Chelsea 1-1 Manchester United

I would have took this performance and scoreline before the start so i can't grumble too much. It's just a pity it was such a soft goal we conceded to let them back into the match. I definitely can't see where those journalists that thought Chelsea should have won are coming from. Yes Chelsea finished strongly, but they looked more dangerous from set pieces than in open play.
Once again started a game well only to fade away in the latter stages. For the first 2o minutes United were excellent, although once again we weren't quite at the races where the final ball was concerned. When that eventually comes right somebody is going to be on the end of a bit a hiding. Last year it happened at home to Wigan, will it be Middlesbrough or Bolton on saturday this year.
I have to admit i was pretty amazed when i saw the starting line up and both Jonny Evans and Gary Neville were included with Wes Brown on the bench. Although Fergie was vindicated by the performance of the pair i would still have preferred to have seen Wes Brown at right back. I wasn't that surprised that Ronaldo was left on the bench but i was surprised that there was no Tevez. There is going to be some competition for places up front this season when you consider he has been our best performer this season.
The first chance of the match fell to Fletcher who seems to have acquired the happy knack of timing his runs into the box to perfection at the moment. Unfortunately he couldn't get enough on it to test Cech, which was a pity because he didn't look the same goalie as the one who a couple of years ago all the pundits were hailing as the best in the world. Mind you Van Der Sar wasn't much better and Kuszczak didn't cover himself in glory with there equaliser either.
In the 18th minute Evra made a run forward and started a superb move off which saw Rooney and Berbatov release the Frenchman into the box to cut back to Berbatov who saw his shot weakly parried by Cech straight to the feet of Park who made no mistake. It was only what we had deserved as we were the better team. Cole had had a great opportunity on the ten minute mark but had blasted it wide but that was the sum total of their efforts.
Carvalho then went off for Chelsea and then Van Der Sar had a couple of shaky moments that saw him injured and wanting to go off. It wasn't a very convincing half an hour by him again i'm afraid, but just when Foster might be get getting his chance at last he has gone and got injured leaving us with Kuszczak. United seemed to lose concentration after this point and Chelsea ended the half the stronger without really creating much.
In terms of possession United were second best for most of the second half, but i always thought we were going to be a threat on the break especially when Ronaldo came on 10 minutes into the half. And indeed we did look a threat but as has been the case so far this season the final ball just never happened. There was one great move that ended with Rooney placing his shot into the side netting but not much else. Even though they were having the lion's share of the ball i was pretty confident we were going to come away with all 3 points. So to lose the lead to such a soft goal was a big blow. It should have been dealt with it was no wonder cross. United had to baton down the hatches for the last 10 minutes as we tired and the rentboys came on strong but we survived. The game ended on a bizarre note as the referee who had been apalling blew for full time when everybody thought he was still playing on.
A good point all in all, we have just got to get things going in the final thrid of the pitch and we will get our season going.

The match report in the Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/chelsea-1-manchester-united-1-kalou-crowns-chelsea-fightback-in-compelling-battle-of-heavyweights-937647.html

Youth to get a chance tomorrow
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={F9E570E6-407E-44BC-800F-4A3110258114}&newsid=6618906

Wenger can't understand the City takeover
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/wenger-mystified-by-manchester-city-takeover-938325.html
The rumour going around is they thought they were buying United