10 observations on Manchester United v 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!

Read more about the Manchester United – Chelsea rivalry here.

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