The Times: They [United] had been the more assertive team throughout, defending diligently and attacking with purpose when the opportunity arose, and would surely have claimed something from the game, quite possibly a victory, had not the two big refereeing decisions gone in Chelsea’s favour.
Had the match ended goalless, Martin Atkinson, the referee, would have ended up with a stern rebuke from Ferguson for refusing to award United a penalty in the fourteenth minute, when Antonio Valencia tumbled after appearing to be impeded by Terry. As it was, the United manager was left in a fury, deeply unhappy both with Atkinson’s award of a free kick, for what looked like a fair tackle by Darren Fletcher on Ashley Cole, and with the manner that Wes Brown was obstructed by Didier Drogba when the ball was whipped in from the left-hand side by Lampard.
The United manager was entitled to feel hard done by, though, given that his team, without Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic in central defence, had coped admirably to that point with the threat of a Chelsea side who have been in prolific form in recent weeks.
The game was transformed, though, when Fletcher was penalised for his challenge on Ashley Cole. As Lampard swung in the free kick, Terry and Anelka attacked the ball with greater conviction than any of United’s defenders, although Brown had an excuse, having been felled, deliberately or otherwise, by Drogba.
Rooney walked off the pitch mouthing the words “twelve men” into a television camera — a comment that, it is fair to assume, related to the help Chelsea had received from the referee, rather than the Stamford Bridge crowd.
The Guardian: With justification, Ferguson bemoaned the 76th minute winner, complaining about Martin Atkinson’s award of the free-kick for a supposed foul by the outstanding Darren Fletcher on Ashley Cole. The manager had recriminations left over for a protest that Didier Drogba had been off-side as John Terry headed in the Frank Lampard set-piece
Lampard, despite taking the key free-kick, was no menace to United in open play. Drogba, the often irresistible striker, was well-marshalled, despite the fact that Rio Ferdinand missed the match through a calf strain and Nemanja Vidic was only in good enough condition to be an unused substitute.
It was scarcely anticipated that Drogba, who has probably been the most impressive character so far in the Premier League season, would make little impression on an improvised United defence. Whatever else keeps Ferguson awake at nights it will not be a horror that his men lack the appetite for a fourth title in a row.
The Guardian minute by minute:
8mins: Wayne Rooney is played in and the flag goes up, with the striker entirely on his own and clean through, 30 yards from the nearest outfield player and 20 yards from goal. But Ashley Cole, on the near side, is clearly playing him onside. Bad – and crucial – decision.
76mins: GOAL! Chelsea 1 Man Utd 0 (Terry) Frank Lampard’s left-wing free-kick, Terry’s header (maybe his shoulder), and Chelsea take the lead a) against the run of play; b) from a free-kick given against Fletcher for winning the ball pretty cleanly. Controversyometer shoots to 10. Rooney gets booked for protesting.
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!)
Genuinely final thoughts: 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?
The Telegraph: This was such a travesty of justice that Manchester United should follow Chelsea’s recent example and appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Wayne Rooney was utterly brilliant, Darren Fletcher had Deco in one pocket and Michael Ballack in the other, while Patrice Evra mocked Ashley Cole’s billing as the world’s best left-back, yet the table shows Chelsea five points clear. Lady Luck was a blue-rinsed hussy strutting down the King’s Road merrily picking visitors’ pockets.
Just how many black cats United ran over on the way into the Bridge remains unclear but they departed shaking their head at the fickleness of fate. United had so impressed. It was not simply the gutsy way Rooney, Fletcher and Evra largely bossed a game of gathering drama. It was not only the defensive determination of stand-ins such as Wes Brown and Jonny Evans, who flung themselves at shots and crosses as if the season depended on it.
It was not solely Sir Alex Ferguson’s clever tactics, flooding midfield and forcing Chelsea’s full-backs deep. Frustration bit deep into United’s soul because of the genesis and execution of Chelsea’s 76th-minute goal. This was one incident in a long season, just one minute in the 3,420 United will negotiate, but it felt so pivotal.
