Sep 24
Man Utd 2-0 Chelsea: Reds Rub It In
It wasn’t a vintage United performance. Not in anyone’s wildest dreams. However, it was a game where we controlled things completely. There were moments where it looked like we were getting our stride back. But for most part, we drifted to familiar territory that we’ve seen this season. Nevertheless, the performance was much better than what we’ve seen over the past few wins and it looks like we might actually shift several notches over the coming weeks.
United started the match on a very bright note — Wayne Rooney, almost instantly, had a shot brilliantly saved by Cech. Fergie, for one, got it spot on with the formation. With Mourinho out, SAF realized Chelsea were there for the taking and the 4-4-2 formation clearly signalled his intentions. Familiar faces were played in familiar positions and we got the results we so desired. Giggs on the left, Ronaldo on the right, Tevez partnering Rooney, Carrick with Scholes, the back four of Brown-Vidic-Rio-Evra keeping it tight at the back — they were a return to a formation that’s always worked for us.
After the initial burst, things became a little even before Obi Mikel was sent off for a straight red. Now we have seen players not being sent off for worse offences, but I am with Mike Dean on this decision. That is not to say, however, that the ref was anywhere near approaching good. He seemed completely out of his depth and unsure at times. It is thanks to the absence of Mourinho — who would have surely raised hell and some conspiracy theories — that we had a mostly incident free match. It must be reiterated at this point that the ref did have a pretty inconsistent game. If Mikel was sent off then, surely, Joe Cole had no business being on the pitch after that lunge, from behind, on Ronaldo.
Obi’s sending off certainly shifted the balance of the match and, despite the few chances, we did create something to be in front. At the close of the first half, a half heartedly cleared corner fell back to Giggs who sent in a cross off the outside of his foot to Tevez who sent it a good header from the near post. Whoever said he couldn’t head!
There was surprisingly very little to talk about the second half. We controlled the game and passed it around to death. Carrick had a brilliant game. Two of his long range passes were outstanding. It must be noted, if my memory serves me right, that Carrick gave a man of the match performance last year too against the Rent Boys. There have been many fans asking for Carrick to be axed, but the lad seems to show an uncanny ability to turn up for the big games. The defence again was outstanding — EVDS had nothing to do and Sheva was left totally isolated, thanks to some unimaginative tactics from the ‘Normal One’.
But there might be certain things about the match that wasn’t right. I, for one, wasn’t too impressed with Saha’s theatrics. If I was a rival fan I would be disgusted. And I must put my hand up and say these are the sort of things we don’t want our players to do. When we call Ashley Cole a diving, cheating pig, we should be sure that our players play fair. While the penalty appeal might be debatable, Saha’s exaggerated fall was uncalled for. While I was happy for Tevez to score he was mostly quiet apart from those crucial moments in the first half where he scored. Giggs was also subdued, but he did have a much better game than before, and one of the reasons for that would be his starting on the left side of midfield.
Post-match, this was what Fergie had to say:
“I’ve seen the sending off incident and it was maybe a bit harsh, but there was intent there. It could have hurt the boy (Evra) but a lot of referees would have let it go. Then, when you see Joe Cole’s tackle in the second half on Cristiano Ronaldo, that should have been a straight red card. It was right down the Achilles which is happening repeatedly to Cristiano. He got a yellow card, but it should have been red. I think the referee was perhaps balancing it out. The foul on Louis Saha for our penalty was a bit harsh, but I think that cancels out the one we should have got in the first half. We should have had a penalty kick (for Joe Cole’s foul on Evra) in the first half, I think the cameras clearly show that. In tight games like that, the referee has to make big decisions quickly and he can get it wrong.”
I don’t quite agree with refs trying to ‘balance’ out their decisions — one wrong can’t quite make up for the other — but then refs, these days, have a tough job. Although, Mike Dean was way off today.
This was the maximum number of goals we’ve scored in a game this season, and it came against our toughest opposition. It must be said, however, that the Chelsea team we played were a disjoint lot and down to ten men. A Mourinho-led Chelsea would have been a completely different proposition. But points are points, they have to be taken if we are to keep up with our major rivals, who are Arsenal, mainly, and Liverpool. The signs are good and there is a good chance, come Birmingham, we will have our swagger back and get back to spanking teams. Really, it’s about time we started doing that.
Of course, in mid-week, there is the big matter of playing Coventry City in the Carling Cup.
Related items from Red Rants:- United* 1-1 Chelsea: First Blood to the Reds
- Giggs and Brown to Remain Reds | Ex-Reds Clash | Wenger Threat | Takeovers And Other Such Nonsense
- Citeh 1-0 Reds: Unbelievable
- Preview: Reds vs FC Ireland (a.k.a Roy Keane’s Sunderland)
- Man Utd v Barcelona: Preview
Tags: Match Reports
September 24th, 2007 at 11:30
“He was mostly quiet apart from those crucial moments in the first half where he scored”
- I think Tevez played better, he wasn’t that quite.
Giggs: Apart from the assist, he was very average, IMHO.
Carrick was magnificent, what a passing, one of the best games in united shirt.
Chelsea came to defend [Makelele, Obi, Essien in mid], Jose would have done something special. We would have won it anyway because we all know that they are very average without Lampard and Drogba.
