Source: Telegraph
Manchester United 2 Bolton Wanderers 1 : match report
Back on top with a win but the sight of Ryan Giggs eking out time in the corner at the end said everything about an unnecessarily tense finish to a game that should have been wrapped up by half-time.
Defeats for Chelsea and Liverpool undoubtedly made it a good day for Manchester United, but Sir Alex Ferguson must have been concerned to see Bolton miss three late chances to become the second team in succession to leave Old Trafford with a point.
It could have been so different after Zat Knight’s own goal and Antonio Valencia’s firm strike put United two up after the half-hour.
But, despite having cut Bolton to pieces with some fine passing moves, the hosts sat back, perhaps with trips to CSKA Moscow and Liverpool in mind, and did not go to the trouble of scoring a third, meaning that Matt Taylor’s goal with 15 minutes left had United desperately defending late balls into the box.
With the ongoing fallout from Ferguson’s explosive comments about referee Alan Wiley that followed the 2-2 draw with Sunderland last time out, United were satisfied with a victory that saw Rio Ferdinand looking more solid and Edwin van der Sar feature for the first time this season after a hand injury, with Ben Foster not even on the bench after starting for England in midweek.
But despite Van der Sar’s return, United still failed to pick up a clean sheet for the sixth time in nine Premier League matches this season and Ferguson acknowledges that his team’s defending, so important in their title win last season, must improve.
“In the past few years we have runs of games when we haven’t lost goals and that’s been important in winning the championship and we have to get back to that,” Ferguson said. “It was a slack goal to lose a soft header at the back post. We shouldn’t be losing goals like that
“We were in a comfort zone at 2-0 and maybe we were relaxed in terms of our play and we should have finished the game but we didn’t. Sometimes you can leave yourself regretting that but we got through and with the other results it’s been a good day for us.
“It’s a terribly strong and tough league and there are going to be surprises early season, we had one at Burnley then with Sunderland. All the top teams have to accept it’s a tough league”
The trip to Moscow now looks even harder with the news that Patrice Evra and Giggs are both doubtful after picking up knocks yesterday, but Nemanja Vidic should return from an ankle injury.
The champions could not have asked for a better start, with Michael Carrick slipping Evra through and the Frenchman clipping over a cross that Michael Owen met with a glancing header that lacked power and direction but still crept into the net after Knight’s miserable attempt at a clearance after four minutes.
United showed what they are capable of when a fine break ended with Valencia swapping passes with Gary Neville and sliding inside Jussi Jaaskelainen’s near post. But that kind of swagger and brilliance was in short supply and Bolton took advantage when Taylor’s header looped into the far corner of Van der Sar’s net from Kevin Davies’s cross.
There were more late chances for Knight and Taylor and Gary Cahill could have brought Bolton level four minutes into added time.
“The words people are using are 'came very close’, 'almost’ and 'nearly’,” Bolton manager Gary Megson said. “The first half was not the kind of game that’s going to upset United’s rhythm and cause them problems. The second half was much better.”
