Manchester United 1 - 1 Chelsea
Sunday 26th November 2006
Old Trafford, Manchester
It could have all been so different. Manchester United fans were left to question what might have been after a dominant first half performance left them just one goal up. If only Louis Saha had taken on the left footed strike when the goal opened up in front of him. Or Giggs for that matter. It could have been two up, game over and three points.
As it was, United failed to capitalise on their possession and paid the penalty.
A full-strength United side, with Gabriel Heinze installed at left-back much to Patrice Evra's bad luck, was matched by a full Chelsea side, complete with their new mega-bucks stars Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko. United fans can at least take some comfort that the most expensive striker in the world is still misfiring.
It was on the benches that the differences could be drawn - Chelsea had Robben and Joe Cole, United had John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher.
The game started off at a reasonably slow pace, with Chelsea perhaps having the best of the first ten minutes before the central-midfield partnership of Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick slipped into top gear and started spraying the ball about. United's wingers Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo ha plenty of joy down their flanks, but missed out on the telling ball.
On 29 minutes, and pretty much out of the blue, Louis Saha received the ball about 40 yards from goal. He took Rooney's pass in his stride and headed towards goal, brushing John Terry aside with ease, before neatly side-footing the ball into the net from 20 yards out, and with two Chelsea defenders and the keeper between him and the ball. Zero to hero after the Celtic match.
United's fluency continued, and with the crowd chanting them on, they started to create real chances as Chelsea were forced to go in search of the equaliser. Both Louis Saha and Ryan Giggs had chances to shoot from the left side of the box, but neither took up the option, and United jogged in at half-time a goal up.
Chelsea switched systems at half-time, with Robben coming on to add more width. The system obviously worked, with United now being pushed back, and at times subject to a seige mentality. Where old heads should have kept hold of the ball they were just booting it as far and as fast as they could - even Paul Scholes was guilty of being panicked.
The equaliser was coming, with United being pinned into their own half, and it eventually happened on 70 minutes, when Cravalho meta corner. The ball flew towards the back-post, where Louis Saha was stationed, but the frenchman could only head the ball up and into teh roof of the net.
There was a half-chance for Saha to score when the ball was scrambled in the box, and with 10 minutes to go Cristiano Ronaldo started having more joy down the right. Three times he managed to jink past both Ashley Cole and Arjen Robben to get through to the box, but Ashley Cole, being the vindictive scum that he is, cropped Cristiano and sent the Portuguese Star limping out of the game. The fans wern't happy, and told Ashley Cole as much.
It was two points dropped, but at the end of the day, we're top of the Premiership, which is more than most of us could have dreamed about.
Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Heinze, Ronaldo (Fletcher 86), Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Rooney, Saha (O'Shea 86).
Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Evra, Silvestre.
Booked: Carrick.
Goals: Saha 29.
Chelsea: Cudicini, Geremi (Robben 46), Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Essien, Makelele, Ballack (Ferreira 90), Lampard, Shevchenko (Joe Cole 75), Drogba.
Subs Not Used: Hilario, Boulahrouz.
Booked: Makelele, Drogba, Ashley Cole.
Goals: Carvalho 69.
Att: 75,948
Ref: H Webb (S Yorkshire).
|
|
© All material Copyright Louis Saha.com 2006/07
|
