Louis Saha saved Manchester United once again, in their match with Sunderland this morning.
On his first appearance since the Champions League semi-final defeat to AC Milan in May, Saha found the elusive winner 19 minutes from time giving United victory just as they looked set to lose even more ground to their major championship rivals. Injury-plagued he might be, but Saha offers the pace, power and penetration Sir Alex Ferguson's men have lacked throughout a stuttering campaign so far. And the Frenchman's introduction at half-time proved the catalyst for a second-half revival following a pitiful opening period in which the hosts barely created a chance of note.
Keane was left to reflect on £ 9 million keeper Craig Gordon's failure to collect a Nani corner, allowing Saha the simplest task to nod home his first league goal since December last year.
With Ryan Giggs missing after picking up a hamstring strain in training yesterday, the United boss plumped for Chris Eagles as the Welshman's replacement and handed £17 million new-boy Anderson his debut while sticking Michael Carrick on the bench. For all their undoubted quality, neither Anderson nor strike partner Carlos Tevez are instinctive chance-sniffers in the Solskjaer mould. Indeed, with Paul Scholes pushing forward from midfield and both Nani and Eagles checking in off their wing berths, the 'hole' was so full there was barely any breathing space.
Even as fiercely focused, driven and ambitious man as Keane could scarcely have imagined his side would have such a relatively easy time. Keeper Craig Gordon was forced into a trio of decent saves, denying Tevez, Eagles and Scholes, but the Scotland keeper could hardly claim to have been extended by the limited bombardment on his goal.
United's lack of penetration was clear for all to see and his introduction of Saha for Anderson at half-time was one of the least surprising substitutions Ferguson has ever made.
Instantly, Tevez had the freedom to roam around as he wished, the Sunderland defence now fully occupied dealing with Saha's more direct approach. Danny Higginbotham, one of four former United players in the visitors' squad, was at full stretch to prevent Saha getting on the end of Rio Ferdinand's long ball. Tevez was onto the loose ball in a flash but could not beat Gordon from 20 yards. The Sunderland keeper was now heavily involved and he produced his best save of the match to turn away Saha's volley after the Frenchman had spun off Higginbotham.
Vidic then turned Owen Hargreaves' corner narrowly over as United turned the screw and their next corner heralded the breakthrough. Gordon will certainly not be wanting to look at the video again as he came to collect Nani's set piece and got nowhere near it as Saha, standing amid a pile of bodies, glanced the ball home.
