Chicken Kiev roasted....

Some say that Oleg 'The Horse' Luzhny is still mentally scarred from the six-goal thrashing that his former club Arsenal suffered on a visit to Old Trafford a few seasons ago. Others say that he was just plain chicken. They were among theories as to why the Dynamo Kiev manager left out his top goal-scorer and Rincon who scored in Kiev against United a couple of weeks ago. All we know is that United dished up another four goal feast and roasted Kiev again.

In truth despite the goals, it wasn't one of those memorable European Old Trafford nights. As Wayne Rooney later said 'it was a bit like a training session because Kiev hadn't come to play'.

Going into the game Fergie had said that there'd only be two to three changes, in point of fact he made five. At the back, out went Ferdinand and Brown, in came Gerard Pique - who opened the scoring from a first-half Ronaldo free-kick, which was firstly headed on by Michael Carrick who had been restored to midfield, the ball was then deflected onto the Spaniard who scored with a well directed header into the corner. Danny Simpson came in to replace Brown and he had a decent game, the highlight of his night was a second-half shot from which he nearly scored.

Darren Fletcher was restored to midfield and he worked hard without being outstanding, but it was that sort of night, United only had to do enough to easily beat a fairly down trodden looking Kiev side. Carlos Tevez made it two-nil before the half-time break when he linked up superbly with Rooney, the star-duo played a quick one-two which unlocked the visitors defence and the Argentine's finish gave the keeper no chance.

At half-time, Fergie felt so confident that he sent on Tomas Kuszczak, Van der Sar was apparently suffering with a toe injury. The second half was like the first, pretty much another walk in the park. The Reds extended their lead when Nani who'd replaced Giggs was found lurking wide on the right with an excellent ball by second half substitute Saha, the Portuguese winger played in a lovely dipping curving cross to the feet of Rooney who's stolen in unseen behind the visitors central defenders, Rooney rarely misses in these situations and he did not disappoint as he crashed home a fizzing drive to make it three-nil.

Ronaldo wasn't having the best of games, he looked to be fairly frustrated at times as players overlooked him when shooting instead of playing him in. Rooney was guilty on at least one occasion, but the player of the year got in on the scoring-act late on with a trademark run down the left flank, before cutting inside then outsmarting the full-back with one of his tricks which put him in on goal before finishing in style.

Fergie who has now been manager of United for 21 years cannot have had many easier European nights and many in the media are saying that it could the Reds year again.