So last summer we sold Ronaldo (the best player in the world and our top-scorer for the last two seasons) let Tevez go (a scorer of important goals) and replaced them with Antonio Valencia (previous best return was 3 goals in a season) and Michael Owen (short, scouse, free). Valencia's had decent season but has got his share of flack for being one dimensional and predictable. Cristiano Ronaldo, he ain't. Owen has barely featured.
Despite this we've scored more goals than any other team in the Premier League. 17 goals more than Liverpool's Gerrard-Torres combo (who've been injured no more this season than last) more than the might of Drogba, Anelka and Lampard
et al at Chelsea and more than Wenger's "
best attacking football in the league TM" array of attacking talent at Arsenal.
This could just about be explained away by Rooney playing the best football of his career. The thing is, he's had long spells of not playing all that great (especially round the time of becoming a dad) and only really hit his straps at the beginning of the season and in the last few games. As for his strike partners, they've got all sorts of criticism on here so surely don't deserve much credit. On the wings, I've already mentioned Valencia but left wing has been a major problem all season, with Nani only just coming to the boil and seemingly better suited to the right. Giggs has been class but gets rested frequently and in central midfield we've got Scholes sitting deep and Carrick/Fletcher neither of whom are rated as attacking midfielders. Anderson finally broke his duck but hasn't torn up any trees. In fact, according to many on here we're in dire need of another attacking midfielder.
So how come we're scoring so many goals?
The other end is even more of a mystery. Chelsea have matched us in terms of keeping goals out and Villa have conceded two fewer, with the meanest defence in the league. The rest have conceded at least 5 more goals, Arsenal (who have had their first choice central defensive pairing available in every league game and Vermaelen being touted as one of the signings of the season) have conceded 10 more goals than us. We did this with rookie keepers playing like rookies and with a defensive injury crisis so bad we ended up travelling to European away with one defender in the entire squad and central midfielders regularly starting in our back four. Rio's been out almost the whole season, Vidic hasn't featured once this year, O'Shea's out for the rest of the season, Neville and Brown have both had more than their fair share of niggles, Evans had a nasty ankle/nerve problem, Rafabio's made of glass etc. etc.
Did we have a world class defensive midfielder helping them out? Nope. Our only specialist defensive midfielder has yet to kick a ball.
So how come we're conceding so few goals?
I'm actually genuinely confused here. We've loads of reason to be struggling at both ends of the pitch but we're scoring more goals and conceding fewer than all rivals, none of whom have had our defensive injury woes and all of whom have held onto their most prolific attacking footballers from last season.
Why is this happening?