Challenging Cole for possession, Fletcher clearly targeted the ball but the referee, Martin Atkinson, ruled that the Scotland midfielder had fouled the Chelsea man. Fletcher raged at Atkinson, splenetically spelling out that he had made contact with ball before man. Cole had indeed reacted like a startled cat falling off the airer onto the Aga.
Dismissing all pleas, Atkinson signalled a free-kick and United retreated to form the barricades, seething with injustice. Maybe they were distracted but, for once, the rearguard let down its guard. Brown allowed himself to be wrestled down far too easily by Didier Drogba, a clear foul, but Atkinson’s vision was obscured by Joe Cole.
Yet if it is a sign of champions-in-waiting to pick up points while playing poorly then Ancelotti’s side look ready to end United’s three titles on the spin.
Man Utd News 24/7
Besides Martin Atkinson and his Lino’s everyone barring Chavski diehards, EVERYONE, can see that we were robbed.
I’m fucking furious, don’t even want to think about it, as the scum say “it’s a fucking disgrace” and it truly is, Fletcher misses the final, gets booked for diving, gives away a “free kick” wtf is going on with decisions, I know we get some but we’re totally facing an uphill battle. I’m so angry!
this match will make us stronger and expose the rentboyz. 5 points in november is nothing. we won 3 titles in a row for a reason. believe.
There’s no question the referee was shite! An absolute abysmal performance by Atkinson and his linesmen. What bugs me the most is the two offside-situations (one flagged, the other not and would you know it should have been the other way around.)
In the first half the triggerhappy linesman wrongly flagged when Cashle Cole clearly played Rooney onside and we were robbed of a almost certain goal with Rooney one on one against Cech. THEN! The same linesman does nothing when Drogba in a clear offside-position goes for the ball before it crosses the goalline and that way clearly influences play and disturbing van der Saar. But no flag!! The rules state that as long as a player influences play, then he should be flagged if in offsideposition. I fuckin knew they would score when Atkinson gave away that free freekick after a tremendous challenge by Fletch! A bloody scandal is what it is, but at least we know we were the better team and we have nothing to worry about with performances like that.
Well done in peddling a totally one-sided view of yesterday’s game. In pushing a delusional konspiracy that the ref ‘robbed’ ManU of their 3 points, you happily edit out (including from those press reports you cut’n'paste above) Martin Atkinson’s errors that went in your favour.
The worst ‘tackle’ of the game was when Johnny Evans kicked Didier Drogba in the chest; had Atkinson seen it, that would have been a straight red. But suggesting that he wasn’t a great ref is less comforting than the idea that he ‘stole’ the game from you. The fact is that ManU had 2 shots on target to Chelsea’s 6, so you can hardly claim that any just victory was stolen from you, and you are just being childish to suggest that you were the ‘better team’. Still, whatever helps you get through the day and all that.
1) Wenger should be punished for his comments which have made refs biased against Fletcher
2) We should appeal to the FA (though wont be any point) regarding the bias refereeing of the ref
a) Rooney offiside
b) penalty
c) time added on was only 5mins though Drogba was injured for 3mins and Carvlho on the floor for 2, plus all the subs
d) only playing 5mins when there was a one min sub in stoppage time
e) the Terry elbow on Valencia
f) When Terry was on the floor the ref allowed Chelsea to play on, but as soon as we get the ball, we blows up
3) This injustice will galvanise the team, and we WILL win our next 10 prem games, I have no doubts about that
4) Hargreaves is coming back
5) Obertan looked class again, and his performances in the next few months could be vital
6) Fletch and Ando proved they are quality
7) Brown and Evans proved they are more than capable deputies and CB
We are UNITED and we will NEVER die
EuroBlue
The referee directly helped your team score. Without his inadequacies, we would not have lost that match. In fact we most likely would have been 2-0 up with the Rooney 1 on 1, and the penalty, so to suggest the referee had no impact is completely ludicrous
“Darren Fletcher had Deco in one pocket and Michael Ballack in the other” not completely true.. it should be followed by “Anderson had lumpard and essien in each of his.”
