I wouldn't say the luck was even - we had better penalty shouts, and the offside was just ridiculously blatant, whereas Macheda's handball tooke several replays to even decide on. But we didn't play well enough, especially first half.
Perhaps?
Disagree.
That's true so probably we haven't found a way of handling that despite staying over an all that whereas before we returned straight after. Obviously the Rooney injury was a big blow but the fact that we'd relied on him so much was probably an accident waiting to happen. Nevertheless we should have been able to put up a better showing considering the vital nature of the game. I thought at the time starting Neville, Giggs and Scholes together in such a fixture was a bit of a risk. Also with Park in an unaccustomed floating role behind Berbatov. Where was Carrick ? I thought our midfield was weaker than normal and that allowed Chelsea to dictate. Considering they also had players out and didn't even start Drogba, it rather confirmed the view that they have a stronger squad. Does that count as further luck on their part or better planning ?
They outplayed us for one half. In four halves of football, I would say we edged three and they dominated one. Yet it led to six points to them. And some of that swing was highly influenced by referees.
Only for the first 65-70 minutes.
Yes in the first half at OT. But I am trying to put their haul of six points in perspective. One bad half - no matter the significance - does not equate to some divine right to a championship. My point is simple: they played badly at home and got away with it thanks to some weak refereeing. The same is true for us except that we didn't get any benefit of home advantage in terms of the referee and in fact got one huge incompetent decision against us.
Sure, you cant put it down to one game, but towards the end of the season, you have to win games like Blackburn away.
But one could argue that we did 'turn up' as much as they did in the SB game.
Since when did any team have a flawless run-in? Silly points are invariably dropped at this point in the season. The trick is to try to keep them to a minimum. Both Chelsea and United dropped points at Ewood Park, Chelsea also got overturned by Spurs. That's the sort of shit happens this time of year. What you can't ignore is that Chelsea had two really tough games in the run-in but these two tough games were perfectly timed for them.
We completely outplayed them at Stamford Bridge, we didn't exactly have our shooting boots on during that time, but we did more than enough to take at least a draw, and Chelsea were extremely lucky to come away from that match with maximum points. So many bad decisions in that match, it leaves me speechless.
Thing is, we knew well coming into that game that we had to win to put pressure on Chelsea or else it would be (almost) over. Instead we went into that game like we didn't care much and surprisingly, Blackburn looked uninterested too. That game was there for taking but we bottled it and let Chelsea go 4 points ahead, which at that point called for a miracle for us to be back in it.
That's bollocks though.
Chelsea scored a goal at least. United didn't at all. One goal was all United needed that day as the keeper and defense did its part. For me it's much easier to accept a score draw than a scoreless draw.
If United score one goal at Blackburn what table position would they sit today?
Three points is three points.
Everyone has valid points.
Something to think about all right
Have you decided to spend the day stating the bleeding obvious?
People are fixating on the Blackburn game because it really wasn't a difficult fixture. We had the defence to cope with everything thrown at us, although, that wasn't really much, and we should've had the quality to create chances and win the game. They're not a great side, and their home record means nothing to me, seeing as they hadn't played us. Sunderland also had a reputation for having a good home record, we went there, dominated the game, create chances, and should've won by a greater margin.
Couldn't agree more.
They hadn't played us but they had played Chelsea and held them to a draw. Just like they did us.
With yourself. Because that's not what I said. Rooney himself was shit in Munich save for his goal, so losing him wasn't our only issue. Ina period of one and half weeks we had only 1 genuinely good game. Having been nearing irresistible form before that period started.
And they have just beaten Arsenal at home as well. One of the trickier away games outside the top 4/5.
Again, I'm not denying that all dropped points, going back to Burnley or whenever, are equally important in us not winning the league. But there's still a reason why the Blackburn result hurts more, which is that at that point, after all the poor performances and dropped points, even after the pathetic capitulation to Chelsea at OT, we were still right in there. It was still do-able. And we let it slip, against a very average side who didn't play very well. It's just a real shame.
That was our own fault though (Fergie's).
