2009–10 Manchester United F.C. Season

The 2009–10 season was Manchester United's 18th season in the Premier League, and their 35th consecutive season in the top division of English football. Having equalled Liverpool's record of 18 English league titles the previous season, Manchester United were looking to break that record with an unprecedented fourth consecutive Premier League title in 2009–10, but they were ultimately beaten to the title by Chelsea by a single point. They also had the chance to be the first team to reach three consecutive Champions League finals since Juventus in 1998, but they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Bayern Munich.

On 3 January 2010, United were knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round after a surprise 1–0 home defeat to fierce rivals Leeds United, who were in League One. This was their first exit in the competition at this stage since 1984. Despite this, they won the League Cup for the second season in a row, beating Aston Villa 2–1 at Wembley on 28 February. In doing so, they became the first club to successfully defend the trophy since Nottingham Forest in 1990, and the third club to do so overall, after Forest (1989 and 1990) and Liverpool (1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984). Their fourth League Cup title and their third in five years, it was the first time in the club's history that they successfully defended a major cup.

Pre-season friendlies

Manchester United announced the first four fixtures of their 2009 pre-season schedule on 14 January 2009, with the team touring Asia for the seventh time since 1995. The 22-man squad first headed out to Malaysia on 16 July 2009, in time for their first fixture two days later against a Malaysia XI at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur. United took a 2–0 lead in the first half-hour through Rooney and Nani, but Mohd Amri Yahyah pulled one back on the stroke of half-time before pulling the sides level seven minutes into the second half. Michael Owen then scored his first goal for Manchester United in the 85th minute to win the match for the club. The team was then scheduled to travel to Jakarta, Indonesia four days later, where they would play against an Indonesian Super League Select XI at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on 20 July. However, following the bombings on 17 July, the club cancelled the match. Had the match gone ahead, it would have been United's first visit to Indonesia since 1975, and only the second time in history. Instead, the team played a second match against the Malaysia XI at Bukit Jalil on 20 July, which they won 2–0 with goals from Federico Macheda and Michael Owen in the first 15 minutes.

They then flew to South Korea for a match against FC Seoul at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on 24 July. After going into the half-time interval 2–1 down, goals from Federico Macheda and Dimitar Berbatov led United to a 3–2 win. The final match of the tour was played in China on 26 July 2009 against Hangzhou Greentown at the Yellow Dragon Stadium in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Although it took more than a quarter of the match before the first goal came, they then began to flow thick and fast as Michael Owen scored a brace, Dimitar Berbatov, Zoran Tošić and Nani got one each, and Ryan Giggs scored a hat-trick from the bench to secure an 8–2 win.

En route from returning from East Asia, the United team travelled to Munich to take part in the Audi Cup on 29 and 30 July 2009. The tournament, organised to celebrate Audi's 100th year in business, featured the hosts Bayern Munich, as well as Milan and Boca Juniors. Four matches were played at the Allianz Arena in Munich over two days, with United first playing against Boca Juniors. With a 2–1 win featuring a maiden goal for Anderson and a debut goal for Antonio Valencia, United secured a place in the final against Bayern Munich the next day. Both sides played out a cagey goalless draw, meaning that the match went straight to penalties. The score reached 6–6 after seven penalties each before Jonny Evans saw his kick saved by Michael Rensing, allowing Daniel Van Buyten to seal the win for the host team. After returning to England, United played their final friendly of the summer at Old Trafford against Valencia on 5 August 2009. Second half goals from Wayne Rooney and Tom Cleverley secured a 2–0 win.

FA Community Shield

As 2008–09 Premier League champions, United kicked off the 2009–10 season with the traditional annual curtain-raiser, the 2009 FA Community Shield, on 9 August 2009, when they played against 2008–09 FA Cup winners Chelsea. Portuguese international Nani opened the scoring for United in the 10th minute, but Chelsea equalised through his compatriot Ricardo Carvalho seven minutes into the second half. Chelsea then took the lead through a controversial Frank Lampard goal in the 70th minute; with Manchester United in possession, Michael Ballack body-checked Patrice Evra only for the referee to play advantage. With Evra still on the floor, possession then changed leaving United short-handed in defence, allowing Lampard to shoot past Ben Foster in the United goal. With Chelsea leading as the match went into injury time, Ryan Giggs played in Wayne Rooney, who lifted the ball over the onrushing Petr Čech to take the match to penalties. Lampard opened the scoring in the shootout, only for Ryan Giggs to have his kick down the middle of the goal saved by the feet of Čech. Ballack, Carrick and Drogba all converted before Evra's tame effort was held by Čech. That left Salomon Kalou with the opportunity to win the game for Chelsea, which he took with aplomb, smashing the ball into the top corner of the goal. If Manchester United had won, it would have made them the first team to win the FA Community Shield outright three times in a row.

