Our mood celebratory as Tevez and Anderson shine

FORGIVE me for the even heavier air of smugness I am exuding this week but having predicted the Roma match score here last week (and cleaned up at the bookies) I was then thrilled to see the dam burst on Saturday, thus — at long bloody last — fulfilling my weekly promise here that all these strikers would one day pay off.

As we all drenched ourselves in the consequent happiness, I even found the egotistic time to remind myself that I suggested Tevez would come spectacularly good just in time for Senor Maradona.

And so it came to pass; he and Anderson were surely the stars of the show. Yes, yes, it was only Wigan. But then there’s been a lot of “only” teams recently against whom we still only scored once; so you can understand our celebratory mood.

You can tell normal service would appear to be resumed by the fact that we are back in the old mindset now of cursing the arrival of international match break time; just as we are lifting off, along comes the dragging weight of chump McClaren and Co.

Given the injury crisis that was painfully apparent to all at the weekend, we are also dreading the post-break check-ups.

Mind you, whisper it again, but we have been fortunate in the injury witch’s choice of victim. Balsawood Man’s warm-up pull-up — beyond parody, that, so I won’t even bother — released the opportunity to see Saturday’s windfall, and a fit Carrick might’ve meant Anderson missing the shake-up cut.

Carrick has hardly been at Cantonesque levels of importance this term so far anyway, to put it mildly. As the new edition of ‘Red Issue’ revealed at the weekend, Carrick was taken to one side after the Reading game whereupon Fergie told him that was the worst he had seen him in a United shirt; the boss then asked him whether he thought he was now ‘billy f**king big boots’ because he had won the title. Ouch.!

Meanwhile, Hargreaves seems to be on his third injury of the season so far and it’s only October. During his second bout, he glumly told a paper “this injury is one I haven’t had before” and my first reaction was to think “don’t worry — you’ll probably get right through the medical textbook before you’re through.”

We don’t seem to be missing him much anyway, do we? Amidst all the carnage, in came Pique, unexpectedly excellent on Saturday, and Danny Simpson, who delighted all of us who hold Salford close to the heart (with a bulletproof jacket slipped in between, of course).

But it’s Anderson who has intrigued most of all with his verve and versatility — suddenly you hope that the rumour mentioned in last week’s column about him being loaned out to Portugal in January won’t come true.

The fact remains that, when all are fit, he was about eighth in the queue to get even a place as a sub — until Saturday’s managerial post-mortem perhaps?

Fergie has never been shy of suddenly elevating someone above his so-called seniors although he does tend to be reluctant to do so when it means recent big-money purchases may be bypassed.

After all, it would hardly look good if Carrick and Hargreaves were to become also-rans given the excessive amounts spent on them. And if you cock an ear, you will hear the most senior of them all on his way — that’s the skip, moaning and barking in the distance.

Step forward Gary Neville, about to make his long-awaited comeback tomorrow night against his favourite scousers in the stiffs. With him back, and Pique suddenly a factor, our defence has some overdue flexibility to play with. And if Wes Brown can concentrate on his rehab instead of partying in Relish and Casino as he was on Saturday night, all the better chance of the full set returning.

A record clean-sheet possibility looms? We’ll drink to that...

* By Richard Kurt whose ‘Red Army Years’ is available via [e-mail]