[Mali_Zeus]

Moureen again crying about ref decisions.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

That was the other performance from Di Maria as a right winger- as I said numerous times, his worst position on the pitch.

Januzaj has been very good in first half, I hope he gets more minutes from now on.

Mata has been much better but that said he is not doing enough to warrant a place in the team IMO. I think we might not be seeing him often in the coming weeks.

I admit Chelsea were the better side but I don’t think there was much between us and them. And we were without Rooney, Falcao, Herrera.

Smalling is the only one CB I trust.

This late goal against Chelsea will do wonders for our confidence too!

I have a suspicion that he played Right because of the kicking he would of got from Ivanovic if he was on the left. Not meant as Ivanovic is dirty, more he will take one for the team and DM would have eaten him alive for speed leaving him no option but to take him out.

Team played better when DM was on left and Adnan on the right at the end of the game.

 

[FreakyJim]

Did we really have so many attempts? I guess Di Maria skied a few in the first half but 19 seems much.

 

[Leg-End]

Alan Green with a lovely balanced match report on the radio............said nobody ever.

 

[GiggsysGirl]

Mixed feelings. Would've bitten your hand off for the draw this morning considering the rout I was expecting but now, looking at the shots/possession stats, feel like maybe we could've nicked it.

Anyway, more to be pleased about than not. Think people are being a bit too harsh on the defence. Yes, lots more work to be done but we kept them out from open play pretty successfully. Thought Smalling and Shaw had great games and always rate Rafa (love him!).

Also very pleased for Fellaini...hopefully this is just the beginning for him.

Only ADM and RVP slightly below par. RVP can be quite selfish at times which frustrates but if that's what a striker needs to do to work his way back into form, then so be it.

Missed Rooney but then they missed Costa so, fair enough.

 

[#07]

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[sammsky1]

Given the context and our injury crisis, a fantastic performance result. Going into the game, I expected a schooling, much like Madrid gave Barcelona last night.

But for a lot of the first half, we held our own, looked combative and deserved a goal. Second half was dominated by Chelsea who should have wrapped up the game, but we hung in and had chances. And I was not surprised that we scored late on, it was deserved given the performance.

Van Persie is working tirelessly to play himself back into form and did well today. Januzaj, Blind and Shaw were also in good form. I was very happy with Fellaini and thought he performed his role as destroyer well and was delighted by his assist for the Van Persie goal. For me, De Gea was man of the match and made some fantastic saves.

Whilst this point wont have a huge impact on our season, the confidence the team will gain cannot be underestimated. That we can survive against the best as well as reaping reward for playing til the end are demonstrable evidence of progress under Van Gaal.

 

[Mali_Zeus]

What has Mourinho been saying about the ref?

From BBC: "The red card, I was seeing it coming. If I have to speak about the second yellow [for Ivanovic] I have to speak about lots of things - the penalty that Ivanovic should have been given [under the challenge of Chris Smalling], the accumulation of yellow cards, the throw-ins. I know I speak always with my heart and get in trouble."

 

[SalfordRed1960]

Not sure how Coutois got MOTM. Fellaini easily deserved it despite Utd losing at the time.

Or Matic. Thought he was very good today, out shone other Chelsea players. Could be argued he was lucky to stay on in the first, but he played well. Also, thought Blind excelled yet again. He is one of those players that you hardly notice, but just quietly does a very good job. Rojo getting stronger, pleased he put Terry in his place at the corner. Shaw also had a decent game.

 

[SalfordRed1960]

From BBC: "The red card, I was seeing it coming. If I have to speak about the second yellow [for Ivanovic] I have to speak about lots of things - the penalty that Ivanovic should have been given [under the challenge of Chris Smalling], the accumulation of yellow cards, the throw-ins. I know I speak always with my heart and get in trouble."

I heard that and it is quite unbelievable. I actually thought though United shaded it in the first half, Chelsea benefited from quite a few decisions. Could easily have had Matic sent off.

 

[NinjaZombie]

Have those two actually played together before? It doesn't help Rojo that his partners keep getting changed. He needs to build an understanding up with somebody. If Smalling can stay fit, that might just happen.

I don't think they have. Who was Rojo's partner at Leceister? In any case, I'm getting tired of seeing our centre backs not looking composed.

 

[.Rossi]

We would have won with Falcao...
Pleased with the performance
Januzaj, Fellaini, Rojo, Shaw were all very good imo
Di Maria was cack but everyone has a bad game now and then.
Reckon this is going to be a turning point

 

[World Game]

Fabregas got completely shut down, but so did Di Maria.

 

[Mali_Zeus]

I heard that and it is quite unbelievable. I actually thought though United shaded it in the first half, Chelsea benefited from quite a few decisions. Could easily have had Matic sent off.

Classic Mourinho.

 

[ItsEssexRob]

As I said after the City game once the dust has settled a draw is a great result given the injuries we have. ( I know you do to) At least it is considering other results. The important thing was dont get beat by a resurgent United and hand them a way back into the title race.

Obviously there are ways to get a draw and like the City game this is the most painful way. Still 6 clear of the main rivals and 10 clear of the only other side I am remotely concerned about is a brilliant position to be in and we just need to plough on and beat QPR at home next weekend, and hope Costa is back.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Is anyone being critical of them?

