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Article by Mark
Graham, Stats Nerd
Chelsea 2 v 1
Manchester United, Stamford Bridge,
London,
12.45pm, Saturday 26th April
2008.
Goals:
Chelsea:
Ballack (45), (86 pen) - Manchester United: Rooney (57).
Attendance: 41,828
The title
race took a swing back toward the Rentboys after the
Saturday lunch time fixture ended with Chelsea winning the
game 2-1 courtesy of a brace from German midfielder
Michael Ballack. Late goals in each half including a
eleventh-hour penalty snatched all the points for Chelsea,
giving United fans worldwide an awkward & squeaky bum
feeling for remainder of the season.
SAF somewhat "left out" the ammunition for his gun as Tevez & Ronaldo with so much at stake
were sat on the bench with Nani,
Fletcher & Giggs included in the teams starting line up.
Chelsea started well dictating the pace & possession with
United still in European mode e.g. happy to contain & as
in Spain (or Catalonia) in midweek.
Unlucky Nemanja Vidic soon found himself needing doctors
treatment again as accidentally Didier Drogba kneed the
powerful Serb in the face after the United defender tried
to clear danger with his head. The blow as the
replay showed was "Mike Tyson" like in the fact that Vidic
went to the ground immediately, but credit to the man,
after loosing a tooth and bleeding profusely from the
mouth, Vidic got up to his feet to try to carry on but to no
avail and was replaced by Owen Hargreaves.
In a half
where the Reds sat back and soaked up anything Chelsea had
to offer, like Barcelona the home side created little to
write home about except when Joe Cole volleyed against the
bar.
Constant running from deep like an youthful Paul Scholes
saw Michael Essien in excellent positions on several
occasion, but too many
times he was ignored by team mates for the other option.
With
United's plan A still working well at the end of the half, SAF will have surely
given Darren Fletcher the hair dryer at the half time
interval as
United switched off for the last few seconds of the half.
Drogba clipped in a cross to the left hand side where Ballack alone & unmarked & untracked from midfield, nodded
past EVDS to give Chelsea the goal their play possession &
attacking deserved.
In the second period United had more of a sense of urgency
and as they were building on getting back into the game
one of the more reliable centre half's in European
football made a horrific error
after his fellow countryman took a unnecessary quick free
kick, with the defence clearly not ready Carvalho passed
casually back to his goal into the path of Wayne Rooney
who collected the loose ball & sped toward goal & Peter Cech scoring with a shot.
With Vidic already injured the bad luck continued as
Rooney, after scoring the goal gestured to his team
mates not to jump upon him as it seemed he had
aggravated his hip injury & true to his
actions he was removed from play shortly afterwards.
Ronaldo
replaced Rooney as United gathered momentum as Giggs
had a powerful drive saved.
Then happened one of the most incredible ridiculous
examples of big ego's & money mercenaries clashing as
Ballack and Drogba argued who would take a free kick.
After Drogba forcing EVDS into a great save this argument
spilled onto the sidelines as Drogba moaned to the
coaching staff as Ballack totally ignored his team mate
whilst taking a drink.
The last portion of the game saw everything happen at 1-1
and after a Chelsea attack down the right, a tackle from
Silvestre saw the ball roll to Essien who whipped in a
cross which struck Carrick on the arm & Chelsea were
awarded a penalty as that sinking, sickening stomach feeling
came over us all.
The big German then sent EVDS the wrong way smashing his
penalty into the net and restored the lead to the home
side.
Suddenly United switched on creating brilliant chances as
Ronaldo was denied by A.Hole on the line before Darren
Fletchers diving header was cleared by off the line by all people Shevchenko.
This was too little too late for United who only seemed to
raise their game toward the end, but with so much at
stake, did SAF get his team selection & tactics wrong??,
would the game have been built for Ronaldo as Chelsea had
no other option but to attack United & leave space for our
talented forwards as they did.
In our humble opinion, he did & this now leaves both teams
with the same points & two games left.
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