Chelsea-Manchester United: An Interesting Insight

Berating. Surrounding the referee. Bringing the game into disrepute. For the last season and a half these stigma have been attached to the Chelsea team. Ironic then that as soon as a lacklustre Manchester United side ,the "darling boys" of British football, come to Stamford Bridge they show the 41,000 what is wrong with football in the modern age.

The game itself was spectacular. Being present in the East Stand, the sound emerging from the Matthew Harding Lower was terrific; the throwaway, false insults of Chelsea having no fans, history or culture were destroyed immediately. Avram Grant's team have not been subject to much praise over the season, however today showed why they are one of the best sides in Europe. In the opening exchanges, United were torn apart. Joe Cole hit the bar and, an injury to Nemanja Vidic notwithstanding, their defence looked out of tune and suffering the ill-effects of Wednesday night's disappointment. 

On the topic of disappointment, Sir Alex Ferguson's inextricable decision to leave Christiano Ronaldo on the bench soon led United to be a team seemingly directionless. There have been many accusations of the Red Devils as a one-man team, yet Wayne Rooney's almost pitiful loneliness typified a half in which the travelling fans' championship-proclaiming chants became few and far between. Michael Ballack's header on the stroke of half time was well earned dividends for the Blues, whose fortune at Anfield on Tuesday night seemed to have carried through to what, if it had not been for an Emile Heskey equaliser two weeks earlier, may have been the championship decider. 

After half-time the controversy began. Starting, Chelsea looked like the team of ten years ago; they were sloppy, careless and seemingly indifferent. Wayne Rooney's 56th minute equaliser, profiting from a quite dreadful error from the otherwise magnificent Ricardo Carvahlo, was the culmination of what had been a poor ten minutes.

Then came Ronaldo, introduced five minutes later. As soon as he had been on the pitch for five seconds, the Portuguese tumbled to the ground and waved his hands around at the referee, claiming a penalty (which wasn't). This seemed to have spread from the rest of the side; Nani's antics in the first half and Ryan Gigg's constant barrage of Keane-esque abuse at referee Alan Wiley, completely out of his depth, showed United to be ill-disciplined and ill-natured. As the game grew long in the tooth, and Ronaldo dropped once again theatrically threw himself to the floor, this became ever more commonplace.

Added to this was the Wiley problem. After booking Ballack for the crime of taking his shirt of (the express purpose of which was to dedicate a shirt to the late mother of Frank Lampard, and a ridiculous rule in itself), he disregarded the entire Mascherano-Stop the Abuse-Campaign by ignoring both sides' ever increasing amount of grumbling. In the end four from United and three from Chelsea went in the book, but the encirclement of Wiley by the Champions after his decision to award (a just) penalty to the Blues after Carrick had handled from Essien's cross was both a bad example and a blatant disregard for new rules. If we are to improve the English game, just dish out cards. Maybe it would show a degree of paranoia to employ the referees-favour-Manchester United argument, but considering Ballack's 86th minute strike was the first awarded against the Champions, it is somewhat watertight. Carlos Queiroz's cheek to dispute Wiley's decision added to the chaos. 

Many around the ground were deliberating whether Chelsea would have been given as many free-kicks at Old Trafford. Although we cannot discuss the integrity of Premier League referees in that respect, it was true that some of Wiley's decisions, and United's reactions, were shocking.

I expected the Stamford Bridge clash to be a somewhat monotonous Chelsea team play for a draw against the organised ranks of United. The game itself was a pleasant surprise, despite some of the shameful behaviour, and the next two games (along with the Champion's League second legs) promise to be absolute crackers as we enter one of the most exciting season finales in years.