To think of it Fletcher is actually carrying a serious injury along with him.. gem of a player…
@EuroBlue
fuck off you cunt.evans kicked drogba.drogba went for the ball.it was there to be won.evans went with his leg.true cunt that he is drogba got a good whacking.all your 20 yard long range shots were so poor my 2 year old cosuin could have caught it.of course that goal should have been .disallowed.shocking to see that chelsea were defending instead of attacking puting 10 men behind the ball rather than going for it.LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS IN MAY
EuroBlue
What exactly did you expect, this is a United blog, not a we love the rentboys site.
I agree that Evans was fortunate, but that was literally the only thing that went in United’s favour yesterday. None of your players were allowed to perform to the same levels have they have done of late because of the brilliant play of Fletcher, in particular, but also from the other midfielders. Your lot were well and truly nullified by United; and only won due to the ref failing to pick up on 3 errors, the free kick that wasn’t, the foul on Brown and the offside from Drogba, who was woeful compared with his recent run, again, because he was outplayed by United.
Even the most ardent United haters have, albiet grudgingly, said the team were denied at least a point by some dismal decisions. Shame you don’t have the decency to admit you were fortunate, in the same way most United fans agree we were fortunate to beat Arsenal early in the season. But that’s the difference between our clubs and it’s called class, not something Chelsea know an awful lot about.
Now run along and have a good teary wank over Terry and the boys.
@sayyid i forgot about 2 f .. yeah the referee did let play go on with terry on the floor and stopped it as soon as our players got the ball. Even SAF came out side and vented his anger on that incident.. Pathetic referee..
To Wazza -> “Twelve men” making it fourteen with the linesmen.
Even the papers are on United’s side – that’s shocking and must be a true indication of the the fact United were denied some precious points.
@Sayyid
GREAT POST MATE
no wonder the chelsea fans are so delusional.they have got used to being at the end of lucky decisions and cheating as usual.look at the cheaters in that side.Drogba,ballack,cashley cole,terry .add to that playing their boring shit brand of anti football which got the reward against Barcelona last year.so dont be surprised at the comments made by some chelsea fans.deluded to say the least
The FA should order the Premier League to replay this match as we were denied to goal scoring opportunites in the first 20 minutes (the offside and the penalty). We would have been 2 up, and probably went on to win by three or four goals
Total injustice, and the FA must be loving it
BTW, read with the scum Poll thinks about the refereeing performance
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1226279/GRAHAM-POLL-Wes-Brown-fouled-Didier-Drogba-offside-Stop-bleating-United-Co–NOT-refs-fault.html
Euro Blue:
You saddo! What are you doing on a Man Utd blog???
As far as I remember Chelsea had only 2 decent shots from Anelka and the cheated goal of course..
I dont think Drogba “passing” the ball to the keeper tells us much about Chelsea or does it?
Enjoy the sight of the table whilst it last because it ain’t going to be the same in MAY!
You know why??:
Because Chelsea’s best player gets booked for being a drama queen whereas Man Utd’s gets booked for disputing a completely cheated goal against his TEAM!
AIG
Totally agree. I hope if we cannot win the league then Arsenal win it. Same goes to the Champions League..anyone but the dippers or rent boys
Chelsea will be found out soon. We’ve got 11 winnable games, that will take us to the top of the league. Our boys will be absolutely fired up now. Shame about this stupid international break
Man Utd v Everton
Portsmouth v Man Utd
West Ham v Man Utd
Man Utd v Aston Villa
Man Utd v Wolverhampton
Fulham v Man Utd
Hull v Man Utd
Man Utd v Wigan
Birmingham v Man Utd
Man Utd v Burnley
Man Utd v Hull
These reports are scant consolation. Its a terrible result, but we can draw great positives from the defeat. Jonny Evans..go on Lad, loved watching him kick the fucking dog out of drogba. Even Vidic was proud of him.
@ Scott: Would love a GIF of that incident and Vidic laughing afterwards. Thanks in advance
It’s funny how you lot are such a bunch of bad losers. Actually I just wrote about how some of the referee decisions were unfortunate. However, there were several bad calls by Martin Atkinson, including a load which were very much against Chelsea. I have the good grace to admit that some of the calls were fortunate for us.
http://www.chelsea.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=516668
However, all your comments are to peddle a childish konspiracy theory. that is, when you aren’t insulting people who dare to post a dissenting voice. How sporting of you. How mature.
