My ratings:
Friedel - 5 - Should have saved Nani's goal and distribution was poor, but a couple of other good stops
Walker - 5 - Didn't offer a much going forward and his defensive positioning was quite sloppy in the second half
Gallas - 7 - Solid
Caulker - 7 - First major test for him and I thought he did quite well
Vertonghen - 8 - Excellent going forward and a cool, calm presence at the back
Lennon - First half 7, second half 5 - Caused them a lot of problems in the first half with his pace, did a reasonable defensive shift in the second but was hardly in the game
Dembele - First half 7, second half 4 - Got an assist, generally looked good, but was anonymous in the second half
Sandro - 8 - Big, imposing performance from a man fast becoming one of the best defensive midfielders in the country
Bale - First half 8, second half 4 - An excellent goal in the first half, as well as an assist, causing them plenty of problems. Set up a goal in the second half but I thought it was a bit selfish of him to shoot initially when Dempsey was free and he was a bit lucky that the ball rebounded kindly for him. Don't think he touched the ball again after that.
Dempsey - 6 - Was ok I suppose, scored the winner and was involved in a few of our other attacks in the first half, switched to a more defensive role in the second half
Defoe - First half 7, second half 5, or perhaps even a N/A seeing as he had absolutely no service. Good hold up play though to play Bale in for the winning goal, and also his run which took Evans out for Bale's goal too.
Subs:
Sigurdsson - 4 - Don't remember him doing anything
Huddlestone + Dawson - N/A
AVB - 7 - First half we were awesome, a great display of attacking intent that teams rarely have the balls to do at Old Trafford. With Giggs, Scholes, Carrick and Ferdinand all starting, he realised they would struggle with our fast players running at them and playing one-two passes, which we did to tremendous effect. I don't think they had a meaningful attempt on goal in the entire half. Second half was a different story and I think AVB was a little lucky to get the win. Obviously United were going to be a different proposition after Fergie had given them the hairdryer, and AVB's tactics were to do a "Chelsea against Barca" and put the entire team behind the ball. It was a very risky game, because if they'd got an equaliser we'd have really struggled to regain the momentum. Perhaps it was a little naive also, to think that Defoe could play the role that Drogba played in that game for Chelsea. I also thought he was a little slow to make his substitutions - they were all over us and we were hanging in by a thread, yet it took him until the 69th minute to make a change. I guess part of the problem is that the ideal players to be bringing on in that kind of situation were Parker and Livermore, yet neither were available.
The result has such a big bearing on the way people rate things. At the end of the day, the second half was a nervous performance, in which we couldn't keep the ball and rarely got possession in their half, we just hoofed it upfield whenever we won it off them. If Van Persie had scored that chance in the second half to equalise, or Sandro had been penalised for the handball, or Rooney's free-kick had been an inch further to the right, then all of you lot talking about the spirit, mental toughness and desire that won us the game would instead be calling the players a load of bottle jobs and chokers. As it is, we got the win. The line between success and failure is very thin in this game, and tbh, it's about time we got some luck against Man Utd.
