Advantage Chelsea (Manchester United 1 - Chelsea 1)

But...but we drew! How is that advantage Chelsea?

Well, let's put things into pespective before all this championship contender status gets out of hand. We played last year's top 3 at Old Trafford and have only come away with 4 points. A loss against Arsenal, a draw against champions Chelsea and a victory against a woeful Liverpool, who can't get over their travel sickness.

To add to that, we have a waffle thin squad and a thick schedule coming up before the transfer window opens. Another injury to any of the quintuple, Rooney, Ronaldo, Saha, Giggs or Scholes and we would be going into December with a monkey on our backs. Already a wrench has been thrown into the works with Ronaldo and Saha taken off injured today. How serious their injuries are is still unknown at this present time.

Compare this with Chelsea's squad, they have ample replacements at every department. Enough to last till January when they can just go into the transfer market and pick the best available.

The Game
As for the game itself, it's probably going to be reflective of how our entire season will unfold. In the first half, we were pretty much up for the challenge, showing plenty of desire. Add to that we were much more hungry going after the ball, and really putting Chelsea under pressure every step of the way.

Saha's first half goal was probably well deserved, and it was coolly taken too. He sidefooted the ball into the net from outside the penalty box. Despite all the talk about his head being messed up over the midweek penalty miss, he shown that he was back in control.

In the second half, Chelsea showed what they were made of. They worked hard and kept pushing forward for the equalizer. We had to endurea blue tide, but were unable to withstand the irresistable force before us. By the 70 min, Chelsea had already broken thru with a Carvalho header, and to be frank, they looked more likely to win the game than us.

In the end we were probably glad to have come out of this game with a point, especially after Saha and Ronaldo were both replaced because of injury. To emphasize the quality of our subsititutes, we had John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher come on for us, while Chelsea had Joe Cole and Arjen Robben come on for them. Nothing against Fletcher or JOS, but the disparity in quality showed.

Unless we can field the same 11 eleven every game till the end of the season (which we can't and wouldn't), it's just going to be a matter of time before Chelsea catches up and fills that meagre 3 point gap.