Article by Mark Graham, Stats Nerd

Match Review
Chelsea 0 v 0 Manchester United, Stamford Bridge, London, 20.00pm, Wednesday 9th May 2007.
Goals: Chelsea: n/a    Manchester United: n/a.
Attendance: 41,794

The New League Champions of England reserve side ground out a feisty at times draw as SAF & Jose rang in big changes in the FA Cup warm up at Stamford Bridge, both managers chose to play squad members & reserves with SAF giving starts to Chris Eagles, Kieran Lee & making his debut Dong Fangzhou, on fair reflection of the game Chelsea did enough to warrant a victory and looked more likely to score but United held on to keep the Reds 7 points in front.

Jose Mourinho had just Essien & Terry in the starting 11 as Cudicini, Diarra, Ferreira, Bridge, Makelele, Wright-Phillips, Kalou, Sinclair were all given starts, Joe Cole saw action only for the immaturity of Mikel who would later receive a booking & Sahar & Morais were fielded later in the match as substitutes.

With almost the entire 1st team of both clubs watching from the stands, the largely quiet affair suddenly burst into life as Obi, reacting after a tackle from Alan Smith, challenged Chris Eagles heavily and a booking was imminent for Obi Won, the Nigerian Youngster who cost the Rentboys £10m in dirty money was removed for his own good and replaced by Joe "Stumpy Arms" Cole in the second half after risking his place in the FA Cup Final.

United then went close to opening the scoring as Captain for the night Gabriel Heinze saw his poor right foot attempt go well wide after finding space, later in arguably the Reds best spell, Essien tripped the impressive Eagles for a penalty however Graham Poll waved play on.

Clearly in a rage Eagles then unnecessarily mauled Shaun Wright-Phillips with a tackle, receiving a fully deserved booking and a scenes of jostling transpired on the pitch as John Terry remonstrated with a clutch of United players.

After the hand bags had died down the home side pressured the visitors as Wright-Phillips shot at Kuszczak, The Polish keeper then made a fine diving save from Kalou. Carrick replace Heinze & Rooney then replaced the quiet debutant Dong.

In a most hilarious passage later Graham Poll involved himself in a healthy telling off session from the 2nd place Loser Jose Mourinho and after an exchange the Chelsea boss in a baby like tantrum, moved from his seat thinking he was sent from the dug out.

It took the 4th official to explain to the moaning tw*t that he was in fact ok , whereby the Chelsea boss, who just clearly wasn't up to the task of a League campaign sheepishly took his place and sat in another seat close to his official one.

Kuszczak again was forced into action as Diarra curled an effort & again the Polish stopper was in the thick of the action as he dropped a Joe Cole's corner, but John Terry's header was thwarted & the Reds lived on as Chelsea kept the pressure up with another corner.

Another save from a Kalou effort saw the game then run out on Chelsea, just like the Premiership Title.

So the Reds kept their 7 points lead & face a West Ham side fighting for relegation on Sunday, revenge will be on the minds of a few Old Timer Reds after loosing the Title, but as Millions of Reds wont care that much as the New Champions of England will be crowned.

MUFCINFO.COM would also like to mention the unmatched singing & passion of the United fans who made it to Stamford Bridge, simply fantastic & Well Done

A Big up to Simon Curwen who was part of the action.

United Starting Line-up
Player Ratings in parenthesis
Kuszczak (7); Lee (6), Brown (8), O'Shea (6), Heinze (6); Eagles (7), Smith (7), Fletcher (6), Richardson (6); Solskjaer (5), Dong (5).
Subs Used: Carrick (6) for Heinze (65 mins), Rooney (6) for Dong (73 mins).
Subs not used: Van der Sar, Ferdinand, Scholes.

United's Man of the Match
Wes Brown who has plugged the gap left by injury's to Rio & Vidic deserves a special mention the Longsite born centre half was awesome at the back

Keano16's Reaction
The Guard of Honour was something that I was looking forward to and it ending up being a damp squib.

Was Our Prediction Right?
We said 1-1, United Rant 7 v 52 Wrong Predictions.

Milestones
Dong Fangzhou became Manchester United's 28th Nationality to wear the famous Shirt.
Michael Carrick's 50th competitive game for United.
 
Miscellaneous Info
THE CHAMPIONS WILL BE CROWNED: Saturday 13th May 2007 (H) to West Ham United in the Premiership, 15.00pm K.O. G.M.T.