Manchester United Remain Unbeaten

Rafael da Silva

Manchester United main­tained their unbeaten record in the league this cam­paign as they drew 0–0 with Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur at White Hart Lane on Sunday. Sir Alex Ferguson´s team were reduced to ten play­ers with six­teen minutes remain­ing on the clock but the home side was unable to find the net as the solid and well organ­ised Manchester United defence man­aged to fight off everything that was thrown at them.

Tot­ten­ham went close already after ten minutes when a vol­ley from Peter Crouch flashed just a few inches past the near post. Shortly after Dim­itar Ber­batov found Wayne Rooney whose effort forced the goal­keeper into a fin­ger­tip save. Rafael da Silva then raised the tem­per­at­ure of the game even fur­ther as he was cau­tioned for the first time for a tough chal­lenge on Wilson Pala­cios in the 28th minute. Hard man repu­ta­tion secured, he went on to make a wild tackle later in the match that even­tu­ally saw him sent off. The hosts were play­ing with both con­fid­ence and pur­pose, how­ever, and they must have gone in at the break stunned by the fact they had failed to score.

Manchester United got a lot more into the game after the resump­tion, though, and Heurelho Gomes was put to the test once again when Wayne Rooney powered a fierce effort from out­side the pen­alty box in the 52nd minutes of play. Con­tro­versy arrived after 74 minutes when Rafael da Silva received the red card from ref­eree Mike Dean for a mind­less assault on Cameroon inter­na­tional Ben­oit Assou-Ekotto. Manchester United non­ethe­less remain unbeaten in the Premier League and The Reds now top the top flight table on 45 points, ahead on goal dif­fer­ence of bit­ter rivals Manchester City.

Manchester United Books