Chelsea 1-1 Man United, and they keep their record
By stvasile
@stvasile (7306)
Romania
September 21, 2008 10:10am CST
A good football game, with United dominating the first half and retreating to defend the 1 goal advantage, and with Chelsea attacking all of the second half.
Chelsea missed some good opportunities before the goal came from Kalou, and the goal came naturally, as a result of their pressure.
I think it's a fair result, in the end. Chelsea keep the 6 point gap (although MU has one game less played) and they remain undefeated for more than 4 and a half years.
I'm a bit worried on Van Der Saar's injury, and also on Berbatov's performance - it seemed to me that he's yet to adapt to United's game.
Please feel free to comment on the game.
2 responses
@x7heavens (365)
• Singapore
21 Sep 08
It is a hard fought game, and the result says it all. I am not a bit worried about Berbatov's performance.
In fact, I am extremely concern and overly worried about his performance. He looked unfit physically, and his unwillingness to run after and support his teammates is a big worry. Sometimes, I wonder if he really deserve to be wearing the jersey.
Another concern is United's defence. Seriously, defensively, they are miles apart from their records last year, with or without Vidic.
Thirdly, Manchester have picked up 7 yellow cards, and I am worried if these might affect their later games.
Lastly, Is Van De Sar injury serious? Hopefully not.
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@stvasile (7306)
• Romania
21 Sep 08
I've just checked that out on manutd.com, and it says that Edwin van der Sar should be fit to face Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, despite needing to be substituted at Stamford Bridge in the first half.
“He got some studs in the kneecap and there was a bit of swelling there,” Sir Alex told MUTV after the final whistle. “Hopefully he’ll be OK for next week.”
Tomasz Kuszczak, who replaced van der Sar at Chelsea, will almost certainly don United’s goalkeeper jersey on Tuesday night when Middlesbrough arrive at Old Trafford in the Carling Cup.
As of Berbatov, it's the first match I actually see him playing, and I don't want to criticize so much after just one match. Maybe if Sir Alex had one more substitution he would have sent Tevez in.
@rahul_2689 (634)
• Hyderabad, India
23 Sep 08
Yeah, I too saw that on the site. Is foster fit though? If he isn't, then tomasz is the only fit goalie we have at present. Worrying proposition if van der sar cannot prove his fitness before the weekend match against bolton.
Coming to the berbatov's tracking back issue, I don't understand why everyone's behing him. Maybe not as much as rooney, but he too did help the defence at times.
A reason for our unimpressive start to the season has been our weak counter attack. Someone's got to stay up front while the others track back. Rooney is happy to run and so is Tevez, so let them run back.
Infact, Rooney poor goal scoring form can be attributed to his enthusiasm to chase the ball rather than wait for it.
@stvasile (7306)
• Romania
26 Sep 08
I'm not saying that Berbatov should chase the ball all over the field, but I'd like to see him running from time to time, it seemed he's just walking around. The game was seriously suffering when the ball was getting to him.
As I said in the original post, I'm not throwing eggs at him, I've only seen him in one match, no player should be judged after only one match.
@bhuvneshbhanu (73)
• India
4 Oct 08
They played really well in 1st half and scored a well deserved goal. But in second half they got a bit too defensive. It was clearly visible that Rooney was not happy with the defensive attitude of United and wanted to score one more goal, or atleast stay upfront, but Chelsea took advantage and scored. If they would have been a bit more aggressive then it would have been game over for Chelsea.
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