United 1 - 0 Watford

DDG

Varela Fosu-Mensah Blind Rojo(Darmian)

Schneiderlin Herrera(Lingard)

Martial Mata(McNair) Memphis

Rashford

This was a timely reminder that, despite the recent good results, we're no world-beaters. It was also a reminder that we've got players in our squad that can win you games with a moment of brilliance. Mata's moment of brilliance today proved to be the winner as he scored an immaculately executed freekick. I've always preferred floated free-kicks to the ones that cannon to the back of the net (like Ronaldo's). Well done Capitano! 

We were absolutely dreadful and Watford could have scored three goals by half-time. Thankfully, their striker Ighalo probably woke up from the wrong side of bed. He had, at least, three very good chances to score a goal today! I would have scored one of his chances wearing a blindfold. King of exaggeration me. 

Blind was astonishingly bad. I don't think he's ever had such a bad game in United's colours. To be fair to him, he did block a dead cert goal midway through the second half but his passes, especially during the first half, were shocking! If I was Blind I'd be licking De Gea's boots after today's game. Our goalie was brilliant whenever Blind and co made a cock-up in front of him. I also thought that Rojo had a very poor game. He looked off the pace and didn't really provide much threat going forward. I still don't think Rojo is a full-back. On the other side, Varela had a decent game. He was poor on some occasions and was very good on others. The same can be said for Fosu-Mensah. He looked like someone who's lost his bearings during the first minutes of the first half but then settled in. We must remember though that this guy's only 18! I thought he did reasonably well on his full United debut. Darmian, who replaced Rojo, almost gave a very stupid penalty away. Watford were hard done by there. 

Schneiderlin had a good game. He did a lot of hard work. His deep midfield partner, Herrera, had an on-off game. Depay returned to his pre-Midtylland form; very very very frustrating. His shooting was awful today but came in handy during the latter stages of the game as he was needed to waste time. What I've noticed is that he's started to help defend when necessary and that's very good to see. Martial was anonymous on the right and kicked into action as soon as he was moved to the front. In fact he's the player who won us the winning free-kick. Rashford didn't get much of the ball, but when he did I thought he was excellent. His burst of pace was too much for Watford's defence and he was much more threatening when he was played on the right wing. I am really pleased with this guy, he's not just a goal scorer, he's capable of creating chances as well. Mata was our man of the match and I am not saying this because he scored the winning goal. He was our fulcrum today.

Well, what can I say? After tonight's results you do get a bit of hope that we can make it into the top four. We're now level on points with City (City have a game in hand) and only four points away from Arsenal. Hopefully we don't fuck this position up and win against WBA. Arsenal are playing Spurs this weekend so either or both teams above us are surely dropping points. I've seen a lot of false dawns this season so I'm not really putting my hopes up. But after tonight's result we're in a really good position to put some pressure on City, Arsenal and Tottenham and, who knows, we might actually get in next year's champions league! We'll have to wait and see. Feeling rather optimistic. Come on United!