Man Utd-Chelsea; Now you can say . . .

. . we are ‘the favourites’ for the title. I just mean what I say. We are just favourites.

That doesn’t mean we will win the title for sure. It’s just that we have a higher probability of winning the title than the other teams based on points, goal difference and a projection of results based on ability, form and morale of our players and that of our rivals.

Hope I’ve made myself clear.

We still have a challenging run-in to the title. When we can be held by Blackburn and can beat Man Utd at Old Trafford a couple of weeks later, there’s no guarantee of what would happen in the next five matches. One thing is for sure: Questions have been answered. Critics have been silenced.

My luck with prediction continues! Well, the result was as predicted while the order of goals was not. At least I was better than BBC’s Lawro who predicted a 1-1.

Ahead of the game, I mentioned that Malouda vs. Neville could be the key and it turned out to be so. I expected Berbatov not to pose a threat, and he just didn’t. So, while my powers of predictions last, let me say this—Chelsea will win the Premier League title of season 09-10. There I said it!

Big round of applause to Carlo Ancelotti for the dominance he’s shown in the mini-league involving Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal. We haven’t seen this since the Mourinho days.

It’s not often you do the double against Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool (hopefully!).

Though I had my worries about the starting line-up yesterday, the way Chelsea seemed to have prepared for the match was just brilliant. Right from the word go, it was clear that Chelsea had a plan. We were always under control.  

To do that in a place like Old Trafford does say something. We let Man Utd have the ball and play in our half only when we let them. We wanted to win the game more than they did. We played as a team more than they did. This is a thoroughly deserved victory. Over 90 minutes, we were the better team in all departments of the game.

Talking about Chelsea deserving to win, there was a lot of noise from the Red quarters (fans and press alike) about the refereeing yesterday.

Was Drogba offside? Hell yes! I could say that watching the action live. But so what? Haven’t Chelsea been at the wrong end consistently, especially in Champion's League? Even a fortnight back, when Man Utd were riding their luck against a class Milan performance, we were denied a precious away win by the referee. Last season, the whole world knew how the referee favoured Barcelona. These things happen time and again. What goes round will come round.

What’s very funny is Man Utd fans talking about quality of refereeing. The whole country knows how much Man Utd are favoured by the referees. The thing about penalties in Old Trafford is an open secret.

What about the stoppage time against Man City? What about all the dives that get them penalties when Ronaldo was around? There was even an alternate league table if Ronaldo hadn’t got away with his dives. They have been favoured by referees to such an obscene level that they shouldn’t even be talking about this.

Why go that far? Let’s look at this game itself: yes, Drogba’s goal was offside, but what about Macheda’s goal?

I’ve seen the replays many many times. He simply pushed the ball into the net using his arm. There are no two ways about it. In fact, that goal must have been disallowed and he must have been carded. Very conveniently, they are very quiet about this fact.

And yes, Park could have got a penalty and so was the case with Anelka. You can say that the refereeing was poor but he favoured neither team.

What was disgusting was the Man Utd supporting the press writing headlines and captions like "Drogba’s controversial goal puts Blues ahead".

That’s a lie. What put Blues ahead was a better team, better tactics and better performance. Both teams rode their luck and they evened out. At the end of it, the score read 2-1 in favour of the away team. Simple as.

In the words of Jose Mourinho: "you always either dominate a game or control the game".

Typically in home games you try to dominate and in away games, you try to control. Chelsea did exactly that. I thought if Drogba wasn’t fit to start, we could have started with Kalou instead of Anelka.

The Frenchman continued his poor form. While against Villa at home he could get away with his current form, here at Old Trafford, he could have nearly cost us the match. It’s clear that his confidence levels are low at the moment. He is unsure and unclear many a times.

Joe Cole did well to score his most important goal of recent times. But I’d be lying if I say I wanted to see him all 90 minutes. Deco was pretty impressive with his range and accuracy of passing. He was also very cool and calm on the ball.

I thought Carlo made the right substitutions. He got Drogba for Anelka and suddenly we became more threatening in our attacks. He got Kalou for Joe Cole and he started making an impact immediately. He got Ballack for Deco just to keep Man Utd at bay as they got desperate.

For me, the man of the match is once again Florent Malouda. I really really want him to win the Chelsea player of the season award. He absolutely deserves the prize.

This has been a roller coaster of a season for Chelsea. We were leading by some margin, then we had a bad December, we came to the second and fiddled with the third place, we got eliminated in the Champion's League, we were dropping points in the league and suddenly we started spraying goals all over to regain our form and here we are. With five games to go, we are now two points and four goals ahead of the second place Man Utd.

Five wins is all we need to win the Premier League title. We have this small matter of beating Spurs and Liverpool along the way.

For now, let’s enjoy the win. Trip to Wembley ahead for the FA Cup semi finals against Aston Villa. Let me be honest with you. I have a feeling of indifference about this match. If we win, very good, if we lose so what? The matches that matter come after this Wembley game. Let’s stay grounded and see how this goes!