Dimitar Berbatov: Genius, indeed

The king is dead. Long live the king.

This is how you do it. Even the great man himself, Eric Cantona, would’ve been proud; heck, he’d have been jealous. Having not scored for two months, this is how you do it. With your future deemed uncertain by the press, this is how you do it.

Poor Blackburn. Poor Paul Robinson, for he’ll have nightmares spanning an eternity. But Berbatov loved it. Five goals and, to be brutally honest, he could have had a couple more. And in doing so, Berbatov becomes only the 4th player in Premier League history to net 5 goals in match after Andy Cole, Alan Shearer and Jermain Defoe. Those three were goalscorers; Berbatov isn’t – he’s more.

His first touch was magnificent. His second even better. His third – back of the net. Well, maybe that isn’t exactly accurate and exaggerated a tad, but it goes far enough to say how well the Bulgarian performed. Actually, his goals came in a true forward fashion. Some were ugly, others beautiful. The third was immaculate, involving some lovely interchange with Nani and Patrice Evra and perhaps, more impressively, he ran the length of the field which puts paid to all the ‘lazy’ jibes.

And it was the re-emergence of his favourite strike partner, Wayne Rooney, that brought him unimaginable happiness. Rooney was spectacular, as was Nani, Anderson, heck…the whole team. But today was about one man. It was a pleasure to watch. That’s eleven goals and counting. And you feel there is more to come. Much more.