Wow!
During his press conference on Friday, the manager joked about an 80 year old lady that phoned in during a programme on the club's in-house MUTV Channel. She was disgusted by the diamond and blamed it on our porousness at the back. She literally threatened Sir Alex if he played the diamond on Sunday.
When the team news came out an hour to kick-off, Sir Alex had bowed to the lady's pressure after all as we lined up in a traditional 4-4-2 that would occasionally switch to a 4-4-1-1.
It didn't take long into the game for us to know what this formation was about. Sir Alex had set his team out to 'steal the points at Stamford Bridge'. A squad that told the story of 'going for it' and yet the reality was sit back and hit them hard on the break.
It therefore came as a surprise to most betting men that United were 2-0 up within the first 20 minutes of the match, for the simple reason that the script initially read United would be the one a couple of goals down the first few minutes because of their leaky defence.
The talking points of the game were undoubtedly the 2 red cards Chelsea suffered but this i what I'll say in regard to that:
I was still a high-school kid when I watched Ruud van Nistelrooy and Paul Scholes score in that 3-0 win at Stamford Bride in 2002 Since then I've endured a decade f harsh decision go against United in the league at Stamford Bridge. To list them all here would serve to re-open the wounds I've since nursed, but I trust United fans know too well ow many times Chelsea have got the rub of the Green against us. I mean it should suffice that in hos post match interview, Sir Alex said it was the first time he'd got lucky there in a decade.
I therefore feel no sympathy whatsoever in regard to the decisions that fell our way last night. Ivanovic can have no complaints about that sending off, while Torres shouldn't have been on the pitch that long anyway as I thought his chest stamp on Cleverley was a red card all day. The only luck we had therefore was the Chicharito goal that was offside. But again, it was nowhere as blatant as the one Drogba capitalised on in 2010 at OT to score the winner in a season Chelsea would go on to pip us to the title by a point.
My thoughts going into this game was that we couldn't afford to be beaten as I thought a 7 point gap---even in October would be a mountain for us to climb. To come away with all three has had me thinking about what we could actually achieve this season if our attack keeps banging in an average of 3 goals per match.
The next 33 points on offer in the league are well within our means to get, so one wonders where we could be if we go on a run throughout November to the end of December before the City game.
We shall see, but at the moment, it appears that our best shot at anything will be down to how fit and sharp our forwards are on the day(since we've proved that we can't defend anymore). So far, they've been terrific and long may that continue.
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!Labels: REVIEWS
