Ahead of today’s game I had several concerns about how we were going to get on. I was worried that we were going to get outpassed in midfield. I worried that Didier Drogba would have too much for our third and fourth choice central defenders. I was worried after the less than passionate display against Liverpool that our players would struggle again to get themselves up for a big game.
Foolishly, I didn’t take in to consideration the most important thing which would eventually lead to our downfall today.
The referee.
With less than ten minutes played Wayne Rooney raced behind the Chelsea back-line, with Ashley Cole on the far side playing him onside. Rooney was one on one with Petr Cech but the linesman raised his flag.
With fifteen minutes played Antonio Valencia beat John Terry for pace as he broke in to the box. Terry pulled on Valencia’s shirt and tumbled, tripping Valencia. I was almost celebrating the awarding of penalty until I saw Valencia’s look of dismay as the referee played on. It was nailed on but not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, Terry gets away with it.
It was at this point that it seemed as though all my worries ahead of kick-off were misplaced. We were easily the better side, passing the ball around nicely, exploiting the spaces Chelsea’s diamond formation left them in midfield and not having an awful lot to do defensively, having already been denied two goal-scoring opportunities by the officials.
Chelsea grew in confidence from time to time but they were generally well contained. Our midfield oozed class. Anderson had a cracking game, Darren Fletcher worked as hard as ever, even Michael Carrick who has been suffering poor form of late looked good. We were just the best side on the day and now we needed to take advantage of our position and score.
Rooney forced a great save from Petr Cech and pulled another shot just inches wide of the post. It felt like a goal was coming. Valencia was doing a good job on Ashley Cole down the right wing and we were pushing forward all the time.
Then with fifteen minutes to play, Fletcher won the ball fairly from Ashley Cole, whose weak stature went flying up in the air. It was a great challenge and under the referee’s nose, which makes it totally bemusing as to why a freekick was given.
The freekick came in and Didier Drogba pulled Wes Brown to the ground. He was then stood in an off-side position and flicked a foot out at the ball and influencing play for the goal. The ball went in to the back of the net and despite the furious reaction from our players, the goal stood.
It’s hard to get perspective on all of this right now as I’m still fuming. Losing 1-0 at Stamford Bridge wouldn’t have been a bad result if both teams performed as they had been doing for the past couple of weeks. As it is, we were the better side, we saw more of the ball, there were two massive decisions made against us within the first fifteen minutes, and their goal shouldn’t have stood on three counts. We could be one point clear at the top of the table today but as it is we’re five points behind. How can you get perspective on that?
unbelievable
are we ever gonna get a fair game at stamford bridge? So fucking sick and tired of tose cheating assholes….
I was expecting much better from atkinson…
Its very sad how everyone is out to get darren fletcher for a foul, when he doesn’t commit one. Yet again we lose to 12 men.
I was a bit apprehensive going into the game, but I thought we were by far the better team.
The midfield and defence were superb and Rooney did well on his own up front.
What I couldnt understand is why the ref stopped play when Tiny Tears was dropped by Ashley Cole evne thought Chelsea played on!?
Drogba and Carvalho’s theatrics were ridiculous aswel, what was Drogba’s leg shaking like that for!?
I can’t decide who I hate more- liverpool’s fans or chelsea’s players.
At least we’ve got the Dippers and the Shirtlifters to come to OT when perhaps we’ll have refereeing assistance. Anyway we’ve a core of good young players like Evans. What have the Pensioners got?
And how did fucking useless, completely outplayed Lampard stay on the field? Two bad fouls but that’s okay ‘cos he’s fat Frank.
Just remember Moscow. Our time will come.
Ever since Fergie had a go at wiley`s fitness, utd have had a string of decisions go against them,I`m staring to think that there`s something sinister going on with referee`s,wether its subconcious or its a conspiracy is open to debate.
We’ll bounce back. Every reason to be buoyant after that preformance, too bad about the effing international break.
i know im fuming myself, we played so well today. anderson was fantastic as was valencia. in fairness they were all on form today. fletch proved yet again that he is the man for the big occasion. the ref had a shocker of a game today. fergie told sky sports after the game that the players have lost faith in the refs. i dont blame them. we were robbed!
i take heart in the fact we played so well. we are not as fragile as some think. we will be back. we will hammer the rent boys in old trafford!!!!
Holy shit, the Guardian actually agrees:
“Secondly – and I should make it clear that I don’t support United, or any Premier League team for that matter – a truly unjust result. Nothing much was made of the early offside decision that denied Rooney an easy chance, but that and the penalty were two game-changing decisions that the referee (and his team) got wrong. He got most other decisions wrong too. I’m not sure about the free-kick that led to the goal – I was typing when it happened – but Fletcher did get the ball, and Martin Atkinson got everything else wrong, so I guess that’s the way I’m leaning. United played really well, did 70% of the attacking, had the game’s outstanding players in Fletcher, Carrick and Valencia and simply shouldn’t have been beaten. (And Anelka won the man of the match award – another unjust decision!)
…Sorry for those who think I’m making too much of the injustice here. I just think that, once United are denied both a one-on-one featuring their best striker and a penalty within the first 15 minutes, any subsequent result but a United win must be tainted. Other than those clear goalscoring opportunities, United didn’t make any clear goalscoring opportunities. But for those moments, this would have been a common-or-garden against-the-run-of-play 1-0. But as it was, it wasn’t. Is that clear?”
chelsea are wank.
ref was shocking but there wasn’t enough quality in the final third.
Absolutely gutting when u see those 2 poncey fuckers lumpard and tiny tears celebrating.
If united can play as well againgst lesser teams we should still be in contention for the league come may.
Fuck chelski and the big girls blouse drogba
Fucking spawny, classless Rent Boy tossers! United were by far the better side – even my neutral mates said so.
I think we’ll turn that five points around soon enough – at least three of them will be taken off the rent boys at OT in the return match.
Fletcher was magnificent again today and the penny has finally dropped with Valencia. Ando and (usually this season very poor) Carrick rose to the occasion. I think it’s fair to say we probably should spend a few quid in Jan, for a bit of creative midfield quality – especially since Chelsea will be spunking some before they’re banned from transfers.
As for that free kick – never in a million years! Enjoy your day Tiny Tears – it’ll never make up for the Luzhniki miss…
BTW – can you dad sort me out with some blow?
Arsenal were the better side on OT, Scott ? You said it yourself.
Maybe it’s a recompense.
But this hurts.
OK there was some bad officialdom today – we were unlucky but dont’s forget, Evans was lucky to stay on the pitch as much as kicking Drogba in the chest should be allowed.
However, the glaringly obvious thing today was our lack of threat coming from midfield. With all that possession, we should have created more – we need more guile, someone who can thread a ball. Fergie HAS to buy this January. We should have bought Sneijder, we’re getting Ljacic but I don’t expect him to walk straight into the team.
Still, we proved all that guff about Chelsea giving us a lesson today was exactly that, guff. Paul Merson predicted 4-0! Jesus wept.
I’m confident Chelsea’s lack of width will ensure they drop points and the ACON will have an impact in terms of fitness later, if not diectly in terms of the easy games those players will miss.
United have a relatively easy run of games till Xmas, Villa and Everton at home should worry us, we’ve got to put a run together.
Erratic refereeing cuts both ways and I really think we should be looking beyond that to anatomise another big game reversal. SAF got the formation right but not the personnel: Giggs hopelessly exposed in a wing role we thought we’d seen the last of against Cesspool.
We’re making it easy for our enemies by making it hard for ourselves. Obertan on the left from now on please, and some proper investment in the January window if we don’t want the 04-06 also-rans thing back.
Scott:
You don’t, you buckle up, put the anger in perspective and get up and go again.
It has been the United way
It is the United way
It will forever be the United way
Manchester United were brilliant but were not good enough because we didn’t score. However our performance and subsequently there performance all of a sudden doesn’t equate to us loosing our premiership and them winning it.
It was such a laugh watching Terry and Lampard at the end hugging like they had won the premiership – they haven’t. There are 26 games to go – that is the truth. And for the referee – he should be ashamed of himself.
To get a major call wrong is bad enough but to get more than one – at least three is totally inept and again smacks of hypocrisy from the refs union when they are blind to the inadequate displays of there own officials. I wonder if the head of the refs union will come out now and explain the refs performance in todays match or does he only get out of his hole to disrespect SAF?
I also point out that if the ref had called the decisions in our favour that doesn’t mean that we would have taken them. However after playing them off the park and loosing like that it smacks of double standards from the officials.
Maybe Evans was lucky to stay on the pitch, but it was a beauty! 10 out of 10 on that cheat from Africa.! Vidic seemed to enjoy it also..It was good performance from us even losing, but remember we had 11 points up at some stage last season, I am sure well pick them up (chelski) and pass them in the end anyway! Believe
It is getting ridiculous now vs chelsea.
A perfectly valid goal that crossed the line in the FA cup final.
A perfectly valid goal against chelsea (last year?) from the corner routine.
Todays debacle.
We just can’t catch a break from officials and then are punished for speaking out about them.
fergies comments about refs are definately comin back to bite us in the arse !!
Good performance though !
i cant help feeling gutted for flechter.. he was awesome the entire match and was relentless breaking down attack after attack..
The refs are really starting to put me down.. this year it seems it is fletcher is a target for refs.. SAF’s ranting at fat wiley has may be just turned all refs against us..
We were brilliant the entire match, finally having turned up at a big match after failing in the last 3 against barca, arsenal and pool.
A deserving victory taken away by poor decisions yet again..
rossee
In that case the issue has gone full circle as it was their inept performances that merited mention in the first place.
United were awesome today and fully deserved at least a draw.
I don’t understand how anyone can say Drogba wasn’t interfering with play – if he hadn’t been there/flicked a foot then Van Der Sar would have probably saved the header, but as Drogba was there he couldn’t go for the ball as it would leave the goal empty for Drogba.
I also noticed Atkinson blew the whistle at 95:00, despite the fact there had been a substitution in injury time.
I’m a lot more angry with this defeat than the anfield one as United were by far the better team. Oh well, what can you do? 3 Defeats this early is hard to stomach, but they were all away games, so let’s hope we can kick on from this.
I fucking hate international breaks though…
a lot of positives to take from the game. every player had an 8 or more out of 10 today. sir alex never gets credit for his tactics. v dominated a midfield of essien, lampard, ballack n deco! hope people now stop giving all the credit to carlos queiroz for our success in previous seasons.
SIR ALEX IS GOD
What a frustrating performance by Atkinson. He stopped play for Terry’s midriff injury only when Chelsea lost the Ball but he failed to stop play later for a clash of heads between Giggs and Ivanovic. This was only one of a litany of incidents that had me pulling my hair out and shouting at the man for almost every decision he blew for.
