Closed Man United 2-2 Chelsea

[Spike 12,049]

I'm sick of this bullshit. The team is stocked of amazing players, that could be world beaters. But they are from different cultures, styles and ability. None if them mesh together in a formation or ethos, some are complete polar opposites.

Fucking drawing against Mam Utd, bollocks.

[nachikethas 1,149]

what a great sunday

first went to see biennale here,bought a new lumia 620,spend all day with friends,spurs lost and we had a great comeback. .

why cant everyday be like this

and more of this second half please, its just not matter the results at the end its just a joy to watch chelsea like this.these kind of passion that we all want.

feel we could have won if ba was there.

[bushman 2,043]

When Rafa brought Hazard a Mikel in it changed the match in Chelsea´s favor.

Hazard responded almost immediately with a brilliant goal.

An excellent display by Chelsea yesterday got me going wildly.

De Gea saved Manure at the end from getting beaten.

As I believed before the game, I still believe in Chelsea now.

[Blue Armour 4,168]

First of all, I did not say Cech had a shocker, just that De Gea was better than him, and considering how highly I rate Cech, I personally expected better from him.

OK, hope we are at least not going to debate the facts; so, Luiz could've, should've headed the ball--disagree myself because that's the most difficult piece of defending for any defender. The same way Cahill could've, should've headed the ball, or not let Hernandez get behind him. Anyway, the fact is nobody did touch the ball other than Rooney... So, what the fuck was Cech doing? Watching and hoping one of his defenders, or perhaps an United player was going to make contact?! That's not the right way to defend those balls. THe GK must defend the shot, until something else takes place; there was no action other than the free kick, and that led to the goal. It is really difficult not to blame Cech there.

Good save on David's missed header, but nothing to write home about as it was just reflex (towards him). I wished he had prevented one of the United goals the same way De Gea did instead though. Who do you think played better, Cech or De Gea?

We have a tendency to blame defenders for conceded goals, and strikers for the lack of goals, but thankfully football is not that simple. Funny how our defending go so much better with the very same players once Mickel got in...

Cech had no chance once the f-k wall came so close to him. When the wall comes so close, anyone from it (even one of your own defenders) can get a touch on the ball and completely bamboozle the keeper...Ultimately it didn't touch any one, but if the keeper isn't sure about where the ball is headed, he can do little about it.

If anything else Cech could have asked his wall to push further forward, and make his wall prevent the opposition from encroaching the penalty area...But the wall got pushed far too easily..

[bluephoenix 1,125]

Hazard's goal --- beauty

[Ankit 3,176]

The season crumbled after United at Stamford Bridge, hopefully revived after Old Trafford.

[robdog 2,084]

Not sure if this was covered, but it appears that the FA will be investigating the rio/torres incident according to SSN

[robsblubot 3,251]

Cech had no chance once the f-k wall came so close to him. When the wall comes so close, anyone from it (even one of your own defenders) can get a touch on the ball and completely bamboozle the keeper...Ultimately it didn't touch any one, but if the keeper isn't sure about where the ball is headed, he can do little about it.

If anything else Cech could have asked his wall to push further forward, and make his wall prevent the opposition from encroaching the penalty area...But the wall got pushed far too easily..

Lets agree to disagree then. The keeper cannot ever be sure; like you said so yourself, anyone can get a touch, so why not handle the one case which he'd have known for sure? I've seen this very same cross/shot way too many times and for me the keeper must stop the shot.

Hopefully we will hear from him (Cech) whether he'd have done something different or not.

[butchercoat 60]

I hate Ferdinand with a passion, but you can't go on anything from that. He was probably just patting him on the head, footballers do that in every match, just letting them know fair play, probably saying sorry after he clashed with him. Torres going down like that was just stupid, clear dive and he had no reason to go down.

If anyone should be punished it should be Torres.

Are you for real? That glacier called Ferdinand [alias The Twitter] thought that as the ref wasn't looking he'd deliver the good news to Torres. The fact that he went down was more from surprise than force and how could you guage how much force was delivered. Book Torres, you're 'aving a tin bath mate....

[Clevemayer 764]

now after you're all a bit down with celebrating I will tell you one thing, I was looking at this fixture with very pessimistic feelings but I have to agree with @laylabelle and @MagicLamps.

