ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:ALEX FERGUSON doffed his ill-fitting woolly hat to the crowd near the end of this contest, his attempt to retrieve a bouncing ball on the touchline having prompted whoops of laughter from those behind the dug-out as the game drifted towards an unsatisfactory conclusion.
The Manchester United manager's gruff persona mellowed as he played the clown with a smile. His only regret was that his team continue to veer from their own more customary script.
United's dazzling array of attacking talent is spluttering at present. There have been only two goals in four league games since the destruction of Stoke City. That is hardly catastrophic, but it is now proving costly with Saturday's blank at Tottenham Hotspur offering an anti-climactic note upon which to depart for the Fifa Club World Cup in Japan. The squad had 11 hours to stew over their inability to puncture Spurs on the flight to Japan yesterday. They will have played two games fewer than their rivals near the top when they return for Christmas.
Only Paul Scholes broke ranks by suggesting vague regret at the prospect of travelling around the globe in the middle of the season.
"Obviously, we'd probably rather be here and playing our league game and not have so many fixtures in January, but it's one of those things," said the substitute. Yet the chance to take on the might of Gamba Osaka and then either Pachuca or Liga de Quito over the next week could at least sharpen instincts once again.
There was an anxiety to United here born of the knowledge that Liverpool had dropped points at the summit. Fifa's attempt at extravaganza might provide light relief.
This team inevitably maintains a threat, their strike force - even stripped of the suspended Wayne Rooney at White Hart Lane - is enough to render most defences gibbering wrecks, but they pressed only in fits and starts. Fluidity had drained from their approach. "We were nice on the ball, but there was not enough pressure," conceded goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
Had the home crowd not bayed for blood every time Dimitar Berbatov touched the ball, there would have been long periods when the Bulgarian's presence went utterly unnoticed. Carlos Tevez, too, was peripheral while Cristiano Ronaldo's mood darkened once he had seen a volleyed goal smacked in from just inside the area ruled out for a handball.
Frustration eventually boiled over. David Beckham was sent off a decade ago for a similarly petulant flick at an opponent as that conjured by the Portuguese on Michael Dawson near the touchline nine minutes from time. Ronaldo could be thankful the centre-half's reaction was less theatrical than that of Diego Simeone in Saint-Etienne, though the Football Association will scrutinise the referee Mike Dean's report for any mention of the incident.
Ferguson will presumably consider any potential sanction to be the next phase of the media witchhunt that he considers responsible for Uefa launching an inquiry into Rooney's tangle with an Aalborg player last week, the results of which will be known today.
It required the introduction of the veterans Scholes and Ryan Giggs to offer hint at real reward and the latter's stoppage-time free-kick, veering towards the top corner, might have yielded a victory. Yet, true to United's ill luck, Giggs was thwarted by a goalkeeper in Heurelho Gomes who is recovering poise and re-establishing a reputation.
Ferguson might have wondered whether his team could have done more to unsettle the former PSV Eindhoven goalkeeper. He was rarely crowded out at the set-pieces that recently induced panicked rushes of blood, the stream of crosses that had so unnerved Gomes in previous games intercepted too often by the excellent Dawson or Vedran Corluka.
The signing of a new goalkeeper remains a distinct possibility next month, not least to provide competition, though real overhaul of this squad may have to wait until the end of the campaign.
The Brazilian goalkeeper is fast recovering his reputation at White Hart Lane, with his shot-stopping here outstanding when Spurs needed it to be.
- Guardian Service
