review: MANCHESTER UNITED 2 v 0 Chelsea

Article by Mark Graham, Stats Nerd
Match Review
Manchester United 2 v 0 Chelsea, Old Trafford, Manchester, 16.00pm, Sunday 23rd September 2007.
Goals: Manchester United : Tevez (45), Saha (90 pen), Chelsea: n/a.
Attendance: 75,663

Leaving where Jose left off, whinging & not being able to win despite having a Gazillion pounds worth of talent on the pitch Avram "I haven't got all my coaching badges" Grant's first game in charge of the Plastic Russian Club was a defeat. United took all three points leaving Chelski continuing in a tailspin with not a single Chelsea plastic wanting the wear there shirts in Towns & Cities across the world.

United paired Rooney & Tevez together from the start & with Rooney's urgency & work rate, the forward look sharp & hungry adding a bite to United's attack which has been missing all season, within minutes of the opening whistle Rooney had Petr Cech at full-stretch tipping the shot wide after beating Ben Haim.

If the later Saha penalty incident wasn't then the sliding tackle from Joe Cole was as the Ex West Ham player made contact with Evra in the penalty area, United then continued with chances after Michael Essien gave a dangerous & ludicrous ball away to Rooney, Rooney crossed for for Giggs who volleyed high and wide when perhaps the Welshman should have done better.

Essien for his poor pass was viciously chastised by Cech as the keeper dashed from his line to scream at the Ghana star.

The game changed on the hour after Jon Obi Mikel was sent off for a "studs showing" tackle on Patrice Evra which in fact some referees might have given a yellow card only, however on this occasion referee Mike Dean saw fit to send Obi his marching orders with United fans singing "You should have signed for a big club".

Credit where credit is due Chelsea managed to play well with ten men and keeping the scores level at 0-0, however just before half time the Rentboys resistance soon gave in.

A late corner for the Reds was cleared by the visitors only as far as the impressive Wes Brown who fed Giggs with a great pass, and with the outside of his left boot Ryan Giggs found an unmarked Carlos Tevez who headed the ball into the net before Cech in the Chelsea goal could intervene for his account opener.

In the second half United looked for a second goal with MUFCINFO.COM's MOTM Michael Carrick displaying some devastating 70 yard passes as Giggs volleyed over from one such attempt

Tevez also tried a free kick which curled wide.

Joe Cole was then booked for a disgraceful career threatening lunge on Cristiano Ronaldo, which in actual fact was far worse than the Nigerian's earlier Red card offence & how dare the little T-Rex armed arsehole attempt to roll the dice on the career of a player. Your lunge was a disgrace and could have ended a career.

Imagine the amount of press coverage a Rooney, Gerrard, Viera, Robbie Savage would have got for the tackle, and what will Joe Cole receive? a minimal passing comment about a yellow card booking.

The final nail in the proverbial coffin was a penalty a minute from time, won, dived & converted by one Louis Saha, who it has to be said must have been teasing Ben-Haim by saying "watch this I'm going to be Didier Drogba" as the Frenchman did his impression of a victim of a Japanese sniper.

The victory leaves the Reds in 2nd place with 14 points & Chelski in 6th with 11, the Blues have a goal difference of -1 & haven't won in 4 games.

So it just goes to show you Mr Abramovich you cant buy the beautiful game!!!

United's Man of the Match
Michael Carrick was back to his best, excellent passing & some exquisite tackling.

MUFC.COM's Reaction
Get in there!!!!, rub their noses in the sh** when their down.

Was our prediction correct?
No! We said 0-0. MUFC INFO 1 v 7 Wrong Predictions.

Milestones
SAF's 371st victory of his Premiership career.
Carlos Tevez's 1st Premiership goal of his United career & 1st goal overall.
Louis Saha's 25th Premiership goal of his United career & 39th goal overall.

United's Next Match
Wednesday 26th September 2007 against Coventry City in the League Cup 3rd Round at Old Trafford, Manchester with a 19.45pm kick off.

MUFCINFO.COM Reader Feedback

Name: Lloyd Ross
Email: lloyd201@btinternet.com
Comments: extremely well written and unbiased match report, a professional could not have done any better.  
PS here is a challenge for the stats nerd, which famous footballers have a birthday on 27 Sept, past and/or present?.