LEAGUE:: WENGER'S WOE

Arsenal’s title hopes were dealt a blow after they suffered their fourth Barclays Premier League defeat of the season.
Arsene Wenger's side failed to capitalise on their win over United last week, succumbing to a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa at the Emirates. A Clichy own-goal put the Villans one up, before Gabriel Agbonlahor sealed the win with ten minutes to spare.
Liverpool briefly reclaimed top spot on Saturday after goals from Dirk Kuyt and Steven Gerrard sealed a 2-0 win over Bolton, but a convincing 3-0 win in the early evening match at West Brom put Chelsea back on top. Jose Bosingwa opened the scoring with a thunderous strike, before Nicholas Anelka continued his rich vein of form by netting a brace to put the game to bed.
Elsewhere, Harry Redknapp’s magic touch finally wore off as Fulham clinched a 2-1 win over Tottenham at Craven Cottage. Simon Davies and Andrew Johnson put the Cottagers in front, before on-loan Reds striker Fraizer Campbell replied with a consolation goal for Spurs.
Roy Keane’s Sunderland came from behind to beat Blackburn 2-1 at Ewood Park after Christopher Samba had opened the scoring on the stroke of half time. Goals from Kenwyne Jones

RONNY THE CENTURION

Cristiano Ronaldo was delighted to reach and then surpass a century of United goals with a brace against Stoke City.
The Portuguese winger smashed home two free-kicks against the Potters, taking his personal haul to 101 goals since moving to Old Trafford in 2003.
“I feel very proud,” said the 23-year-old. “One hundred goals is a great achievement. I have 101 for this club now. This is my sixth season here so I think that is fantastic.”
The Reds' thumping win against Stoke marked a return to winning ways in the Premier League, following a narrow defeat at Arsenal, and Ronaldo admits it was vital to get back on the victory trail quickly.
“It is always important to win games,” he told MUTV after the 5-0 romp.
“Last week we lost at Arsenal and we wanted to change that. Everyone tried to do their best and in the end I thought we did very well. We are third in the table now and we need to go on like that.”

UNITED 1 QPR 0

United’s mixture of youth and experience reached the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup after overcoming a dogged Queens Park Rangers at a bitterly cold Old Trafford.
The Reds were much-changed after the weekend defeat by Arsenal but had enough to see off the Championship side in a scrappy game which only spluttered into life late in the second half.
Carlos Tevez broke the visitors' resistance from the penalty spot with 15 minutes left and United saw out the rest of the game without great alarm to reach the last eight for the first time since lifting the trophy three seasons ago.
As expected, Sir Alex Ferguson opted to rest several of his senior players and hand starts to youngsters Jonny Evans, Darron Gibson and Rodrigo Possebon – the latter for the first time since suffering a leg injury in the last round against Middlesbrough.
And the Brazilian midfielder almost got on the end of Anderson’s sixth-minute corner, only to see the ball nicked from the top of his head.the top of his head.
Tevez started as the only out-and-out striker and was determined to impress, twice testing Radek Cerny from the edge of the box early on and then shaving the near post with a flick-on from John O’Shea’s cross.
Rangers, playing in a 4-5-1 formation, were largely effective in restricting United to long-range

REDS WARY OF AERIAL ASSAULT

Sir Alex Ferguson admits that, while he and his coaching staff have studied Stoke City's menace from throw-ins, his players are just going to have to deal with them.
Rory Delap's gargantuan hurl has laid on assists for seven of the Potters' goals this season, and Sir Alex admits that the visitors' threat is impossible to ignore.
"We’ve got the issue of Stoke coming with these throw-ins, and you can’t dismiss the fact that it’s an absolute threat to us," he told his pre-match press conference.
"We’ve done some work on it, done some video analysis and it’s a difficult thing to stop. There’ll be throw-ins in the game, we’ll just have to deal with them as best we can. But they’ve been a threat with these throw-ins, they’re formidable."
When one journalist suggested that Old Trafford's pitchside could help hinder the visitors' most potent weapon, Sir Alex joked: "I hope so - we’ve dug the slope deeper this week!
"It’s the way that Delap throws

AFTER ANFIELD N ARSENAL CAN TONY PULIS PULL UP ANOTHER SHOCK RESULT ???

Stoke boss Tony Pulis is enjoying "an absolutely great time for this football club" after guiding his team to 12th place in the Barclays Premier League and into the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup for the first time in almost 30 years. The 2-0 cup win over Rotherham in midweek means the Potters are unbeaten in their last four games, including the 2-1 win at home to Arsenal. Their last defeat was in Manchester on 26 October, 0-3 against City. United have won all four home league games since the opening day draw with Newcastle, including two against the other promoted sides Hull (4-3) and West Brom (4-0).Ins and Outs: United's midfield will be without Owen Hargreaves for the rest of the season but Paul Scholes could be back in the next few weeks. Stoke will be without the injured defender Andrew Davies and midfielder Liam Lawrence.

Star Man: Rory Delap can throw it long but he can't throw
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9:04:00 PM
by vaibhav

BOSS HOPEFULL OVER ROONEY!

Sir Alex Ferguson told his pre-match press conference that the 23-year-old is carrying a chest infection, although the manager is hopeful of having the England star available for the visit of Tony Pulis' side."Wayne Rooney had a bit of a chest infection and he’s been off this week," Sir Alex revealed. "But hopefully he’ll be alright for tomorrow – I’m sure he will be."The United manager also confirmed that he has no other new injury worries following Tuesday's Carling Cup win over QPR. Having slipped to defeat at Arsenal last weekend and spurned a glut of goalscoring chances in recent weeks, Sir Alex is well aware of the need to bounce back against the Potters."We have to win them all, that’s life here," he said. "If you lose a game you have to recover immediately. I must say that I think the performance level is better than last season. "The ability the team is showing at the moment is better than last season, and we’ve just got to start finding that little bit extra in terms of our finishing. I made the point that we needed to be more ruthless and maybe have a little more composure at times, but there’s no doubt that (if we keep) making the chances we are, it’ll change for us. "You just have to accept that in some situations you might go through little periods where you’re not putting it in. I’ve said this time and time before over the years, somebody’s going to suffer. We have to concentrate and keep the belief in the sense that we keep playing our football, keep making chances and things will change for us.