10 observations on Manchester United v Chelsea
Kalou grabs a point for Chelsea
1. There is absolutely nothing to choose between these two sides this season. Expect the tightest title race in years as both clubs could go the distance.
2. Dimitar Berbatov cannot defend. Salomon Kalou ghosted past the ex-Tottenham man to grab the equaliser.
3. Sir Alex Ferguson is not stupid. It seems his talk of having “no qualms” about playing Cristiano Ronaldo was just mind games. Without wishing to overstate the obvious, there was no way Ronaldo was match fit enough to start a game of this magnitude after 30 minutes of first-team football.
4. Even the best sides can scupper their chances of winning matches by dropping too deep. United showed no great ambition to score a second goal, moved further and further towards their own goal, and ultimately paid the price.
5. Salomon Kalou is deceptively tall. He is just over 6ft, in fact, and has a good leap. Manchester United obviously overlooked at least one of these factors when they picked Berbatov to mark the Ivory Coast international from set-pieces.
6. Wayne Rooney´s temper still needs to be curtailed. His ridiculous lunge on Ashley Cole (you could argue that the chosen recipient means the offence can be pardoned) gave away the free-kick which led to Chelsea´s equaliser.
7. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the few footballers in the world who can scuff an attempted bicycle kick straight at the keeper and still have a video dedicated entirely to his effort!
8. The Portuguese flyer managed to blot his copybook by dissing (surely the correct term for breaking the Respect campaign?) Mike Riley and picking up a yellow card for his troubles.
9. Jonny Evans has got the potential to be a Manchester United regular. He looked very assured again for the most part, just as he did against Villarreal. Now just Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand to shift out of the way.
10. Chelsea´s home win record is charmed. If they got out of this one with it intact when will they ever lose at Stamford Bridge? Probably next week against Aston Villa, now I have said that!
A draw was pretty much deserved really. Chelsea missed Deco and Man United missed a fit Ronaldo to start and Vidic.
how on earth do you come up with the fact that kalou was being picked up by berbatov?!?!
the simple fact was that he wasnt marked from the off and ferdinand was left marking both terry and kalou
I think theres alot to choose between the two teams going on today. Chelsea looked far better, even without there best centre back, most creative player and Michale Essien. I think theyll walk it
Kalou is NOT over 6ft tall. I met him this summer and he’s only slightly taller thn me, I’m 5′7.
The guys right, he is 6ft ish. Says so on Chelsea’s website. Don’t think they would lie about it to decieve opposition defences.
I can’t believe the number of cards United got. Hargreaves should’ve seen red for his elbow to Cole’s face, Neville for a two-footed lunge on Ballack, Rooney no end of yellows, Scoles too, Rio for the last challenge (before 3 minutes were up - remember the goal at OT last year, scored 40 seconds after half-time injury-time was over). 5 reds for United were about right, with the free kick in the last moment being the real last kick of the game.
And no, I’m not joking.
Sid mate,you honestly need to get a life and stop sooking about red cards.The number of yellows united got was ridiculous,u cant even point ur finger at a ref from 20 yards anymore(Ronaldo yellow)!!!!!Refs need to get over themselves and realise this is football not a fancy dress party!!!!! And MDH said chelski didnt have their full side….how about brown instead of neville, vidic back in the middle and Nani and Ronaldo on either flank and thats four changes already.United will be fine,we just need a home game already, we havent had one in the league since the first game and our first four weeks have been overly tough…Comeon UNITED!!!!!!!!!
Man U fully deserved the cards they got. Whats more Chelsea should have got a penalty for Van der sar’s challenge. They were unlucky the ref did not give that. But away from home Man U did bully the #$@* out of Chelsea.
HOW THE HELL WAS THAT A RED FOR HARGO, SID??
Sorry for the temper but that is ludicrous. Cole simulated (much like Ronaldo did shortly thereafter) and Hargreaves had no intent to hit him, he was just making space for himself in the same way that Chelsea defenders do on free-kicks; it just so happened that this time the player making space was ahead of the opponent so the shove was in THE CHEST rather than in the back (or in the face as Cole seemed to suggest). Incredulous.
Mancunian Soldier, Ronaldo should have been sent off for two yellow cards:
-> yellow card for trying to deceive the referee in a blatant manner (the dive on the near touch-line)
-> pointing the finger at the referee (what is this whole Respect campaign about, again?)
The lack of discipline from Manchester United players was mind-boggling. I sometimes wonder if Ferguson ever talks to them about this aspect of the game.
MDH, Manchester United missed Michael Carrick (their playmaker), Cristiano Ronaldo in full fitness, one of the best defenders in football (Vidic) and had Tevez sit on the bench for the entire match.
iqnadirshah, our disagreements go way back, but I honestly saw van der Saar get ball before he got the Chelsea player.
