Cheating Chelsea and poor referee does for United...

So then United eventually went on to lose in West London, but with many a Red fearing the worst prior to kick-off (and that was before we learnt that the champions would be without the first-choice centre-back pairing of Vidic and Ferdinand) an unlucky one-nil defeat was a much better outcome than many would have been expecting. That does not make the manner of the defeat any easier to take, because frankly today was another case of the officials getting the big decisions wrong.

Twice in the first-half at Stamford Bridge the linesman and the referee were guilty of making the wrong decision when giving Chelsea the rub of the green; the first howler involved Wayne Rooney who was clean through on goal, but the United striker was wrongly adjudged to be off-side, this when the linesman had the added benefit of the grass lines on the pitch, clearly Ashley Cole had played Rooney on-side. Hapless Sky Sports pundit said: "it could have gone either way" - message to Andy; if that fence goes any further up your arse it will be sticking out of your throat.

The second rank-bad decision involved John Terry and Atonio Valencia when the United winger was fouled inside the penalty area by the Chelsea skipper, but once again referee Martin Atkinson failed when getting another really big decision completely wrong.

Contrary to pre-match expectations, United were the better team for much of today's table-topping clash, but it simply wasn't going to be our day. It came as no great surprise that Chelsea eventually scored late on in the second period and once again there was an element of Chelsea players cheating.

The first culprit was Ashley Cole who jumped up in the air as if he'd been shot with a blunderbuss, in point of fact Darren Fletcher barely touch him and won the ball cleanly. While castigating Martin Atkinson for what followed we have to acknowledge that it isn't easy for the officials with so much cheating going on. Nonetheless, United went on to lose this game thanks to a combination of Chelsea players conning the referee. Carlo Ancelotti's team took the lead from that wrongly awarded Chelsea free-kick, but not without with the help of yet more cheating, this time by Drogba who was not only off-side, but also fouling Wes Brown at the same time. A few minutes earlier Didier Drogba had been doing his usual 'dying-man' impersonation - yes we've been here before, umpteen times..

After the game Fergie rightly question the performance of referee Martin Atkinson; the United manager was right to point out that Atkinson had somehow managed to work himself into a dreadful position for that vital free-kick which decided this contest. The fact that Atkinson managed to position himself so badly beggars belief and he should be taken to task for that poor passage of play from his perspective.

It's also worth commenting on Mike Phelan's "proud of the team" verdict. It is not coming to something when United have just lost a big game and the management are proud? But yes Mike, we know what you were driving at, we didn't get hammered and yes just perhaps this Chelsea team are not quite what they are cracked up to be.

With all that said, the current United squad has some glaring weaknesses; today Giggs who has been superb this season at times was quite simply awful, he barely put did anything right all game long. If the manager had better options on the bench Giggs would have been replaced much earlier than he eventually was.

Carrick and Fletcher did their best and overall did quite well. Anderson was given the difficult job of supporting Rooney while at the same time he was expected to drop deep and defend, but by and large United were the better team and only poor refereeing and cheating denied the champions at least a point. However, one cannot help but feel United need to sign another top-class striker. According to the latest transfer rumours Fergie could be lining up three new players.