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Aalborg 0 3 Manchester United

This game was not one of the glamorous fixtures that the CL often throws up. But Fergie's team selection ensured the players don't take it lightly - often such fixtures give you a dire 0-0, but we couldn't afford another one of those post Villareal.

Fergie's selection of JOS in the middle of the park continues to baffle me. It means we take time to develop that tempo and some fluency. But with Rooney/Berbatov/Ronaldo and Nani up-front and a not-so-strong opposition, we could perhaps take that risk. Rafael da silva made his CL debut and he had a cracker. He is the one to watch out for - plays with a lot of flair (Brazil!) and showed nice skills on the ball - just like he did every time he played in the pre-season. If I had to critique him, it would be on his defending on set pieces. He was caught ball watching on a couple of occasions and it needs to be seen how he deals with someone like Drogba. But he is an exciting prospect.

Berbatov broke his duck when the Aalborg defense set one up nicely for him - next time, they should just score for him, instead. Berba didn't celebrate. When Ronaldo left his marker for dead and crossed one in from the byline, Berabtov adjusted nicely to volley one in. He still didn't celebrate. What's up with that? Celebrate fella, and score more of 'em every weekend.

The sad part was that three players had to come off with injuries. Scholes has damaged his knee ligaments - more likely than not he will miss a few weeks. It's a shame and we'll definitely miss him given Carrick and Hargreaves are still out. Rafael Da Silva also asked to be subbed and Rooney didn't look good with his knee. To lose such important players in a fixture like this really is annoying.

Off to Ewood park next - let's hope this is where Berbatov's season kick started and we put a run of league wins under our belts to put some pressure on Chelsea.

Thoughts on the Bolton game

My thoughts on the Bolton game are live on www.manutd.com. You can read the whole article here.

The story so far this season

Ok, I am back and all that.

So, lots to catch up with. Since the last post came on one of the best days ever, it's obviously hard to follow it up.

So we got Berbatov. So Ronaldo is still playing in the Red of Manchester and not in the white of Madrid. All that doesn't matter anymore, the focus is back on what matters - 3 points at the end of 90 minutes. Like last year, we've had a phenomenally slow start to the season. Unlike last year though, the good thing is we've also had two of the toughest fixtures of the season behind us now. The law of averages did catch up with us against bindippers (it had to happen, sooner or later) and it was disappointing not to hold on and win at the bridge. Let's hope that the season kicks into gear now, that the players are fully match fit now and that we can get some consistency going.

One of the not so good things this season so far has been the fact that we've given up leads on two occasions and we've already conceded 4 league goals. Does that have anything to do with Carlos Queiroz no longer being at the club? It's slightly worrying and lets hope its a blip and not a trend that carries on this season. I still believe Rio and Vidic are the best central defensive partnership in Europe so there is no reason they can't repeat last year's stupendous performance. With Jonny Evans coming through nicely and Wes Brown a dependable deputy, we seem to be nicely covered at the back.

Now to something more controversial. How does Berbatov fit into the team? Fergie has built this team around the fluidity of the front 4 - that's usually Tevez, Rooney, Ronaldo and Giggs/Nani. They all work hard off the ball, they all exchange positions and drift in, drift wide throughout the game and that has proved fruitful over the last 2 seasons. Remember the speculation of "Where will the goals come from?" once Ruud left? Now enter Berbatov. We all know he's not really the most hard working of the lot. He's more like Ruud than he is like Tevez. Does Fergie want to revert back to a static central forward as a target man? Or does he want to fit Berbatov into this system?Is Berbatov going to be the first choice striker? On evidence so far, it looks like he will be and that means one of Rooney/Tevez will start less often. Competition is healthy and other managers would give their right hands to have this problem - but only time will tell if Berbatov's goal scoring rate will compensate for his lower work rate. It's early to judge him but so far, he hasn't contributed as much off the ball as United fans expect their players to. The only way that's going to be acceptable is if he scores 30-40 goals a season. So really, the bar is quite high for Berbatov and the sooner he gets into the goal scoring form, the better for all involved.

In Contrast, Ronaldo has really started from where he left off last season. He seems to be the destiny's child and we've missed his ruthlessness in front of the goal when he was gone. He has this unbelievable knack of making things happen in the box and long may it continue (until he moves to Madrid).

The league is incredibly tight and with Chelski having started all guns blazing, the margin of error is pretty low. Winning it three times in a row is probably the toughest thing in football at the moment - is it going to happen?