That boy Ronaldo

Manchester United 5 Newcastle United 1

At Old Trafford we trashed Newcastle United by a whopping six goals to nil and the reverse fixture turns out to be no different. The Toon make a bright start but Wayne Rooney capitalises on a lack of concentration from N'Zogbia to score a beautifully volleyed goal and the Newcastle defence just falls apart from there. Steven Taylor, utterly bamboozled by the Red onslaught like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a speeding car, does an utterly ridiculous pirouette as Carrick slots a through ball past him, his antics doing little except perhaps showing that he spent the week in training practising for Swan Lake rather than the United game. While the Newcastle fans, momentarily deluded that they are at the Royal Ballet, rise to give Taylor a standing ovation - such is the desperation of the Toon Army to find something to cheer their team about - Cristiano Ronaldo ghosts in round the back four and slots the ball neatly past Shay Given into the net for a second. After the restart Ronaldo rounds the 'keeper to add a third, putting the game well and truly to bed and prompting the visiting end of St James' Park to erupt into song.

He plays on the left

He plays on the ri-i-ight

That boy Ronaldo

Makes England look sh**e

Rooney gets his second with a sublime curling shot that Newcastle forward Michael Owen can only dream of scoring and Louis Saha adds insult to injury by netting a fifth, signalling his return from injury in style. Arsenal drop points at Birmingham in a 2-2 draw, and with the Gunners having tough fixtures against Chelsea and United their three point lead at the top suddenly looks extremely vulnerable.

United's strength in depth is astounding. Resting Anderson, Scholes and Hargreaves, Ferguson opts for a Carrick-Fletcher midfield pairing that puts on a display no less inferior to their first choice team-mates. Whatever permutation of these five players Ferguson selects United still possess a formidable central midfield. Apart from the standard 4-4-2 formation Sir Alex can also go 4-5-1 and crush opposition in the middle of the park with the quality of his midfield, i.e. the Arsenal game. On the right wing he has Cristiano Ronaldo, the best player in the English Premiership, and on the other flank the evergreen legend Ryan Giggs. Even without them Ronaldo's understudy Luis Nani and the Korean workhorse Park Ji-Sung provide more than adequate cover in their absence. Meanwhile, the ability of Rooney and Fletcher to slot in on the right wing if necessary and the versatility of O'Shea that lets him play anywhere in the defence and even in the holding midfield position means that United can well cope with the absence of almost any player.

The only area of the team Ferguson is short of cover is the defence, especially with Wes Brown set to leave at the end of the season, meaning that a defender must be signed in the summer. Phillip Lahm has been repeatedly linked with Old Trafford and would certainly be an ideal addition to the Manchester United squad. Meanwhile, with Neville returning from injury we certainly have enough in our defence to see us through the remainder of the season.

Arsenal, on the other hand, are a squad down to bare bones, and while there is plenty of quality in the first team line-up the lack of match winners on the bench and the midweek Champions League fixtures coming at them at full speed means there is a very real possibility of them dropping even more points. The title may very well be decided on goal difference and the loss of Eduardo da Silva will be a huge blow to the Gunners. While the advantage has certainly swung towards Manchester's favour, however, Arsenal's team of youngsters have played remarkably well this season and the likes of Fabregas and Adebayor will pose a threat to Manchester United's title bid all the way to the finishing line. For once, there is no Chelsea in the equation (though Liverpool have as always proved to be absolute flops) as this season enters its final quarter presenting us with a mouth watering showdown between age-old rivals Ferguson and Wenger, with us awaiting the outcome fingers crossed in the Manchester United colours of red and white.

The article above does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial team at eyefootball.