Why is TV evidence not being used yet. Even if teams could have 3 replay review decisions per game. Hell, I’d settle for 1. Something needs to be done , it’s becoming farcical.
Bayern overplayed us in 99 and who got the credit ?
Yes, Fergie got the tactics right but we’ve lost.
@ Triggs
Jonny Evans did nothing wrong in the challenge with drogba, the snidey fucker even attempted to fake his way into having Evans sent off, then when he was booked himself he completely changed his acting.
Classless fucker
Corea did I miss a point you are trying to make?
ECL Final 1999 was a one off match where the eventual winner would get the plaudits regardless, let alone the fact we were crippled in midfield and had to do our best. In other words it wasn’t anything to do with tactics but the players available- so where is the analogy with todays match and our tactics?
It is done and over with.
Our lads are such quality and have been given real strength of character by Sir Alex under his tutelage; Fletcher being todays best example.
We can all take comfort from the fact that we will be driven even harder by the unfairness of the officials and will make sure it never happens again by scoring three goals every game to neutralise the cheating and favouritism shown to other lesser teams.
We are the reigning Champions and the trophy stays put in OUR cabinet.
You have got a long long way to go yet; if you think it is heading south you are wrong.
Cheats never prosper.
While I agree about the officiating being poor, I am also completely tired of that being our excuse after every outing. I can’t remember the last time we lost/drew without our supporters and manager blaming the officials. Granted, today’s officiating was particularly appaling, but our inability to create clear-cut chances–muchless capitalize on them–has made it so that our margin of error is razor thin. In such circumstances, every foul not given or faulty offsides call is given massive importance. While we certainly were not aided by the officials and we certainly deserved at least a point, we should look inward for solutions and stop blaming everything on elements outside of our control.
While I agree with our tactics–going 4-5-1 intially–waiting a full 10 minutes to bring on a second attacker was surprising to me. Furthermore, the inability of our central midfielders to put shots on goal from the perimeter of the 18-yard box is inexcusable. It is a virtual certainty that any ball struck by Carrick or Anderson outside of the box is going to go either high or wide. We are a much weaker attacking team this season without Ronaldo, so the CM’s must contribute goals to our attack. We knew going in that with Rooney playing alone we would need a larger contribution from the midfield if we were going to score: that didn’t happen.
On the bright side, Brown and Evans rebounded tremendously from the Moscow match. I was really proud of the way the lads played today and, on the whole, I was more encouraged than discouraged by our performance today. We were unlucky to concede and perhaps should have deserved a goal, but our number of legitimate goal-scoring chances were too few for me to feel that we definately deserved a goal. Rooney’s offside was a blatant mistake, but calls like that happen in every game. I don’t feel that Valencia’s fall in the box warranted a penalty. If the roles were reversed and Chelsea were given a penalty for something like that I would have gone balistic. We can’t expect perfection in officiating, for we will always be disappointed.
I suppose the referees feel it’s their job to keep the league competitive.
In my opinion,you make your own luck.This game felt like the Emirates one exactly one year ago. Why do we always make it so complicated in these games? Our midfield domimated their diamond, but we were soft in the final third and that’s what’s cost us the game. I wonder why Fergie had to wait 15 minutes to make our play slightly more adventurous. The referee might have got it wrong in their goal,but he alo missed Evans catching Drogba(untintentionally) with his boot across the chest.
I am sorry, but i can’t take consolation in the way we performed today. What matters is scoring goals. Arsenal and Chelsea have been more effective at doing that this season than us. I think it’s time Fergie addresses this. Sorry for the negativity.
@ brett1985
who cares if it was CL final ? There are no coaches there ? It’s only one game as it was today. I don’t want to argue with you. Main point is that you can say whatever you want but no matter how good your tactics are if you lose there is no joy.
Scott: I can understand your frustration, but to blame it on the ref is a bit bitter, makes us sound like them self pity scousers! Yea it wasn’t a free kick, but we just have to take in on the chin and accept it.
I thought United played well, and certainly didn’t deserve to lose the game. What did worry me though was despite dominating the game, I never really felt we were going to score. We are definitely lacking creativity from midfield and the matter needs to be adressed. David Silva springs to mind! Obertan looked good again! Lets hope he can progress.
^^ Cheats never prosper.
thats right, thats why you lost.
BOLLOCKS……FUCKIN CLEAR PEN……SLY PUSH AND THEN A COVERT PULL OF THE SHIRT TO BRING ANTONIO DOWN…….FUCKIN LUMPOLARDS COUSIN RED FUCKIN KNAPP EVEN ADMITTED IT
Corea
I wouldn’t know what to argue about as I am still clueless as to why this has anything to do with the 99 final.
As for your main point, I agree completely. I would say that some of our good play- e.g. rooney clean through on goal went unrewarded because of the officials making a blunder. But united used to be able to beat teams in spite of referees and that hasn’t been the case of late as we appear to have less penetration.
I think there’s a plot by the referees to get back at united & particularly fergie.we can take alot of positives out of our display today.both chelski & the gooners wil loose matches.it’s too early to start counting games or despairing.MAN UTD WILL ALWAYS BOUNCE BACK & CHALLENGE FOR TROPHIES.believe!!!
First and foremost – I’m gng to talk about our positives. I thought we were absolutely brilliant – the whole team – and fergie got his team and tactics spot on. we crushed their midfield and brown and evans were fantastic at the back. That said, the final ball was missing and we tried to play too many passes in the box. Finally, I thought ando had got himself free and unmarked into great positions toda – just nobody found him. The only team who looked like scoring from open play was us!
Now to the referee, absolutely shocking!
- He stopped play when John terry went down and united got the ball. He didn’t stop it when chelsea had the ball and attacking which is when he went down. Atrocious! and it was clearly NOT a head injury, unless John terry’s head is in his arse!
- Clearly not a foul by fletcher on cole and from the resulting freekick, we all know about that!
- Then he stopped play too many times killing our rhythm and giving freekicks whenever a chelsea player go down! what a bunch of sissies!!
But I still believe we would be champions come end of the season! This game if anything, should give us lot of confidence going into the holiday games.
Go Red Devils!!
@ Costas
at least Fergie adressed the players on the thought that we should up our game. we were on the mission today and we were much improved team.
the only problem is decision making and killing the opposition and we will work on that.
i was astonished when i saw United in the first 15 minutes. And we’d kept that rhythm for the whole game.
Not sure why you’re bringing the 99 cup final into this?? Anyway, regarding the game…good containing performance, however, this left us lacking any real attacking threat. Chelsea were poor today and I think if we’d have brought Owen on to partner Rooney up front a lot sooner we might have had a chance. As it is, we left it too late. We didn’t create any clear cut chances and if we want to beat Chelsea we need more invention than we showed. It appeared that Sir Alex was content to play for a draw? With that said, we should have had a penalty, however, it seems that if you fall over as you foul someone (see also jamie carragher) then the foul does not count! It also appears that you are allowed to pull a defender down in the box whilst standing in an off side position directly in front of the goalkeeper! Shocking decisions. Sir Alex complained about the referees positioning and if you look at it again the ref is stood right behind Joe Cole!! He can’t see anything. He also blew bang on 4 minutes, even though Chelsea made a substitution after the time added on had been displayed, so should have been at least another 30 seconds on top of Chelseas blatent time wasting at the end. Still, a long way to go yet and if we can add some attacking flair to that solid looking midfield I think we will be ok.
As a footnote, I really think Obertan is going to be some player.
@mikekelly
entirely agree on Obertan. Some players just have that “it” quality that is apparent from the moment they step on the pitch. Great ability and, most importantly, fantastic decision maker. After watching Nani these past few seasons it is a real joy to see a LW with a decision making apparatus that doesn’t misfire all the time.
I thought we were fantastic today, the 3 central midfielders were unbelievably good, Valencia did a great job on Ashley Cole, and the back four looked solid against a strike force, who have caused evry other defence in the country and europe major problems!
Fergie’s tactics spot on, we eased our way into the game and as confidence grew started to look more and more threatening on the attack.
I am getting more and more excited about the cameo’s we are getting from Obertan, the little bit of skill to beat Ivanovic on the touchline was excellent, time for a start I think.
Plenty of positives to take, great performance considering we were missing our regular centre halves and striker!
Our problem in big games when we have 3 in midfield and 1 up front is a lack of a goal threat. Our 3 midfielders are simply hopeless from 20 or 25 yards. Carrick had 3 attempts and Fletcher 1. All were woeful. Gerrard, Lampard or Scholes in his heyday have that danger. We don’t. Actually, I think Gibson is the best shooting midfielder we’ve got. Also, Rooney is terrible on his own up front with 2 defenders marking him. He has no space and he’s not fast enough.
I reckon our best midfield for a game like this is Fletcher, Anderson and Rooney, yes Rooney! With Berbatov adhead playing with his back to goal like Hughes used to. In other games have Fletcher and Rooney with Berbatov and Owen up front. Rooney would then have the space to roam and give us that edge of the box threat.
Apart from that I thought we played well today and Chelsea must consider themselves lucky.
My biggest concern is that, frankly, the United team since last season has been almost excruciatingly boring to watch. In fact, the team reminds me of Arsenal a few years back. All the possession and dominance but no pizzazz and destroyer mentality.
Yes, we outplayed chelsea completely. Unfortunately, I can’t really say that this kind of form will be replicated in the coming weeks. Many of us are optimistic that this is a sign of great things to come and that we will somehow smash the lesser teams apart. I have my doubts. When we killed off Tottenham this year, we thought we were finally on a high and good stride. Nope. This United team hits peak form (and still manages to lose, in this instance) for one or two occasional games and reverts back to the back-passing, creativity-deprived team of late.
Lastly, I don’t give a damn about possession. Possession does not inherently mean the team is playing well. I can backpass all day to the GK and that would result in an extremely high possession. Complete crap. If anything, possession means you have TOO much time on the ball and that you’re not moving it about quickly to unlock defenses. You have to make something with that possession for a team to be playing well.
I’m not surprized that we lost because before the game many fans including utd fans thought we may lose by 3 or 4 goals. What i wasn’t expecting was utd was actually bring the game to chelsea and at times outplaying them. I know the morning papers will be saying utd are in a crisis and only look at the scoreline, but the reality is that utd deserved at least a draw from the game (most likely the fair result) and if anyone was to win it should of been utd. but we’ve got away with murder over the season at times and this is probably karma’s way of evening things out (though if that is the case then chelsea should be losing to a fulham or a arsenal pretty soon as they have ridden their luck at times as well).
on the ref situ that seems to be a regular thing right now – after the saf criticising wiley & added minutes against city fiasco it is unlikely any refs will be doing anything to help us at least before the new year.
