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So the curtain raiser for the season begins today with arguably England’s best representation in Europe at action today. Both the sides Manchester United and Chelsea are beginning a new chapter in their respective club histories, for United it is without their most prolific talisman Ronaldo and for Chelsea it is the dawn of a new era under Ancelotti if he manages to survive long unlike his predecessors.

Today’s match would be a good indication as to how both these would shape up for the coming season and would be quite intriguing to see the tactics employed by either.

Is the Quintuple dream on ?

The biggest question of all as the season approaches its finish line is not if Man Utd can retain the league title but it is if they can complete the historic quintuple. 

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to point out to the readers that if at all Man Utd go onto achieve the ‘ Quintuple’ it wouldn’t be an unprecedented achievement but just a historic one. The famous Ajax team of ‘74/’75 won eight titles in a span of two years , so surely ,which ever way one looks at it , they either won the quintuple in an year or achieved the quadruple for two consecutive years.

 Is Man Utd actually capable of realizing the almost impossible dream of achieving the quintuple? I, personally, don’t think so. I don’t think any Man Utd fan would be extremely upset if they don’t finish tops in all the competitions as it is like asking a normal human being to be a superman for a day.

 As Sir Alex, himself, put it Man Utd should ride their luck for way too long to come out triumphs in all the competitions. If the premier league is an indication of a team’s consistency and ruthlessness, the cup competitions always require a slice of luck. A wrongly judged offside goal, a wrongly adjudged penalty, there are way too many things that can change a match in a flash. Last years FA cup tie with Portsmouth can always be used as a good case study when trying to illustrate the kind of luck that is needed to win the cup competitions.

Secondly, if Man Utd actually complete the quintuple this year, I would be as amazed at their success as any other neutral fan. I wouldn’t be awe struck at their achievement but rather I would be amazed at the opponents’ incapability to stop them from achieving that feat. Any honest assessment of Manchester United’s season so far will have one believe that they have been far from their best and have nowhere attained the devastating form that they displayed in abundance last season. They have been having a rollercoaster season by their footballing standards, brilliant in one, subdued in the next. While some players haven’t hit strides yet such as Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney and Berbatov some, notably Anderson and Nani, are suffering from the proverbial second season syndrome.   To simply put, Manchester United haven’t yet hit fifth gear this season and look unlikely to do so. 

ManUtd vs Chelsea Review

Was it a case of points lost or a point gained for Manchester United?

Manchester United was 10 minutes away from breaking the seemingly invincible record that Chelsea have at home. The record in a way reminds me of the fortress that Old Trafford was when Keane was in his pomp. Though that United team lost a few matches at home they hardly drew any, Chelsea on the other hand has drawn a few but has remained unbeaten.

Manchester United

  The intent was right from Sir Alex, he played players in their preferred positions or rather players who can provide an attacking impetus from their positions ala Hargreaves. He took a bold decision by playing Rooney behind Berbatov and benching Tevez who has been one of the better performers this season. He even played the young Evans who was actually quite impressive. Playing Gary Neville was always going to be a gamble and it didn’t back fire though he didn’t exactly show glimpses of his old which suggest Brown would regain his place in the side. Manchester United started brilliantly, they surprised Chelsea with their speed and they showed more desire than they did at Anfield. It certainly was the reaction that Sir Alex was looking from his team. They created many chances going forward and Chelsea took their time to settle into the game. Manchester United used the width really well in the first 20-25 minutes thus pushing back Bosingwa and Cole. Park buzzed around on the left flank and he even covered for Evra a couple of times. Rooney got the license to orchestrate things in the middle and played a delightful ball to Evra which resulted in the goal. Scholes slowed down the proceedings in the middle using his experience and Flethcer did all the running yesterday. He is actually turning into pretty decent box to box player.United in the second half tried to attack on the break and introduced Ronaldo who injected some speed but there were clear evidences that he is not fully fit yet.Though Sir Alex would be gutted to see his team concede a late goal , he would be happy with a point as Manchester United can only get strong from here on.

Chelsea

They were put on the back foot even before the ball was kicked by the news of Deco’s injury. But if there is anything which separates Chelsea’s squad from others then it is there depth in the squad. They had Deco going out but could afford to put in another world class midfielder there like Ballack. Ballack certainly showed rustiness as one would have expected but played a couple of very good passes. He and Lampard struggled early on to control the mid but once they started to do that Chelsea created a few chances. Lampard had a quite first half and many of Chelsea’s moves in the second half went through him. Mikel suggested little that he has the capacity or maturity to step into Makelele’s shoes or is he not exactly the player who can sit in front of the back four and just shield them?  

Joe Cole tried to create things,was a threat, but he needs to blame himself as he had two easy chances to put Chelsea ahead. Anelka was pretty disappointing for Chelsea yesterday, he was wonderfully picked up by Joe Cole but he just couldn’t manage to put the ball into an open goal. For me the stand out performer was Alex. He really put in a couple of brave challenges and he did not make Chelsea miss Carvalho. Chelsea might feel disappointed with the result as they might feel they had done enough in the second half to win the game but on the other hand they might feel satisfied as well as they were staring at their first defeat at home for God knows how long.

I thought the referee had an awful game. As the pundits on ESPN suggested, it was not a dirty game by any stretch of imagination and the referee had actually shown 8 yellow cards and some of them totally not deserving. He stopped the play on plenty of occasions in the first half and I must admit that suited Chelsea. Those interruptions not only broke the flow of the game but they also gave Chelsea the time to settle down into the game.

 But all in all this easily was one of the most entertaining games that the two teams played against each other in the last 3-4 years. 

Cheers 

Vivek