Game Report: United 1 - Chelsea 1

For me, Man Utd Should Have Won..

Report from www.manutd.com

United fans didn't know whether to laugh or cry after seeing their team maintain a three-point lead over Chelsea but miss a golden opportunity to double it.

The Reds led at half-time through Louis Saha's exquisite strike but were then pegged back with Ricardo Carvalho's equalising header with 20 minutes remaining. At the final whistle, it seemed a better result for the Blues as they celebrated in front of their travelling fans.

Sir Alex Ferguson kept faith with the eleven who dictated but lost the game in Glasgow – his strongest eleven in many people’s eyes. Chelsea’s team, however, showed two changes from Wednesday’s defeat to Werder Bremen - Frank Lampard and Ricardo Carvalho returning at the expense of Joe Cole and Khalid Boulahrouz.

Chelsea kicked off attacking the Stretford End, to a cacophony of boos as they negatively worked the ball back from Didier Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko in the centre circle to skipper John Terry at the heart of their defence.

The visitors’strong-arm tactics surfaced inside the first sixty seconds when Michael Ballack’s shoulder caught Cristiano Ronaldo in the face. From the resulting free-kick, Wayne Rooney was first to Ronaldo’s cross but his header was unfortunately as wayward as Chelsea’s marking. Germany captain Ballack was caught up in controversy again moments later when Nemanja Vidic was left on the deck clutching his visage – however, referee Howard Webb decided the injured party had committed the offence and awarded the free-kick to Chelsea.

Webb was far busier than either of the goalkeepers in the opening 15 minutes as the two sides tested each other’s mettle in midfield with some full-blooded challenges – Cole on Ronaldo, and Rooney on Makelele to name just two. But the South Yorkshire ref sensibly resisted the use of his cards until Makelele used his upper arm to thwart United’s attempts at a quick counter-attack in the 20th minute. Before that, Ballack’s handball was only punished by a free-kick. Ronaldo struck it with power, but straight down the middle, enabling Carlo Cudicini to push the ball over the bar without too much strain.

Cudicini was well beaten, however, by Louis Saha’s wonderful finish in the 29th minute. Chelsea’s midfield seemed to open up as Rooney played a pass from the centre circle into his strike partner’s path and although both Terry and Carvalho were back behind the ball, Saha kept his head and picked his spot, curling a low shot inside the base of Cudicini’s left-hand post.
This moment of beauty was followed by an ugly episode, Drogba planting his elbow into Vidic’s face as the two players jumped for a header. Not having the benefit of TV replays, Webb waved only a yellow when really a red was warranted.

Unfortunately for Chelsea, their first decent chance fell not to Drogba but to Geremi – to his credit, the right-back got his shot on target and van der Sar was forced to fist it away. The Dutchman’s next save saw him dive the other way, to clutch Lampard’s low drive to the right.
Geremi made way for Mourinho’s first substitute at half-time, Arjen Robben. It was an attacking change by the Blues boss but it was United who took the bull by the horns. The Reds came agonisingly close to doubling their lead when Rooney picked up Carrick’s reverse pass on the left flank, shrugged off Drogba to burst into the box and pulled the ball back for Saha or Ronaldo. Both men snatched at it, the Portuguese in particular could have buried it at the far post.

The battle for midfield supremacy claimed another name for the referee’s book in the 54th minute as the excellent Carrick for once mistimed his movement and tripped his England team-mate Frank Lampard.

Chelsea were enjoying a larger share of possession but two attempts to beat van der Sar in the space of a minute failed to find their target, Lampard firing a shot across goal and Drogba heading wide under pressure from Ferdinand. At the other end, Carvalho cleared a loose ball after Ronaldo chested down Heinze’s left-wing cross and Cudicini parried a fierce shot from Giggs on the right.

Carvalho the goal-saver turned goalscorer in the 69th minute when he leapt to meet Lampard’s corner from the right and powered in a header which hit Saha on the line and came down off the crossbar. TV replays later showed Saha had himself headed the ball – he could yet be credited with an unwanted owngoal by the dubious goals committee.

United immediately tried to bite back, but Terry blocked Saha’s shot and when Scholes hit a trademark thunderbolt on the rebound, it spun off the grounded Saha and out for a goal-kick.
With fifteen minutes to go, Mourinho again demonstrated his strength in depth by replacing Shevchenko with attacking midfielder Joe Cole.

Joe’s namesake Ashley had his name taken for a cynical foul on Ronaldo – and then chanted in derogatory terms by the angered home crowd. Cristiano played no further part – Giggs whipped the free-kick into the box, punched away by Cudicini, following a double substitution of Fletcher for Ronaldo and O’Shea for Saha.

So Mourinho’s men remain three points behind United and with two tough games to come in the Premiership. On Wednesday night, they travel to Bolton where both Liverpool and Arsenal have lost this season. Then, after a weekend without a game, they face the Gunners at Stamford Bridge on 10 December – by then United’s lead could be in double figures.