Chelsea 2-1 Manchester United

With 5 minutes to go it looked like job done, and then they get given that penalty, which i couldn't see Ballack missing and indeed he didn't. The result was bad enough but the performance was the more worrying for me. I don't blame Fergie for the team selection, i thought that team was going to be good enough to get the draw required. But i am not too sure it matters what team he puts out at the moment, the fact is we haven't played well since the Liverpool game. And i always thought that was as much about how bad Liverpool were. For the second season in a row we are not finishing the season playing the type of football you would expect. It would be easy to blame Queiroz's tactics, negative against Arsenal at home in the first half at least and then Barca away and now Chelsea away. But that is only be part of the story. The team as a whole seem to have gone collectively off the boil. And in the last two games refereeing decisions and the refereeing in general have really favoured the home teams. The ref at the Nou Camp was a real homer, he did give us the penalty in the first couple of minutes but he failed to give us a stone wall second. But every time a Barca player went down they were awarded a free kick, some times in dangerous positions. The same happened yesterday, whilst the Carrick incident was a penalty to me, it could have easily been not given. But if anything the Ballack manhandling of Ronaldo just after he had come on was even more of a penalty and did we get it, no.
To me what United have got to get back to in the next two home games, and yes even on Tuesday is playing at a faster tempo. Obviously the passing has to return to its previous high standard, but we have to start taking the game to the opposition. We saw Barca playing some beautiful passing football but at such a slow pace they hardly created a chance. But yesterday we saw Chelsea playing at a proper pace and we looked much more vulnerable, just as we had at the san siro last year. When we have played our best football this season we have passed superbly but at a faster tempo. I am saying all this whilst presuming that our fitness levels are what they should be. The way United finished the 5 minutes of injury time they look alright to me.
Another thought that occurs to me is whilst you obviously need a big squad nowadays, the one possible drawback is consistency. When you play a settled team you get consistency, but when you are chopping and changing it must be hard to get that same consistency. And we are seeing quite a bit of chopping and changing at the moment. There are no easy answers to this conundrum though. You only have to look at Arsenal and Liverpool, the reason why they are not challenging for the title is because their squads aren't good enough.
United just never turned up again in the first half, whether the extra days rest helped the rentboys i don't know, but they started on the front foot straight away. Uniteds passing and ball retension was just as bad as it had been on Wednesday. The only positive sign seemed to be that Chelsea seemed vulnerable on the counter attack. But with no Ronaldo United were unable to exploit this, especially with Nani having an appalling game where he seemed to take the wrong option almost every time. There was one incident in the second half where he should have put Giggs clear through on goal but just clung onto the ball until he eventually lost it. Losing Vidic didn't help the cause, hopefully he will be alright for Tuesday. What was so annoying though was that just when it seemed we had weathered the storm and quelled the Chelsea onslaught we go and concede a pretty soft goal just before half time. It was a deserved lead for Chelsea you can't deny that, but we had almost got to half time without conceding after a performance that was probably worse than Wednesdays.
United came out in the second half and looked a completely different team. It was clear that Chelsea were not going to be allowed to dominate the second half as they had the first. United weren't playing brilliantly but they were in the game now and Chelseas attacking impetus had been halted. Then Carvallho handed a Rooney a great chance whilst playing a blind back pass, Rooney who had been struggling for the last 5 minutes with a recurrence of the injury picked up at Ewood Park took the ball acroos Terry and fired the ball into the corner of the net past the sprawling Cech. He paid the price though as he clearly aggrevated the injury and shortly afterwards had to go off. He must be doubtful for Tuesday night, in fact i am not sure if he has been 100% fit since he sustained the injury in the first place. Now Ronaldo came on and almost straight away should have been awarded a penalty as Ballack manahandled him as a corner was about to be delivered. For the next 10 minutes it was all United with Giggs having one decent shot saved by Cech. Then came that last 10 minutes where it had looked like United were going to comfortably see the game through to a safe conclusion only for disaster to strike.
Obviously we have got to want Chelsea to beat Liverpool on Wednesday, but wouldn't it be great to play them in Moscow after this setback. The one positive i will take from yesterday is that their defence looked as vulnerable as i had thought it might be. If United can get back to their very best and beat Barca i am as confident as you can be that if the real United turn up in Moscow we will beat them. And by the real United i don't mean the cautious tactical United of recent weeks, i mean the real United with the shackles off.

United still relying too much on Ronaldo's goals
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3822763.ece
I have got to agree with that, this is something that has got to be remedied next season

Bizarre incidents after the match
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7369207.stm

Jason Burke on the French President Sarkozy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/27/france

The monarchy question to pop up again in Australia
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/27/australia

Manufacturing still matters says Ruth Sutherland in her Observer column
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/27/manufacturing.creditcrunch
Will Keegan in the Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/27/bankofenglandgovernor.banking

Will Hutton on the Tories
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/27/georgeosborne.conservatives

Alan Watkins on the too clever by half Gordon Brown
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/alan-watkins/alan-watkins-another-fine-mess-of-the-pms-making-816127.html