Bottom line is yes we lost, but many of us thought it be a deserved bigger lose than it actually was and we can take heart that we should of got something from it and hopefully the aftermaths will be that utd will continue playing to the level shown today (because even though we lost it was still one of the more convincing performances of the season so far) and we do we should win against everyone we come up against (until we play one of the big 4 again perhaps) and cross fingers that both arsenal & chelsea slip up soon as they are both due and i can’t imagine either team making it to the new yr unbeaten tbh. The premier league winner is probably not going to be decided on who wins these big 4 face-offs as utd demonstrated last season!
@Corea:I hope so my friend. Because after a point pretty football will not be enough. We have to be more deadly.
There is a difference between possesion at home and away.
Barca plays the same at both places but if you say possesion has zero importance away to the bridge it’s not fair. this means Chelsea were settled for a draw. poor rent boys.
Not only the refs show bias (now at least twenty piss poor decisions in the last 4 or 5 games) – the twat commentators we had on today also do their bit for the world wide audience – Essien elbows Anderson when going to head the ball – “cannot be helped he was leveraging himself”. Fletcher does the same -”leading with the elbow”.
Carvalho should have been gone in the last five minutes but the ref left him on the park as well as Terry who got away with a pull on Valencia and what should have been a penalty in the first fifteen minutes.
Just wished Evans had really smacked that odious turd Drogba and punctured a lung. Again he and Wes had good games.
The midfield were decent – Ando gets better every game (but needs more goals) and Fletcher as always was everywhere.
Big problem were missing a true goal threat in the final third.
On the bright side – Hargreaves is back soon _ Vidic/Ferdinand also. Some decent talent in the youth system who may just well give us that ability to score goals from the midfield.
Not yet resigned to second this year but the way we are getting not only the big decisions agaisnt us but the so called insignificant ones in the middle of the park makes me think we are targeted.
Whatever – there is only one United and come what may we will be there – we always are!
@ Costas
do you think Owen is an answer to this ? don’t think so.
the reason though is not the players. SAF just has to find smth, find the way to use them all.
Rooney, Berba, Owen, Macheda. They ARE good enough.
Just be very careful with all of the stuff like “Anderson got better, Hargo will be back, Rio will be back”.
everytime we start to believe we lose our way. no consistency whatsoever.
Valencia amazes me with his ability in spite of his one footedness.
Rentboys are deserving winners-> for the Oscars this year for all their theatrics.
It is heartening to watch the performance which can only get better with vida, berba, hargreaves returning to the side and obertan getting more time on the pitch.
But right now i am seething on the performance of the ref and the linesman.
Yet another game with a series of suspect referee decisions,which I feel will get worse
However lots of positives to take from today,defence and midfield played very well (although Giggs should have been replaced earlier) Up front Rooney done is usual super job.
The big concern for us however is the goal differences (compared to Chelsea & Arsenal) we are already miles behind. We know at the end of the season goals scored are like an extra pont, so we need to address his ASAP.
The referee was bad, as were the linesmen.
That said. The team selection was poor. Please do not misunderstand me. Giggs has been an absolutely wonderful player for United. But he is no longer a winger! He was very poor today. The Frenchman Obertan should have started. I would have preferred Owen to have been in the starting lineup alongside Rooney and possibly Carrick dropped to the substitutes bench. Obertan has shown he can defend, certainly Valencia can. Rooney comes back and I just want a striker remaining up there and Owen would be that man! We are relying far too much on Rooney.
If he requires a three man midfield then I would still drop Carrick and give Gibson a good run. He would cause a few headaches for the opposition.
The defence were superb and SAF should keep faith with them all. Vidic should wait and that would do him good for a month or so.
But we were against a fourteen man team today and it does appear that the referees are conspiring to give United nothing!
I hope that Atkinson gets the wrath of the crowd the next time he appears at Old Trafford. “Atkinson plays for Chelsea” should be the chant!
@Corea:
Owen should have come on sooner today in the place of Ryan. But in general, I don’t think one player is the answer. Our strikers are talented enough to outscore Chelsea and Arsenal. We just have to make our attacking play more simplistic. Today it looked like we wanted to walk it in the net.
I don’t care ’bout the referee. He made some good calls and some horribly bad calls. We just didn’t put the feet down when we needed. Only once was Cech tested. That’s really not a good thing. Until some of the players stood up to take charge, we’ll just have to deal with what we’ve got now.
My opinion is that, if we dont make clear chances, and than score, why we full ourselfs? Allways is guilty someone else. We played a bit better than Cheslki, that is a fact. But we need someone like Ronaldo, someone who will score in situations like this today, when game is pure with chances.
Last season, when we needed so little to win, Ronlado would came and do the job. But now there s noone.
Great post scott. Finally some positive from todays performance. Was reading your previous post and it was really frustrating reading all those comments about how we were shit and didn’t have any creativity in the middle. And how we should go and buy every damn playmaker in the world .
Anyway it was a great performance from the lads. They’ve really showed character and determination to play against one of the best sides in the pl. But the referee was a fucking disgrace . Two clear cut opportunities denied and a goal that shouldn’t have been a freekick anyway. And before people start slagging off the players and manager for the negative tactics ffs SAF went for a win and couldn’t do it because of a fucking ref. People need to get this into their head that they are not living in spain where every damn match is a goal feist. It’s england every big four game is extremely tight and the fucking referees need to do their job correctly. Small decisions change the outcome of matches in this case their were some very big decisions. And also we must stop saying that “it’s just one of those days” . We were robbed by the ref and the Fucking Association need to do something about this and quick. Against liverpool lucas and mascherano were fouling at will and the ref didn’t do a fucking thing. The professional foul by carragher also went unnoticed. And yet when a manager complains about it they punish him for not following the RESPECT CAMPAIGN . Don’t the referees need to earn the respect and not command it.
AND FINALLY THE EVANS FOUL ON DROGBA WASN’T A FOUL AS EVANS HAD HIS Eyes ON THE BALL ALL THE TIME .
Guys I am getting tired of this mentality that asks us to refrain from questioning the referees.
They denied us a penalty and a one on one (potentially 2 goals) and awarded chelsea a goal where on 3 counts it should not have stood (not a freekick, foul on brown and offside).
Fergie didn’t provoke these bad decisions, the referees have been getting on like this for years.
Taking the fa cup final for example where ryan giggs had the ball cross the line and a goal was not given, while mikel fouled smith but somehow, chelsea got the freekick and drogba scored the winner.
The fact is united get very few of the decisions which they actually merit and this has been happening for years. What is more is that there is a very vocal abu element pressurizing referees and nobody standing up to it but Ferguson.
Martin Atkinson and his assistants should be taken out the back and shot.
@ Costas
yes, but i actually thought Fletch and Carrick were on a mission today to shoot from distance. Rooney though again tried a curler (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/50954/beckham_curler/) and one shot was blocked by Carvalho.
At least Johnny Evans got away with a a kung fu attack on Drogba
Unfortunately it seemed to be that incident that fired up and turned the game into their favour.
@Corea
True.They didn’t look like scoring though. That’s why Wazza should have been playing behind Owen and doing the shooting.;)
one further point (which I would like to see again before commenting further on) imvolves that cheating big c@*t Drogba
When he he was being helped of the pitch after the collision with Evans -obviously suffering from damaged ribs? he seemed to make a momentry recovery when he noticed he was booked. Anybody else notice it?
We had 24 points at this point last season and had played Chelsea (1-1) Liverpool (1-2) and Arsenal (1-2) scoring 25 goals. This season we have 20 points and have scored 23 goals. We have lost to Liverpool and Chelsea whilst somehow managing to beat an Arsenal side that played us off the park. I guess the only difference so far this season from the start we had last season are the 3 points that went begging at Burnley. Had we managed to turn that game around, which we would do 9 times out of 10, and had the referee done his job properly today, we would be looking at a mirror image start to the season in which we won the prem and got to the CL final! We’d have 24 points and 25 goals (assuming a 2 goal recovery over Burnley). I know these stats are subject to ifs and buts, but I just wanted to highlight that our season is not over yet and it certainly isn’t time to panic.
We were robbed by the ref no doubt.
BUT, Chelski were unlucky not to get a pen when he got an imprint of the bottom of Evans boot !
@LyndhurstRed
Yep….I saw Drogba’s miracle cure when getting booked. V funny!!
Btw i do think we should go for villa in january transfer window. Because honestly no seems to be able to finishing well at this moment. But i think with villa we’ll have two deadly strike forces with rooney and villa alongwith owen and berba.
Despite the referee and our decent performance compared to several recent big matches, there are still areas that our team is lacking this season.
This season our decision making, in away matches in particular, has been poor. Again and again we keep choosing the wrong option. Giggsy was in acres of space in the box in the beginning of the second half, and while I was prematurely celebrating our lead, he wastes a good chance. Earlier Rooney could have squared it either to Anderson or unmarked Valencia, yet he chose to shoot from a difficult position with a rent boy too close to him. To often for my liking, we are shooting when we need to pass, and passing when we should shoot. Where are those telling passes that used to split defences up? What happened to our creativity. Have we lost our killer instinct?
That’s why we need to raise our attacking game and finish matches off long before the referees can influence them.
Once again it shows the FA and refs have 2 set of standards… It was pure daylight robbery and bullxxxx
@ Costas
If Owen played it wouldn’t have been that compact in midfield. ifs ad buts.
Goodnight, buddy.
Fergie seems to always pick the right team against chelsea the majority of the time, remember last season at home, when we beat them 3-0. Who would’ve though that team would work, and the hell it did.
Fergie got it spot on today, the players played brilliantly, Ando cemented his place in the first team, Valencia showed why he is at utd, and Fletcher is proving why he’s a big game player. One thing was wrong with the midfield, and it is Giggs playing on the left wing, would have prefered Obertan to start. He was great when he came on. Defence didn’y have many problems today, we should stick with it until Rio + Vida are back fully fit.
Just why did Fergie think of bringing on Obertan + Owen in the last 5 minutes?? They should’ve replaced Ando and Giggs at the beginning of the first half. Rooney was excellent upfront but could’ve helped with a striker alongside him earlier.
I must say I feel guilty for critisizing Fergie’s tactics a few days ago and wishing Querioz is still around.
What is wrong with the fucking refs, it seems that all decisions have been going against us since the derby and after Fergie’s outburst. Denied two scoring opportunities and giving an undeserved free-kick which resulted in their OFFSIDE goal. The rentboys had luck on their side, but today we proved we are the best team in the league by miles.
Finally, I hate internationals.
Agree with a lot of the comments above, although I don’t agree with this “why are we always commenting on the referee when we lose” nonsense.
