Manchester United 2 - 1 Chelsea
Manchester United all but seal EPL title after big match fails to deliver on its rich promise.
The resolution, in all but mathematical certainty, of this year's Premier League title race, and the playing of the so-called 'Biggest Game of the Season' (a slightly myopic view of things) should make for worthy review-fodder. In truth, today's face-off between Manchester United and Chelsea was a bit of a dud.
Following Arsenal's final capitulation, earlier losing 3-1 against an emerging Stoke side, the league was emphatically a two horse race. Seconds into this much-hyped match the runners and riders were reduced by a further half .
United took the lead after less than a minute, via a smartly taken Hernandez goal after a dreadful mistake from David Luiz, and a shell-shocked Chelsea never really recovered.
2-0 down within 25 minutes following the simplest of goals, converted by imperious centre half Nemanja Vidic, the wheels had come loose from Chelsea's title surge before the players had even got their heads in the game.
- Flyer: £6m Hernandez settles the EPL season after 1 minute
Criticised earlier in the season for failing to display enough hunger, for lacking the sort of winning attitude that makes United a shoo-in as champions in scrappy, up-and-down seasons like this one, we'll never know if Chelsea went into this game with heart and fight enough to overcome the champions elect in this crucial match.
The circumstances of Hernandez's opener- so early, the product of a ghastly mistake- would have been enough to knock any wind Ancelotti might have blown into his side's sails pre-match, and rocked all carefully-laid plans out of Chelsea heads.
Chelsea looked confused and disjointed, laboured and slow in transition. United's midfield were in the game from the kick-off, playing at an electrifying tempo, giving Chelsea little time on the ball, and little time to play themselves back into the match.
If this was Ferguson's plan, it was tactical masterstroke. Close and press against a side like Arsenal or Barcelona and they may make a couple of errors, but ultimately you will be picked off and given the runaround. Against a more functional outfit like Chelsea, who rely more on getting their heads up and finding deep passes for pacy runners, this aggressive attitude worked a treat.
It wasn't pretty, and it didn't make for the greatest spectacle but Manchester United will not mind. They needed only a draw, and in cutting off the supply to Chelsea's dangerous forwards, and playing in Chelsea's half they restricted the away side's chances of getting something meaningful out of this game.
Misfiring striker, and butt of many jokes, Fernando Torres didn't play until late in the game, but then neither did anyone else in blue. Frank Lampard scored against the run of play after 68 minutes to add a bit of intrigue to a scrappy, dull game but the result was never in much doubt. United seemed, as throughout the match, the most likely to score again.
A game Manchester United resoundingly deserved to win moves them to within a point of a record-breaking nineteenth league title which they also, despite a slow, ugly start to the season, deserve.
Relegation stations for the rest of the season it is then.
