THE RED ISSUE CURSE STRIKES AGAIN

Last updated : 04 May 2003 By Editor

THE TIMES

Forget the arithmetic, if Manchester United play like this in their final League game at Everton next Sunday, they will be champions for the eighth time in 11 seasons, and deservedly so. Arsenal will strain every sinew to overhaul them, starting at home to Leeds this afternoon, but the force is with United now, the title theirs for the taking.

With a devastating run that has claimed 26 points from a possible 30, they have all but broken Highbury hearts, and regardless of today’s events, or Arsenal’s match in hand at Southampton on Wednesday, only the most optimistic "Gooner" can envisage United slipping up at Goodison.

There was never the slightest chance of them failing to take maximum points from their last home game, not with Ruud van Nistelrooy in such a rich vein of form. The Dutchman’s hat-trick, on his 100th appearance for the club, takes his tally to 14 in the past nine matches and 43 in 49 games. A question: why do players and journalists, insist on electing their Footballer of the Year before the season is over? I voted for Thierry Henry some time ago to meet the deadline, but in common with many others, I would go for Van Nistelrooy if the poll was taken now.

It is not often that a player with three goals has a serious rival for man of the match, but nobody was more influential yesterday than Roy Keane, whose powerful contribution evoked memories of the peak days that many thought were behind him after the debilitating series of injuries that culminated in surgery last September. The old swagger was much in evidence; "Keano", emphatically, was back.

The Theatre of Dreams was packed to the rafters with another record attendance (do they deliberately let a few more in every week?) and the stadium rocked to the strains of "We want our trophy back" at kick-off. Their heroes were eager to oblige and United were ahead after 11 minutes, when a mistake by Chris Powell led to the opening that enabled David Beckham to score, with a shot which went in off Powell’s attempt at a recovery tackle.

There had been a suspicion beforehand that Charlton might be easy meat. They contrived to lose 6-1 at home to Leeds recently, which suggested that some of the players were already in beach mode. To be fair, they weren’t here. Organised and competitive, Alan Curbishley’s shoestring assortment threatened to make a real game of it, and were not unduly flattered by their 13th-minute equaliser, even if it came gift-wrapped.


THE TELEGRAPH

Ruud Van Nistelrooy has more reason to be unconvinced by the polls than Conservative MP Crispin Blunt. Having lost out to Thierry Henry in both major footballer of the year awards, even a sublime hat-trick here was not enough to claim outright possession of the man of the match award from home-town judges, being forced to share it with Roy Keane.

He must be starting to suspect Florida governor Jeb Bush's hand in these matters, though in the players' and football writers' awards the suspicion remains that the ballot boxes were sealed just too early for Van Nistelrooy.

He voted with his feet here - or more accurately his right foot with which he scored all three goals, each completely different but each bearing his personal imprimatur.

Although it was his third hat-trick of the season, he took great care to hunt down the ball after the final whistle and entrust it to the care of a United official, though it is surprising he can continue to keep score, so to speak, with 14 goals in nine matches and an astonishing 43 for the season.

If a few of his colleagues had shown his voracity in front of goal, Arsenal would have been set the task of scoring a truck-load in the next seven days to have a chance of overhauling United for the Premiership title.

The arithmetic is now much more simple, Arsenal needing to overturn a goal difference of four in winning their final three games, while hoping United only draw at Everton next Sunday.

There was an air of triumphalism at Old Trafford as supporters chanted: "We want our trophy back". But after branding Arsenal arrogant a few months ago Ferguson was careful not to fall into the same ego trap, banning his players from their traditional end-of-season lap of honour and coming on to the pitch to thank the fans for their support.


THE OBSERVER

Manchester United decided against a lap of honour after their last home game of the season. Sir Alex Ferguson, who has not been chiding Arsenal for premature celebrations all season for nothing, decided that it would be inappropriate. 'What's important is next Sunday at Goodison Park,' the United manager told an appreciative crowd after the final whistle. One would not put much money on a lap of honour being inappropriate then.

Particularly since Ferguson's players are clearly singing from the same hymn sheet as their manager. 'We're in a good position, but we haven't won anything yet,' Roy Keane said after the easy victory that took United eight points clear at the top. 'What we have to do now is stay focused.'

Keane would have been a strong candidate for man of the match had one of his most effective performances of the season not been eclipsed by a hat-trick and another stunning all-round display from Ruud van Nistelrooy. 'We are not celebrating anything today,' the modest Dutchman insisted.

This is not strictly true. United can at least rejoice at their good fortune in finding the most in-form striker in Europe at exactly the right time. Thierry Henry might be the player of the season, and deservedly so, but Van Nistelrooy has been the player of the end of the season. His 14 goals in nine consecutive games have put United back on top and put the confidence back into their game. If he scores at Everton next week, he will extend his club record to 10 games on the trot and should he manage another hat-trick, he will equal Denis Law's record of 46 goals in a season. Not bad for a player almost written off three years ago because of injury. 'He is in unbelievable form at the moment,' Ferguson said. 'Every aspect of his game has improved beyond measure.'

Sure enough, Van Nistelrooy could be found not just beating Dean Kiely on three occasions, but tackling back, making runs down the left wing and finding Ryan Giggs and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with measured through-passes. It was a masterful performance that not only overshadowed Keane's contribution, but eclipsed one of Rio Ferdinand's most accomplished displays in a United shirt as well as relegating David Beckham to the supporting cast.


THE INDEPENDENT

A small step for man, a giant step for Manchester United. Beating a Charlton Athletic team who have again broken up early for their summer hols never looked likely to require putting their best foot too far forward, as the bookmakers' odds against the visitors of 11-1 implied. The margin was important, however, in case dropped points at Everton next weekend should mean that the championship is decided on goal difference; another Ruud van Nistelrooy hat-trick helped improve United's to four better than Arsenal, who could win their three remaining games and still lose the title.

The Dutchman was irrepressible again in scoring for the ninth successive game and reaching 43 goals for the season, only three short of Denis Law's 1963-4 club record.

With four centre-halves missing, Charlton faced a catchweight contest and were grateful to escape with their dignity intact. There was even an unexpected bonus for their neat if unthreatening football in the shape of an equalising goal soon after David Beckham had put United in front, gifted to them by an error from Roy Carroll, the goalkeeper again preferred to Fabien Barthez.

Old Trafford also acclaimed an immaculate performance by Roy Keane. Although harassed throughout by Charlton's impressive young midfielder Scott Parker, the Irishman was in his element with the scent of another trophy in his nostrils, taking the ball off his back four and spraying it forward, and breaking up a high percentage of the opposition's attempts to break forward.

But if the crowd were in celebratory mood long before the end of United's final home game, neither Keane nor Sir Alex Ferguson got where they are today – the verge of another championship – by taking anything in their chosen profession for granted. United even forsook a lap of the pitch, thanking their support instead from the centre circle as the manager took the microphone to announce: "At the last home match we normally do a lap of honour, but what's important is next Sunday at Everton."