Rags v Chelsea

[BoyBlue_1985]

Firstly, Chelsea didn't deserve to win. How they found themselves 3-0 up is a mystery to me, they hadn't been playing well at all and United had been the better side. Having said that though, Chelsea WERE 3-0, merited or not, and at that point any side should be able to hold on, let alone a side with Champion's League ambitions.

They were 3-0 up because they were playing a side that has a shit defence. None of their back four would even get near our bench. Plus, as has happened with us a few times, the rags failed to convert superiority into goals, until Webb gave them a big help. As we saw in the FA Cup game, once a team comes back from 3-0 down to 3-2, panic tends to set in and the rags really should have taken all 3 points.

Yet Garth Crooks STILL managed to name both Evra and Ferdinand in his team of the week!!

Ferdinand??? Did he watch that game or did he have a Sky+ game from 8 years ago

 

[Balti]

They were 3-0 up because they were playing a side that has a shit defence. None of their back four would even get near our bench. Plus, as has happened with us a few times, the rags failed to convert superiority into goals, until Webb gave them a big help. As we saw in the FA Cup game, once a team comes back from 3-0 down to 3-2, panic tends to set in and the rags really should have taken all 3 points.

Yet Garth Crooks STILL managed to name both Evra and Ferdinand in his team of the week!!

Ferdinand??? Did he watch that game or did he have a Sky+ game from 8 years ago

Ferdinand puts more effort into twatter these days

 

[BezzMCFC]

Chelsea's passing really pissed me off, they couldnt string 2 passes together.

 

[Castiel]

Great poster put this on our forums, but its pretty relevant to you.

To those fans who say that we only have ourselves to blame for allowing a three goal lead to slip, well, let me say that it needed one penalty decision to encourage the opposition and a second to confirm that this particular referee was prepared to give United all the encouragement they needed to get on level terms and more. Playing too deep or not, then subsequently beating ourselves up about it, undermines the obvious positives inherent in Mata cutting them to ribbons at the start of the second half and I think we all knew what would happen as soon as we saw the ubiquitous United player ‘contact’ being made with our makeshift defender in the box. Then, even when there wasn’t any from Branna, we all knew that it would be Howard Webb’s predilection to give a penalty anyway, especially where ManU are involved and benefiting thereby. It was ever thus with referees in important games so far this season and we should not be surprised to see it continue right through until the end.

Why? Well, it’s simple really; One, it’s because this is the only competition United are left in - they’re going to fight tooth and nail to win the Europa League? Nah, that’s not going to happen. Two, it’s because Ferguson is in his seventieth year and still competing in a league that has seen him reach such influential status and dominance it almost demands trophy recognition in this of all years. Three, it’s because he has the undying support and loyalty of most of the media outlets in this country, including Sky, the Premiership purse string-pullers supreme, whose undermining of rival clubs in one-on-confrontations with the Red Devils has become as legendary as their oft-remembered reverence towards a Munich air disaster, always accompanied by Busby Babe head-patting and a continual bizarre acknowledgement of the supply of talented Academy kids to win titles en bloc and on an annual basis.

And four, it’s because Man City have become monstrous noisy neighbours, threatening as they do to bring the Ferguson twilight years into sharp retirement, trophy-less focus at the wrong time and in the wrong place [his personal Premiership fiefdom], so a gap in the league table cannot therefore be allowed to grow to unmanageable proportions without a referee’s attempted interference here (probably after a half-time ear-bashing) whether it be in the form of myriad fouls given in his team’s favour after inexplicable decision-making delay, or a leg-up when the uncontrollable occurs in the form of two quick goals against and an overall 0-3 deficit.

We may well have been bitterly disappointed with yesterday’s final result, but it will be nothing compared to Mancini’s [now confirmed] perception that his team must overcome a double dose of partiality and prejudice, targeted both against their perceived unfair buying power and in favour of the doting officialdom darlings from down the road. When he sees the duplicitous standards of refereeing we have in the supposed ‘best league in the world‘, the press reporting and Media prejudice, with all of it buttressed by FA buffoonery, the effete Italian must think to himself, much like a fellow countryman currently in charge of our national team [allegedly] - that English officiates are a mighty strange bunch and no mistake.

Strange, yes Roberto, but doubtless you ain’t seen nothing yet.

 

[Hamann Pineapple]

Great poster put this on our forums, but its pretty relevant to you.

