EPL - Chelsea vs Manchester United - Nov 8

www SG

draw would be a fair result today.

no dispute on chelsea's effort, but terry's attempt should be considered offside as drogba was interfering the play.

sand king SG

I thought that Rooney should have scored first half, that offside decision was wrong IMO. Cole was playing him onside, using the lines of the grass in the replay it looked okay, but the ref is the man.

iceFatboy SG

well, SAF won't get any "luck" with any EPL referees after his outburst with Wiley, that's is very evident.

a few things ->

valencia's tussle with Terry, a penalty? well, I said no. despite Terry's tug at Valencia's jersey, he is smart enough to disguise.

Rooney's offside, marginal.

Cole giving Terry's jewel an elbow, and Chelsea asking to stop when after they played and lost the ball.. that set the precedent for me.

Evan's flying kick to Drogba, and Drogba's getting a yellow.. Not entirely sure why. maybe for "instant" recovery.

Terry's goal. Well, Drogba's foul on Brown. see first line.

All in all, I feel Chelsea's approach was muscular, but MU stood up to the test. Chelsea did not play that badly, but was just negated by MU's tatical play.

Anderson on Essien, Valencia on Cole, Brown on Drogba, and Fletcher/Carrick on Deco/Lampard.

Anyway, hopefully MU lost the battle but not the war.

iceFatboy SG

anyway, one comical thing, during the last substition, did anyone see this black dude who was just behind the dugout, shouting with his toothbrush raised, and apparently brushing.. Joker.

iceFatboy SG

btw, saw a lot of threads here with names-calling and unnecessary nonsense.

not sure whether they are trying to start a flame war or inciting riots..

Dudes, under the belt man...

iceFatboy SG

draw would be a fair result today.

no dispute on chelsea's effort, but terry's attempt should be considered offside as drogba was interfering the play.

not offside la, maybe drogba's foul will disallow it.. but then, this is football...round, anything can happen..

zocoss SG

Sir Alex Ferguson claimed referee Martin Atkinson's decisions which led to Chelsea's winning goal at Stamford Bridge were the kind which lead managers and players to "lose faith in refereeing".

Atkinson awarded a free-kick for Darren Fletcher's challenge on Ashley Cole, and Wes Brown appeared to be impeded as Frank Lampard's delivery was turned into the net.

An unhappy Ferguson told Sky Sports 1: "Clearly, Darren Fletcher's won the ball - Ashley Cole's never touched and has jumped up in the air - and then (Didier) Drogba's pulled Brown to the ground for the goal.

"The referee's position to make the decision was absolutely ridiculous, he can't see anything. He's got a Chelsea player (Joe Cole) standing right in front of him and he doesn't even move.

"It was a bad decision, but there's nothing we can do about it. You lose faith in refereeing sometimes, that's the way the players are talking in there - it was a bad one."

Ferguson stopped short of blaming Atkinson for his side's defeat, admitting instead they should have taken the chances they created.

"That goal should never have been allowed. We've dominated the game; we've had great chances to win the match - and that's our fault," he told Sky Sports 1.

"We had great opportunities to get to the edge of the box and some really good chances in and around the box, but we should be finishing it off.

"We've only ourselves to blame in that respect. But you do need a break - and we never got the break we needed."

He admitted the defeat - United's third on the road this season - was more significant than their recent 2-0 reverse at another rival club, Liverpool.

"The fact is Chelsea go five points clear of us," he said.

"The defeat to Liverpool didn't affect our position in the league - that affects our position in the sense that if we'd have won we'd have gone top today."