I can GUARENTEE you that Rooney will be given a 3 match ban from the scum FA, for mouthing 12th man to the camera
Curse this int’l break. I wish we had a game on Wednesday
Well eurofool if jonny had to be sent of then j tool shud ave been of for elbowing valencia. Also i find the chelsea fans saying united shud get over it amusing, since you’s still complain about the barca semi – final muppets.
EuroBlue
Let me repeat what I said
The referee DIRECTLY helped your team score. Without his inadequacies, we would not have lost that match. In fact we most likely would have been 2-0 up with the Rooney 1 on 1, and the penalty, so to suggest the referee had no impact and you suffered as well is completely ludicrous
Lets all forget about the game and concentrate on how well the team played. Sir Alex was totally right in that he mentioned that even though we were clearly robber by the ref, we really should have put Chelsea six feet under far sooner. The better team by far was United and that shows great signs for the rest of the season. We’ve had an extremely difficult start to the season and are still within reach of the top – I for one am glad that this year is at least going to be a bit more interesting than the last three processions towards the title. Chelsea have a good few difficult games coming up and by Christmas the table should hopefully look a hell of a lot different. Admittedly, it was hard to take that tiny tears Terry “scored” the winner… Oh well, Moscow, ’nuff said.
Ah how things turn, not that long ago you kept on telling all CFC fans to “let it go” when we were robbed by Ovrebo, now you are crying a “robbery”.. stinks of hypocrisy. I suppose this is Chelsea fans turn, to tell you to put a sock in it and move on…
EuroBlue
I’ve read your post and to be honest, it comes across like the deranged ramblings of a drugged horse. Reading between the poorly conceived incoherent lines, you do to be fair say the ref was rubbish, the key point you can’t bring yourself to concede is that none of the big match turning decisions went United’s way and that fact, and that fact alone is why United lost yesterday. So if you did have good grace, you would admit this.
Ferguson is right to call to account poor refereing and whilst it’s obviously spurred on by games United play in, if standards improve, everyone benefits. So you should support a man who dares to dissent. Quite how you have the temerity to criticise him when expressing the same, condescending point to United fans, is, I would expect you to claim, very mature.
I do like Your manager, he’s excellent and seems a decent fellow; but the rest of your players and a good deal of your fans are a foul pestilence on the Premiership.
Euroblue, get back to your own site ya loser. I wouldn’t be caught dead on a chelski one.
As for the article, I’m still angry, but at least the media is seeing the same things we did.
The only good thing to come out of yesterday is this… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdimHWWmIg
The more I watch it, the better I feel.
Will Keith be on the phone to SAF today to apologise?
Keith Hackett, the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, admitted he rang Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez to apologise for Jones allowing the goal to stand and whilst his performance in the Liverpool/Sunderland saw him demoted to the Championship, his performance in the Hull/Burnley game saw him removed from main officiating duties completely.
@sanj: well said mate. 5 points lead in november, and they behave like the title is in their pocket already. No bigger disregard for Sir Alex (and no bigger favour either!) than underestimate him and Manchester United.
B E L I E V E .
@Euroblue
Jog on mate – you guys were robbed against Barcelona, no one from this blog would dispute that, but we were robbed yesterday.. it was a bloody good game, and it’s a shame we are even talking about the ref, but as others have stated here, his mistakes directly cost us the game… you were owned yesterday and you should consider yourselves extremely lucky.
Officiating aside, we will always have Moscow, and JT will always be the cry baby who fell over, so it aint all bad – remember, your success is hollow, and you’ll never win three in a row.
Why is your name euroblue ? Is it because of all of the champions league titles your club has won ? LOL. Fact your club was exposed.
We all new that Cashley Cole (on and off the pitch), Terry and Drogba were fucking cheats but you certainly expect more from English referees. It looks like they have a competition who cheats United most.
If they are charging Fergie for telling the truth, why can’t the FA get rid of incompetent refrees?
