Perhaps the Manchester United fall from grace storyline will subside a bit now. It’s likely that the yearning for the days of Sir Alex Ferguson will cool a bit. The temperature on the hot seat of David Moyes will be turned down. At least for a day, as the Red Devils beat Stoke City 3-2.
And even the much publicized midfielder issues of Manchester United seem less severe. Michael Carrick made 92% of his passes. And that’s key, as he made the most passes of any midfielder on the pitch today.
Manchester United’s strikers won them the match, and Wayne Rooney was second only to Robin Van Persie in making a difference today. RVP was arguably the man of the match. Van Persie and Rooney scored two of the Manchester United goals, with Javier Hernandez, colloquially known as Chicharito contributing the game decider. For Stoke City, scores came from Peter Crouch and Marko Arnautovic.
Granted a win over Stoke City is not anything to write home about, and it was far from the prettiest victory for Manchester United. However, a win and points are desperately needed anywhere they can acquire them, to get this Premier League season turned around. Manchester United don’t look like title defenders today; but they resembled something closer to that level than they have in previous weeks.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a regular analyst on news talk radio stations across the world; with weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS