Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United

This was as galling a defeat as the one at Anfield but for entirely different reasons. As Fergie said in one of last weeks press conference's United just didn't turn up at Anfield for the second season on the bounce and that wasn't what he or us would have expected. But yesterday after being written off and told by the London press that Chelsea and their star performers were the side in form and were looking good for the league it was us that put the performance in. Only for another diabolical refereeing performance to hand Chelsea the points. An offside after five minutes when Rooney was clearly onside, though that was down to the linesman. A penalty when the dangerous Valencia was about to get behind Terry only for Terry to snidely bring him down. And then the free kick against Fletcher that clearly wasn't followed by Drogba bringing Wes Brown down and maybe intefering with Van Der Sar's sight of the ball. I suppose the game was a moral victory and shows that the press do write us off a their peril. But it's three points to Chelsea and a five point gap. It's not insurmountable and i can't see anybody being five points above us come May, but how much better would it have been if we had got the draw or even the victory our performance deserved.
The negative aspect of the game was that we weren't as effective in the final third as our build up play warranted. Rooney had a good game as did Valencia but we didn't really have anybody attacking down the left to hurt them. And when our midfielders did get ahead of the strikers more often than not they didn't recieve the ball. Anderson and Valencia did get in great positions in the first half but the final ball didn't arrive. But credit to the defence and mifield which were excellent. Brown and Evans showed that they are more than mere back up by completely shacking Drogba who hardly got a kick.The much vaunted rent boy midfiled that we were told was where they were so much better didn't fare much better as none of the quartet could really impose themselves on the game. Fletcher as we have come to expect was immense but Anderson and Carrick each had one of their best games of the season.
Giggs didn't have a bad game but obviously doesn't have the pace of old anymore. If we had someone on the left side of the attacking three with the pace of Valencia and to a lesser extent Rooney we would have been that much more effective. We have got to hope that Obertan fulfills the potential that is there for all to see. Another improvement yesterday was whereas at Anfield when Torres scored we had been so bad before it was hard to see where a goal would come from, yesterday i really thought that we had every chance to equalise and the players attacked like they clearly believed that too. Whilst we are still a work in progress after the sale of Ronaldo and Tevez ( City fans aren't crowing about him too much anymore are they )there are promising signs for the season ahead despite the defeat. We just need to get the balance right between midfield control and attacking threat.

Kevin Garside in the Telegraph on United's lack of goals
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6527152/Kevin-Garside-Manchester-Uniteds-defeat-by-Chelsea-shows-their-problem-is-scoring-goals.html

United not happy with the officials, Rooney in trouble?
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/ferguson-vents-his-fury-at-ridiculous-referee-1817291.html

Lee Dixon thinks Flecther was magnificent yesterday and is now one of the first three on the teamsheet nowadays. I am not quite sure how he wasn't named as the man of the match.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8349992.stm

Will Hutton on the insider trading affair that has rocked Wall street
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/08/will-hutton-wall-street-corruption

William Keegan thinks the our fellow Europeans have been right to shun Anglo saxon capitalism, yet another embarrasment for the Atlantasist new labour and Brown in particular as they were obviously right.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/08/g20-britain-keynes-eurozone

Larry Elliot thinks the tobin tax is an idea whose time has come whilst Blairite Rentoul does not.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/09/bank-tax-pays-for-development
http://johnrentoul.independentminds.livejournal.com/197624.html