Premier League

The 2009–10 Premier League fixtures were released on 17 June 2009, with Manchester United opening their campaign against Championship runners-up Birmingham City on 16 August 2009. Despite missing several of their first-choice defenders and goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, United won the match 1–0 with a first-half goal from Wayne Rooney. The goal came in the 34th minute, when Dimitar Berbatov released Nani down the left. The Portuguese international then crossed for Rooney, whose header ricocheted back off the post to him, allowing him to tap in with Hart beaten.

Three days later, ''the Red Devils'' suffered their first defeat of the season, going down by a single goal at Burnley. United went behind after 19 minutes as Robbie Blake hit a volley into the top corner of the net after Stephen Jordan's cross was only half-cleared by Patrice Evra. Blake himself conceded a penalty on the stroke of half-time, but Michael Carrick had his kick saved by Brian Jensen, low to the goalkeeper's right. As ''the Reds'' – wearing their all-black change strip – searched for an equaliser, the final ball kept evading them and several moves came to nothing, leaving United to endure a defeat by the newly promoted club.

After the mid-week setback, United returned to winning ways at the weekend, beating Wigan Athletic 5–0 at the DW Stadium on 22 August. Despite a goalless first half, Wayne Rooney scored his 100th and 101st goals for Manchester United, either side of one from Dimitar Berbatov. Michael Owen scored his first competitive goal for the club five minutes from full-time, before Nani made it five with a free-kick in the second minute of injury time.

United faced their first "big four" opposition of the season on 29 August, when they hosted Arsenal at Old Trafford. Arsenal opened the scoring five minutes from the end of the first half through Andrey Arshavin; the Russian playmaker had been denied a penalty claim moments earlier, but then picked the ball up from Denílson just outside the penalty area and fired a 25-yard strike past Ben Foster. Wayne Rooney won a penalty for Manchester United in the 59th minute, knocking Ryan Giggs' through-ball past Manuel Almunia, who brought the English striker down. Rooney then stepped up to take the penalty himself, and slotted it home to the 'keeper's left. Arsenal responded with a free-kick from Robin van Persie that hit the crossbar, but a United attack immediately afterwards produced a similar free kick, taken by Ryan Giggs, which Abou Diaby headed into his own net. With the final attack of the game, deep into the fifth minute of injury time, Arsenal had the ball in the net again, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside against William Gallas, and the match finished 2–1 to United. For his show of frustration with the offside decision – kicking a water bottle down the touchline – Arsène Wenger was sent off.

After a two-week break for internationals, United returned to Premier League action with an away match against Tottenham Hotspur. Despite United having their first-choice centre-back partnership together for the first time since the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final, Spurs took the lead after 38 seconds through a Jermain Defoe bicycle kick. Ryan Giggs levelled the scores in the 25th minute, curling a free kick past Carlo Cudicini in the Tottenham goal, before Anderson gave United the lead with his first competitive goal for the club. In the space of 10 minutes in the second half, Paul Scholes received two yellow cards and was sent off, although the second booking was controversial and later criticised by manager Alex Ferguson. Nevertheless, despite being reduced to ten men, ''the Red Devils'' increased their lead to 3–1 as Wayne Rooney slotted the ball through Cudicini's legs for the final goal of the game – Rooney's fifth in five league matches. The result took United to second place in the league table, behind unbeaten Chelsea and ahead of Manchester City, who had a game in hand. Giggs' goal continued his record of having scored a League goal in every Premier League season since the Premier League began in 1992–93, the only player to have done so.

