A cold and crisp day in England turned by tea time intoanother fine day for the Manchester teams that now dominate the country’sPremier League.
United stretched its lead atop the league to 10 points witha hard-won 2-1 victory over Liverpool, its oldest foe.
That game, the latest in a rivalry that began almost 120years ago, was without controversy. Manchester’s Robin van Persie superblyscored the opening goal, and two defenders, Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic,outjumped Liverpool to head in the second. Then during an attacking second halfby Liverpool, its new striker, Daniel Sturridge, netted the goal that his teamdeserved for courage, determination and refusal to lie down at Old Trafford.
Another defeat for Liverpool, but a fight back that possiblyportends a better future for the team.
Meanwhile, in London, Manchester City was given a helpinghand to beat Arsenal, 2-0. Here there was controversy. In the ninth minute,Arsenal’s defender Laurent Koscielny came to grips, literally, with City’s EdinDzeko. It was a foul, no question. But the referee, Mike Dean, did as fewreferees in the world do: He gave the penalty kick and issued a red card to Koscielny.
Dzeko, as it happened, failed to score when his poorly hitpenalty was saved by the legs of Arsenal’s keeper, Wojciech Szczesny, who thenenjoyed good fortune when the loose ball struck the post, bounced across thegoal line and into his arms.
That reprieve was transient. City had not won on Arsenalsoil since the mid-1970s, but this City, against a side down to 10 men for thebulk of the contest, was unlikely to look the gift horse in the mouth.
By halftime, James Milner, and then Dzeko, scored tocomfortably put Manchester’s second team ahead.
That kind of comfort was never enjoyed by United, not onSunday and not very often in the 187 matches that it has had against Liverpool.The rivalry between the two northern cities actually predates soccer and issteeped in industrial and commercial rivalry.
Soccer is a fierce enough substitute, and though United hasenjoyed the upper hand over Liverpool these past two decades, Sunday was a signthat Liverpool would not give up the chase.
Manchester was the better team, as its place and itsfinancial position indicates. Both clubs are owned by Americans, but the Glazerfamily in Florida took over a United worth 1 billion pounds, or $1.6 billion,and a United that consistently enjoys 30 million pounds from Champions Leagueincome every season.
With that guaranteed revenue, you can buy van Persie fromArsenal for 24 million pounds. And van Persie has seamlessly continued scoringa goal a game for United as he did for Arsenal.
When the second United goal went in following a free kickafter 56 minutes, it seemed that Liverpool had been buried by two lapses ofconcentration against predators who make United the leading scorers in theleague.
However, Liverpool now has something it had lacked in thefirst six months of the season. Its owners, the Fenway Sports Group in Boston,failed to back the new coach, Brendan Rodgers, in the transfer market byletting forwards go without securing replacements.
All season long, that had left incredible onus on LuisSuarez. The Uruguayan, as industrious and tricky as he is sometimescontroversial, remarkably almost matched van Persie goal for goal in thePremiership. Yet Suarez has been a one-man attack for 20 matches until, withthe new transfer window opening this January, Liverpool could buy somebody toshare his burden.