I don’t know why our lot of supporters ever expects more out of these clashes.
They’re always hyped as these crazy affairs, but turn out with a dull scoreline and more opportunities missed than taken.
We (the Blues) were better. No doubt about it, we mauled you at periods, especially in the second half, with the trademark Chelsea posession. But a point for each team was well deserved, neither side had the real ambition to risk the loss by pushing forward for a winner in the end. United played better than I think a lot of us Blues thought they would, but they were definitely lacking.
Looking forward to the FA Cup Final and UEFA Final to decide things, it seems!
You can analyse these things to death. The fact is its a point each for the 2 teams that will contest the PL again this year.
Next!
ok i think the referee was bias especially on chelsea. that d truth seen all thro’ d game
I read one defence for Hargreaves and no argument against the rest. I guess that means everyone agrees about 4 red cards then. Fair enough.
What about failing to play injury time? Last season people were making no end of excuses to say it was a “minimum” of x minutes for injury time for United, but here Riley failed to play the minimum. And Rio’s assault on Drogba went unpunished. Red card, every day on every pitch in every league in the world. But Ferdinand lost his head numerous times again (after kicking a steward last season) yet no-one’s talking about his surliness and unworthiness of being captain of anything. The guy’s a loose cannon and needs some banning time to think about what he’s like.
Riley bottled giving the red cards United deserved. 7 cards should’ve been nearer 10, with players going off when they break the laws of the game. That’s what they’re for and the ref’s are there to carry them out.
Last week we had a ref very keen to make up laws that don’t exist. Now we see them refusing to carry out laws that do exist. Refs are in disarray this year, being told what to do by Sky Sports.
Kalou as marked by nobody. Pure and simple. That is why he scored. They all forgot he was on the pitch!
This is B/S, why do the FA give us Riley to ref our game against Chelsea. We all know how much he doesnt like United and if you dont then you must not watch any United games. Everytime he refs against us you can tell he is biased. All the players know that and thats why they didnt show any respect. He gave Ronaldo a card for waving his finger at him. The audience can tell how he is and thats just bad. Everytime I see him I know it is going to cost us. I want to kick his ugly face in. I dont get it, out of all the teams, Chelsea players love to complain. Especially in big matches, and yet in this one they didnt do anything, and it is not because they were trying to show “respect”. Mainly because they didnt need to do anything. Can’t United just put in a request to not have him as an official. Especially against Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. He has a vendetta. Im not saying this because im a united fan as I watch other games and if I noticed this for other teams then I would sympathize. Like if I noticed Arsenal had a ref that was biased I would be saying the exact same for them, it is totally unfair.
I guess 1-1 was a fair result . really cant complain more about it for both teams. both had chances to finish the game game but neither took them . the only two players i felt out of order were berbatov and anelka. but the ref was on fire 7 cards LOL!
How was Riley in any way unfair? Each yellow was deserved. The biggest mistake I saw was Drogba’s phantom foul on Neville by the near touchline.
every card was well deserved, the man u players were despicable and fergie is naive to say none of the bookings was justified. 4 me Rooney is to be blamed 4 conceding the foul that let 2 to the goal. and 4 pete’s sake what the hell is wrong with rio with that kind of outburst after fouling drogba at the end of the encounter. united fans don’t see that kind of unprofessional display from their players but will be quick to condemn others who exhibit such kind of behavior e.g. arsenal’s william gallas. this is the 2nd time rio has behaved prematuredly and unprofessionally in a game involving chelsea. bilal were u @?
1st time I saw ferdinand react that way. Ronaldo’s booking was not justified. and although they did deserve most of the cards i believe a non bias ref would of handled it better. Gallas usually acts like that and it did dishearten me to see ferdinand acting like him. But I still it could of been handled better. Easiest way is to not let Riley ref our games anymore. I admit that most of those cards were deserved and the reactions of rooney and ferdinand were bad but only because of riley.
Think you forgot one more observation.
11. Fletcher ( the CURRENT lousiest player in Man Utd ) was allowed to play a full game!!! Whole game would have changed if we substituted him off instead of Pak Ji Sung. What does SAF see in him??? Though he did score goals in earlier matches, overall is hopeless black hole in Man United.
Cant pass
cant shoot
cant score
cant dribble
cant oversee
cant judge
cant lead
So what can he do?
Sid’s still up to his old tricks, eh?
@20 - Fletcher gives man of the match performances in key games.
@Rob - I don’t think it’ll be that close this year, although I said that last year as well and look what happened
If the top 4 are truly in the title race by December, then that’s an improvement already.
You took the words out of my mouth Ahmed. Fletcher has scored twice for us this season already. He was a far better player than Berbatov who looked like he was more interested in keeping his hair in place. I was really disappointed with his lack of enthusiasm and drive.