Manchester United 3-0 Chelsea: A Chelsea Fan's View Point....

Chelsea's excellent away record went down the drain while United's title defence gathered pace.

Chelsea arrived at Old Trafford boasting the best away record in the league, and United boasting the best home record.

Something had to give!

Chelsea lined up in a 4-3-3 formation, with Ballack, Lampard and Mikel occupying the midfield. Deco, Drogba and J.Cole playing up front. Or at least that how it would seem.

United lined up in their usual 4-4-2 formation, with Fletcher and Giggs in the middle and Ronaldo and Park on the flanks.

First half:

Considering the inevitably fevered build-up to the match, the first-half was a largely uneventful one.

United started the game the stronger of the two sides, with a series of of one-twos in and around the Chelsea players.

Lampard received a yellow card within the first three minutes for a foul on Ronaldo and United's intent was clear.

Chelsea slowly built up their momentum and midway through the first half, it was quite evenly matched. 

The match continued in a tit-for-tat form but with United enjoying much more of the possession.

At the end of the half, with the game seemingly headed for the break with a 0-0 score, United struck their first blow.

Giggs struck in a corner and Ronaldo glanced the ball into the back of the net, but it was disallowed for either taking it before the whistle or the ball wasn't in the right place when it was taken.

Either way, Chelsea didn't learn anything from that warning.

The re-taken corner was flicked on by Berbatov and nodded in by Vidic.

Second half:

Second half started with Chelsea making one change. Anelka came on for Deco and Chelsea reverted to a 4-4-2 formation.

United though, continued the domination and simply carried on where they left off. Chelsea couldn't get out of their own half at times.

Midway through the second-half, United doubled their lead when Evra—returning from a four-match ban for his row with a Chelsea groundsman at Stamford Bridge last April—curled in a cross that was too high for Berbatov to head but Rooney was able to prod home from close range.

A 2-0 score-line was exactly what they deserved.

However, they didn't stop here. Ronaldo left Belletti for dead and the Brazilian tripped him up in desperation, and gets the booking. 

Ronaldo fired the free-kick low towards the near post and it was guided into the net by the boot of Berbatov!

This victory went from comprehensive to emphatic!

Chelsea's performance:

To sum it up in three words—absolutely non-existent!

Drogba was useless. Walked around the pitch moaning half the time and when he did get the ball, he would lose it. Somebody buy him a plane ticket already!

Ironically, I thought Deco (despite all the flak he's been getting from Chelsea fans) was our best player in the time played.

Lampard tried his best but given he was up against Giggs (an ageing winger) and Fletcher (an inferior player), his efforts simply wasn't good enough.

Terry had a good game but in all honesty, a 3-0 defeat means he will have to carry some of the criticism that comes his way.

A.Cole and Bosingwa had decent games but Ronaldo and Rooney were too much to handle at times.

Mikel had a great game. The fact that all of United's goals (and most of their chances) came from the flanks, shows that he did his job well.

In the end though, it was all about damage limitation for Chelsea.

Manchester United's performance:

Rooney was immense throughout.

Ji-Sung Park, although a rubbish player, displayed a lot of energy and never seemed to stop and take a breather.

Giggs (is he really 34?) put in another breathtaking performance.

Berbatov (How good is he?) was his usual dazzling self. Un-playable at times.

End result:

Looking at the balance of play, 3-0 is just about deserved. One would have thought conceding a goal would spark Chelsea into life and they would start playing football. 

But no, United simply upped their tempo after every goal.

Great result for them and I put my hands up in respect, we were well and truly destroyed today and fair play to them.

What went wrong then?:

Well for starters, we started the game in a 4-3-3 formation but with 4 central midfielders in the line up.It doesn't take a lot to figure out that it wouldn't work.

Deco (not surprisingly) played the game right alongside Lampard and Ballack. At some point in the game, they were literally standing right beside eachother, not knowing what to do with the ball.

Didier Drogba - Enough said here really. What is he still doing at Chelsea?

Anelka played a whole half but I only saw him with the ball, once.

Scolari made some inept and weak substitutions again.

On 64 minutes (right after the second goal) he replaces Bosingwa with Belletti, with no reported injury to Bosingwa.

Why? What was that change (straight swap) going to do to affect the tide of the game. We had Kalou and Di Santo (2 attackers) on the bench. Surely it would have made more sense to throw them on.

Coming back from 2-0 with 26 minutes to go, is a daunting task but not impossible.

When Di Santo eventually did come on, there were only a few minutes left and the game was already won.

Overall, one can just put this demoralising defeat down to the players having an "off day".

But, when an ageing winger who is playing central midfield and an inferior player controls the game the way they did, one can do nothing but hold his hands up in respect. 

Bring on the next game..!!