United 2 - 0 Stoke

Amos

Smalling Evans Rio Evra

Valencia Carrick Scholes Park

Berbatov Chicharito(Pogba)

Two goals, scored from the spot, by Berbatov and Chicharito gave United the much needed 3 points and gave our out-of-favour strikers the much needed morale boost. We controlled the game but found it difficult to penetrate a resolute Stoke defence. However, two inane challenges proved to be Stoke's downfall and they were lucky the ref overlooked another clumsy challenge on Evra inside Stoke's box. 

This fella needs his confidence back

It was a good game of possession from our side with Scholes prevailing as my man of the match. The ease at which he hit passes and controlled the midfield area was an eye pleaser. Another player who stood out today was Evans who looked brimming with confidence. He's been doing quite well lately but I sense there are quite a handful honing their machete for when Evans commits a mistake or two. If I am honest, while I hate slating our players, I still don't feel 100% confident whenever I see Evans' name on the team sheet. Anyhow, it's nice to see him so composed on the ball and I thought he had a good game vs Liverpool as well.

This fella could sell some of his confidence to Hernandez

With Morrison on the verge(or is it completed?) of a move to West Ham, which I fully comprehend given Ravel's puerile behavior, we saw a 15 minute show from Pogba today. I've seen him play a lot of times with the reserves but you just cannot give a verdict based on those games. But today, the minute he stepped on the field you just knew that this lad, 3 years my junior, is special. He put in two dangerous crosses, passed the ball around with ease and put himself in some decent positions. The huge question mark is, could he have done the same at the start of the game? Or was that performance the result of a Stoke side whose confidence had depleted? I can see what the hype is all about and I honestly cannot wait until I see him play again. He's a marvelous talent but the problem is that he knows it. Furthermore, his agent, I hear, is a greedy bastard. I just hope he doesn't follow in the footsteps of Morrison out of the club. My worries are that Pogba is French and he probably doesn't understand how big this club is. Let's hope he doesn't get too big for his shoes, I'd love to see a Cleverley-Pogba combination in the future. 

All in all it was a good win on home soil. Every player did his job quite well while in scouseland, another red scored his most important goal for Manchester United, albeit in the blue of Everton. Gibson single handedly managed to raise the roof at Old Trafford today by scoring vs Man City. We're now on top of the league with our neighbors and at least now there will be less pressure on our players in the upcoming game at Stamford Bridge. Everybody now    "ONE DARRON GIBSON, THERE's ONLY ONE DARRON GIBSON!!"    ....I always liked our Gibbo :)