Source: Daily_Mail
Martin Samuel on Manchester United: Untouchables resume their rule of fear
Sir Alex Ferguson said this weekend that he was pleased his team were no longer considered invincible. It was nonsense, an unrealistic target, this talk of winning five trophies, he insisted.
Considering how touchy he can be about criticism, he now seemed equally averse to praise. 'I dismissed the flattery,' he sneered.
Taking this into account then, one would have thought he would have been absolutely delighted for his ambitions to be taken down a further peg by Aston Villa. And yet, strangely, vulnerability did not seem to make him too happy, either.
Indeed, in an afternoon laden with delicious mishap and fraught with lovely anxiety, Ferguson became truly animated only when 17-year-old Federico Macheda popped up two minutes and five seconds into injury time to score the goal that restored Manchester United to the top of the table.
So, for now, it would appear that United's dalliance with vincibility is over and if Ferguson announces himself disappointed that expectations are high once more, a point clear of Liverpool with a game in hand, his protestations should be taken with a pinch of salt. On this, Ferguson is wrong.
The winning team needs to have an air of the untouchable about it because it rules by fear. Manchester United lost that ability to intimidate when Liverpool scored four at Old Trafford and the last two matches have shown the consequence of that.