To those fans who say that we only have ourselves to blame for allowing a three goal lead to slip, well, let me say that it needed one penalty decision to encourage the opposition and a second to confirm that this particular referee was prepared to give United all the encouragement they needed to get on level terms and more. Playing too deep or not, then subsequently beating ourselves up about it, undermines the obvious positives inherent in Mata cutting them to ribbons at the start of the second half and I think we all knew what would happen as soon as we saw the ubiquitous United player ‘contact’ being made with our makeshift defender in the box. Then, even when there wasn’t any from Branna, we all knew that it would be Howard Webb’s predilection to give a penalty anyway, especially where ManU are involved and benefiting thereby. It was ever thus with referees in important games so far this season and we should not be surprised to see it continue right through until the end.

Why? Well, it’s simple really; One, it’s because this is the only competition United are left in - they’re going to fight tooth and nail to win the Europa League? Nah, that’s not going to happen. Two, it’s because Ferguson is in his seventieth year and still competing in a league that has seen him reach such influential status and dominance it almost demands trophy recognition in this of all years. Three, it’s because he has the undying support and loyalty of most of the media outlets in this country, including Sky, the Premiership purse string-pullers supreme, whose undermining of rival clubs in one-on-confrontations with the Red Devils has become as legendary as their oft-remembered reverence towards a Munich air disaster, always accompanied by Busby Babe head-patting and a continual bizarre acknowledgement of the supply of talented Academy kids to win titles en bloc and on an annual basis.

And four, it’s because Man City have become monstrous noisy neighbours, threatening as they do to bring the Ferguson twilight years into sharp retirement, trophy-less focus at the wrong time and in the wrong place [his personal Premiership fiefdom], so a gap in the league table cannot therefore be allowed to grow to unmanageable proportions without a referee’s attempted interference here (probably after a half-time ear-bashing) whether it be in the form of myriad fouls given in his team’s favour after inexplicable decision-making delay, or a leg-up when the uncontrollable occurs in the form of two quick goals against and an overall 0-3 deficit.

We may well have been bitterly disappointed with yesterday’s final result, but it will be nothing compared to Mancini’s [now confirmed] perception that his team must overcome a double dose of partiality and prejudice, targeted both against their perceived unfair buying power and in favour of the doting officialdom darlings from down the road. When he sees the duplicitous standards of refereeing we have in the supposed ‘best league in the world‘, the press reporting and Media prejudice, with all of it buttressed by FA buffoonery, the effete Italian must think to himself, much like a fellow countryman currently in charge of our national team [allegedly] - that English officiates are a mighty strange bunch and no mistake.

Strange, yes Roberto, but doubtless you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Bullseye

 

[SWP's back]

I made the point earlier that they created very little until "Red Howie" gave them a big helping hand. But they looked far more incisive when they had the ball. just about everyone, commentators and spectators alike felt they were by far the better of the two sides in the first half and, once you'd scored early in the second half, they looked far more dangerous until the last few minutes. Malouda looks like your version of Arshavin these days and Torres' confidence looks completely shot.

Yes I agree with that. I know Torres is useless. We're effectively playing with a striker who refuses to shoot and this is the main reason we've suffered so much this season, we can't score. He's the biggest mistake this club has ever made. Worse than Sheva (who was actually quite productive) and selling Robben. And Malouda has been bad since Ancelotti's first season. But we had nobody else at the time. AVB could have risked 19 year old Lukaku against the league champions, but who can say how he would have handled that? You lot moan about Dzeko but I'd love to have him available, at least he tries to take his chances.

I wasn't saying we played well, because we didn't by previous standards. But I don't think they dominated us like the pundits would have you believe. We were fully depleted and in bad form and we put three passed them, kept more possession and defended well up until that last corner (with a RB at LB and a CB we've never used before with no rapport with Luiz). Add to that Ramires, our best midfielder, was out, Essien wasn't fully fit and could only really go for 60 minutes, the Africans are away and whatever else was going on; I think that was a pretty good account for a side that was expected to get hammered. Moreso, why weren't we hammered? As mentioned, if City had played us yesterday, we would have been. The referee opened the door for them to get back into it. We didn't have the strength to get it under control like previous Chelsea sides, but it shouldn't have come to that anyway.

Agree with all of that though I will say that when you stated you had no complaints about Webb (before the game), I thought it may come back to bite you on the arse.

 

[Balti]

Great poster put this on our forums, but its pretty relevant to you.

