Difference between a 3 point lead and a 6 point lead!

Draw was a fair result but either team could not have complained if the other had won. For once, my team selection was spot on! But it so happened that with a different team, we could have come out with 3 clear points. This is because the weakest links in the Chelsea team looked to the superstars - Shevchenko and to some extent Ballack. For a moment imagine in place of these to Robben and Joe Cole played. I’m sure we could have put them under heavy pressure.

As Jose said the obvious, it was Man Utd’s first half and Chelsea’s second half. Saha scored a superb goal from a good pass from Rooney. Wile Carlo and Terry had covered most of the goal post, Carvalho did some ball watching to allow Saha to try a different angle and succeed. I was hoping for Ricardo to tackle him while Terry can pick up the ball or unsettle Saha. But unfortunately, Ricardo under-estimated Saha, who shot with supreme precision.

Ashley Cole had a very good game. He was ready to take any challenge Ronaldo was to offer. It was nice little to battle to watch. Few times Cole got the better of Ronaldo and sometimes the other way round. Luckily for Cole, whenever it was the other way round, the consequences were not too serious. I should say, for all his pace and tricks, Ronaldo was subdued by a very good Chelsea defensive effort.

There was some fuss about Drogba elbowing Vidic, I’ve seen it twice now. It was certainly a foul, a yellow card may be. It was not an ‘elbowing’ incident as it is being reported by Man Utd fans. It was a push by Drogba, a kind of push that happens a million times in the box during corners and goes unfouled by the referees.

After a worrying first half, Jose did it again. He moved Essien back to right back and brought Robben for Geremi. This is a small example of the Chelsea bench strength and the depth it offers, which Jose makes the best use of in substitution (not so much in first team selection). The second half was Chelsea all the way. Wave after wave, we hit on target, off target, there were saves and set pieces.

This might look like a video highlights prepared by a Man Utd fan, but still . . .

Jose was asking the Skysports reporter eagerly who was the man of the match. When he was told it was ‘Michael Carrick’, Jose said this:

I don’t believe it.

And he went on to say Ricardo was his man of the match and thanked Chelsea’s medical department.

Ricardo Carvalho was the man of the match and I want to dedicate the result to the medical department. They did an unbelievable job to get him fit for this match and sometimes people don’t remember these people at the club.

Jose continued his mind games with Sir Alex even after this match:

I think the game was easy to comment on, Manchester United were best in the first half, Chelsea in the second. For me that’s obvious, We didn’t play well in the first half. We couldn’t play our football. The second half was completely the opposite and we deserved to score our goal.

It is a good result because Manchester United lost a big, big chance to open the gap to six points. I think they faced this game when mentally very strong. They thought it was a big chance to open the gap but they couldn’t do it. In the second half we showed we were here to win the game.

You could see from the above graphic that a Chelsea win could have been very well with the run of play. A win is always better, but as Jose said, we should be happy with this result for two reasons: (i) we trail by only three points still (ii) Man Utd is disappointed badly.

Now we have a big match coming up in the Reebok stadium, days after Bolton are brimming with confidence after crushing sorry Arsenal 3-1. If I were Jose, I would not mind dropping Sheva for this match. I would go ahead with 4-3-3 with the specialist wingers I have. If we get the three points against Bolton in the Reebok stadium, we can hope to get to the top again by Christmas.

[tags] Chelsea, Man Utd, Old Trafford, Premiership, Saha, Rooney, Carvalho, Bolton, Arsenal, Reebok Stadium, Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson [/tags]