“while Patrice Evra mocked Ashley Cole’s billing as the world’s best left-back”
Did anyone actually believe Cole was the top left back in the LEAGUE, never mind world?
I’m suprised at the backlash towards the reffing.
True enough, there were some bad calls. But they went both ways. Thw foul on Drogba could easily have been called a penalty, and I think had it been any other player it would have. The challenge on Valencia was iffy to say the least. That would’ve been an extremely harsh penalty to award. It was just a shoulder on shoulder challenge and Valencia was not clean through to goal…he was quite close to the touchline I think it would’ve been almost impossible to get a decent shot off.
Neither team really impressed but I was disapointed with United’s lack of balance on attack. If it weren’t for Rooney on the pitch, we would not have any real sparkforward. Our midfield didn’t create many chances. Rooney really had to do everything on his own. He was sensational all game..he really deserved a goal or two.
I am starting to worry a bit about the imbalance offensively that we have. If Rooney ever gets injured(god forbid) we will have an extremely depleted attack. One with out energy, speed, movement, and deadly finishing.
We know we are h better team and that is enough. Don’t need to bother with the opponents. We had more possession than them at their home. LOL We had so many corners than theirs. (Btw did they had a corner? LOL.) For me, not only did fletcher perform well. Anderson and carrick was awesome. I like the way anderson mark essien for the whole game. It’s like watching NBA. lol He marking essien wherever he goes and what did essien did in this whole game? Only passing. Our team play so well that i can’t fault anyone except for giggs who is coming back from injury and still short of fitness. After this game, i am fully confident that we will overtake them if we keep playing this way. I am still laughing at the fact anderson mark essien. LOL !!!
Also, whatever happened to United getting after teams. Forcing the oppositiong to play their style of football.
We play 442 all the time but when we face tougher opposition we setup 451. Do we not have the confidence to force our game on other teams anymore? We are starting to adjust for other teams instead of making them adjust to us. Why is that.
Tactically it doesn’t really work right now.
Losing hurts, but losing against opposition you outplay it worse. “Robbed” seems to be the word of the day but the more I think of it it’s just one of those games, we pick up and move on. What we take from the game is that “unofficially” Rooney was man of the match, the guy was everywhere, Anderson is growing and growing and moaning aside Fletcher is turning into some crazed midfield general.
I have one gripe about Fletcher and that is his moaning, he needs to pick himself up and get on with it, feeling hard done by is the worst thing a footballer can think, brush any criticism and go about your job in the next game, he will grow and grow, the lad is having some real bad luck with referees but his time will come.
aig alex is god – calm down
everybody else telling EuroBlue to “fuck off”. He has every right to be here. Would you rather it was just 25 United fans going “Wah wah wah we were robbed wah wah wah”
Its good we get other fans opinions, its just rude of you to say “fuck off you cunt”
I wonder why I read the comments sometimes…
The more Sir Alex talks about referees, the more decisions go against United. I have not seen a single season where decisions have went against United this frequently. Should we calm down about blaming referees.
@RedDeviled Egg
Pessimistic thinking. Makes me think of another guy who had this. Are you that guy in disguise? LOL
WAS IMPRESSED WITH UNITED SPIRIT WASNT WORRIED ABOUT THE DEFENCE AS SOME PEOPLE SEEMED TO BE MIDFIELD WAS SPOT ON DIDNT THINK THAT VALENCIA WAS A FOUL BUT THEIR AGAIN NETHER WAS FLETCH ON COLE SAME DILLUISONAL ATTITUDE AT FINAL WHISTLE IT WAS LIKE LIVERPOOL ALL OVER AGAIN NOT TO FUSSED BECAUSE WE ARE PAYING WELL
Once cheats, always cheats. What goes around, comes around. Look at the dippers, after carragher brought down Owen, he got sent off and lost against Fulham. Pathetic motherfuckin cunts!
“Wayne Rooney was utterly brilliant, Darren Fletcher had Deco in one pocket and Michael Ballack in the other, while Patrice Evra mocked Ashley Cole’s billing as the world’s best left-back.”
