Why Manchester United's win over Bolton was the perfect way to enter a crucial week

By Elaine Patrick in Manchester United Fans Blog

Published 15:45 20/10/09

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The first bit of sustained pressure by United resulted in a goal. United got the rub of the green as Zat Knight had trouble trying to get his legs out of the way, not ideal if you are meant to be defending!

Giggs, who again put in a MOTM performance, outran the Bolton defence to keep the ball in play slipping a neat pass to Evra who crossed into the penalty area. The luck that United seem to be enjoying at the moment when it comes to defensive howlers continued as Owen’s miscued header bounced up at Zat Knight, hitting the inside of his thigh and deflecting into the Bolton goal.

The difference between this slice of luck and last week’s is that this time United deserved to take the lead. With the exception of some poor finishing by Owen, which was offset by some great saves by Jaaskelainen from Berbatov, Evans and Valencia, United should have been going in at the break three or four goals to the good.

United continued to press and were duly rewarded by an excellently taken goal by Valencia, who had already stung Jaaskelainen’s hands with an earlier effort. This time he had no chance as Valencia, Neville and Berbatov exchanged passes to break through the Bolton defence to give Valencia his first premiership goal in a red shirt.

They always say 2-0 is a dangerous score and it proved to be so. United had failed to kill off the game and were made to pay as Megson freshened up the Bolton attack in the second half by bringing on Klasnic. This seemed to have the desired effect and Bolton took the game to United.

They were rewarded for their efforts when Kevin Davies’s cross was met by Matt Taylor at the far post out-jumping Evra to head into the far corner. Cue a very nervy last twenty minutes or so as Bolton pressed, albeit in vain, for an equaliser. 

United have got a very important week coming up. They play CSKA Moscow on Wednesday followed by a very demanding trip to Anfield on Sunday.

Liverpool have already lost twice as many games this season as they did in the whole of last season and currently trail the Champions by seven points with the same number of games played. They are by no means out of the race but they cannot afford any more slip ups.

I am hoping that Torres and Gerrard are still unavailable and that Michael Owen finds his scoring touch at the ground he graced in his youth, especially as Rooney is also rumoured to be unavailable. On that point Fergie, if Owen has another frustrating day of missed chances, please leave Wellbeck on the bench and play Macheda!