FA PREMIER LEAGUE: Wolves 2 Manchester United 1:SO, UNLIKE Arsenal's class of 2003-04 that Alex Ferguson was so keen to match, Manchester United were not unbeatable after all. In truth they were never the equals of Arsene Wenger's "Invincibles" and that they should lose eventually was no surprise, even if the identity of those who ended their run obviously was.
That the bottom club, Wolves, should be the ones to do it reinforces the belief that the league leaders have been riding their luck for some time, contriving to avoid defeat and extending their advantage at the top while not playing particularly well. Remember, they were given a torrid time by the paupers of Blackpool only 11 days earlier.
This eyebrow-raising result has done two things. It has opened up a title race that was in danger of developing into a procession and at the same time given Mick McCarthy and his sleeves-rolled scrappers renewed hope of avoiding relegation.
Wolves may have turned up in sheep’s clothing for four successive defeats in the league but their tooth-and-claw performance here was well worth maximum points.
Ferguson, ever the curmudgeon, begrudged Arsenal their record sequence, claiming there had been “too many draws” in it for his liking. What he did not say, of course, was that the same applies to his present United team, whose unbeaten run ended at 29 matches and included 10 draws, nine of them this season.
Their lead is now down to four points and on current form Manchester City will fancy their chances in the derby at Old Trafford on Saturday. For Ferguson and company the next four weeks could be decisive. After the visit from City they play Chelsea away on March 1st and a resurgent Liverpool at home five days later.
What went wrong for them on Saturday? In the argot of the dressingroom Wolves wanted it more. For back markers they have a remarkable facility for raising their game and upsetting the odds, United going the way of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City. As McCarthy pointed out, in typical spade-is-a-bleedin’-shovel style: “It’s all right lounging and basking in the sun after beating Man United but we’ve been bobbins against the teams around us at the bottom. We’ve got to start getting results against them, if we’re to stay up.”
United lost Rio Ferdinand with a calf strain sustained during the warm-up but for would-be champions that should have been an inconvenience rather than a major setback. Jonny Evans has filled in capably before and nobody expected his last-minute promotion from the bench to turn into the achilles heel it proved.
Certainly there was no hint of the drama to follow when Nani opened the scoring in the third minute, profiting from George Elokobi’s positional error and failure to make a recovery tackle. Wolves, to their great credit, hit back with towering spirit and rugged determination, equalising quickly when Elokobi atoned by heading powerfully past Edwin van der Sar from a Matt Jarvis cross.
Ferguson was unhappy about conceding from a set-piece at which Evans was conspicuously ineffective. United’s intermittent attempts to regain the lead were undermined by the poverty of their work in midfield, where combative Wolves had the edge. They had further deserved reward after 39 minutes, when Elokobi and Kevin Doyle together bundled a Nenad Milijas free-kick over the line with Doyle given the credit.
* Guardian Service