September 24th, 2007 at 13:36
yea must agree about sahas penalty. is not what i want to see from any players especially united. but agree with SAF that we should have had one from j.coles tackle on evra.
some of uniteds cross pitch passing was sublime at times. carrick was good but still would like to see him looking more dangerousat the edge of the box, and have a shoot not necessarily always pass along the edge of the box. thought evra was justabout the mom, got up and down the wing constantly and supplied a nice overlap for giggs continually, really helping giggsy into the game. he is having an outstanding season to date.
ohh and i thought wes brown was fantastic, a real physical threat around the pitch.
chelsea look like they are in alot of trouble this season, and im so glad we mikel never played in the red shirt and i honestly think that jose may have sold him. hes a talent but to arrogant and just a pathetic person.
good result but should have been better after chelsea went down to 10, lets hope a mark of thins to come!!
September 24th, 2007 at 15:18
shame on the referee what an ashl! let the game flow you ashl
September 24th, 2007 at 18:18
“And I must put my hand up and say these are the sort of things we don’t want our players to do”.
Red Ranter, about 5 minutes ago I would have totally agreed but as Liam O Kelly pointed out ove on soccerlens, Saha got hit on the face by Ben Haims arm while getting kicked so this could have made him overexaggerate the fall.
Look for yourselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ipc291bEuQ
September 24th, 2007 at 19:48
nice find conor, guess saha didn dive/over exaggerate
September 24th, 2007 at 20:37
United made chelse look very ordanary nothing to them, and to be honest you could see it in all their faces thats why terry was starting to hack poeple down lol sad
September 24th, 2007 at 21:08
what makes me laugh about the chelsea fans etc is the way they are complaining about how saha dived for the penalty, but i seem to remember one very very dodgy penalty incident in a game with liverpool which seems to have slipped chelsea fans’ minds…. and there was no contact there atall, amazing how these things even out, and then again nothing is being evened out as saha actually had contact. as for this goal deep in stoppage time, chelsea have never done that im sure, plus when rio was injured he was down for more than 2 minutes.
September 24th, 2007 at 21:44
If Chelski should bitch it should be for the red card they got and not all the other stuff because they clearly played a pathetic and uninspired game. They never had one shot on goal so how can they even complain about all the other decisions that went against them. Just total rubbish and sour grapes from the Normal One. There was intent by Mikel but I feel it only deserved a yellow. That was the single decisive moment of the match as it basically killed off Chelski’s ambitions. On the other hand United supporters should have raided the pitch and strung Joe Cole up with piano wire. His foul on Ronny was not only vicious, it was an intent to cripple our best player. No doubt an act of frustration and classlessness from Cole.
As for Saha, he definitely gets a 9.5 for style on the dive and should get one game suspension. Shit like this has to stop. I am fed up with the puffers of football who have made diving an art form and also thumbs down to all players who feel the need to grab a players shirt (especially in the box) in order to keep up with him. Cowards and cheaters the whole lot of them. United are as guilty of these theatrics as anyone else and it is time football leagues came down on this nonsense.
Finally I cannot remember a time we have ever played a top opponent where they never even threatened our goal once. Their cowardly tactics were disgusting considering this lack of attacking ambition was the reason for sacking Mourinho in the first place. They never looked to score even before their red card. And although our offensive game is far from fixed, it seems to be coming along and hopefully it will gel like Arsenal has this season. It wasn’t that long ago when Arsenal was struggling with injuries and young players trying to fit in.
High marks also to our back four for a strong game as usual. Vidic and Rio have been sexy beasts this year. And I was also overjoyed by the fine performance of one Michael Carrick. I have been one of those harsh critics, so my praise doesn’t come easy. He deserved it. Now if he can grow from this and show this form consistently enough. If so, we will be awesome to watch very soon from now.
September 25th, 2007 at 8:04
Joe Cole has always been classless - a cockey and spoiled little brat.
I think the game showed that our team is getting more and more mature. We no longer have to play beautiful football to win games with ease. Of course we all want to see the quick game from last season, but when even our main title rivals come to defend, the free-flowing game will always be difficult to reach. Right now the most important thing is to get results andbuild up confidence (can you imagine how well we’ll play, once confidence reaches the level of last season). It also showed how important Saha is to the team. His deep runs have been missed, and we always look harder to defend against, when he’s on the pitch. Having said that, the Rooney/Tevez partnership looked great to me (even with Rooney not in superform yet). If all 3 stay fit from now on, no one can stop us.
About the penalty on Saha. There’s clearly contact (a kick on the leg and a slap in the face), so it should be a penalty. The problem is that these type of situations are often overlooked by the refs, if the player doesn’t make an extra effort (like going down theatrically) - such has the game become.
September 25th, 2007 at 10:10
Guys, did anyone else notice Ronaldo’s face when Tevez lined up and took the first free kick around the box!? It was like someone had taken his favourite toy! Now, I love Ronaldo’s skill and seeing him in full flight. But his free kicks are woeful. Tevez proved he can hit the target last year at West Ham but Ronnie doesn’t look like he wants to give up the job.
September 26th, 2007 at 10:22
Im glad im not the onlyone who thinks Ronaldo is crap at freekicks. I dont under stand why fergie sticks with him tacking them with all of the frees we get RONALDO GETS ONE OUT OF TEN I WOULD THINK