Wake Me Up When (Sweet) December Ends...(Ok, I don't want to wake up)

"It's the most wonderful time of the year/with the kids jingle-belling/and everyone telling you be of good cheer/It's the most wonderful time of the year..." - Andy Williams

Merry Christmas and compliments of the season to you!!

What's that you said?

Christmas is over?

Oh, I know.

That we are already in a new year and many businesses and schools resume fully tomorrow?

Sure, I'm aware.

But a December 2016 to early January 2017 that has offered a 100% win record (bar the Fellaini-foolish-foot induced draw with the Evertonians which began the festive month) has meant that it's definitely still yuletide season.

8 games. 18 goals. 3 conceded. Some of the most scintillating football seen since the retirement of the Govan colossus. 

More importantly, we are beginning to see the implementation of a functional, fluid and effective system which works in spite of the personalities on show. LVG did have a functional system but it could never have been described as fluid and was rarely consistently effective. Moyes, on the other hand, had...Sir Alex Ferguson. The less said about his 'system', the better.

The 8 game win streak in all competitions is our club's best run since 2006 and this has not been fortuitous by any means. The Manager-Formerly-Known-As-Vile a.k.a. MFKAV a.k.a Jose Mourinho has finally been able to effect a playing pattern that suits the talents at his disposal, settle on his best XI and have hitherto dry bones rise again. Did I say "Merry Christmas!"? How about "Happy Easter!"? All this while somehow incredibly managing to remain civil and even courteous after the early season histrionics. 

Which brings us to the game yesterday. Our victim was the Championship side, Reading who had a bona fide Red legend, Jaap Stam, as its manager. When the line-up was announced, I must confess that I predicted an afternoon of frustration. Young at right back? Fellaini starts? Scratch that, Fellaini PLAYS?! Mata on the right wing (again)?? (For the life of me, I continually fail to understand why successive coaches choose to play Juan Mata, a world-class central midfielder, on the wings. He's slightly-built, slow and offers little defensively. In spite of his selfless excellence, it is clear that we would never get the best from this metronome playing him that way. Story for another day.) Chris Smalling? :(  

But I was right in a sense - the afternoon was indeed frustrating...frustrating in the sense that Martial and Rashford did not get respective hat-tricks. In the first half. Lol.

Blew them away, was what we did. We could have had 2 goals in the first 2 minutes and this would have been considered fair. To be honest, I did think that Reading was going to put up quite the fight but it became obvious from kick-off that both teams were literally and figuratively in different leagues.

Wayne Rooney was able to score/fluke-knee his 249th goal for the club putting him at par with the great Sir Bobby Charlton. Say what you may, but you don't get to that number by being an all-round idiot and totally incompetent. 12 years at the club and he's won everything there is to win at elite club level. Next items on the bucket list: 1. Break the record 2. Lucrative summer move to Beijing. 3. Knighthood.

Martial was again electric and has been Johnny Storm since apparently overcoming his...err...domestic issues (Woe! Man...Hell hath no fury...). The Reading back-line including a certain Tyler Blackett, couldn't cope with Rashford's burners, Rooney played some testimonial football, Carrick was champagne (as usual), Fellaini was amusingly competent (Ed,: It was Reading after all), Mata, Young and Blind didn't have to go beyond Gear 2 (One of those 3 does NOT in fact have any gear beyond Gear 2) and Smalling didn't tumble over his own feet. Good day at the office. Which brings me to the only bad news...

The injury to Marcus Rojo.

Rojo had been enjoying a surprisingly stellar season in both availability and competence so it was quite disappointing to see him succumb to a muscle injury in the 19th minute. The nature and length of his injury is yet to be determined. "The Rock" Eric Bailly has since left for the African Cup of Nations therefore Smalling and Jones are the only available first team Centre-halfs. Blind and Carrick (No!) can fill in and Axel Tuanzebe can finally be given a chance against Hull at least. Another option? Since it's a club policy not to speak on or about other club's players (*cough*), let's just say that he shares the gaffer's first name and his surname rhymes with the Chelsea's manager's...desperate eh? :) 

I do however expect whatever pair selected to do a job against Hull City in the EFL Cup on Tuesday. The real challenge will be Liverpool on Sunday. Sturridge wasn't really injured, Coutinho is back and Firmino continues to be a gengenpressing mainstay. The street smarts and pace those three possess would be a task for any settled defence talk less a make-shift. The strangest things have however been known to happen in the Christmas season...

In other news:

* Real Madrid spanked Granada 5-0 on Saturday to match the 39-match unbeaten run in all competitions set by Barcelona last season. It was 4-0 after 31 minutes and could easily have ended in double figures by 90. Such scorelines, you may recall, are not at all unique to the Los Blancos. Ominously, it doesn't currently look like any team can get a W against them. Madrid for the treble?

Signing out,

B.L