Well, what Blues will have learnt from this game is that when you're on top against a good team, you have to make it count. Being thee better team in the first half and going in 0-0 at half time sometimes isn't good enough, because a good team will come out in the second half and make you pay, and so it proved.
Blues obviously missed Paul Devlin, and his replacement Dennis Bailey wasn't up to the task, but... What? Wrong Blues game? I'm not meant to be writing about Blues' loss to Middlesbrough in Sky One's Premier League Allstars? Oh. Right. Let's do the Manchester United game then...
I like to think that there's a lesson that can be learnt from every football match. Whether it's the simple "don't sit back on a 1-0 lead" to the slightly more technical "don't name a striker who is 100 miles away in a hospital on the bench" or "don't pick your inexperienced son out of position in central midfield in the place of an international central midfielder", I think each game can teach you something.
Well, what Blues will have learnt from this game is that when you're on top against a good team, you have to make it count. Being thee better team in the first half and going in 0-0 at half time sometimes isn't good enough, because a good team will come out in the second half and make you pay, and so it proved.
Let's be honest, Blues played very well against one of the top teams in the world who picked their strongest available team, and we should all be quite proud of them in that respect.
However, to come away from a game against Manchester United disappointed that you didn't get at least a draw (and Blues may even have deserved more than that) shows that really and truly, although this was Manchester United, Blues should have done better.
First half Blues were comfortably the better side - I doubt even Sir Alex Ferguson would argue with that (though I haven't heard his post-match comments, and so he probably has argued with that). Cameron Jerome was denied by Edwin Van der Sar very early on, and then both Franck Queudrue and Liam Ridgewell went close from corners, before Blues went on to moreorless dominate the first half.
And that, in a way, is the disappointment. Blues did dominate the first half (well, as much as you can dominate a game against Manchester United) but didn't take advantage. Regardless of whether it's this United or Hereford United, you need to score when you're on top, and Blues failed to do so.
Early on in the second half and a moment's hesitation from the otherwise excellent Queudrue and it's 1-0 to United and Blues are chasing a game they probably should have been winning. Chase it they did, but it's always more difficult to do so, especially against a good team, and Blues couldn't get a goal back despite their best efforts.
United aren't in the best of form at the moment, as is well documented, and they are assisting teams by ludicrously picking Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney alongside one another, when Louis Saha is fit and able to stretch teams. In picking Tevez and Rooney, they're actually a lot easier to defend against, and didn't pose Blues a great deal of problems. Despite all that though, they're still a class team and have made a living out of winning football matches, whether they're at 100%, 80% or 20%.
The sight of Cristiano Ronaldo wasting time in the corner during injury time only served to highlight just how well Blues had accounted for themselves, and just how hard United had had to work, but that's of little consolation really.
A special mention must go to Gary McSheffrey. Regular readers will know I sing his praises every week (or not...) but he was excellent in this game. To say he looked "back to his best" is both a little premature and probably inaccurate, because he was up against top defenders and wasn't as effective as at times last season when we were playing the likes of Colchester, Southend and West Bromwich Albion. He was a lot, lot better though, and posed plenty of problems for United. He was unlucky not to score too, when his deflected effort was superbly saved by that Polish gut with the name that I have no idea how to spell (Tomasz Kusczac? Something like that...). Had Van der Sar not been forced off through injury, it may well have been 1-1 at that point, because as superb as Van der Sar is, I don't think he'd have reacted as quickly as the younger, sprightlier Kusblahblah. McSheffrey also had a header cleared off the line by Rio Ferdinand in the first half and, as I say, looked a lot, lot better. When he plays like that, he's certainly an asset. Unfortunately it's one performance like that in about 9 months, but let's hope it continues.
Mentions also to Seb Larsson, Mehdi Nafti and Fabrice Muamba who were all excellent and played their part in Blues really winning the midfield battle. Paul Scholes was ineffective and Michael Carrick was poor.
Still, it's all very well praising this player, that player and the other player and saying how well we played, but at the end of the day, we got no points for our efforts, and as I say, that's the disappointment really. You cannot be disappointed by the performance, and again, I think Steve Bruce just about got everything right. Unfortunately it was a disappointing result though, but that probably shows how well (Middlesbrough aside) Blues are competing this season.