Damn right. I am so fucking proud of the team, played fantastic yesterday, midfield was like an engine, defence rock solid, against a in-form team and against the so called overhyped ‘ancelotti diamond’, we need to keep up these types of performances against every team. Why are the chelsea fans even denying the fact that they were literally GIVEN the win, they can’t accept it. Even the papers that usually slate Fergie and critisize this team recognised the injustice. We were simply the better team, outclassed them, but the referee decisions went into their favour. End of.
United fans are SORE LOSERS!! Earlier on in the season Fletcher was fouling for fun against Arsenal, he got away with a BLATENT foul on Arshavin in the penalty area and he got away it.. I seem to remember utd fans laughing and joking, well now the tables have turned. U beat Arsenal because the referee helped u, rooney’s penalty was a dive and u guys got the penalty that cost Arsenal the game so at the end of the day what goes around comes around, u didn’t deserve to lose against Chelsea and u did, just like Arsenal deserved to beat Utd and they didn’t but the bottom line is ur team is CRAP! their are so many cracks in ur team it’s laughable! Ronaldo leaves and ur team crumbles, it just shows that u guys clearly were a ONE MAN TEAM! utd have spent £18m on Anderson, £18m on Carrick £16m on Nani £18m on Valencia £30m for Rooney! It’s a shambles, utd are A shambles! Fletcher is CRAP, all he knows is fouling, wenger was right! Now fletchers stupidity has cost u 3 pts against Chelsea. Fergie’s BIG Mouth has given ref’s a reason not to give utd decisions and I’m glad! Enjoy winning NOTHING this season! ONE MAN TEAM!
@King Eric
Well said.
Crucial to take the positives from the game. We’ve played many a game and got the three points without playing half as well. I’m hugely encouraged by the display and commitment shown.
Tactically SAF got it spot on. I daresay many a manager will look at our performance and use it to good effect when up against the rentboys.
I’m certain we shall go on a long unbeaten run now.
I’m more convinced than ever that it will be 19!
Oh, Na-Sei, you really are a sad little turd.
Well done Telegraph for giving a concise and accurate portrayal of what happened Sunday. A really good article in fairness, witty and factually correct.
@Na-Sei – we hardly ‘got away’ with the Fletcher foul against Arsenal as Arshavin scored for that move!
Na Sei – Fuck off you cunt. How old are you? Just ask Carrick and Anderson etc how many medals they have. I bet my mortgage you ain’t here in May. Infact you were even masquerading as a United fan yesterday on the wind up. Your team Arsenal may play pretty football but what does it get you? You are a bunch of fucking “boys” pal. Leave winning titles to the men. It is a marathon not a sprint and you can bet your dinner money boy that United will be getting number 19 come May.
Who is this other King Eric further up? It ain’t me.
Finally is that tosser Adrian Durham on Talkshite for real? He reckons we are shit. That the rentboys bullied us yesterday and that Ando isn’t good enough for United. How the fuck can he say this? We completely bossed their “powerful midfield”. The daft thing is not once did he mention Chavski’s shortcomings and he slagged Fergie for going for the draw. He reckons it’s now between the Chavs and Arsenal . What a cunt. Mark my words and I have said it all season the rentboys WILL be found out. Vastly over rated. Cannot fucking wait to get in our groove and be at the top of the pile at Xmas as I will be the first to ring the twat. I hope United retain Cleverley in January. I have very high hopes for this lad.
Scott, the name is ‘CHEAT’SEA, not chelsea. Shameful cheats. Unbelievable!
We were robbed and defeats like this do hurt. But I’m taking heart from the performance because I thought we were absolutely fantastic. To dominate Chelsea on their own pitch is a great accomplishment and – despite the result – such a display can only bode well for the rest of the season.
5 points in november is nothing, lastyear we came back from 7 points in jan, believe in Sir Alex and the guyz to get the team where they belong…at the top!
After every defeat the reaction is so predictable and over the top, face it, referees are crap – they have been for a long time so whats new? I thought Manchester United was bigger than this.
The season is long and nothing has even been decided yet
If we really did play SO much better than Chelsea, then why didn’t we win??
