Manchester United stayed on top of the Premier League after a hard-fought victory over Norwich at Old Trafford.
The promoted visitors battled well and would have been ahead had Anthony Pilkington taken a golden chance.
But Anderson headed the Reds ahead after 68 minutes to break the Canaries' resistance.
Danny Welbeck sealed the win late - a record 19th successive home league win - on as the youngsters impressive season continued.
Attack
Norwich did attack when they could and they were the better team for the first 20 minutes, although their best work was done around their own penalty area - and it did not involve the ball.
Correctly assuming their opponents would dominate possession for long spells, the Canaries remained rock-solid in retaining two banks of four, which United found impossible to penetrate.
Returning striker Wayne Rooney unleashed a long-range effort, which Canaries goalkeeper John Ruddy dealt with easily and Marc Tierney was on hand to clear a near-post flick by Darren Fletcher from Nani's corner.
Other than that, the hosts were repeatedly frustrated, the unexplained absence of Ashley Young denying them a slippery customer on both flanks on a day when Nani was not at his best.
Certainly Norwich would not have expected to reach the interval in such comfort, the entertainment value so low that watching comedian - and Canaries supporter - Stephen Fry seemed to nod off in the directors' box.
Fry would have had plenty to cheer about if Elliott Bennett had been able to pick out Steve Morison after surging to the byline, the Norwich striker would have had a tap-in.
Instead, Bennett drilled his cross straight at Phil Jones and the hosts breathed a sigh of relief.
United survived two more gilt-edged Norwich chances immediately after the break too.
Jones has already caught the eye this season but the 19-year-old needed to show maturity way beyond his years after Morison had given Evans the slip. Knowing Pilkington was completely on his own behind him, the teenager held his ground, denying an early cross, before lunging in on Morison and coming away with the ball.
It was a textbook piece of defending, and a further evidence of why Ferguson felt so comfortable leaving Rio Ferdinand on the bench.
A minute later though, Jones was beaten by Pilkington, who stepped inside the former Blackburn man only for his shot to strike Evans, allowing goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard to make the save.
Wes Hoolahan was not that far away with a dipping long-range effort as Norwich, who had scored in 11 of their last 12 away games, pushed forward with relish.
United's good fortunate was seemingly inexhaustible. When Pilkington seized on Antonio Valencia's miscontrol, the striker was left with only Lindegaard to beat.
He steadied himself, just as Lambert would have wished, but amazingly rolled his shot wide of the far post, to the disbelief of the visiting contingent at that end of the ground.
Having passed up so many chances, Norwich must have feared what was about to follow.
Substitute Ryan Giggs floated over a corner, which was met by Jones and flicked on by Rooney, to Anderson, who powered home a header from close range.
Still, Norwich refused to let their heads drop and came agonisingly close to a leveller as Pilkington's shot deflected off Anderson, onto the post and back into the grateful arms of Lindegaard, who had been helpless.
Danny Welbeck then slid in but failed by inches to touch home Jones' cross.
Norwich continued to threaten but after Morison's goalbound effort was turned away by Ferdinand, Welbeck sealed the win with his third goal in a week before Rooney chipped narrowly over.
What is your verdict on the action? Have your say.
Manchester United 2 Norwich 0
October 01, 2011
Comments
Login or Register to comment
struggled today,norwich deserved something from the game.i think the lack of investment in the midfield area is finally being exposed. on the plus point,welbeck looking very good with his overall play.
i dont think we can carry on relying on the wingers or the strikers to do something special in everygame,sometimes midfielders have to do it to(like today) but i dont see a goal scoring midfielder at united apart from the young cleverly.
Not the best game ! infact a bit boring esp the first half.We yet again have no midfield !thats why we are struggling .Rooney is playing everywhere , he played well . the others were mediochre ;MOM none.
We got 3 points and that is the only bright side of this. Rooney, Hernandez, Nani were all totally ineffective, and if Anderson hadn't scored that goal, he would have rated negative numbers, instead of the 1 that I would give him now. His passing is as bad as anyone I have ever seen in the PL. It is no wonder that we get beat down the field, as when our backs press forward, Anderson gives the ball DIRECTLY to the other team, and BOOM, they are challenging our goal.
The international break can't come at a better time.
3 points in the bag and a clean sheet to boot, that'll do me!!
