Manchester United's recent poor away form continued today with another dreadful performance which saw them losing by the odd goal in three to a hard working Chelsea team, who in fairness deserved the win, despite it coming on the back of a very dubious second-half penalty decision.
Quite unbelievably, in the space of a week United have managed to squander a five point lead at the top of the table and we are now level with Chelsea. It is beginning to look like the Reds could end the season in Devon Loch style by losing out to Chelsea who have galloped up on the rails and are now breathing down the collective necks of the Champions'.
It's great stuff for the neutrals, but United fans will no doubt concur that we ALWAYS have to do things the hard way, it's as if it's written in stone.
Ahead of today's game Fergie somewhat bizarrely rested Ronaldo, Evra and Hargreaves. Yet Rooney who was carrying an injury knock started against Chelsea - if anyone should have been rested it should surely have been the players who were injured. Despite scoring today, Rooney now looks to be in serious danger of missing the crucial second-leg of the Champions League semi-final with Barca on Tuesday after appearing to aggrevate a hip-injury. Should United lose the Barca game the players confidence could be shattered. It could turn out lead to be a catastrophic season's end.
To add to Fergie's woes Nemanja Vidic will surely miss the Barca game after suffering a nasty bang on the jaw from Didier Drogba.
United may well say they've been unlucky with injuries, but that would be an excuse as all clubs have to deal with injury problems. The fact is against Chelsea, United were second best all over the park. The midfield and back four consistently failed to deal with the power of Drogba which led to the opening goal on half-time, the Ivorian brushed off the half-hearted challenges of Wes Brown and Hargreaves before being allowed to cross to the head of the unmarked Ballack on 45 minutes. Throughout the first-half Drogba was allowed to turn and lay off the ball, this gave the visitors problems throughout the opening period.
Fergie no doubt had a few harsh words at half-time, because United did improve in the second period and they were given a lifeline when a Chelsea defender played the ball straight to the feet of Rooney who then made a superb diagonal run towards the Chelsea penalty area before expertly slotting home an unlikely equaliser.
Chelsea were gifted the points by a very generous decision by the linesman who judged that Carrick had handled the ball inside the Reds penalty area, it was a very harsh decision, there was no movement towards the ball. Avram Grant's team had to make two goal-line clearances from Cole and Shevchenko, it was Chelsea's day.
The worry is for United fans is that too many players seem to have lost their touch, added to which the manager's bizarre tactics and starting selections are not helping matters one bit.
If United lose the title race and end up with nothing this season, they will be able to blame no one but themselves. The will have thrown it away. However, we United fans have to believe that the season will still end in glory with the Reds winning two trophies. Tuesday night will hopefully turn out to be a great game.
Who should be blamed?? I don't know. But, I only know that Sir Ferguson should not keep Giggs, a 34 yrs old man, for 90mins. I prefer to keep Anderson since he has more power and can destory the attack from opposite team. In the past few months, the team could not get benefits when Giggs was in the game. Sir Ferguson, if you want to throw the title away, you should keep using Giggs.
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