I thought we played ok. Strong in midfield but had absolutely nothing in the final thrid of the field. It’s so difficult to do big offensive things with only 1 striker which was evident….even though Rooney owned every defender he challenged.
Why though, do we all keep claiming that United dominated the game, ‘bossed Chelsea’, and were the much better team??? We weren’t. It was a very equal match.
If we were so much better we would’ve won. Simple as that.
RDE – I bet you are a glass half empty man. The fact is that everyone in the media said that our midfield is shit and that the Rentboys would simply over power it. In fact Ando had Essien and Fletch had Lumpard in their back pockets. You are never gonna get a lot of chances in these “big” games. Furthermore our back 4 were excellent yesterday.
King Eric. No I am not. Far from it. I just expect quality performances given the quality of our club. I never said our midfield was bad (notice my comments above)(hell, i complimented them)
All i’m saying that, in not just this game, we’ve been lacking the killer edge/instinct to kill teams off in the final third of the field. This explains why we’re squeaking out 1-0 wins to teams that we dominate for 90 minutes. We won the tussles in midfield and our defence definitely put a halt to Drogba et al. But we need to create an attack that is to be feared and that is effective in taking chances and finishing them.
I know there were a lot of positives to take away from this game in how we played, but to say that we were streets ahead of Chelsea is pure delusion. They are a quality side and we need to acknowledge that.
I do think once our offense starts to click we would dump Chelsea no problem
Red Deviled Egg – You make some good points to be fair. I DO agree we should be killing teams off, hopefully that will click into place shortly. I wasn’t implying you were saying our midfield was bad mate, just most of the papers and blogs prior to the game were. To be fair to that twat Alan Green on 5live he said our midfield yesterday were outstanding.
And why the hell isn’t Gibson getting any chances this year?? They guy’s got a rocket of a shot. If we can’t penetrate we might as well have someone like him that can blast on goal from 25 yards out
I notice you didn’t print any comments from the Chelsea Fanzine, sorry I meant Daily Mail.
And did you see that drivel about Brave John Terry again?
If you read the Mail, you’d think United and Liverpool were just minor clubs making up the numbers behind the real powerhouses of the game – Chelsea, Chelsea reserves, Tottenham, West Ham and Arsenal, in that order.
@RedDeviledEgg
Gibsons injured mate, but you’re right as far as his shooting is concerned, the best in the Utd squad!
Euro blue fuck off you piece of shit. Come MAY the true champions will be crowned and its us you dick not some cocksucking team from London. Get out of this site you piece of garbage. To think that you even visit this site and to complain ’bout Evans’ kick on Drogballs, fuck off!!!!!
GLORY GLORY MAN UTD!!!!!!
Obviously the 12th Man made the difference.
Rooney’s off-side can be explained: it was close. The decision of giving a foul against Fletcher can be explained: he made the challenge. All these gave the 12th Man an excuse.
However, he cannot explain his decision as to when to stop the play. The case on Terry was so obviously, he allowed Chelsea to attack repeatedly when Utd couldn’t clear the ball; but he stopped tyhe game immediately when Utd controlled the ball and counter attacked. His decision as to when blow his whistle or allow the game to continue is also questionable. He gave Utd a free kick simply to stop their attack. That happened throughout the match.
I entirely agree with Rooney’s comment of “12 men”. This was robbery. Probably, the FA also otherwise they won’t let him go. We can’t do anything. The pool is so big. Too much money involved. We don’t know who are involved!
To be honest I’m hoping Chelsea win the CL this season. Because if they do Abramovich will be off and those left will have to sort out the mess – repaying RA the money he loaned the club; having no money from RA to subsidise their extortionate salaries; and then we’ll know why Kenyon chucked the towel in.
Need to check Mr. Martin Atkinson a/c.
RedDeviled Egg- In my opinion you are the type of glory hunting plastic fan that i wouldn’t want to be associated with. You know why i say that?
Because you not ONCE mention their cheating and unsporting behavior. That will make any true red mad. MAD enough to come here and write about it. We should play 442 all the time is it? Even when they pack the midfield? Tactically its not working? We fucking owned their midfield. I don’t know, maybe you’re new to the game but jesus..
