Set Up!!

Following Manchester United's impeccable victory over arch-rivals Arsenal in a thrilling potential title clash at Emirates stadium last Sunday, Soccernet.com released the following online match report with the picture and caption:

Wayne Rooney celebrates with Nani, who set him up.

The use of "set him up" is normally primed to be with a date, or maybe a crime, or fraud. Taking a look at the concordance sample, we have the following from www.straitstimes.com

"trouble of setting him up with her female friends" -Straits Times, Breaking News

"...which would have set him up comfortably with a house in..." -Straits Times, Breaking News

"... told him that Tan had set him up. When Leong's father confronted Tan.." -Straits Times, Breaking News

This rather interested me, because for the longest time, I thought that "set me up" could only be used with negative things, like crime, or for dates. However, it seems from the concordances of StraitsTimes.com, it could mean describing someone, or in this case, Nani being the one who assisted Wayne Rooney in scoring his goal.

Looks like there's still a lot to mull, ponder and think over. =)