Chelsea 1 Man Utd 0
As usual, the match had a few controversial moments. The clash between Evans and
Drogba will be a talking point and my opinion is that the ref was right in awarding a
free kick for United.
Drogba had no chance of getting to that ball and went in to challenge the player. The fact that Evans went in with his studs showing is unsporting and he should have probably got a yellow for his challenge but it was something that the ref messed up to the best of his ability.
Anyone who follows English football knows that
Drogba was not having a cardiac arrest when he fell to the floor. It was a painful kick in the ribs, no doubt, but typical of
Drogba he overreacted. The law of compensation should not be applied in football but there was a hint of it when the ref awarded Chelsea a foul when
Flecther seemed to be winning the ball fairly. To add insult to injury, from the resulting free kick,
Drogba fouled Brown and was in an offside position when Terry or
Anelka headed in what proved to be the winner for Chelsea.
The fact that Chelsea are also resembling more and more a typical 70's and 80's Italian team in the way they try to con the ref in awarding fouls and provoke opponents by holding on to the ball when the ref has blown his whistle is slightly irritating. But maybe it's just me seeing these things in the aftermath of a defeat!
All this preamble was just to let off steam, more than anything else as I am not one who likes to blame referees for the woes of my team. The fact is that this time round,
SAF got his tactics right and we were on par with Chelsea, if not better, for most of the match. The problem is that when you play with a 4-5-1, you need your 5 midfielders to get in good scoring positions and more importantly, to hit the target. Rooney had a great game but we were over-reliant on him to score against a Chelsea defence that does not give you many opportunities. When you have the likes of
Giggs,
Carick, Fletcher and Valencia all failing to test
Cech with their efforts, it means something is not on. A young Paul
Scholes would have done some serious damage to Chelsea today but alas none of our 5 in today's midfield possess the natural scoring instincts needed to win big games and
Scholes is not 25 anymore!!
It is not time to panic yet but there is a trend building up.
Berbatov has played in very few of the big matches since joining United and never scored. Does this mean that
SAF has no option but to play a 4-5-1 in future big games simply because he does not trust our 30 million striker to deliver? A few might argue that
Berba picked up an injury and that is why he was missing. I am not so sure about that!
When you bring on the likes of Owen and
Obertan to try and save a result, you are not really terrorising your opponents are you? I think that that is something that, come next May, could be a deciding factor. At this level, quality does count and by my standards, Owen and
Obertan have a few points less than
Ronaldo and
Tevez in terms of quality. And that is putting it very mildly indeed!!!
There's a lot of matches to go though, enough for
SAF to prove me and many others wrong once again....keep the faith.