Chelsea’s way and a third goal looked likely. But some exciting end-to-end stuff produced Ramis’ aforementioned goal-line clearance and a surging Victor Moses run and cross down the other end. By then Arouna Koné had come on for his Wigan debut, and showed great promise with a trio of decent half-chances. He immediately appeared to have what Di Santo lacks — the movement and instincts necessary to know where to be when a cross comes into the box. Di Santo has just about everything else, but seldom gets on the end of crosses to head, poke, prod, or hammer home.

Wigan finished the match in the ascendancy and were quite unlucky not to emerge goalless. The usual questions will emerge about profligacy in front of goal, but Chelsea won the Champions League on the back of excellent defending (and a healthy slice of luck). They are not easy to break down.

All things considered, this was an encouraging performance. News outlets have of course focused on Hazard and Chelsea’s exciting new strikeforce, but Latics enjoyed more possession, created 15 goal attempts to Chelsea’s six, seven corners to the visitors’ one. The boys played in much the same way they ended last season — minus the defensive intensity in those first few minutes — and the news signings got a game under their belts.

Southampton promises to be a tricky fixture after their near-miss at the Etihad on Sunday. But if we play the way we did for 80 minutes, we’ll be in with a good chance to notch our first points of the season. Stay tuned for The Good, The Bad and Player Ratings, coming soon.