To all those people – the simple reason is that because, in big games that will generally be decided by the odd goal, the decisions have been piss poor. And in big games, the refs simply have to get the big decisions right.
I should add that in this game, it’s cost us at least a point – probably three, but at Anfield, the team wasn’t good enough… My main gripe with this is (as Mohit has pointed out) that it makes it very difficult to respect referees when they are showing such incompetence. I watched the game on Sky and when Jamie Redknapp is even agreeing with you on the Terry pen decision, then it must be pretty clear cut…
On a positive note, it was a top performance, although my only criticism would be that, for me, there wasn’t enough shooting from the edge of the box… Rooney, Valencia and Giggs all got into good positions, but looked for a pass rather than hitting it… otherwise, the midfield was superb… One other thing – I’m clinging on to the point that we’ve now played the other three clubs in the top four – two of those three games have been away from home, while Chelsea goes to Arsenal in three weeks. United, meanwhile, should look to win all their games now until they go to the Emirates at the end of January… then we’ll see where we are…
johnny evans was the highlight of the game for me.. did you see the slo-mo replay? he gets drogba twice in the chest, once in the air and another when they both came down..
for a brief moment.. man utd and chelsea fans cheered as one at the cafe where i was watching the game!
johnny evans for peace ambassador!
Torontored… “Big problem were missing a true goal threat in the final third.”
Costas Said,
November 8th, 2009 @20:24
In my opinion,you make your own luck.I am sorry, but i can’t take consolation in the way we performed today. What matters is scoring goals. Arsenal and Chelsea have been more effective at doing that this season than us.
Patrick Said,
November 8th, 2009 @20:21
I agree with every word you say. And someone said that our middle is soft. I think Chelski and Liverpool, has sharpness in the middle, they make bigger pressure on the other team. That is what we need, and someone who will contribute the ball to the Rooney.
this is my first comment although i have been following the website and blog since late 2007! although we all know that we deserved at least a draw what has frustrated me was the team selection and the managers inability to change the team!
am I the only person who thinks that Antonio Valencia is not a Manchester United Player??? He has 2 possibilities when he receives the ball:
1: Hit the ball down the line past the full back, run after and cross (usually a cut back to an oncoming midfielder)
2: receive the ball on the wing and then pass to a supporting midfielder, then stand and look at the proceedings!
with a Manchester United Player you expect the following qualities, movement, first touch, vision (e.g. head up in possession) , 2 footed in terms of simple passes, ability to play in an actual forward move, movement ahead of the play(rather than hugging the wing)!
finally I want to make it clear that I am a positive fan I very rarely criticise any man utd player for anything however Nani has received unfounded criticism…..some of it justified but Valencia has received unfounded praise when he has been very poor in a number of games.
For example in today’s game versus Chelsea – Ando played the ball to Valencia on the edge of the box and continued his run, perfect for a 1-2, Valencia played the ball BACK to Carrick who shot over the bar, 2nd Valencia received the ball in front of the goals centrally 25 yards out, he turned and blasted over when John O’Shea was driving down the right hand side totally free.
I am not saying Valencia is useless or that he shouldnt play but I would rather have Obertan playing then him any day of the week!
Yip, to most of the above.
Disagree with Sir on SKY saying it wasn’t the best perfomance of the season though.
Them cunts have been scoring freely of late and today we neutered them.
Listen, we’ve a hell of lot to be happy about today.
Terry may have scored the winner but his Dads still a drug dealer.
Yip.
mara – Get bent pal. Ronaldo used to do fuck all against the rentboys as Cole had him in his arse pocket. Valencia dis his job superbly today, stopped any width on the right from Cole. Can’t believe people are still negative. United were AWAY at the bridge and we completely bossed the game.
I would be curious to see our squad use the 4-1-2-1-2:
O’Shea Brown Evans Evra
Fletcher
Carrick Anderson
Rooney
Berba Owen
I’m sure there’s a million reasons why this wouldn’t work, but it seems to work okay for me in FIFA 10
“Cheats never prosper”
I must admit I am as much of a United fan as the other guy. But come on, we won 3 Premiership titles with Ronaldo. And lets be very honest, for all his skill he wasn’t exactly your ‘fair’ player.
So the statement ‘Cheats never prosper” doesn’t really hold. Yup, looks like its going to be Chelsea year. We really need to strengthen in Jan if we’re going to stage any sort of a comeback.
And want about the kick on Drogba? Had it happened to any of our players we would have been baying for blood.
cheers..
And we dont have problem with defence, we have a problem in the middle, when we need to contribute the ball, make chances, and some in the front to finish it.
We were the far better side but lacked a bit of cutting edge in the final third with Rooney on his own, and Giggs having one of his bad days. Carrick was back to his best, all the rest were quality too and a bit of an iffy decision for the goal; although Drogba was probably level.
All the woe is me stuff isn’t necessary, we weren’t robbed, it was a marginal decision that went against us and we could possibly have had a penalty but all the national media-esque hyperbole about daylight robbery etc says more about our own disposition and Fergie’s own immaturity than the actual facts. We played well, but as I said, didn’t really test Cech enough to claim overwhelming superiority. We were like David Haye nullifying Chelsea with ease, only we didn’t make any of the counter-attacks count and the judges weren’t praying for us to win.
Scott – i think you forgot to mention 2 things.
1) Play should have carried on when Ashley Cole and John Terry collided, yet ref stopped play, we woulda been on a break, and possibly scored with them being down to 9 men. They did it to us at Wembley remember !
2) Wes Brown was excellent today.
Corea – we didn’t beat Arsenal because of dodgy decisions though.
King Eirc, noone is negative, like i said, we played better. But there is some things we need to change and we need to except that. If we dont, we will be disappointed on the end of the season. We dont have a killer instict, for now.
rooney was right when he walked off and said to the camera “12 men” pitterfull performance from the ref! Thought we played very wel,as i was worried before this game,very unusual for me,as always confident! Wish there werent a fuckin international brake,cuz we need a quick bounce back! But we’ve been more than 5points behind before.and come back.we’ll never die!
Today I was least optimistic of getting a result at Stamford Bridge.
Especially after the previous few league games and our record over there.
But let’s not forget another contributing factor to the loss of the game today.
The shots on target on the Chelsea goal were few and far between.
I welcome back the 4-3-3 formation and the 3 in midfield played very well today but they just can’t shoot on target. That is one major downfall at United. The midfield do not contribute enough goals at the top level.
Other than that the United players put in a good performance today.
A loss to anyone is a bitter pill to swollow but when you play as well as we did down at Stamford Bridge then you do feel agrieved big decisions did not go our way. That aside it was finally good to see us play well, I have been concerned since the Spurs game we just have not looked ourselves at all. Today we were quality all over the pitch. The usual suspects will get mentioned but how good was Brown and Evans today? I thought the they were immence. I actually feel positive after this, i was more concerned walking away from OT against Bolton, Sunderland, and Blackburn when we just looked poor. The rent boys knew they were in a game.
One last thing how much of a cunt is Andy Gray, i fucking despise him. He is so hypocritical its untrue!
Result sucks tits!!
But how impressive is Obertan, I think we are seeing something special in this kid.
Get over it! We don’t have to blame every loss on the ref. It wasn’t great but we got away with some too.
Like some people have said there was no attacking threat from the midfield and often not much support in the box.
We defended well today considering it wasn’t the first choice centre backs but just didn’t ever look like scoring.
Lets look at the positives
1) rent boys not as good as they thought they were
2) ando was terrific
3) outplayed them without rio, vidic and berbatov
4) obertan looks class
5) we can win our 10 next matches, and we’ll be top by February Im sure
6) we still have to play Chelsea and Liverpool at home
7) liverpool are 7 in the table
@ Sayyid – Point number 7 is the best
After about an hour, when we were so clearly on top, I warned my son we still had the really bad decision to come that could settle the game. I didn’t for one moment think that there would be three in the space of a few seconds, and all against United.
What I’m concerned about is that referees are getting their own back after Fergie’s rants. Think about Anfield – Evra booked after Torres fell over his feet, Vidic booked wrongly before his second yellow card, then Carragher getting away not just with a stonewall pen but also escaping a red card for hauling down Owen.
Today, apart from the non-pen and the wrong offside flag, there was also Brave John Terry elbowing Valencia in the jaw, then rolling about on the ground as if it had been a clash of heads. Talk about getting away with it….
A final thought. I thought it was a particularly fine gesture of our armed forces to turn up and pay tribue to the continuing heroism of Brave John Terry. Really, he should be allowed to wear gallantry ribbons above his Chelsea badge. What a man!
“(The five-point lead) was exactly what we wanted coming into the game, we’ve been working on it all week. That wasn’t the best of games but I think overall we deserved it.”
PROOF JOHN TERRY IS A SPINELESS BASTARD
da bloody ref couldn’t do his job probly shit cunt i wish spanish ref come 2 every man utd game be ref for our game nd i believe they cn do better jobs then english ref fuckin british ref they alwayz destory every gd game.
What the hell was drogba doing shaking his legs like that after Johhny bruce lee’d him?? Then it looked like he was going to cry when their physios were trying to help him off the pitch. I can’t put into words how much I despise that cunt.
Re Fletchistheman:
Just like when Vidic first played for United, and even after Ronaldo’s first season with us, I endured similar comments and watched as fellow reds spat venom from their mouths while summing up these outstanding players. Time will show that Valencia is most definitely a Manchester United player. Compared to other players on the team, he rarely loses the ball and possesses incredible natural strength and ability. I’m sorry to disagree so vehemently but all I can see is pure class.
We are the better team, as proved.
Not a free kick, Terry handballs into net whilst Drogba is fouling and offside.
Disgrace.
But we were brilliant today. Dominated them the whole 90. Stay within 5/6 points of them by the time Essien and co go to Africa. We’ve played our 2 hardest games by the start of November, instead ofv2 losses that couldve happened in April or May. Drogba is a SHIT puff. Anderson also shits on Lampard. Let’s try Obertan from the start in a game.
Evans is the complete defender. He’s class and could play in our team every game and shine.
Rio, Vida and Berbs to come back.
Brilliant today. Fergie will let them know that and our lads will now be determined to go on a run.
United players play for United. Other clubs players play for themselves. That’s what seperates us from any club. Keep that red flag flying high cuz Man United WILL NEVER DIE. If anything, todays game has convinced me even more that we will be chamions again.
Our next opponents will get massacred.
Other random points…
Johhny and Wes were miles better than the cska match.
Ando more than held his own going one on one against Essien.
Darren Fletcher is a football genius. Never in a million years is that a foul.
