Tuesday 27 January 2009

New Mark

Stall: History is his story.
5-0. Set. The result for last night match against West Brom has several story to tell about. And the greatest is about Man United set up a new record for longest clean sheet in Premier League. They broke Chelsea's 1025 minutes without conceding a single goal during 2004-2005 season, where they claimed the memorable title under new man Jose Mourinho. But that was in the past. And now, Man United, holding the longest clean sheet in 11 successive matches, are favourite to defend their title for the third time.

There is also great story about the man between the post itself. Edwin Van Der Sar is the favourite for golden glove this season with 15 clean sheet, 11 in successive. It is a great for the big man, to have the peakest of his career towards the end. Undoubtfully, he is a fantastic goalkeeper. You are a great one to be consider as successor for legendary giant Danish Peter Schmeichel, as the man himself spoke personally to Sir Alex Ferguson about signing Van Der Sar several times.

It is another great story to hold a record in anything related with clean sheet, as it is harder than goalscoring. You can score a few goals in a match to increase your tally, but for clean sheet, once you conceded any minute in the 90-minute, you have to wait for next match. And to hold on without conceding,(the last man to ever score against Van Der Sar in Premiership was Samir Nasri when Arsenal beat Man United at Emirates,2-1), is something unbelieveable.

Nemanja Vidic is another indispensible member during the record-breaking period. He involved in all 11 matches, and his contribution was amazing. Whether it is Ferdinand, Evans or even Neville, he did the giant works brilliantly. United also holding the record with story about the back four. For several occasions, they are not the first-choice back four, due to injuries and suspension. Rafael, a Brazilian 18-years-old teenager also is a story, until he picked up his injury. The emergence of young Johny Evans also make absence of Rio Ferdinand seems forgotten, and also until his injury.

In a meantime, United created the record with a unique goalscoring. They started their run of clean sheet with 5-0 win over Stoke City, and the record broke with the same score, at West Brom. Amazing? But along the period, they never score more than a single goal! Wins over Manchester rival City, Sunderland, Stoke, Middlesborough, Wigan and Bolton all with single goal. It was only memorable win over Chelsea where Man United won with 3 goals.

And unarguably, Man United are leading for the title chase, with Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa throwing themselves in the hat for title hunt. Yes, Aston Villa!

Stall: Malaysia?