Man Utd shows a champions heart fighting Chelsea to a standstill

szólj hozzá: Chelsea v Man Utd 3:3 MOTD
This was one of the most gripping matches in the season. United improved immeasurably when Paul Scholes was introduced in the 64th minute, one of the key moments of the match. On the other hand, Andre Villas- Boas went negative when he took Daniel Sturridge off for Oriol Romeu in the 71st minute playing it safe protecting a 3-2 lead. A bad mistake in hindsight.
With three holding midfielders the Chelsea side gave up the middle ground as Scholes precise organization in central midfield provided the vital link up with Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck.
Chelsea went one up with Jonny Evans conceding an own goal before the first half all created through Daniel Sturridge’s endeavours. Immediately at resumption, in an all Spaniard telenovela, Fernando Torres doing little of note as a striker provided a sublime on the dime cross for Juan Mata to slam the ball on the volley past David De Gea. The other David, Chelsea’s loose cannon, taking advantage of a porous defense provided a third as his header took a nice little deflection off Rio Ferdinand. The Utd central defender was the target of a parochial Stamford Bridge crowd which booed him throughout the match.
This is Utd. It may be trite to say this. But they never give up. Daniel Sturridge, one of the bright sparks in the Chelsea attack showed defensive naivety bringing down Patrice Evra in the box. There was no hesitation from Howard Webb. Rooney making no mistake wrong footed Petr Cech completely. Sir Alex sensing a rabbit out of a hat moment sent on Scholes. A few minutes later Welback in an artful piece of trickery stuck his leg out at Ivanovic and went down. From Webb’s angle the Chelsea defender had deliberately fouled the Utd striker. A second PK and once again it was Rooney on the spot sending Cech the wrong way.
With Utd rampant, the midfield their turf, and a Chelsea defense proving to be as generous as Utd’s, all signs pointed to a result displeasing to the home crowd. They did not have long to wait as Antonio Valencia using his speed fled by Essien, feeding Rooney churning down the middle, who unleashed a shot parried by Cech to the flanks. Ryan Giggs collected the ball, looked up, found an unmarked Javier Hernandez, and the Mexican whose head and neck are homing devices made no mistake.
The Utd faithful loving every minute of this amazing turnaround were in full vocal throttle. The rest of Stamford Bridge fell silent as they chewed various body parts in distress. Would Chelsea fall, keep the status quo, or desirably get a face saving goal. There had been opportunities before that would come back to haunt them.
A few minutes before the equalizer, Torres wasted a golden chance to become an instant hero, when he had the Utd defense exposed with De Gea completely at his mercy, and he dawdled on the ball too long. His Chelsea career has been one similar such frustrations. Michael Essien’s piledriver was tipped over by De Gea, who had a very good game. He was even better just before the end as he launched himself at Juan Mata’s precisely driven free kick heading for the upper right corner of goal to deny Chelsea a last minute winner.
Lovely game. The comeback was ferocious. The defenses were exposed on both teams. AVB playing it safe understandably subbed off Sturridge for Romeu which took off the attacking edge. Chelsea could have also done with Terry’s leadership qualities. Sir Alex brought on Scholes, a key change that improved Utd considerably. Rooney was immense and De Gea should quieten his critics. All in all very tasty build up to the Super Bowl which also proved to be equally compelling.