Better from Wayne today, it was a good effort up alone against two CBs. But, just to be negative, he still gives the ball away too cheaply every now and then, especially in the early goings of games. Today I remember two or three early attempts at playing in Ando and he passed it directly to the young Billy Crystal (carvalho)
Chelski is full of dispicable cunts.
Why is Obertan played on the left, when he is obviously just as overly reliant on his right foot as Valencia. He cuts back to his right foot and to go inside 9 times out of 10 and almost never looks to beat the man down the outside, so I don’t think he will be an anser to a left mid situation, that is crying out for a proper left footed winger, one to complement Valencia on the other side. Maybe I’m just trying too hard to not get my hopes up on him, but I just don’t see it yet.
drogba was shaking like a shitting dog….
Re Deusvia Said
I understand with what you are saying and i agree in terms of Vidic and Ronaldo. I hope I am proved to be wrong in terms of Valencia – but i feel that in terms of what he has produced so far is the limit for valencia, yes he will score and set up a certain number of goals a season but he will invariably stop other goals being scored by his inability to play quick, fast thinking and instinctive interplay! Against Bolton he will be great, against Milan he will be the odd man out!
I hope to be proved wrong!
It almost looked as if John Terry scored iwth his arm, but none of the replays I’ve seen show it closely enough. Has anyone seen a closer replay?
The bottom line is, utd are looking VERY VERY SUSPECT, I mean, lets start with our players in midfield, Carrick is just NOT WORLDCLASS, Valencia is a VERY POOR RONALDO and Rooney can’t do it all by himself! Rio is crooked, as far as I’m concerned he is finished, his bones can’t hack it anymore. Owen is just TOSH, he clearly was a wasted signing & he is not the type of player u want coming on against a good Chelsea team, we are f-d up at the moment, arsenal look the REAL DEAL & Chelsea will be there, I think the race will be between Arsenal and Chelsea, unless utd make serious signings in January!
Na -sei – We are all entitled to our opinions but did you even watch the game? Carrick was excellent in midfield and we totally outplayed their “world class” midfield. Arsenal ain’t the balls to win the league and do tell me just how well Ronaldo used to do against Cashley. Idiot.
King Eric I was going to say something as well but I figured it wasn’t worth it. He’s the type of fan that probably wrote off our chances the last three seasons when we went through some blips.
@na-sei
I would have to diagree with your whole post apart from Rooney cant do it on his own.
Rio is still a class act, you dont loose it over night, a few years back everyone wrote Giggs off saying he was gone, no legs etc and just look at him now.
Valencia is not Ronaldo so lets all get over it, anyone compared to Ronaldo is poor.
Carrick seems to have attracted his doubters yet I thought he was quality today considering the media bums the rent boys midfield I thought we more than matched them.
We will have to wait and see about Owen but for me he has already justified his huge transfer fee of £0 against City alone.
Hargreaves, Rio, Vidic, Berba all to come back in yet! Lets not get to down, we played better today than we have for weeks, espicially after the scouse game!
bad refereeing decisions; 1) fa cup game against Portsmouth 2) fa cup semi against everton ,welbeck pen call 3)vs liverpool 4) today!and they say
WELL THESE THINGS HAPPEN. seriously arsenal has scored 16 more goals than utd, the rent boyz goal diff is vastly superior… this utd team lacks creativity end of. last season we were out scored by the dippers. this year by all 3 top 4 teams… cant win the prem this way… hell lets bring out the last 3 we won and start shining them cause there will be none in the new year!
Christ almighty, “signings in January!”? I fucking despair…
Na-sei,dont talk bollocks,utd were by far the better team today,Carrick may not be world class but on his day is a very good player,give Valencia time ffs,it took Ronaldo a couple of years to get going.Rio will be fine once he`s fit.Was Owen tosh when he scored the winner against the bitters? he needs game thats all.Utd are not fucked up, have faith in the manager.Arsenal arnt the real deal yet,yes they are a fine team but I will bet anyone that they dont win the league.
I get pissed off with the negativity of some utd fans.I fully expect utd to go on a winning run now and shut all the moaners up.
Ridiculous refereeing display today, fucking gutted after the lads played so well.
We didn’t get the 3points, move on look forward to the Everton match.
Yes we didn’t get a few decisions go our way but we also didn’t take our changes.
Lets not dwell on it, call the ref every name under the sun, label Chelsea as cheats. 3points needed against our next position, that’s it in its entirety!
Correction: ‘next position’ to ‘next opposition’
Oops
fuckin rentboy bastards, we deserved better i thought, big fiddling bastards, supposed to be officials but theyr arseholes-how could you respect them?
maybe as stated above we cud of created more but after 16 mins two up from rooney brace???????????????????????????????????????? different game yea
same against loserfool but we played really well today, if we played half of this at shanfield we,d av won 3 nil!
also rentboys have only played us and villa,livershit,gooners shitty etc to play when we,l be takin on easier teams,
UNITED 4 IN A ROW
I can dig a few themes from this game to console myself:
1) Football is a great ‘leveler’ – some decisions go for you, some against. Hard pill to swallow though when so many wrong decisions went against us on our biggest test so far this season. We can’t seem to win a fair penalty either.
2) Chelsea with 6 players attacking down the middle are a tough nut to crack – Their midfield diamond and defense are well-rehearsed,; we not only matched them… ffs we outplayed them at their own game
3) You must take your chances – Giggsy’s and Rooney spurned a couple of good chances to shoot instead of passing, and vice versa. Ando made a couple of brilliant runs into the box that went unnoticed in the 1st half especially, and Giggsy was unfortunately having a quiet day
4) If we approach every game as positively as we did tonight, come May the EPL trophy isn’t going anywhere except to get polished and engraved for us – We played well with creativity and grit with a trio of Fletcher Carrick and Anderson who had an outstanding game again. All in all, a good team performance. Pity we blinked first
5) late goals blow – if they had scored in the 50th or 60th min, we could have brought on the calvary earlier.
6) Evans executed an perfect score kung-fu combo on Drogba.
7) Monday blues. Nuff said.
The reason for my anger is that we lost the game due to a poor refereeing decision. Apart from that generous free-kick, they never looked like scoring. If they won the game through a wondergoal then I might reluctantly accept the defeat. As it is the cheating cunt that is Martin Atkinson tucked us up and we lost the game. The foul on Valencia by Terry in the penalty area, nothing given. Giving them the softest of decisions. Not allowing us the advantage when clean through when that other dirty cheating mothers cunt Carvahlo fouled Fletcher. On a positive note, I thought everyone played well today and I feel I was right in my judgement of Evans and Brown, I thought they both handled Drogba very well today. The only one from Chelsea who looked anything of a threat today was Anelka.
The sight of drogba getting nailed by Evans and terry clutching his nuts was worth this unfair loss. Can’t wait for the rematch. So much for their talent. Viva fletcher and Ando
giggs11gerrard0 – Mate, that Andy Gray is a fucking total cunt. When Terry blatantly elbowed Valencia, he said that he was merely trying to gain leverage, he also defended his shirt pull on Valencia in the penalty area. He’s been licking their arseholes all week. He has tipped them to win the league this season. I actually think the guy has serious beef with United for some reason.
Gutted at that result today but the performance was outstanding, so it feels weird getting beat albeit by poor ref decisions.Chelsea are a dispicable side fool of cheats,Drogba is disgusting excuse for a footballer. The defence today was outstanding,Evra just oozes quality and Evans looks like he’s been playing in the first team for years, makes me proud he’s from Belfast. We are not scoring goals though while Arse and Rent Boys are scoring for fun. I can’t understand why because we do have that quality but i do think that we’re missing someone with a bit more presence and mobility, dare i say it a Saha type striker. Berbs is excelant but likes pace. I rate Valencia highly and also Obertan.We do need to get some momentum going but hopefully that will come. Hope the fuck Hargreaves comes back and makes a full recovery. One final word Fletcher has truly blossomed into a dynamic midfielder SFA was spot on with his patience with him he has become a true Red
I was p-d at the end of the match and having just seen the highlights on MOTD2 I’m no less annoyed. Chelsea were toss, they created practically nothing we were head and shoulders the better team but the really gauling thing was the amount of time things happened DIRECTLY in front of the linesman and he made the wrong call! The “offside” on Rooney, the penalty that never was on Valencia, Drogba’s MMA takedown on Brown. All of it was right in front of his f-king eyes and he got every call wrong?! Martin Atkinson wasn’t the best but I think his performance was made to look half-decent by the poor standard of the badger on the right touchline.
Like all of us, I am filled with hate and disappointment right now… but did you see that full grown man with the toothbrush in his mouth during the Owen and Obertan substitutions! What a knob!
Why the fuck are we all surprised at the ref today?
This is the same Martin Atkinson that reffed the FA cup game against Portsmouth at OT where he didnt give the penalty against Distin. Remeber that?
Since Fergie had that go at Wiley we haven’t got a straight decison from any ref. Mariner @ Anusfield springs to mind.
MOTD and Sky seem to think the goal was disputed because of a possible offside against the Drog. Well that was the third offense.
1.The free kick was never a free kick.
2. Drog fouled Brown.
3. The Drog was offside.
Rooney was never offside and it was a penalty. The cunt of a linesman was Phil Sharp, on both occassions.
Scott I think we should do a ref watch. Pull together a lot of the wrong decisions. Remember Mike”man united” Reilly in the semi final last year?
It will be interesting to see what the Fa give SAF. If he is given a UEFA ban then that fine as long as others get it as well. But will that happen?. Will it fuck.
Giggs felt like a relic today. I love the man, don’t get me wrong. I have a lifesize poster of his in my room. However, we learnt from the Anfield loss that Scholes cannot dominate strong defensive midfielders. And we learnt from the loss today, that Giggs cannot dominate strong full backs.
When we are playing sides outside the top 5 (City and Below), we can play giggsy and scholesy… Not Chelsea, not Liverpool, not Arsenal.
Best 11:
Neville (when Valencia is playing, he provides enough defensive cover)
Vida (need to settle his mind down after Lilpool)
Brown (SAF needs to tell him how classy he really is)
Evra
Valencia (Phelan needs to make him practise getting shots on target)
Anderson (needs to develop the volley technique instead of scuffing)
Fletcher
Gibson / Carrick (biggest problem here for united) – need creative genius.
Obertan (temporary problem position for united) – David Silva? Obertan will take a bit to rise
Berbatov
Rooney (must be more clinical and finish better) – else he is better off as an attacking MF.
We need to buy in January. Bring in a creative world class attacking midfielder that can unlock defenses and play off berba in holes and also feed rooney. Douglas Costa and Alex Texeira (both great/young but are both short and need physical strength to deal with defensive MFs in PL), Krasic / Dzagoev from CSKA or Jovetic from Fiorentina would all be great buys and not too exp. An attacking MF in the likes of Kaka (even if the cost is approx 20 mill pounds) would be just what we need. Ofcourse, we MUST sell Nani as well, replace him with David Silva and ask Scholes, Giggs to step down while giving them the respect they deserve.