We have so much more Quality and so do City over ManU.

I mean yeah they have a very good attacking force, over weight rooney whom has been out of form but seems to have found it again the last 5 Games and Robin vanPersie who seems invisible again after a great 1 and 1/2 seasons where he was unstoppable...

but the rest despite from Kagawa and Cleverly plus De Gea are midtable quality really.

I wanted Valencia before he went to yernited as an squadplayer because I think he is decent, Nani has failed all expectations and in any regret our team is better, even if you hear that names in they're attacking department, we are much much stronger...

Our Midfield should dominate them easily (what they did in the second half), and thats whats so frustrating with our team, I know we're in transition but you can't do anythin but feel for most of the games, that the team doesn't give it they're all.

ManUre is nothing this season but all they're counterparts are just worse, everything runs in they're favour, but we showed the quality in the second half we have and this wasn't because YERNITED did slow down, this was becaus CHELSEA lived up to they're potential...

thats what I expect every at least 3rd game from them because of they're natural talent and quality, not everygame because they're not clicking right now this will take one further season maybe two, but the rest of the games I expect them to give they're all but they often dont do so and thats what annoys me the most... there is no reason to shit you're pants from any team qualitywise but mentally we're just not there right now...

[kellzfresh 7,226]

now after you're all a bit down with celebrating I will tell you one thing, I was looking at this fixture with very pessimistic feelings but I have to agree with @laylabelle and @MagicLamps.

We have so much more Quality and so do City over ManU.

I mean yeah they have a very good attacking force, over weight rooney whom has been out of form but seems to have found it again the last 5 Games and Robin vanPersie who seems invisible again after a great 1 and 1/2 seasons where he was unstoppable...

but the rest despite from Kagawa and Cleverly plus De Gea are midtable quality really.

I wanted Valencia before he went to yernited as an squadplayer because I think he is decent, Nani has failed all expectations and in any regret our team is better, even if you hear that names in they're attacking department, we are much much stronger...

Our Midfield should dominate them easily (what they did in the second half), and thats whats so frustrating with our team, I know we're in transition but you can't do anythin but feel for most of the games, that the team doesn't give it they're all.

ManUre is nothing this season but all they're counterparts are just worse, everything runs in they're favour, but we showed the quality in the second half we have and this wasn't because YERNITED did slow down, this was becaus CHELSEA lived up to they're potential...

thats what I expect every at least 3rd game from them because of they're natural talent and quality, not everygame because they're not clicking right now this will take one further season maybe two, but the rest of the games I expect them to give they're all but they often dont do so and thats what annoys me the most... there is no reason to shit you're pants from any team qualitywise but mentally we're just not there right now...

Trust me benitez won't give our best team(under RDM) a run again due to his awesome rotation skills.

[Buffalo talks Blue 85]

What a terrific second half comeback! I'm really proud of the team

[Jase 43,479]

Anyone realized that this was the second consecutive game at Old Trafford that Lampard has been practically brought off at HT? Was subbed off at HT last season by AVB and then now just after 5-6 minutes into the 2nd half by Benitez.

And also, you gotta really hate De Gea. Last season in the home league game, he somehow saved Mata's free kick in stoppage time and now he denied him again from close range in injury time too!

[The only place to be 11,313]

This is one of those games that just confirmed a few things for me.

Firstly, we aren't as bad as some people, even on here, think. Football fans can be prisoners of the moment and will take the last game's performance as the ultimate measure for how good a team is. We were appalling against Steaua but clearly the players weren't up for it which reflects badly on their attitude, Benitez's skills but most worryingly, the influence of two men - Lampard and Terry. We espouse their experience and influence, but do we sometimes overstate that? On the evidence of this season, there's certainly a case for it. Anyway, we're not the team who played against Steaua - we're closer to the team that played West Brom and yesterday.

What we have is a good team in the making who just need a good manager to organise them. The amount of times Mata, Oscar and Hazard drifted into the same 20 square foot of pitch space robbed us of width which wasn't helped by Ashley Cole at times. Not as bad as some people might suggest, but not as good as he once was. Luke Shaw, start packing.

In the first 20 minutes we lost the midfield battle. Carrick was dictating the play but then United sat back. Maybe it was complacency or maybe it's just that they're not a very good team but what this again showed is that we're not that far behind the top teams - games like this come down to 1-2% extra in a couple of areas and that's something we can surmount next season.