Lucky win for United today, perhaps SAF should heed the wake up call himself, I can only assume that he must have thought it was an away game with that starting midfield. yes 3 points is 3 points but WTF are Anderson, Park and Fletcher doing on the same pitch? Not one of them capable of playing with any speed or creativity whatsoever, credit to Park for a great run on the 2nd goal but all he can do is run he has no creativity with the ball at his feet. Let's hope Vidic,Rio and Smalling are back for the liverpool game and is there not another right back other than Valencia? Come on Fergie this is Manchester United.
Sorry to state the blindingly obvious but we were very, very lucky today against a team that surprised me. Looks like we've got the Arsenal bug - passing it around forever but not shooting! We must improve - and fast!
Gordon
Weve played better! Norwich played well, bit unlucky and choked when given that glorious chance! And thats y we r champions, always create chances and get the goals in the end. Still think we miss a midfielder, fletch n anderson poor today n evans not much better!
obviously some concerns all over the pitch today................
A win is a win, but that was far from impressive. We now have Liverpool away, City at home and Everton away in the league. Hope we see a big improvement for those games. If Vidic and Young are fit and in the team that will help.
Anderson goal was the difference, but┄┄ then there was alot of fear seeing as if they were almost doing Basel's {spelling} thing, thank for Welbecks goal it gave the Lads the confidence,bring on the pool, then bitters!
Not much to say! To be honest it could easily have been a 4-4 draw! The centre backs will be sorted out soon with the return of Vid and Smalling,Giggs played well when he came on as sub!
Could it be that other teams have studied how we play and know how to negate us as we have become too predictable how we play!
Still top of the league though,eh?
It was a hard match . Norwich were so organized . Giggs is may be old but he was much better than Nani who tries to make it really hard for himself and the team . sometimes it works with him but when it does not , it affects the team play . I do not think that Hernandez deserves to be starting . Berbatov and Welbeck have MORE to offer specially in matches like this one . Overall I thought Jones , Lindegaard , and Rooney played well .
Maybe I'm being too harsh, or maybe it's an effect of that shambolic result midweek, but I thought we were quite poor. We went too narrow, became too conservative at times, and it was only when Welbeck and Giggs came on that we played with intent, the United way. Norwich played very well: they deserved at least a goal, but we should have done better. Too many times we went narrow and the players were worrying about what happened in other positions.
Evra had a very good game. Anderson was good, he seems to play differently when Fletcher partners him in midfield. Really nice to have Fletcher back, he had another good game. Consistency seems to be a bit of an issue with Anderson, like Nani a couple of years ago, but he's had a good start to the season and there's no reason why he shouldn't stamp his authority on games a bit more. He's certainly capable.
Antonio Valencia is many things, but a fullback he is not. Caught out of position many times, caught offside a couple of times in places where a fullback shouldn't be offside.
Park had a decent game. Lovely touch for the second goal. He will have a huge part to play.
After the international break, the coaches should sit with the players and work out defending as a unit. Too many mistakes, and basic ones at that.
We should have started with Welbeck. He offers more than Chicha. I understand that Chicha needs game time, and he will score goals, but I just think Welbeck is better suited for such games. Play Arsenal or Chelsea or even City, I would go with Chicha.
We have to pick up, because if this slack attitude continues, we won't be going far this season. Lucklily we have a brilliant manager who I suspect will be having a word with a few players.
Highlight for me was Park's selfless pass for Welbeck to score.
This is still so early in the league programme and Utd have done really well to be where they are. Next three league games will be a big test but so far so good. Utd will get better once the defense starts to settle down with Smalling's and Vidic's return.
Ah, I forgot. Congratulations to the team for making history! The home run is a huge achievement and it's something we all can be proud of. Just a bit disappointing that the performance wasn't that good
very lucky , they couldn't string any passes together, at least not to their own players..Smarten up you guys, you have a whole season to go.Just because you have won a few games doesn't mean it is all over.............
Well, I am back home from the searing heat of Manchester to a cold and blustery Canada. After getting to see the woeful performances of Stoke and Basle I was happy not to have waisted any more money on todays game. The midfield was again poor. No one really put a foot wrong, just didn't create much. Then Fergie brings off Anderson, the only real spark out there. Fletcher again, for all his industry, goes round in circles. We were out played again and it seems we have not really produced much in the way of excitement since Cleverley got injured. Don't know if I expect too much but after the start we had and the great footy we played, the last few games we are back to the crap of last season. We could have picked up Adams or Parker for peanuts, both of whom are better than most of our mid fielders but Fergie declined to buy them. At least we got the three points.