Kind of getting sick of blaming the ref for every single defeat, get over it, s*it happens…
Yea, as I just wrote in another post, the site of Jonny Evans truely poleaxing Drogba (two kicks in the chest in the one move) and then seeing Drogba’s face when he realized he had been booked nearly makes up for losing!!
It’s a long season. I wasn’t that impressed with the ageing rent boys. If we play our game and start taking more of our chances I still belive that we’ll be in pole position when they come to OT in April.
well bounce back….
The article fails to mention 3 things:
Jonny Evans should have been sent off for kicking Drogba in the chest.
Lampards handball fairly late in the game, the same as Carricks a couple of seasons ago, went unpunished.
We shouldnt have to blame the ref for not getting anything out of a game of football. We didnt create many chances, and thats our fault. We didnt score, and again, thats our fault. Fair enough, the ref did stop 2 goalscoring chances. But the game is 90 minutes, and we created 5 chances at most? Simply not good enough.
We played for a draw, and it worked for the most part. But really, we should be playing for the win each and every game. Barely any creativity in centre midfield, barely any support from centre midfield. This is the centre of midfield of Manchester United, the most successful English club as far as majot trophies aer concerned. And out of 3 central midfielders we played, how many clear chances combined did they create?
Carrick had a few 25 yard shots, Fletcher had a shot closed down, a couple of decent passes to Rooney and outwide, but thats barrel scraping.
how class has carrick been lately? soo underated
I think the team played brilliantly but the ref spoiled the whole thing. The penalty was so obvious I don’t know what else is needed for us to get one. Tiny Tears did it purely cos he was beaten for pace and did not have a chance in hell of getting Valencia. Only way was to foul him so he fell and in the process brought Valencia down together. The idiot of a ref didn’t give the penalty cos of reasons only known to him. If I am not wrong, as long as the player is brought down without the ball being played its a penalty, it does not matter if you are falling down and “accidentally” knock into the attacking player. I think Tiny Tears should become an actor, he sure did well as one.
On Valencia: I completely disagree with the opinions against his style and performance. I think he had a good game today, along with Ando, Fletch, Wes, and Evans (I’d never laughed so much as I did after he Karate Kid’d Drogba—awesome!). Although I may be biased in Valencia’s favor (as I am from Ecuador as well, and have been watching him for the past 5–6 years), I think he adds a lot to Utd. How many times did Ashley Cole get a touch on the ball today? It was definitely a penalty against him. Terry should have got a yellow for the penalty and another for elbowing him on the head. He had a few other great plays, but the focus of his game today seemed to be a little more defense, and aside from the non-existing free kick, Chelski didn’t really have any penetration through his and O’Shea’s side. I think the missing link today, although a lot of people may not agree, was Berba. I think Giggs should have been out sooner—he looked a little off today. Impressed with Obertan. I think he adds a lot to the left wing, as Valencia does on the right. I don’t think Nani will get that many more chances to start—not because of my comments, but because of what SAF has been doing, who by the way, read Chelski well in figuring out how to neutralize the diamond. In all sporting events, close calls go for the home team. It sucks, but it always happens. I liked what I saw today—as opposed to Anfield, the team looked solid. 26 more games to go!
@Tony Starks – then why come here if you can’t be bothered? Yet another shocking performance from another sub-par referee.
It’s rubbish to say that we should go all out for a win in every game. I think we got our tactics right today playing our main rivals away from home. At this stage of the season a draw would have put us in pole position when the ageing rent boys visit OT in April.
As it was we lost but that was not as a result of not going forward enough. We simply didn’t take our chances and had a couple of big decisions go against us.
We’ve played a lot worse this season (eg Arsenal at OT) and won so let’s kick on and build on the positives that many of the posts here have brought up. …It’s a long season!
we were the better team last night, we’ve won the midfield, and we’ve created more chances than Chelsea. we’re just out of luck, that is. and the referee won’t do us some justice last night. i would’ve admitted if United lost from the better team last night, but we didn’t lose from the better team. we’ve been cheated by luck, and of course; the referee.
We were unlucky today outplayed n out sang the rentboys!!!
Fir e points to catch up n 26 games to go. The season will come down to squads n ours is showing to be there in depth.
Those of u at the game u made it sound like the stretford end!!!
Off topic there’s a chant I’ve heard recently it’s new to me anyone know it?
Is this because of the things Sir Alex said to the referee? That the referee are taking revenge? Closing eyes and giving opponent more benefits? It’s so clear. We need technology if things are going to be 100% clear. Well, jonny evans might be red carded but we should have been a goal or 2 up!!!
i was laughing when i saw vidic smiles when evans kick that f**king drogba in the chest…vidic sure enjoy it or might as well give some tips to evans on how to do it in the best way…
previously the community shield.then this game…two stupid ref…
judging by the way we played we didn’t deserve to lose..xcept for biased decisions..our final 3rd lack of cutting edge as rooney left alone at front..midfield getting better so to our make-shift back 4.SAF got his tactis spot on again. lessons learned..let’s kick start our winning streak from now on..but there’s always f**king international in between
tiny tears n fat frank was so jubilant as they were celebrating PL trophy what a disgrace..rentboys – bunch of disgusting c**ts
I couldnt sleep yesterday – I was so angry…the bastards…but then in the morning I already feel (only somewhat) better remembering JT getting one in the balls from his own team mate and Johnny-boy giving it to Drogba nice and propah…seeing that asshole writhing and throwing his legs around was ahhh…pure ecstacy…
Both teams were playing extra defensive and there seemed to be more onus on cutting out the attacks rather than creating one. The lasting impressions are Essien and Fletcher all over the pitch.
Unless Berbatov is injured, he should be playing in these games. You need someone to hold the ball and then deliver it to a rushing midfielder or Rooney. None of the midfielders were able to do that today and hence, such poor ratio of shots to goals.
You can cry foul over the decisions, but surely you must factor that in whenever you are travelling away. The homeside always gets the rub of the green. Remember the clear cut penalty that was not awarded to Arshavin when Fletcher clattered him in the penalty box. And dont be disingenuous to say that Arshavin scored soon after .. it was a seperate run of play.
Old Traffordish, Anfieldish, Stamfordish are adjectives for refeering decisions you get in those places.
Ignore the fact the Evans should have been sent off for trying to remove Dogbreath’s tits, and ignore the fact that Moanchester lived up to their name and just banged on at the ref all the time instead of playing football. Ignore the fact that Darren Fletcher was your best player.
I do think you’re going to have to do some spending in January, and the 50p and a Cadbury’s creme egg you’ll get for that lardass Berbatov isn’t going to go very far is it?
You lost 1-0. Expected really, so there’s no point in bleating about it, is there?
@ PG
i don’t care what way the decision goes as long as it is fair. it hurts when you play your best football, work your socks off, choose the right kind of tactics and you lose because of some silly decisions.
CHELSEA = CHEATING LIL CUNTS.
this is our 2nd high profile match lost due to poor refereeing. GUTTED.
RE:chicog
Fuck off tosser! Which heap of shite do you support? let me guess, could it be the dippers, or is it the bitters?
@ chicog. That’ll be the darren fletcher that had the Chelsea diamond in his back pocket. Rentboy, I’d be more worried that it pensioners n first choice 11 were so not there against utd at home too…..
my dipper mate said we were the better team, and didn’t deserve for one minute to lose. nuff said.
@Chicago
Are you kidding me coming on here talking shite? If you watched the game you could not hnoestly say we were denied at least a point by the official. No penalty and your goal alone changed the game.
Fletcher won the ball, then Drogba fouled Brown, then was off side? Three instances missed by Atkins yet could see nothing wrong with Terry rugby tacking Valencia.
Fuck off to your own blog you fucking rent boy, you were probably that stupid cunt brushing his teeth at the game!
This performance blows the theory out of the water that Chelsea are destined to win the league this year on the greatness of their playing style …
Utd were by far the better team and out performed Chelsea for large parts of the match. I have to say, I feel more positive that when Utd get into their stride, they can regain the points difference over the course of the remainder of the season …
Aidan
That reminded me on why i hate Chelsea, and their bias fans. Brown and Evans outstanding. Ref shite.
Just out of interest, did anyone honestly miss Berbatov today?
Still gutted over this this morning, how can we have the 4 best players on the pitch and still lose?! Fletch and Ando were awesome and showed exactly what we were missing at Anfield. And I can’t believe I’m logging on here and see people slagging off Valencia for that performance – fair enough he should have played Ando in for a 1-2 (would you really expect him to score?lol) but other than that he was brilliant in containing Cole and posing a constant threat.
Obertan also looked good and I think for definite now that when Giggs is being rested he should be starting on the left. The way he skinned Ivanovic was pure class.
Well at least Utd raised their game, but if you don’t take your chances when playing a top side you usually get burnt whether its a dodgy decision or not. Utd have had these things go for them as will as against. Get over it people nobody died (except another squaddie in Afghanistan). Its just one game in a long season, unfortunately Utd have a consistently poor record against our usual top 4 sides but it doesn’t stop them winning the League, I don’t like the losing but take it in ones stride, what makes me laugh are all the media hacks and so called pundits having orgasms at the thought of rents boys 1 or 2 winning the League already. I would be more worried if Utd had hit their straps already like r b’s 1 & 2, nothing is decided before the Xmas period that I can remember. So while its annoying to lose a game in that way it’s more annoying the team didn’t put their chances away.
@bigphil2003
honestly.no.berba wasnt missed.in all fairness Rooney was brilliant leading the line alone.he along with fletch was the man of the match.Rooney caused chelsea lots of problem.
valencia was Ok.should have got a penalty.
Obertan looked confident when he came on and i feel he can take nanis palce.The lad has great confidence and is a great prospect.
Its time that Fergie stopped his attacks on referees, as its doing us no favours. Once again, the focus of our defeat fell into the hands of the referee. that must be the 4th or 5th time this season that Fergis has attacked the ref and its doing us no favours.
The penalty decision on Valencia was 50/50 and if it was the other way round and it was given, we would have argued against it. Only having seen about 6 or 7 slow motion replays, can you see any form of shirt pulling, but that goes on all the time. Valencia did go down very easy, when he had the beating of Terry.
Evans was also lucky not to get ared and give away a penalty with his foul on Drogba.
The free kick against Fletcher was wrong, but you can se why it was given, when you see the nature that he went in for the tackle. If you see the wole move again, you have to say that Evra should have done better and the result wouldnt have forced Fletcher to make the challenge.