Five days after playing against Beşiktaş in Turkey, United returned to England for a home match against local rivals Manchester City, the first Manchester derby of the season. Despite having only just recovered from a knee injury, Carlos Tevez was picked to start against his former team by City manager Mark Hughes (himself a former Manchester United striker). United drew first blood, as Wayne Rooney, in the second minute, scored his sixth goal in as many league games, but Gareth Barry equalised for City less than 15 minutes later after Tevez had forced an error from Ben Foster in the United goal. The score remained at 1–1 going into half-time, but no sooner than Darren Fletcher had restored United's lead, heading in a Ryan Giggs cross four minutes after the break, Craig Bellamy drew City level again as Park Ji-sung was drawn away by the run of Tevez. After Berbatov had twice been denied by saves from Shay Given, the Bulgarian striker was withdrawn for Michael Owen with 13 minutes left to play. Giggs again provided a cross for Fletcher to head United 3–2 up three minutes later, but with 10 seconds of normal time left to play, Martin Petrov was gifted possession by Rio Ferdinand and played Bellamy in, who scored past the onrushing Foster. The fourth official had already indicated that a minimum of four minutes would be added onto the 90 to account for stoppages, but Bellamy's goal celebration and United's substitution of Carrick for Anderson meant that more would have to be played. Then, in the sixth minute of added time, Giggs played a through-ball for Owen, who clipped the ball over Shay Given to clinch a last-gasp 4–3 win that temporarily sent the home side to the top of the table. Mark Hughes later expressed his aggravation at the fact that United's winning goal had come almost 90 seconds after the added time indicated by the fourth official had elapsed, and television analysis also showed that the referee should have signalled the end of the game one second before Owen's goal had crossed the line.

The following weekend, United made the trip to Stoke-on-Trent to take on Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. After a goalless first half, Ryan Giggs was brought on in place of Nani ten minutes into the second half, and had an almost-immediate impact. Darren Fletcher played a through-ball into the penalty area and into the path of Giggs, who then played a square ball across the edge of the six-yard box to Dimitar Berbatov, allowing the Bulgarian a simple finish. With 15 minutes left to play, Fletcher was bundled over by Rory Delap on the right side of the penalty area. The left-footed Giggs crossed the consequent free-kick into the penalty area, where John O'Shea rose above his marker, Danny Collins, to head the ball past Thomas Sørensen in the Stoke goal. The match finished at 2–0 and, combined with Chelsea's 3–1 defeat by Wigan Athletic the same day, the result meant that United finished the weekend on top of the league for the first time in the season.

The league schedule took United back to Old Trafford for their next game against Sunderland on 3 October. United were one of four teams still protecting a 100% home record in 2009–10, but it was Sunderland who took the lead after seven minutes, as Darren Bent beat Ben Foster from outside the penalty area. It took United until five minutes into the second half to equalise: Dimitar Berbatov volleying John O'Shea's cross home with a bicycle kick. However, parity was short-lived as Kenwyne Jones scored for ''the Black Cats'' just seven minutes later. The Sunderland striker went up for a header with Foster, but the two collided and the ball came off the Trinidadian and trickled into the empty net. With six minutes remaining in normal time, Sunderland's former Manchester United winger Kieran Richardson was sent off for dissent, leading to a second yellow card. This allowed pressure from Manchester United to mount, and in the fourth minute of injury time, a shot across the face of goal from Patrice Evra was turned into the Sunderland goal by defender Anton Ferdinand – brother of United defender Rio. The 2–2 result maintained United's unbeaten home record for the season and gave them a one-point lead at the top of the table. However, they dropped to second place after Chelsea beat Liverpool the following day.

Another international break followed in the middle of October, from which Wayne Rooney returned with a calf strain, ruling him out of United's next fixture against Bolton Wanderers on 17 October. However, Edwin van der Sar recovered from his hand injury to make his first appearance of the season, while Berbatov returned from the birth of his first child in Bulgaria to partner Michael Owen up front. A header from Owen, diverted into the net by Zat Knight, gave United the lead in the fifth minute, before Antonio Valencia doubled the lead just after the half-hour mark. The Ecuadorian winger played a one-two with Gary Neville to work his way into the penalty area, and then fired the ball past Jussi Jääskeläinen. Matthew Taylor pulled a goal back for Bolton, heading home a cross from Kevin Davies, but it turned out to be the last goal of the game, and United won 2–1. Following Chelsea's 2–1 defeat by Aston Villa earlier in the day, United's win sent them back to the top of the league table.

After returning from a trip to Moscow in the Champions League in mid-week, United travelled down the M62 to take on Liverpool in the first North West derby of the season on 25 October. In the build-up to the game, much media attention had been spent on the fitness of Wayne Rooney, who had missed the club's last two games, and the prospect of Michael Owen facing his former club in Manchester United colours for the first time. Rooney was passed fit on the morning of the game, meaning that Owen started on the bench, while Giggs and Evra also started after missing the match against CSKA Moscow. Liverpool and their manager Rafael Benítez went into the game under great pressure, having lost their previous four games and on the verge of their worst losing streak in 56 years. Liverpool had also been struggling with injuries, with Steven Gerrard

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