West Brom 0-5 Manchester United – Premiership Live Blog – 27 January 2009

West Brom are desperate for all three points at home tonight as they try to climb out of the relegation zone, while Man Utd are trying to hold onto first place. You can follow all the action here at Daily Soccer Blog at kick off, but in the meantime please feel free to leave any comments or predictions below.

Match Preview

It’s first versus worst tonight as leage leaders Man Utd take on cellar dwellers West Brom at the Hawthorns in Birmingham.

West Brom is missing captain and former Utd player Jonathan Greening after he injured his knee during Saturday’s FA Cup tie with Burnley. The club is already missing four centre backs with Abdoulaye Meite, Jonas Olsson, Leon Barnett, and Neil Clement on the shelf with injuries. Ten players in total are out with injury.

Man Utd actually have about a dozen players out injured after Fabio and Danny Welbeck were hurt in Saturday’s 2-1 Cup win over Spurs. Nani, Rio Ferdinanad, Wes Brown, Rafael, and Patrice Evra are all out with injuries, while Wayne Rooney, Anderson, Jonny Evans, and Ji-sung Park were also missing from Satuday’s lineup.  However, one or two of them may suit up today. In fact, Ferdinand and Park are both starting, while Brown is on the subs bench.

West Brom has won three of their last five matches, while United have won their last five league matches.

Line Ups

West Brom: Carson, Donk, Pele, Robinson, Hoefkens, Koren, Valero, Brunt, Zuiverloon, Simpson, Fortune

Subs: Kiely, Cech, Bednar, Kim, Dorrans, Filipe, Teixeira, Morrison

Manchester United: Van der Sar, Vidic, Ferdinand, O’Shea, Neville, Giggs, Carrick, Ronaldo, Park, Tevez, Berbatov

Subs: Kuszczack, Brown, Tosic, Scholes, Fletcher, Gibson, Eckersley

Goals

Manchester United: Berbatov (22′) Tevez (44′) Vidic (60′) Ronaldo (65′) Ronaldo (73′)

Live Blog

Full Time. Man Utd wins 5-0 and sets a Premier League record by going 11 games without conceding a goal. Edwin Van der Sar also set a league record at the 84 minute mark by beating Peter Cech’s record of going 1025 minutes without letting in a goal.

90+2′ Michael Carrick gives up a free kick at the centre edge of the box and is yellow carded. Koren beats the wall, but his shot sails over the crossbar.

90+1′ James Morrison of WBA is shown a yellow card.

90′ Tosic, Tevez, and Ronaldo pass it around in the Albion box, but it’s one pass two many and it all comes to nought.

88′ The fans have had enough and many of them are making their way out of the stadium, but that’s not bad having stuck around for 88 minutes.

86′ Tevez breaks through with Ronaldo and unleashes a great right footed shot just inside the centre of the box which Carson mekes an excellent one-handed save on.

83‘ West Brom win a corner which is taken short and worked into the box for another corner.  The second corner is met by Pele’s head but just drifts over the United goal.

80′ Ronaldo and Carson slide into each other as they both go after a 50-50 ball in the box.

77′ Substitution. Zoran Tosic replaces Dimitar Berbatov for Man Utd.

76′ Albion’s Ryan Donk is given a yellow card after a bad foul.

73′ Keeper Scott Carson is shown a yellow for arguing.

73′ GOAL-West Brom-0 Man Utd 5. Ronaldo slides the ball through Carson’s legs after some excellent passing between the Portuguese star and Berbatov. West Brom appeal for offside, and it was close but the goal was rightly given.

71′ Substitutions for Man Utd as Rio Ferdinand is replaced by Wes Brown and Gary Neville is replaced by Richard Eckersley. Giggs is given the captain’s armband by Neville.

65′ GOAL – West Brom 0-Man Utd 4-A breaking Ryan Giggs sends an excellent feed to Ronaldo who right foots it into the bottom corner of the net from the centre of the box.

64′ Substitution for West Brom as midfielder James Morrison replaces Gianni Zuiverloon and forward Roman Bednar replaces Jay Simpson.

61′ Park fouls Cech on the left wing for a free kick that’s curled into the box just out of Van der Sar’s reach and out for a goal kick.

60′ GOAL – West Brom 0-Man Utd 3. Park shows some fancy dribbling in the box and wins a corner. Giggs takes it and Vidic scores his sixth goal of the season with a powerful header that Carson gets his hand to.

58′ Donk breaks into the box alone and slams a powerful right footed shot that slams off the goalpost to Van der Sar’s left. Best chance of the game for WBA.

56′ Ryan Donk jumps into the air behind Berbatov and rakes his boot down the United player’s back.

54′ Tevez streaks in from the left side all alone now and passes to Ronaldo, but he’s offside as well.

53′ Carrick places another excellent ball from the right hand side into the box for Berbatov who slides it in behind Carson, but the goal’s called back as Berbatov is offside.

50′ Neville gives up a free kick on the edge of the box right in the middle, after bringing down Brunt. It takes Styles a couple of minutes to sort out the wall and Brunt left foots it with power, but it whistles just over the bar.

49′ Van Der Sar is quickly off his line to scoop up a probing ball in the box.

46′ West Brom made a substitution at half time with Fortune coming off and defender Marek Cech coming on. Fortune was having a fine game coming down the right wing and unless he’s injured I don’t understand this move. Let’s defend a 2-0 defecit? It baffles the mind.