Having watcher our unders 18,s get trounced by CITY at Trafford i expected fireworks from United today yet again we were lucky to get a result.
Fergie needs to take his blinkers off Evans Fletcher and others are not and never will be anything better than pub players.Bloody disgrace from the manager.
We have had a great start to the season maybe a bit to good!!! hiding the fact the the same problems with the midfield have not gone away against a top side today we would have been punished
a wins a win ,,, thats all i can say ,,, well done man u ;-)
welbeck, this time u can say ur goal means a lot now. keep up man, keep doing yo thing
For me Fergie's subbing on Rio and going with 3 center backs told it all, we were that bad again today,Norwich were superbly organised and if not for a bit of bad luck and sloppy finishing they might have won this one 4-2 or better. United were a mess again. WTF is going on with the passing, especially Anderson who was beyond wofeul. No team pace, movement, positional sense, it was pub league at times. Must admit that Giggs and Welbeck being brought on made a difference, I really didn't think we would score at all, we were that bad. Danny must start ahead of Chicarito who contributes very little, and gets called for offside far too many times for my liking. Maybe teams have him sussed out now. Jones had a good game and saved us on more than one occasion. Valencia another nightmare game, mind you, Jones apart, all our defending was horrendous again. Nani & Park provided no width, both were awful. Yes Park did well for Danny's goal but did sweet FA other than that and Nani just wasn't there, period. Hope the hell we get Vida and Smalling back for the dippers' game, and Cleverley, otherwise we'll get a hammering at Anfailed. Can't blame it all on CM, this was a team p*** poor display. And what was the deal leaving Young out all together, was he hurt?
Just got back after a couple of post match scoops in Hanrahans, and I have just read all the comments up to and including Roy @ 18.19 . Excellent summarising, as you saw it, from all of you guys so far. I cannot strongly disagree with any of you; we ALL, generally, did actually see the same game!
I hope that danny (the Wilmslow one, that is) doesn’t post one of his inane contributions, and spoil a good thing?
Not a great performance by any stretch of the imagination, but crikey, we played ‘poorly’ and WON! Now that IS the sign of Champions! Believe me, there will be more games like this (unfortunately) before the end of May; we are playing football in real time, not computer game or magazine/comics time.
Similar games like today’s happened fifty years ago, and will continue to happen in the NEXT fifty years. Reality is sometimes disappointing, but get used to it. On the other hand, trust me, there will be a hell of a lot MORE exciting and excellent displays from our beloved Reds.
The highlight of the match, for me, occurred after our first goal, when Jonesy ran down the right wing and delivered a magnificent ground cutting cross that Danny (the United one) just failed to convert, That was one of the finest passes that I have witnessed since Becks used to deliver them for us. I wonder if anyone else remembers that one?
Ah well, Saturday October 1st, and STILL top of the Premiership! AND, now that boring intermission of International games, now THAT is something to moan about!
United ‘til I die!
Same old same old. Evra and Anderson poor. Defence all over the shop. Fletcher great but working on his own. Nani frustrating.as ever. Rooney great but what is his obsession with chipping the keeper? Keeper looked dodgy for the first time he's played for us. Jones needs rested. Welbeck should start every game.
Given the patchwork nature of our defence (a legitimate winger at fullback and a fullback who thinks he's a winger, fifth choice centre-back and a 19 year old in his first few weeks at he club) it was a good win.
Phil Jones was IMMENSE. MOTM by a mile for me. What a signing he is turning out to be.
Danny Welbeck continues to get better and better by the game and is now pushing Hernandez for the slot alongside Rooney.
Anderson had some really good moment's and scored a very important goal.
Evra was a lot, lot better defensively today, which was good to see.
Evans was also very good alongside Jones and deserve's some credit after all the ridiculous abuse he get's.
Overall it was a very difficult game as you expect when a team just sticks 11 men behinde the ball. In these sort of games we were lacking the guile and brilliance that Cleverley & Young provide. And although they had a few good chance's on the break, that was down to Valencia being caught out of position at right back. And with him not being a right back, i don't see that as a big problem. So not a great game to watch,but a win and a clean sheet going into the International's is exactly what we needed. So after the break we will have Rafael, Vidic, Smalling, Cleverley & Young back which will be a massive lift. We can then get back to the free flowing football that we were producing at the start of the season.But still unbeaten and top of the League. So not too bad.