The Normal One and his ordinary team

Harsh or not, Chelsea were never really in it and were never going after more than a draw anyway. Manchester United beat them solidly and the red card did nothing more than distract from the inevitable result anyway: Chelsea fought but in the end were ordinary.

The first 20 minutes saw some amazing technical football. Pinpoint 50 yard passes, excellent movement, trickery; it all made for a tempting encounter. But soon after the game began to grind as it became clear that United were getting the better of the rub. Slowly, and red card aside, Chelsea began to retreat into a shell and as the minutes passes play more and more for a draw.

The crowd said it all as they began to sign their favorite Mourinho song and call the team “Steve Clark’s Blue and White Army”. Why wasn’t Clark, a man more than capable, given his chance? I can guarantee the players would have reacted better.

Jon Obi Mikel’s red card was used as a talking point for the disappointing result, but it was just a way to deflect the barbs. Chelsea went down a goal on the stroke of half time and spend the first 25 minutes of the second half swimming around the pitch soaking up United’s pressure and not even looking like getting in a scoring position. The funny thing is that Chelsea were already starting to do that before the red card.

I’ll give the Chelsea players some credit, they came out fighting. Even Andiry Shevchenko (who had more to prove than anyone) and his worn out legs gave it a go but it never jelled, did it? He got no support as Essien and the rest of midfield kept their distance from the front man, guess the only support he has is in the directors box, maybe Ballack will support him when he returns. For the rest of the players, I am sure they would have traded the billions for Mourinho in a second.

The stats tell it all: United were ahead on possession, shots on target, and corners were 10-1. And they were ahead in all these categories before the red card. The most telling stat, Chelsea had one single shot on target, can anyone remember who it was?