Half Time. West Brom got off to a decent start, but United’s class slowly took over. The half was fast-paced and had its share of incidents. Gary Neville could have been awarded a penalty after being dragged down in the box. Berbatov showed how calm he is in as he slotted home the first goal and Ronaldo and Tevez could have both made it 2-0 soon after. Paul Robinson’s straight red card for his lunge at Park opened the gates for United to add to the lead and they did just that when Scott Carson dropped a free kick and Tevez tapped home the loose ball. United fully deserve their lead and West Brom will be lucky to escape a major beating unless they start to pressure United, but with 10 men it’s going to be hard, especially with United having 67% of possession in the first half.

44′ GOAL – West Brom 0-Man Utd 2. Keeper Scott Carson drops a free kick from close to the right corner flag and Carlos Tevez is in perfect position to bang home the loose ball. 2-0 Man Utd.

44′ Park is back on the pitch now and Koren is shown a yellow card for challenging a decision.

40′ West Brom skipper is issued a red card after a two-footed lunge into Ji-sung Park. It’s Robinson’s ninth red card of his career.

39′ Fortune crosses from the right wing and it falls for a team mate, but he lobs the ball wide of the net in what could have been a decent chance.

37′ Berbatov is caught from behind and goes to the sidelines for treatment, but is back on after a minute.

36′ United are constantly threatening now, but Albion are standing up to the challenge.

33′ Ryan Giggs sends Ronaldo into the clear, Carson rushes out to meet him and Ronaldo chips the ball over the keeper and just wide.

31′ Gary Neville bursts into the box and is tackled from behind. Claims for a penalty are dismissed.

29′ West Brom trying to penetrate, but to no avail.

26′ Ronaldo streaks down the left wing and crosses along the ground for Tevez, who shoots just inches wide of the post. Excellent chance to go up 2-0.

24′ Vidic pulls down Simpson for a free kick, which is crossed into the box from the right wing but causes no trouble.

22′  GOAL -West Brom 0-Man Utd 1. Carrick places an excellent ball through to Dimitar Berbatov in the box who calmly right foots it between Carson’s legs and into the goal. Clinical finishing by the Bulgarian. 1-0 Man Utd

20′ Park causes trouble in the box and it’s kicked out for a corner, which is punched away clearly by Carson.

19′ Koren puts in a great cross from the right side for Fortune to bravely head, but it’s called offside.

18′ Ferdinand straight arms Fortune in midfield, but no free kick is called.

17′ Fortune continues to cause trouble down the right flank, but Ferdinand is matching him inch for inch so far and blocking his crosses.

15′ Ronaldo tries a right footer from about 20 yards out, but scuffs it and it goes wide.

14′ Vidic wraps his arms around Fortune, but it’s a throw in instead of a free kick on the right wing.

12′ West Brom fans call for a penalty after slight contact in the box, but Styles isn’t interested and a weak shot is easily caught by Van der Saar.

11′ Tevez and Berbatov cause havoc in the box with two Baggie defenders colliding, but Carson comes out to collect the ball.

8′ A good pace to the game now, with both teams intent on attacking.

7′ United finally get a little pressure, but Park’s left footer in the box goes straight into the arms of Carson.

5′ Jay Simpson cuts in from the left wing and his low shot is touched away by Van der Sar for another corner, which proves harmless.

4′ A good ball into Fortune and his shot ricochets off Ferdinanad for a corner. Van Der Sar puches it away straight back to West Brom and a weak shot is cleared off the line. The rebound goes back to West Brom and it’s headed over the bar harmlessly

2′ Berbatov streaks down the right hand side, but his low drive is handled easily by Carson.

1′ Okay, here we go finally.  West Brom kick off and we’re underway.

0′ It’s almost time to kick off, so wake up and get your beer poured or your cup of tea or whatever it is you prefer.

0′ West Brom hasn’t had much to celebrate this season, but they’ve been improving lately and are after their fourth straight home win. United has won five on the road this season.

0′ It seems the match has been delayed to 8:15 pm UK time because of problems on the motorway. I wonder if Ronaldo was driving to the ground on his own today.

0′ United beat the Baggies 4-0 earlier this season at Old Trafford.

0′ United will set a top-flight league record if they can keep a clean sheet as they have shutout the opposition in the past 10 games. Meanwhile, Carlos Tevez will be making his 50th league appearance for the club.  Albion hasn’t beaten United at home for 25 years now. Will this be the day?

0′ Rob Styles will be the referee tonight

Reaction

Manchester United showed no mercy tonight as they took advantage of a shaky goaltender in Scott Carson and a red card to West Brom Skipper Paul Robinson at the 40 minute mark. Ronaldo led the way with goals in the 65th and 73rd minutes while Berbatov opened the scoring in the 22nd and Berbatov doubled the score just before half time. Vidic also added one with a fine header from a corner at the hour mark. Berbatov also had the ball in the net a second time, but was ruled offside. The match had quite a few controversial moments with Neville being pulled down in the box with no call, the red card to Robinson, the offside goal by Berbatov and Albion arguing vehemently that Ronaldo’s second goal was offside.

United solidify their grip on first place with 50 points while West Brom remain anchored to the bottom of the table with 21 points. It might not have been 5-0 if Albion had finished the game with 10 men, but the three points wouldn’t have been in doubt as United had 64% ball possession.

Man of the Match

This is actually a hard choice tonight as Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick, Dimitar Berbatov, Carlos Tevez, and Cristiano Ronaldo all had excellent games and any one of them could be given the award. I think even though five goals were hammered in, I’ll have to give it to a midfielder in this one and Michael Carrick impressed me with his pinpoint passing. He’s often an invisible man on the pitch, but he was very noticeable in tonight’s game.