Yeah we should fucking kill teams all the time should we? We will lose some games. We will play some games badly. If you cannot accept that then go support another team!
Matt Atkinson is a disgrace. I believe he has a hidden agenda against Man Utd. He is the same guy who denied Man Utd a penalty when Ronaldo was shoved away in the box against Portsmouth in the 2007/2008 FA Cup match denying Man Utd a possible trebble. He did not see it ( a la Wenger). But he saw the foul that earned Portsmouth the match winning penalty.
He did not see that Terry fouled Valencia inside the box on the 14th minute of play against Chelsea. He did not see that Rooney was onside. He saw Cole jumping in air but did not see that Fletcher won the ball without touching Cole. He did not see Drogba bringing Wes down preventing a challenge on John Terry’s header. He either did not see that Drogba was offside or he deemed Drogba not to be interfering with play when he stuck out a foot and missed contact with the ball as it was going in.
Matt Atkinson’s decisions when it comes to Man Utd are wayward. When a man has selective blindness then there is a bias.
FA would not want a player or official to complain about referees but they allow the despicable to happen without doing anything (at least when it comes to Man Utd issues). After the beach ball incident at Sunderland the referee was demoted to the Championship the following week but I guess Matt Atkinson will be rewarded with the next star match of the week when the league resumes. Why? because it’s Man Utd. They have been winning too many trophies. Shame on Atkinson, shame on the FA.
United Prawn,
I appologize for having big expectations for the best club in the world. God I’m a dick, I mean mediocrity should be praised(hopefully you’re intelligent enough to catch sarcasm)..(I’m sure you aren’t though)
We have a team that should punish almost all that come our way.
Chelsea “packed the midfield” with 4 players. Yikes. I’m just saying, we aren’t forcing our game onto other teams the way we used to. Our midfield did well on the weekend to hold off Chelsea but we never created a glut of chances other than Rooney.
Piss off with your plastic fan BS, I don’t whine about the ‘unsporting’ behaviour and poor reffing given the fact that there were a few calls that went our way (Evans kick on Drogba being one) The free kick that led to the goal was rubbish but it was our defending that let us down while conceding it. The push on Valencia was a classic shoulder to shoulder. There was no clear break on goal that was impeded.
We didn’t do enough to win. Simple as that. We didn’t “own” their midfield we contained them and neutralized their threat but by we didn’t push on them and create chances from the middle of the park.
If you can’t see this, and only see the ref as the cause of our loss, then you my friend may be new to the game.
Don’t slate me for expecting good performances on a consistent basis.
451 didn’t work against Chelsea’s ‘packed’ midfield. If we were stronger we would’ve won
The press in Iceland went on about Fergie once again criticizing the ref after the game, like it was such a surprise after what we witnessed. They put the story up like Fergie was just going insane and had no case in his hand whatsoever.
But we played well against a strong team in good form. We were the better sides and we managed to keep Drogba and Anelka quiet throughout the match despite playing without our two best defenders, Rio and Vidic. I wonder how Chelsea would cope in a big match like this without Terry and Carvalho. I can’t wait for the game at Old Trafford!
Gudjohnsen,
Chelsea managed to beat Liverpool in CL last season with Alex and Ivanovic in central diffence,a 3-1 result which saw everybody count liverpool out of title contention, so what are you saying?
4theBlues – Yeah I thought Alex and Ivanovic played well that night but please don’t compare the filthy bin dipping vermin with United. Also how did your three one win in Europe “count Liverpool out of the title”? Do you mean the European “title”?
Try this: If Liverpool can lose a 7 point lead to United last season, Chelsea can always have this happen to them: changing a new manager, played out draws with many teams and somehow losing to teams like Wigan. Oh right, they already did lose to Wigan.
Probably what we really need right now, more drive, and a stronger killing instinct. Trust in him who knows all, Sir Alex Ferguson.
Martin Atkinsons a cunt. I knew we was in for a long afternoon when they announced he would officiate the game. Out of his depth to take charge of a game as big as this.
Phew, anger and frustration throughout the board, and on reflection it was a shocker.
But worse to come.