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.
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.