News » Romelu Lukaku missed two

The shots just kept on coming. Kamalei Correa Jersey . On the surface, as the game kicked off it looked like a blank canvas where unconventional styles and shapes can come together in a heated battle. In the end it turned out to be a wide-open game full of moments of individual brilliance and incompetence. The Premier League has a lot of things going for it. Tactical versatility is not one of them. So when two traditional powerhouses in Manchester United and Liverpool faced off on Sunday, each starting with back threes, the potential was there for a real classic. We should have known better. Dont misunderstand me. This was a very entertaining match but at the end of it there was much more to pick apart than to admire. It is easy for fans of Manchester United to be very content as another weekend of Premier League action is put to bed. Six straight wins have pushed them comfortably into the top three and thats a position they could hold for the majority of the time between now and the end of May. Their recent memories are still full of nightmare images for such an iconic club and in the buildup to this one they were rehashed aplenty with many showing Liverpools 3-0 thumping of them at Old Trafford last term. An immediate turnaround of that score certainly sent them home from Old Trafford on Sunday very happy, but Louis Van Gaal will know there is still a lot of work to be done. The final score tells a story and we can forgive United fans for only wanting to know about that story right now but more telling was that goalkeeper David De Gea was named man of the match in a game his team won 3-0. The 24-year-old has easily been the teams best player this season and it is clear that Ed Woodward and the upper management feel it is very important to get the Spaniard a new contract as soon as possible. De Gea has made some wonderful saves this season, yet the one on Mario Balotelli in the second half may have been even better than his effort against Evertons Bryan Oviedo earlier this season. It is no coincidence that De Geas form has escalated at a time when the defence in front of him has been shaky. Van Gaal insistence on a back three, with Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young, for now, as wing backs has excited neutrals but has ensured the goalkeeper his busiest time since he came to Manchester. De Gea excels at shot stopping, stands tall and never allows his body to react early. The save against Balotelli was a perfect example of this as Sterling made a vertical run across the defence to get in behind but after he was denied, De Gea saw Balotelli open in the box and looked at him before Sterling passed the ball. His awareness was better than any of his defenders and the moment the Italian forward steadied himself to shoot the goalkeeper moved his foot to prepare to dive across goal. He had done something similar earlier in the half after Jonny Evans turned and hit a misplaced back pass towards the penalty box. Sterling ran on to it, intercepted it and was free on goal, but the moment he touched it, De Gea had sprinted out and was only three yards from the young forward. It was then that he stood still, waited for Sterling to make the move and reacted to deny him. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers can be accused of some hyperbole about his team in his post match assessments this season and there is nothing wrong with publicly backing your players that way but after this one he didnt have to extend the truth at all. We created enough chances. We looked like scoring and we had enough chances to get something from the game, Rodgers said afterwards. Its unusual for a manager to say that when his team have been beaten by three goals but this is what is happening to teams that are playing United at the moment. All three of their wins this month – against Stoke, Southampton and Liverpool – has seen the opposition get many chances to score. That they didnt speaks, in part, to the evolution of De Gea into a true match winner but it should not necessarily speak to the true development of United. There is an undoubted belief about them this season that was lacking last year under David Moyes. A belief that gets them through awkward moments of matches that are not going their way and having such superb finishers in their team has also allowed them to score their way out of trouble also. However, United will still puzzle a perfectionist like Van Gaal. It is right to look at the long list of injuries and wonder if they could be better with some of them back but not one of them looks like the kind of player who could come in and bring an assurance and a presence the team needs to completely control matches. Beating a despised rival like Liverpool is another feather in the cap for the Dutchman but he will know just how poor the Reds are at the moment and how, at times, his team made them look more like the team from last season. This is the ultimate challenge for the manager going forward. Just