United Pays The Price Of Pussying Out

Chelsea 2 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Chelsea: Ballack (45, pen 85)
Manchester United: Rooney (57)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic (Hargreaves 14), Brown, Silvestre, Carrick, Fletcher, Anderson (O'Shea 65), Nani, Giggs, Rooney (Ronaldo 63)

What a disgusting way to play. Fergie has completely lost the plot, playing 4-5-1 again. Despite all the talk of taking the game to Chelsea, we slumped over and allowed Chelsea to take it up our arse. If we were going to puss out of this game, we might as well not show up and save Vidic and Rooney their injuries.

Once again we played scared and allowed Chelsea free rein all over the park. Instead of a predator going for the jugular, we played the role of the lamp waiting for the slaughter. With a full 90 minutes of practise against Barcelona in midweek, we were went one better and actually lost this game.

We were under so much pressure that Vidic had to risk putting his head to Drogba's knee early in the game. He suffered a possible concussion and a a few good teeth for his efforts. Someone should have sent him the final script before hand, then maybe he wouldn't have needed to risk so much for a fruitless exercise.

It was just a matter of time before Chelsea scored. And score they did, right at the half time whistle. Ballack rose unmarked and headed the ball beyond VDS. The defense was in shambles, but at the rate Chelsea were banging on the door, it was just a matter of time before they broke through.

Despite being one down, the second half wasn't much better. Chelsea always looked the likelier team to add to the scoreline. We were honestly shit. Anderson and Silves were the probably the only people on the pitch who actually cared about the scoreline. Rooney was suffering a hip injury and was signalling to the bench for help. Everyone else would have done just as well not to turn up.

Yet against the run of play, we equalized. Somehow Rooney latched onto a poor backpass and hit the ball past Cech, while still suffering from the hip injury. It was a beautifully taken goal, but make not mistake, it was a gift from Chelsea. We never looked close to scoring before then.

With a draw on the cards, Fergie went back to wuss mode, not that he really switched away from. He took off Rooney for Ronaldo, and Anderson for O'Shea (?!?!!?!?).

Chelsea on the other hand brought on Anelka and Shevchenko. And they reaped their reward when Carrick handled the ball in the area, his only notable contribution to the game. It was debatable if it was a penalty, but it really didn't matter. We simply didn't deserve anything from this game. Ballack stepped up and won Chelsea the game.

There was a generous amount of last minute goal mouth action as we tried to do too little too late. There was even time for a fracas on the pitch between the players both on and off the pitch. WTF was it all about didn't really concern me. What mattered was that we played like pussies and got fucked exactly where it hurt.

More damning is that after all the criticisms of Arsenal bottling it, we're not much better. The only difference is that we have the players to actually win games, whereas our manager and his ASSistant were busy gift wrapping the trophies to the opponents.

I'm finding it more and more difficult to have faith in Fergie's decisions. He's pussed out one too many times this season. Many times we got lucky and came away with a result. Lyon, Barcelona, Liverpool, Spurs, just to name a few. Even again lesser opponents like Blackburn and Boro, we were lucky to come away with something.

What makes this result worse is that the remaining two games we have are by no means done deals. We face West Ham at home, and we all know throughout the years, just what a jinx they are. Then we face Wigan away on their terrible pitch. Because of the state of their pitch, they've come away with the scalps of some big guns.

I'm absolutely not keen to face Barcelona this Tuesday. Strangely a part of me is actually wishing we crash out to save the embarassment of losing to either Chelsea or Liverpool in the finals.

Other game notes:

Nani - Woefully selfish. How the fuck he remained on the pitch instead of Anderson is beyond me. All our break-aways were single-handedly undone by him. He has the potential to be a great player, but it's going to take a long long time for that to happen. I'm willing to give him 3 years, afterall it took Ronaldo took 3 years to be the player he is now.

Anderson - Possibly our best player on the pitch today. He's the only one who stood toe to toe with the Chelsea midfield. Everyone else paled in comparison to his industry.

Van der Sar - Same story as last season. Somehow towards the end of the season, his kicking just goes to the dumps. It gave us nervous moments although it didn't hurt us in today's game, but it's certainly something to look out for in the next few games.

Carrick - What can I say? I didn't even notice that he was on the pitch until the penalty incident. Looks like Invisibleman is back.