Ba made a difference. He was by no-means perfect, but simply having a striker who does the right things enables the trio of Hazard, Mata and Oscar the space to do their thing by keeping the defenders honest. Bringing on Mikel behind them does the same but I still don't think he's got the right intangibles to be the guy for us long-term (Chalobah, dat's you bro). He does have a skill set that no-one else at the club (currently fit, Romeu) does though and for that reason he's important. Hopefully his recent benching has opened his eyes a little.

This was also the type of game Ramires can excel in, where we can exploit teams on the break who don't transition from defence to attack fast enough. His finish was sublime, but if you look at the goal he essentially outruns Cleverley and Carrick when we break from defence. It's simple and that's when he's at his best. You can win cups with that technique, but I don't think you can win leagues like that simply because a lot of teams will defend first and look for you to break them down. That type of game constitutes about 75% of domestic fixtures, which is why we need a playmaker in that position.

Cahil is a good third-choice centre-back - unfortunately so is Ivanovic and increasingly JT. What we need is a first-choice centre-back to go alongside Luiz, ideally someone less adventurous than him and closer to JT. I don't know who that is, but he's becoming something of a priority next season.

So all in all, not bad. A game that highlighted the green shoots of recovery that I've been talking about for a while now. It's easy to become pessimistic but I always thought we could get something from this game simply because I knew that we weren't the team who travelled to Romania on Thursday. Sometimes we focus too much on our weaknesses and need to get an outsider's perspective on where our team is. Just talking to some United and City fans made me re-think just how good/bad we actually are as a team. Sometimes you forget just how good Mata is (player of the year is never to far from any discussion about him) or how unique Hazard's talent is (yes there are United fans still gutted about not getting him and he gave them another reminder why yesterday).

I started a thread about us giving the youth a chance and the need to move on was re-confirmed for me yesterday. Seeing Lamps taken off was a sad sight. The fans chanting 'you don't know what you're doing' was misguided in my opinion because this isn't the Frank Lampard of three years ago anymore. He may well have a role to play in the future but he's loved at this club and there's always going to be murmurs from the crowd when he's not in the team. The practical reality of keeping him is the chants everytime he warms up during a match - it's got to be the new manager's decision whether or not he can live with someone held so warmly in the fans' hearts which is why the contract situation probably can't be resolved until he's appointed.

So am I disappointed that we didn't win the game? Sure. But what we showed yesterday was more important than a win or a loss. We showed character on the toughest stage and it wasn't coming from the old guys but from the young bucks who will be the future of this club for (hopefully) many a year. There is something special bubbling under the surface of this club, waiting to be unleashed by the right man. We need to support that, not just when it's going smoothly but when there are stumbles on the way.

'We want our Chelsea back' was the cry yesterday - that Chelsea is gone. What we're getting is hopefully something better. :blue scalf:

Oh, and I thought Webb handled the game perfectly yesterday. Saw a few people moaning about his appointment but he can be one of the best refs on his day because he let's the game flow. The fact there were more people bitching before the game than after it suggests he was impeccable.

Edited March 11, 2013 by The only place to be

[Special Juan 27,104]

Brilliant second half that, much more like it and what we are capable of. Conceding sloopy goals and early is complete nightmare, but it was good to resolve and togetherness to claw it back.

Well done lads....Now to finish them.

[Keikoismad 162]

The "three amigos" was a spoof film about the show biz pantomime version of three Mexicans. In fact, Mexicans are not Spanish, Portugese or French. The three guys in the movie were two Americans and a Canadian.

yes and Hazard is Belgian

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Shouldn't the FA charge Ferdinand? It was not seen by the referee so it can now be dealt with.

Except he's a united player. If it were JT, it would probably have gone to court!

I'm actually still upset we didn't win. We had 25mins after equalizing and had the momentum. We got 3-4 clear cut chances in the last 5mins + added time alone. Our players should have really been more clinical. We did not need to add another game to our schedule. Just hope we don't pay for not being clinical in the replay.

[Special Juan 27,104]

Rio will escape it, like he did for clapping the ref last week, bloke is scum, pure scum.

Watching that De Gea save from Mata again makes me bleed inside.....Would of loved him to convert that.