Whilst Brown was pulled on the free kick, he went down far to easy, Vidic wouldnt have gone to ground so easily and neither would most other defenders.
Why did Evans turn his back on the ball as it comes in? Perhaps trying to keep his arms away from the ball?
Whilst United played very well, we again lacked any spark in the final 3rd.
Our two best efforts came from long range shots from Rooney.
We need somethig else in that last 3rd.
Be it that Berbatov was missing, or we need another forward/attacking option.
I thought Giggsy was wasteful at times. On one occasion he chipped the ball towards the back post, when he had space in the box and should have went alone.
Tufty
Attention seeker.
@Tufty
very good.sticking to your nature and finding the negatives.maybe United players are so weak and go down too easily.we should learn something from Chelsea and be strong.Terry is so brave going without any contact that too with his own team mate.carvalho lying down for 30 mins as if someone kicked his balls.Evans did not foul Drogba.it was a high ball there for the winninga nd evans went for it.we had the better chances and 2 major decisions that would have led us to scoring went against us.A tackle that wins the ball isa fair tackle.it wasnt form behind either.cole just jumped in the air confirming what a cheat henad his chelsea team are.Any shirt pulling incident in the box is a penalty?.1 or 2 refreeing decisions are ok but when there are atleast half a dozen it is an issue.SAF is nota fool to blame the ref.
it would be good if you also be a little positive too.
Really pleased that we played better than Chelsea. Sure the ref was shite. However we can’t be blaming the ref all the time after a defeat. We looked like playing for a draw and when Tiny Tears scored it was all too late. IMO we just lacked the venom upfront.
Tufty do you honestly think Valencia went down too easy? Running at speed when a big lad pulls your shirt down and comes through the back off you falling down! How could Valencia stay on his feet?
the more you blame the ref, the more they will conspire against you.
The more you moan at none fouls, the less likely you get listened to on the genuine ones.
We can bemoan the ref all we like, simple fact is, we didnt score.
We can pass the ball from side to side all day, yet lack something in the last 3rd.
I would give Nani a run on the right hand side, as he creates a lot more than Valencia.
We also need to bring in a centre forward.
@Tufty
so we should stay quiet despite crucil match turning decisions going against us.right?we dont need a centre forward.Rooney was great yesterfay.Owen had little time and in form man Berba was injured.Agree though nani should have started.He gave ivanovic a torrid time in the community shield with his pace and trickery.
Rooney is not an out nd out centre forward, the same for Berbatov.
For all the running Rooney done, how many chances did he have or shots in the box?
Its easy to blame refs, but we have a lot of our own failings that need addressing. Our record away from home in the big games is poor.
We set up teams not to get beat, rather than to win.
Nani over valencia? you must be kidding Nani makes the most hurrendous decisions and craetes very little chances. Valencia is still settling in true but people forget Ronaldo never played well against Chelsea. I dont argue we are lacking in the final third Tufty and wouldnt agree with us blaming it on the ref. The common grievance is that we did play well and although I would not say we deserved to win outright we certanly should not have lost to a crucial error from the ref.
@Tufty
it looked yesterday that we were trying to win while cheslea despite being the so called form team were defending in numbers and playing for a draw,not us.
For the last 3 years we have won everything without an out and out Centre forward.we can get more goals from the midfield we can try adn make up for those Ronaldo goals.of course we can never replace him but change our tactics suitably.Also winning big games does not win you the league.look at last season.we keep on beating the lower teams consistently we will win the league again.even if rooney berba and owen can get 60 goals between them thats a great tally.
So its ok for Valencia to still be settling in, yet Nani isnt allowed time to develop? Nani is younger than Valencia.
Whilst Valencia might offer more in a defensice midfield role as he has more strength, Nani offers more in an attacking role and we are more likely to get a goal from Nani or his play than we are Valencia.
Valencia has one move and thats trying to get to the touchline for the cross, more often than not he gets closed down. I would like to see more direct play from him, going towards goala bit more and having a few more shots. He also needs to use his pace a lot more, far to often he stops on the ball, when he has space to run into.
I would even have had Nani on ahead of Giggs after 60 minutes.
To many of our fans are to quick to write off Nani or slate him.
Often, when people bemoan his lack of final ball, we often dont have an option in the box, as was the case in the first half against Bolton.
I hate to chime in on the debate here, but the reason we lost was because of a bit of selfishness from Rooney. Anderson was amazing yesterday, his movement was exceptional, and he was providing the attacking movement required of a midfielder he is supposed to be. I am getting ahead of myself, I know, but TWICE Rooney should have passed to an open Anderson, who was in such a position you would have to assume he would have scored. I can’t be bothered blaming the ref, because we just weren’t deadly enough in front of goal, we definitely had the opportunities.
I hate Chelsea so much.
If Rooney and Berbatov get 40 goals between them it would be a great bonus. We might not have had an out and out forward, but Ronaldos role was a lot more forward than it was conventional winger in a 4-4-2.
One of the key games is Chelsea v Arsenal in a couple of weeks time, an Arsenal win would help us.
@Muggaz
hi mate.how are you?long time since you have posted.agree that rooneya nd carrick were a bit selfish.Even carrick had the chance to play Rooney in but bthey went for the shot.Matbe after his stunning strike towards the corner flag last week they dont have any faith in Andos shooting
@Tufty
Rooney=25 goals
Berba=20 goals+10-12 assists.
Owen=15 goals.
Now valencia,nani,carrick,giggs,fletcher can easily contribute 10-15 between them for sure and the defenders can chip in too
Berbatov has only 13 goals in 42 games and you expect him to get 20 in a season. That will be a surprise.
Valencia is 20 or so games in, Nani has been here for a while now so that debate is stupid. What I am saying is, if Nani offers more then throw up the stats, how many goals has he scored and how many has he created? I am not a Nani basher but I just belive Valencia is a much better option. I am pretty sure ( know for a fact ) Valencia has scored more goals and created more than Nani this season.
Tufty – How are fans too quick to write off Nani? He has been here 2 1/2 seasons. Valencia has been here 12 games.
@AIG
Hey mate, I hope you are well! I have been reading, just a bit busy to post. I know what you mean about ‘faith’ in Ando’s shooting ability, but both times he was in amazing positions and you would have to back him to score – unless he is also having some howlers in training we don’t know about, Ando is a shooter, and should have been given the option to put one on target.
@brett1985
i am saying 20 goals in all competitions.that shouldnt be too difficult i guess given the form he is in of late
The FA are closing ranks again to protect the shittest of referees.
Seriously, the game is being ruined in this country by toss pot referees who can’t get their tiny little minds around what football is.
Robbed yet again, a game decided purely by the referee again.
Chelsea are shite.
In fairness Valencia is a wigan player with a very poor record for wigan and just because he is new at united, he has a lot of support amongst the fans. He has it all to prove as I felt he was worth 5m at the time of purchase. What a dreadful miss yesterday in the second half and his crosses are awful. Unlucky not to win a penalty though. He still deserves a chance but he has been far worse than Nani overall.
Nani has been good for us in the past, struggled to get into the team last season and played poorly this season but he has had a couple of good games of late and was nearly man of the match vs CSKA. Familiarity breeds contempt I feel. Many people are very comfortable about jumping on the anti Nani bandwagon as evidenced by the fact that even though he played very well against CSKA some people still complained he had had a bad game. On this blog 95% of people just go round congratulating eachother on having identical opinions and then some others just disagree with everything. I don’t appreciate either approach.
Nani may not be playing well but he is still young and has shown he has the potential already. With better decision making he will be a great player. Another reason why the impatience about Nani is ludicrous is that if you feel he makes poor decisions then why not have a go at Ryan Giggs who wastes the ball for 90 minutes then produces the key pass. Finally, Nani is at worst, quite a reasonable squad player. There are bigger failures to fry such as Dimitar Berbatov but as usual it is largely peripheral players like O’shea, Fletcher, Nani who get most attention down the years.
@aig
I’d say 15 is a more likely accomplishment but we shall see.
Towards the end of last season and into the beginning of this he had 3 goals in 23 games and so far he has 4 in 11 league this season alone.
He went on a good run at Christmas and New year last year but needs to extend it past February. Recently he has either been left out of big games, subbed off or injured.
I think we missed a chance to bury chelsea yesterday, they were’nt at the races but we cudn’t take advantage. Regarding the goal it doesn’t matter wether it was a free kick or not you dont switch of and we did. We had lots of the ball but i dont think we created enough clear cut chances, poor decisions in the final third cost us. All in all, a far better performance than at anfield dont think we shud be to down hearted chelsea and arsenal will drop points in the coming week’s, lets go on a long unbeaten run untill christmas and see were that takes us. ps I do think were are a striker lite i hope this kid diouf is the real deal
@brett1985, Valencia may have had a pretty poor record at Wigan (never scoring more than 3 goals a season) – but he’s already got 3 goals this season for United so I don’t think you can hold that against him too much.
I’ve not read every post so it may have been mentioned but the chaos outside yesterday was a disgrace. I got in at 4.20 with about 4-500 reds behind me at a rough guess. People in the lower tier ended in the upper therefore I assume the same happened in reverse even though there are separate turnstile for each. There was loads of crushing and congestion. The guy in control on horseback said the Stewards were not letting people in. We were that far back we couldn’t see so I asked him to find out why! (it was gone kick off so we had no idea how long we were going to be) and he said “we can’t speak to them” (too far away – 100 yards!!). I said well send one of your lads down, get the info, come back and at least tell us what’s happening. Two other old bill refused to look me in the face when I was asking them to get some information from the front. I was asking in a restrained way so wasn’t being confrontational but nobody thought to get off their arse and find out. Only 20 minutes later we were told a turnstile had broke (Arsenal ECSF!!!!). The police then tried to split the crowd up which was a good idea in theory albeit too late) but they just piled in on horseback which sent people swaying and crushing in all directions. Nearer the turnstiles it eased but not much and the whole experience was circa European away. I’ve been in worse crushes but at certain points for many it was uncomortable, frustrating and the communication was shocking. That said the United end was top. A proper good away support, a very good performance and if that’s the difference between us and Chelsea then come May we’ll definitely be in the shake up. Lets hope Anderson can continue to play like that (and in Europe).
A nice bit of impartial journalism here.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11096_5684584,00.html
On Nani. I would have to agree he needs to be put on the right wing. In expence of Valencia ? Not sure really.
*at the expense rather..
We should of won that game – we bossed the midfield completely yesterday.
We should of had a pen and their free kick for the goal clearly wasn’t. Bad decisions but these things happy.
All in all, we lacked the final ball to score and bury Chelsea – I think someone like Berbatov would have been superb yesterday and I personally think we missed him.
