Five things we learnt from Manchester United’s game against West Ham

Watching Manchester United comfortably put West Ham to the sword at a rain soaked Old Trafford this weekend arguably told us very little about which way the title will be heading. United’s 3-0 victory did have some lessons to teach us though, a few we were expecting – Wayne Rooney needs time but is on his way back to his best- and one or two that were a bit of a surprise- Nemanja Vidic has leapfrogged Ryan Giggs on the captaincy stakes. Here’s five things we were able to ascertain from United’s fairly routine victory other than the fact that Louis Boa Morte and Keiron Dyer still exist.

He comes from Serbia he’ll f*cking skipper ya. Nemanja Vidic wore the Captain’s armband and certainly did the role justice. With some fine tackles, one on Carlton Cole was particularly impressive not to mention a range of passing I’d almost forgot he had, the Serbian was on top form. While Vidic’s ability may be no real revelation the fact that he was handed the Captain’s armband over Giggs, may just mean that Fergie wants a skipper who’s going to start practically every game. The only question remaining now is will Rio Ferdinand be relieving him of his leadership duties when he returns from injury- judging by Saturdays display Vidic certainly doesn’t deserve to lose them.** Get ready for the Nani rollercoaster. Last week following his penalty miss, many United fans were left feeling a little annoyed with Mr Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha, however the winger banished that miss to the distant memory banks with a performance against West Ham that was at times mesmerising.  Nani’s link up lay with Dimitar Berbatov was mouth-watering and gave us the impression that Nani may have just gate crashed Rooney and Berbatov’s strike partnership and turned it into a three pronged attack. While Nani is still occasionally guilty of giving the ball away and should have done better when put through by Giggs, a player of his ability is allowed a modicum of inconsistency as long as he can be relied upon to be a threat. It’s looking like the ‘next Ronaldo’ tag could finally be rightfully forgotten as the Portuguese winger carves his own name into the list of Old Trafford favourites.** Defenders beware Rooney is returning. With all the talk of how many minutes, games, hours, seconds, episodes of Coronation Street Wazza had gone without a goal it was a relief to finally see that bit of statistical annoyance squashed. While Saturday’s performance was by no means vintage  Rooney it was arguably his best one since Sunderland last season. His goal from the penalty spot was well taken and may just relieve some of the pressure that seems to have been heaped upon one of the best strikers on the planet since before the world cup. All strikers have barren spells but not many carry their team almost single handed to a title challenge as Rooney did last season. Hopefully the media can now concentrate on how long it’s been since Darren Fletcher took a throw-in or something equally as frivolous and let Rooney get back to the business of giving defenders-well in fact whole teams -nightmares.** Spreading the love. Nani and Rooney’s goals mean that six United players have now got on the score sheet since the season started- not counting last season’s third highest scorer- own goals. That’s quite impressive considering were only three games in and highlights the fact that the over-reliance on Rooney may become a thing of the past. United’s most successful teams have always had goals spread throughout the team and other than last season and maybe the Ruud Van Nistelrooy era, there hasn’t been one sole United striker everyone’s relied upon. Even when Cristiano Ronaldo was breaking records, Rooney, and a certain Argentinean along with the supporting cast all weighed in with goals. A return to the sort of Total Football ‘everyone doing his bit’ type of scoring we’ve seen in previous seasons at Old Trafford may be the best way to stop opposing teams finding a way to try and snuff United out.** Michael’s face a real fight. Michael Carrick and Michael Owen’s fifteen minute cameos hardly cemented their place in the starting line up against Everton next week, it did however show that both men are still in Sir Alex Ferguson’s thoughts, the question is are they likely to be given a chance soon? With Chicharito being the new buzz word around Old Trafford Owen may have been pleased to even come off the bench , while Carrick has been out of favour for some time now. With Berbatov and Rooney looking like a solid partnership Owen may well have to settle for sub appearances and the occasional start against the ‘lesser teams.’  Carrick may well get a chance when Fergie decides to rest Paul Scholes but when will that be? Scholes gave another master class performance on Saturday- I’m sorry to add to the hundreds of people who’ve used that term to describe the ginger one’s displays but it really is the most apt. With Everton away next Saturday, Fergie is unlikely to rest his midfield maestro for that one, then there’s the first CL game against Rangers- which will no doubt be seen as a ‘must win’ in order to get off to the right start. After the Champions League game comes the visit of every United fan’s favourites Liverpool, so Carrick may have to wait a little while before he’s given a start. With Anderson back from injury and Darron Gibson, plus Tom Cleverly- if he isn’t loaned out – also waiting in the wings, then Carrick has got a real fight on his hands to regain his place. His cause isn’t helped by the fact it’s now becoming apparent there’s only two central midfield places up for grabs rather than the three of last season.

Check out more of Justin Mottershead’s work on his blog ‘Name on the Trophy”