Manchester Utd 2 Fulham 0:MANCHESTER UNITED are burning with a sense of injustice and this time it has nothing to do with Wayne Rooney, the Football Association and the reasons why their first-choice striker and their manager were not in their usual positions for the latest step in what is beginning to feel like a procession.
Nani’s expression was one of bemusement when it was put to him that he surely merited a place on the shortlist for the Professional Footballers’ Association player-of-the-year. “I am disappointed not to be there. I think I have been doing well. Of course, everyone has an opinion, but I hope next time people will look more to me.”
John O’Shea proclaimed himself to be “amazed”, with some justification when you consider that the Portuguese has scored nine goals this season and set up another 18 with either the decisive pass or a blocked shot.
Charlie Adam has seven assists, Scott Parker has three, while Gareth Bale and Samir Nasri have one each, and yet that quartet of midfielders all made it ahead of Nani. “I just don’t understand it,” O’Shea said.
Old Trafford, however, has always been a place where they treasure team awards ahead of the individual ones. A championship medal should more than compensate Nani and it seems a near-certainty now.
The same goes for Dimitar Berbatov, whose name is also missing from the betting-shop chalkboards when it comes to counting the votes, despite being the leading scorer in England’s top division.
Berbatov has accumulated 21 goals in 29 starts (six as a substitute) yet will almost certainly go back to the bench against Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday. Chris Smalling, outstanding at the weekend, will make way for Rio Ferdinand.
Paul Scholes is expected to drop out for Michael Carrick. Even Nani cannot be guaranteed a place, despite being in the form of his life.
Ferguson tends to play Park Ji-sung in the key Champions League ties while Antonio Valencia’s return has been so impressive it can feel like a trick of the mind it is barely six months since his leg snapped like a broken cricket stump.
This is the way it is at United right now: no other club has such an understanding of how to make the most of their squad and an appreciation that the essential rule of such a system is that, when it is your turn to be left out, you roll up your sleeves and get on with it.
The mantra of their season is that this is not a classic United side and, yes, it is true they have been a little stodgy on their travels. Equally, however, questioning the ability of this side is becoming the default setting of the desperate.
Ferguson’s men have dropped only two points at home all season and are on course to finish unbeaten on their own ground for the first time in 11 years. They have scored twice or more in 14 of their 16 home matches. Most remarkable of all, it is now 53 weeks since an opposition player (Joe Cole for Chelsea) scored a first-half goal at Old Trafford in the league.
Saturday was also the first time Fulham have been beaten by more than one goal on their travels this season, and yet Ferguson was not satisfied. United’s manager argued the meticulous standards he demanded had not been kept, and it was true that Fulham, with three shots in the opening half, troubled the home side at times.
Even so, there was an air of inevitability in Old Trafford by the time Valencia nodded in the second goal shortly after the half-hour mark. Nani had created it by taking the ball around the goalkeeper, Mark Schwarzer, and trying to chip his shot past Richard Hughes only for the defender, on the goalline, to divert the ball towards Valencia.
Nani also set up Berbatov’s goal, jinking past two defenders before nudging a pass into the Bulgarian to side-foot his shot beyond Schwarzer. In that moment, Nani’s footwork and chest-out confidence was reminiscent of Cristiano Ronaldo in his pomp.
Afterwards, Nani was asked who he had voted for as player of the year and, once more, a comparison could be made with the great man. Nani smiled: “I voted for myself.”
Guardian Service