how good are Uniteds opponents to present a severe test of their qualities? United will play many more games this season against teams far worse than Liverpool and will continue to pick up three points regularly. After all, even under Moyes for most of last season, they won 18 of 26 games against teams not in the top seven of the table. Eleven of their next 13 league fixtures, in the next three months, include such opponents and the other two are against an inconsistent Tottenham team, giving them plenty of opportunities to pick up points while not playing anywhere close to a level Van Gaal and Manchester United expect. It is easy to look at a league table and decide by a teams position whether or not they are having a good season but it is moments, in games that provides the evidence on whether or not a team and players are progressing. United desperately need to finish in the top four this season to regain a place at the lucrative top table of European football, in the Champions League, but based on the standard of quality from many teams in the league this should be a very easy target for them to hit. United need more than just that. In April they face three of the most difficult games you can get in a Premier League campaign with a home derby clash against Man City along with away games at Chelsea and Everton. A glance at the league table at that time will show us that United will be more than on their way to get Champions League football next season, but their performances in those matches will tell us just how far away they really are from getting anywhere close to what they ultimately should be. Chelsea and Manchester City have played a big part in the gap widening between them and the rest of the league but the others are culpable as well, treading water surrounded by mediocrity that isnt close to the standard delivered by the leagues top two. For United to get closer to the upper echelon they need to start dominating matches in more ways than just the scoreline. Steve McNair Jersey . Wheeler scored at 4:58 of overtime, with Scheifele getting an assist, and the Jets beat the slumping Colorado Avalanche 2-1 on Sunday night. Kendrick Lewis Jersey . The veteran fighter will be squaring off with Henderson in a five-round lightweight bout as part of another network televised card at the United Center on Saturday night. http://www.cheaptitansjerseyssale.com/?tag=daren-bates-jersey-sale . Fans can also watch the game on the newly launched TSN GO (currently available to Bell TV and Rogers customers), which gives TSN subscribers the freedom to live stream the networks programming from their smartphones, tablets, and computers at no additional charge – just as they would watch Canadas Sports Leader on TV at home. The following week, MLS ON TSN is at BMO Field in Toronto to deliver live coverage of TFCs home opener vs. D.C. United on Saturday, March 22 at 4:30 p. SOUTHAMPTON, England -- Everton self-destructed in its quest for a Champions League spot, scoring two own goals in a 2-0 loss to Southampton on Saturday that seriously dents the teams chances of finishing in the top four in the Premier League. Antolin Alcaraz headed into his own net in the opening minute, and Seamus Coleman repeated the feat in the 31st as Everton missed a chance to provisionally move above Arsenal into fourth place. Arsenal remained one point in front ahead of its home game against Newcastle on Monday, after which both teams will only have two matches remaining. Romelu Lukaku missed two good scoring chances for Everton in the first half and Leon Osman appealed for a penalty in the 62nd minute but was booked for diving instead. Southampton is lodged firmly in eighhth place and now has its best ever Premier League tally of 52 points. David Fluellen Jersey. Everton was coming off a 2-0 win over Manchester United last weekend, but went behind after just 53 seconds when Alcaraz dived to clear a cross from Rickie Lambert but sent his header past goalkeeper Tim Howard instead. Coleman fed Lukaku with a cross shortly afterward, but the Belgium striker only managed a poor shot off target. Southampton doubled its lead when Nathaniel Clyne sent in a cross that found its way to an unsighted Coleman, who reacted late and only managed to divert the ball into his own net. Lukaku missed a close-range header as Everton pushed forward, but the visitors never came close to a comeback -- and now find themselves a lot farther from the Champions League. Jerseys NFL China Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys From China Cheap MLB Jerseys Wholesale China Jerseys NFL Jerseys China Discount Soccer Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys China China NCAA Jerseys Cheap Cheap Nike Dolphins Jerseys Cheap Nike Patriots Jerseys Cheap Nike Jets Jerseys Cheap Nike Bengals Jerseys Cheap Nike Browns Jerseys Cheap Nike Steelers Jerseys Cheap Nike Texans Jerseys Cheap Nike Colts Jerseys Cheap Nike Jaguars Jerseys Cheap Nike Titans Jerseys Cheap Nike Broncos Jerseys ' ' '