Giggs didn’t play as well as he has been lately bu thought Fletcher was outstanding!
I went to the game yesterday and left feeling completely robbed, both in the more than dubious decisions from Mr Atkinson but also with the fact that in 2009, visiting a so called Big Club, I, along with over 2000 Reds, was made to wait for over 45 minutes outside the stupidly inadequate 4 turnstiles by CFC stewards and the met police due to a problem with the new automated system at the staduim.
Despite arriving at the staduim 15 minutes before kick off, i eventually got to my seat at 4.30pm, the lack of communication from the police and stewards was nothing short of fucking laughable – there was lots of crushing against barriers, kids, old people etc being knocked around by police horses and being told by stewards that they couldn’t let us in even though everyone had tickets.
I’m used to this sort of situation at a European away, Roma and Madrid being notable examples, and in a funny kind of way we expect this from the Italian and Spanish police. They were very fucking lucky that a full on riot didn’t happen, it was close to it as the minutes ticked away into the first half – Chelsea a big club? do me a favour…
I dont think Diouf is the answer, cant see him featuring much more than Manucho! Definately no better than what we have in Wellbeck, King or Macheda.
@ Tufty
Diouf is older my friend. And he played numerous games in the Norwegian fisrt top flight. we’ll see …
Its like that every year at Chelsea, or it has been since they put the away fans behind the goal. Doenst help with the nunbers trying to jib into the united end.
Always ensure that i get in earlier than usual at Chelsea.
Was the same at Celtic last season, knew it wold be like that, so got in early, just after I did, they shut the gates.
@ Mancuniac
i feel sorry for you. imagine it was CL semi.
But anyway as i understood this is not your first time. Imagine someone for whom it was the first one and only opportunity to see United.
Norweigan top flight, not exactly premier league.
Some people seem to get carried away by some signings well before they have even arrived at the club.
If it was someone who was going to Chelsea as a first ever game, then frankly they dont deserve a ticket.
@Tufty
Where did we get ole from?
“If it was someone who was going to Chelsea as a first ever game, then frankly they dont deserve a ticket”.
Are you serious Tufty? You really are a top red. I envy you pal.
Knob.
Terry should have been sent off for pulling down Valencia, exactly the same as carraghers challenge last week. no terry on field then no terry goal, simples. but i forgot you cant send off the en ger land captain, can you? then he has the cheek to boast about how well they defended in post match interview, twat (Your dad is a coke dealer (to the tune of ooh aah eric cantona)).
The ref had a bad day, he made a lot of bad calls( at least 3 errors in the chelsea goal alone), more against us than for us but it seems every week now we are on the sharp end of bad decisions by refs having bad days. Frustrating but the silver lining is united out played chelsea with a lot of our players missing. We would have won except for some poor shot selection & some poor ref selection.
Away tickets are hard to come by.
They are a reward for loyalty.
Chelsea away and the top games are even harder to come by.
Thousands of people with season tickets cant get a ticket for aways.
So any fan wishing to go and see United away at Chelsea as a first ever game, should be nowhere near a ticket.
@willierednut
Great post, i do beleive it was also Molde
I’m not expecting too much of Diouf, but then I wasn’t expecting much of Obertan and the boy’s showing a whole lot of promise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oniq3-_ZRE
Look at the way he skins Ivanovic at 0:56 – Nani wouldn’t have the guts to even try something like that. That’s the difference between the two that I can see, the will to take a risk and have a go.
Just really sickened with the loss..
Ref’s really a joke nowadays… Fergie said it right on “losing faith in refereeing”…
Scott : Daylight robbery just about sums it up…
I really hope the sayings “it will eventually even itself up over the season” proved to be right come May 2010 when we celebrate overtaking the Looserpools on title record, ON A GUARD OF HONOUR BY THE CHELSKIS LED BY THAT CUNT TERRY!
Tufty – Actually mate I CAN see your logic there.
first and foremost i have to say we played a good football.but we have to accept that we need to sign some uility player.i am not saying or team is bad but if u lose a player like ronaldo ur squad will bcome weaker.it was clear ref was favouring but still i think fergi made a mistake by bringing owen and obertan so late.i would like to see obertan starting now instead of giggs.i would be even happy if we finish 2nd or 3rd in the league if we get obertan as a next star for the future seasons.for that fergie should play that lad and even fabio , rafael ,macheda ,welbeck.atleast these players should be regular starter next season.
@ Tufty
you know if i have a chance to go to SB before visiting OT i will never do it because of you. thanks for your piece of advice.
Very pissed. But I am not despondent. I am very proud of the lads. If ever there was a game where the losing team came away with more honour than the victors it was Manchester United FC coming away from Stampturd Midge.
None of this, of course, gets us the three points we deserved. But it does, even further, pump up the morale. It does demonstrate to other teams that, even at home, Chelsea are not as good as their results suggest. Beyond the loss we should be delighted with the performance (e.g. Brown and Evans) and be confident about pushing on and winning the hat-trick of titles.
If there is any day I felt proud on our team even after a loss, then it’s yesterday. All over the world, we all know it was 13 against our magnificent 11. Roo is 101% right and I stand by him on every moment even if it means being charged by those FA goons who seemto be out to make sure we don’t win the 4th in a row league title.
It was not just 12 against our 11 unless you don’t want to consider the 2nd official who it’s maybe only that Chelsea had not printed his shirt in time. Look at where he was standing from A Cole when he flagged Roo offside. If it was Roo near him and Cole on the other side, then it could make some bit of slight sense that he had not seen Cole but it’s the opposite in this case. Look at where the same dude was when Valencia’s shirt was almost being torn into pieces by Terry. Pliz we are not serious if we can let all these go
I come from a Swahili speaking nation where we say “WAPENDE WASIPENDE” meaning they like it or not, let’s get to Feb and we see who will be on top of the league. After all, this is our best season start I can recall as we are normally 9 points off pace by now in the past seasons. I am so proud despite this loss – sorry daylight robbery.
Nani over Vanencia – no contest. Nani has been crap for 2.5 years. His time has gone. I have criticised Carrick in the past. Defensivly he was OKish (still not physical enough and too easily bypassed because of his lack of pace) and attack-wise (other than one pass to Rooney) he was woeful and wasteful. Can’t wait for the curly-haired one!
Please, no more mention of Ronaldo this, Ronaldo that … Boring boring. He’s gone lets get over it.
Fergie is correct to blast the officials. Hell, he’s going to get stuffed by the FA already, so why not give it both barrels and get this crap out into the open.
The officials were useless yesterday – for both sides. It’s just that we got the brunt of the worst decisions. It seems to me nowadays that they don’t know what’s a foul and what’s not a foul – that’s compounded by their lack of fitness and inability to get in the correct position. They just seem to guess, and the howls of the home fans (Arsefield, SB and yes, OT) seem to influence the decision. Which is why at these important away games, these decisions go against us. And yes, Fletch on Arseshaving at OT!
The FA should get a grip on the officials. Fergie is right to slaughter them.
Oh yes, we were better than Chelski, but didn’t create enough goal-scoring opportunities. But had Terry been sent off for the penalty incident and the blatant elbow – things would have been very different! (same as Carragher!)
we were the clear winners with the way game was approached after the scousers game . but scott this refereeing stuff is getting out of hand.are we being critical of each and every decision in the aftermath of the boss comments.on any other day would we have made an issue of an offside being given wrongly or if roon had scored from his curler yesterday wud we have made an issue out of this . but on the hind sight i do accept that these kind of refereeing decisions does a bit in the the final title run.so where is this issue going ?????
This whole Nani vs Valencia thing is hilarious.
Having watched United for 30 years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the football-watching public can be split into two camps: those who get it and those who don’t. It doesn’t really matter if you watch every game there is, some people still fall into that second camp. They’re perenially clueless but never short of an opinion. Anyone still sticking up for Nani has to fall into the second bracket, to my mind.
The little chap is immensely talented – probably has as much ’skill’ as Ronaldo. However, he lacks the two crucial elements that would make him into a great (United-worthy) player – 1. His physique (not strong enough) 2) and this is the important one – his decision making. The lad is fucking clueless – there is no point being able to skip past players if you squander the advantage you gain by not knowing what to do once you’ve got past them. A couple of long range screamers and seal-dribbling against Arsenal in the cup a few seasons back do not justify our continued patience….
Valencia has a fraction of the natural talent of Nani and is by no means the finished article nor will he ever be a ‘great’ player. However, he is of far more use to United because, after a shaky and seemingly unenthusiastic start, the penny has dropped with him and he’s finally understood what to do.
There is no debate about which player gets the nod. In fact Sir Alex is telling you as much with his team selection.
Ahead of both of them to my mind is Obertan – quicker than Nani, as skilful but most importantly – has a football brain. Understands what to do with the ball once the advantage has been gained.
Again, i’m not creaming my pants prematurely with him (as it were) – it could all tail off. But the signs are there and I know – instinctively – that he’s a proper player. Just like I knew when I watched Giggs on his debut and Ronaldo on his.
To be fair Dan, you couldn’t have known how good Ronaldo would be from his debut because he was quite clueless himself for a good while. Other than that I agree with your post completely (unfortunately because I really thought we might get something better out of Nani)
@Dan
Exactley what I have been saying, I am not a Nani basher and the boo boys at OT is a bit naughty but Talent is no good if you cant do anything with it. Nani is the most frustrating player because we all know he could be quality but his footballing brain is terrible. He doesnt know what to do for his end product.
@bigphil2003
Didnt Ronaldo get man of the match on his debut and only played 30 mins? If i remeber rightly we beat Bolton 4-0 and he come on at 1-0. I may be mistaken though?
From BBC online
Chelsea could be without Ashley Cole for weeks after the left-back aggravated a leg injury at the weekend.
He probably did it during the incident with Fletcher that lead to the goal.
The rent boys got 3points for it, lets see how this affects them when the League restarts
giggs11gerrard0 – Yeah you are right mate. Even from that debut against Bolton you could see the kid was special. Same with Obertan.
Dan – Bang on , every part of your post.
@ King Eric
Thought so mate, I know he took a while to settle but remember him being class on his debut.
gigg11gerrard0 – If I remember correctly he won us a penalty as well. Albeit fairly and not a dive. Their defence couldn’t cope with him from the minute he went on. He had that horrible long straggly hair and that blonde streak. He was proper gangly as well wasn’t he!
He was mate, I remember saying before the game this kid does not look like a Man United player at all. He was just a name sake for the real Ronaldo ( Brazilian). How I was wrong and went on to be the best player in the world. His straggly long hair was the worst! He had the best raw talent I have ever seen but didnt know how to use it. No doubt in my mind that if he didnt come to OT under the SAF he wouldnt be the player he is now!
what goes around comes around.