The Doc's Diagnosis: Man Utd vs Villa

Many column inches have rolled off the press this weekend to forecast this game; megabytes of online preview have hit computer screens and this morning's airwaves were full of it: this was a match with only one winner.

A rampant United side, at full strength, packed with an embarrassment of class and experience and bristling with form ... against the raggle-taggle Villa patchwork of youth, stand-in and journeyman. A one horse race if ever there was one.

The perfect climax to the crescendo of media consensus that this match was over before it even began came a few seconds before kick-off and was aptly reserved for the two Alans in the MOTD studio. "So, does anyone give Villa a hope?" chirped Lineker, cheerily.

The silence was as deafening as the silence in the massed ranks of the Old Trafford home support for the next 96 minutes (a figure which was to become significant). It said it all. Settle back into your armchair, crack open a tinny or two and pay attention at the back - this will be a red devil exhibition to savour. And spare a wee thought for the fall guys in claret and blue.

In this most unimpartial of reviews, I do my best to pay scant attention to "the bleedin' obvious". United pass the ball, read the game, anticipate, move and finish far more effectively than Villa.

Their side contains players of consummate class, and is all the more amazing in that - unlike Arsenal, for example - its whole is usually far greater than the sum of its parts. When the beast that is United attacks, it attacks with incisiveness, pace and ruthless menace. When it defends, it metamorphoses into a creature of sublime calm and assuredness.

Oh yes, Manchester United are a much, much better team than Aston Villa. And they looked a much, much better side than Aston Villa at Old Trafford today. So congratulations to all those bloggers out there who, in their different ways, have managed to point that out.

So was this the game the Universe expected? Were Villa well organised, but ultimately negative? Were United breathtaking and ruthless? Was the inevitable result, well, inevitable?

My view, categorically, is no. This was as surprising a ninety-six (significant) minutes as any this season.

First of all, let's deal with the increasingly tedious "negativity" issue. There are three sides in the Premiership who have the class and strength-in-depth to go to Old Trafford and, if they deem it tactically appropriate, adopt an attacking formation.

They are Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. The same approach might even be adopted by, say, a non-league or League Two outfit who know they are going to be beaten and want to give their fans a last hurrah. And that's fair enough.

But Villa fall into neither category. O'Neill's 4-5-1 formation doesn't indicate a lack of ambition - far from it. What is shows is that we are now watching a side which genuinely believes it can take something from every game it plays. That is pure competitiveness.

O'Neill sent this team out onto the wet Old Trafford turf believing that at least a draw was possible, but knowing that to secure that result the myriad United playmakers and trouble-causers would have to be stifled, frustrated, harried and nullified. An O'Leary side, composed - presumably - of many of the same personnel, would have laid down and given the pundits their easy money. This side proved them very wrong.

Let's get into the game itself and put to bed the negatives first. Some of Villa's passing and movement was desperate. At times, it seemed nobody wanted the ball. Possession, once again, was surrendered cheaply. Petrov is looking grumpier and grumpier at not being able to enjoy the space and attacking luxury of Celtic's permanent superiority and was hauled off, if my maths is right, for the fifth time in a row without having made any sort of impression on a game.

We'll have to stick with him and support him - I have a feeling that with better players around him he will become a match winner. I've looked online and there is a "dummy wall" available for free kick training sessions - I'm going to send one to Stan at Bodymoor Heath. He needs it. And by the way, I expect Davis to start and Petrov to be on the bench next time around.

So let's annoy the cynics and knockers by looking at the positives.

Liam Ridgewell and Gary Cahill, touted by Hansen as today's probable fall guys facing Rooney and Larsson, were quite magnificent. Robust and determined in defence, they distributed the ball well when needed, and both got forward to cause United trouble. Cahill threatens to score every time he plays. The best compliment I can give Ridgewell is that he is beginning to look like Ferdinand when he brings the ball out.

Aaron Hughes had a good game, and I take my hat off to him. He must have had nightmares after the roasting he got from Ronaldo at Villa Park, but he tackled well, ran well with the ball and got into good attacking positions. It says a lot for O'Neill, Robertson and Walford that Hughes was so up for this game in Olly's absence.

McCann to me is the standard-bearer of the O'Neill regime. A target of this blog and the Holte End last season, and a few months ago looking the archetypal "one cap" journeyman, Gav is fitter, more mobile, more direct and is even starting to carry the ball forward. Apart from his moment of confusion when outpaced and outfought by Rooney and left dazed on his backside on the touchline, he played with composure and steel.

Player for player, The Doc's plaudits are reserved for Isaiah Osbourne today. I've been unconvinced to date and worried about an attitude and application that to me has seemed over-casual. But this afternoon, all that coolness paid off and the lad looked composed, unphased, strong and fast. Better distribution will come as the O'Neill squad improves with acquisition and maturity, but this was - to - me - a feather in his cap.

And now to Baros. I've been on Milan's case in the past, infuriated by his inability to hold the ball and to stay on his feet. But give the Czech his due - in recent games, he's looked mobile, threatening and dangerous when coming on for the increasingly pedestrian Angel.

And you have to hand it to him: if he does get in front of goal, there is every chance he will bury it. Presented with his chance, he controlled Cahill's mishit shot wonderfully and slotted the ball into the corner with world class. Of course, he will leave for Chelsea or a Spanish club and score twenty goals before the end of the season. But that's timing for you...at the moment, we have a playmaker in Petrov with no play to make and a striker in Baros with nothing to strike.

And so back to the game as a whole. Villa weren't negative at all: in fact, they showed far greater attacking ambition than in both recent home games against United and the champions Chelsea. It nearly came off: in the last twenty minutes, the chances were all Villa's and Osbourne might well have equalised before Baros did.

I won't comment on United's winning goal or the ref's timekeeping...I'll leave that to the bleedin' obvious brigade.

But this was a great Villa performance against all the odds, marked by some outstanding individual contributions and only saddened by a last-gasp smash-and-grab.

We're out of the cup, as expected. We were outplayed by United, as expected. Our losing run continues, as expected. But to me, everything else was surprisingly positive.

This was another small step forward in a big journey, and there are many, many positives to take out of it. For those bloggers who have highlighted United's dominance of the game at Old Trafford this afternoon, think again. You don't have to be Einstein to work out that United are much, much better than Villa. But better pundits than you were surprised today by Villa's resilience and ambition.

Liverpool lost three-one to Arsenal at home. We were narrowly beaten by the best side in the country away, by a dodgy injury time strike. Heads high time, I say!

Kiraly 92 mins 8, 93 mins 0; Hughes 7; Cahill 8; Ridgewell 8: Bouma 7; Agbonlahor 7; McCann 8: OSBOURNE 9; Petrov 5 (Sub Samuel 6); Barry 7; Angel 5 (sub Baros 8)

Man of the Match: LARSSON (the script was written)

(Doc Bowles was not at Old Trafford, so has not commented on the atmosphere in the stadium. However, he did hugely enjoy the fact that the Villa faithful totally out sung the Stretford End)