To those fans who say that we only have ourselves to blame for allowing a three goal lead to slip, well, let me say that it needed one penalty decision to encourage the opposition and a second to confirm that this particular referee was prepared to give United all the encouragement they needed to get on level terms and more. Playing too deep or not, then subsequently beating ourselves up about it, undermines the obvious positives inherent in Mata cutting them to ribbons at the start of the second half and I think we all knew what would happen as soon as we saw the ubiquitous United player ‘contact’ being made with our makeshift defender in the box. Then, even when there wasn’t any from Branna, we all knew that it would be Howard Webb’s predilection to give a penalty anyway, especially where ManU are involved and benefiting thereby. It was ever thus with referees in important games so far this season and we should not be surprised to see it continue right through until the end.

Why? Well, it’s simple really; One, it’s because this is the only competition United are left in - they’re going to fight tooth and nail to win the Europa League? Nah, that’s not going to happen. Two, it’s because Ferguson is in his seventieth year and still competing in a league that has seen him reach such influential status and dominance it almost demands trophy recognition in this of all years. Three, it’s because he has the undying support and loyalty of most of the media outlets in this country, including Sky, the Premiership purse string-pullers supreme, whose undermining of rival clubs in one-on-confrontations with the Red Devils has become as legendary as their oft-remembered reverence towards a Munich air disaster, always accompanied by Busby Babe head-patting and a continual bizarre acknowledgement of the supply of talented Academy kids to win titles en bloc and on an annual basis.

And four, it’s because Man City have become monstrous noisy neighbours, threatening as they do to bring the Ferguson twilight years into sharp retirement, trophy-less focus at the wrong time and in the wrong place [his personal Premiership fiefdom], so a gap in the league table cannot therefore be allowed to grow to unmanageable proportions without a referee’s attempted interference here (probably after a half-time ear-bashing) whether it be in the form of myriad fouls given in his team’s favour after inexplicable decision-making delay, or a leg-up when the uncontrollable occurs in the form of two quick goals against and an overall 0-3 deficit.

We may well have been bitterly disappointed with yesterday’s final result, but it will be nothing compared to Mancini’s [now confirmed] perception that his team must overcome a double dose of partiality and prejudice, targeted both against their perceived unfair buying power and in favour of the doting officialdom darlings from down the road. When he sees the duplicitous standards of refereeing we have in the supposed ‘best league in the world‘, the press reporting and Media prejudice, with all of it buttressed by FA buffoonery, the effete Italian must think to himself, much like a fellow countryman currently in charge of our national team [allegedly] - that English officiates are a mighty strange bunch and no mistake.

Strange, yes Roberto, but doubtless you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Bang on the money.

 

[davymcfc]

no doubt about the two penalties. you have to give credit to united for making a comeback. chelsea only have themselves to blame. two needless penalties and torres wasted a really good chance. we knew united would drop points in this run of matches so this is a really positive weekend for us. we have added an extra 3 goals to our goal difference and pulled two points clear. i would have taken that before the weekend.

 

[Matty]

no doubt about the two penalties. you have to give credit to united for making a comeback. chelsea only have themselves to blame. two needless penalties and torres wasted a really good chance. we knew united would drop points in this run of matches so this is a really positive weekend for us. we have added an extra 3 goals to our goal difference and pulled two points clear. i would have taken that before the weekend.

I'm not sure quite how anyone can view the Welbeck "penalty" and claim there was no doubt about it. Ivanovic didn't connect with Welbeck, it was the other way round, Welbeck saw Ivanovic was there and intentionally connected with him. The Evra one was soft, but probably justified, the Welbeck one wasn't even close.

 

[davymcfc]

no doubt about the two penalties. you have to give credit to united for making a comeback. chelsea only have themselves to blame. two needless penalties and torres wasted a really good chance. we knew united would drop points in this run of matches so this is a really positive weekend for us. we have added an extra 3 goals to our goal difference and pulled two points clear. i would have taken that before the weekend.

I'm not sure quite how anyone can view the Welbeck "penalty" and claim there was no doubt about it. Ivanovic didn't connect with Welbeck, it was the other way round, Welbeck saw Ivanovic was there and intentionally connected with him. The Evra one was soft, but probably justified, the Welbeck one wasn't even close.

no doubt it was soft, but ivanovic has gone in and not won the ball. in situations like that you are just asking to give a penalty away. the player wasnt going anywhere so i am more inclined to question ivanovic's judgement than howard webb.