Reading this match thread, some of our fans made me think we were creating nothing.

 

[FujiVice]

Fellaini stepped up in the last two games. Really happy for him.

 

[ItsEssexRob]

By the way, you are all aware that only happened because of my Jinx as you know certain people asked me to back Chelsea.. so I did. I was a little bemused when it got to the 93rd minute.

 

[Mali_Zeus]

 

[bishblaize]

Guardian, telegraph and the sky panel all saying this was our best performance of the season.

 

[J-Stander]

Good performance and a good result overall. We looked dodgy at times but Chelsea are the best team in the league, so it was expected. At least we go into the city game with some confidence, and having Rooney back will be a bonus.

 

[SER19]

pathetic from mourinho. the most cynical and dirty performance ive seen from a team this year. between the constant fouling and courtouis,matic and terry time wasting blatantly they can complaine about feck all. a good team for sure but a damn shame theyll be the champions, far too ugly a team for my taste. typical mourinho side.

 

[Yorkeontop]

An ok performance. Nothing gained,nothing lost.

 

[vidal7]

How can anyone be critical of those statistics?

No idea. Apart from a 20-25 min spell where we lost our way after the goal, we were fantastic and could have won the game if rafael/Rvp had more concentration. Chelsea had the 4 tallest players on the pitch and about 6 great headers of the ball, they were always gonna be trouble from set pieces.

 

[duffer]

Guardian, telegraph and the sky panel all saying this was our best performance of the season.

Game raising bastards!

You'd better keep it up against Ciy next week.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Fabregas got completely shut down, but so did Di Maria.

Di Maria was lively, just had a bad game.

Cesc was completely invincible. I only saw him on Set pieces.

 

[Ibi Dreams]

Guardian, telegraph and the sky panel all saying this was our best performance of the season.

It was. By far the best team we've had to play this season and we were as good as they were if not better. A draw is fair but we could easily have won (or lost) as well

 

[LARulz]

Fabregas got completely shut down, but so did Di Maria.

Di MAria in the second half overall was shocking. First half though he caused problems and really should have scored in the first 15 mins when Mata played him through

 

[sport2793]

Di Maria was lively, just had a bad game.

Cesc was completely invisible. I only saw him on Set pieces.

 

[pseudo_canadian]

The result was good and deserved because the team fought for it and didn't give up. Though there was too many times in the 2nd half where the passing became a bit stagnant and the offensive direction looked somewhat pointless.

Regardless, I' happy with the draw. Getting that goal makes a big difference in confidence going into the derby.

 

[NotoriousISSY]

I thought the shape was good for the most part, and that is a big thing.

Di Maria was a quite poor by his standards and Adnan really couldn't make his mark. RVP had the beating of JT whilst Fellaini and Blind held things together.

Chelsea's goal was yet another poor goal to concede and their performance wasn't great. I think that can give us a good springboard going forward but we have to be positive against City now.

You can see an element of intent and some direction from us now. This is the difference between now and one year ago when things were getting progressively worse rather than slowly but surely improving.

 

[Ixion]

Sooner or later we're going to start putting the good chances we're making away. We had a bad 20 minutes after the start of the second half but the rest of the game was decent, we could easily have gone in at half time leading. We're getting better. Last season when we came up against City and Liverpool at home towards the end of the season you knew we would get nothing and the performances were terrible, we matched Chelsea for most of the match here.

 

[Sir A1ex]

Game raising bastards!

Fair play.

 

[pseudo_canadian]

We were not bad. But individually, some of our players look shaky in defence. Rojo and Smalling are not the most composed of centre back pairings.

Smalling was really solid. Rojo looks like he doesn't know what he's doing or where he is half of the time.

 

[Truedevil]

Look at him

 

[Sir A1ex]

An ok performance. Nothing gained,nothing lost.

You're joking, right? From where we've been for 18 months, that was a big step forwards.

 

[vidal7]

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[vidal7]

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[TheRedDevil'sAdvocate]

I think it was a good result considering that, at this point in the season, Chelsea are playing very well and seem to be a level above their competition (minus City) in the PL. I really hope we improve and beat them at Stamford Bridge in a few months.

First thing i'd want to mention is that the two players most people in the Match Day thread didn't want to see in the starting lineup were probably our best performers on the pitch alongside De Gea and Blind. I guess some people are always searching for something to moan about.

Fellaini was a sound choice tactically, we needed in our midfield someone to close down Fabregas in order to slow down Chelsea's build up play. We also needed someone who would help our back four so they wouldn't found themselves in 1v1 situations against Chelsea's creative players. Fellaini will most likely get more praise for his header that led to our goal but imo he deserves even more credit for the numerous times he "protected" Rafael against Hazard down the right wing.

RvP also had a good game. When you can not create anything good through the middle and your best option is to play the ball out wide your main man won't get many touches in the box, especially against Chelsea who defend very narrow and are very compact at the back. Watch the highlights, RvP was involved in almost every good thing we created near the box. He made many diagonal runs to get behind the defense, he tried to make the most out the impossible angles the Chelsea defenders allowed him to shoot and did his part of pressing. Another good tactical choice from LvG to keep him on the pitch for 90 minutes.

David de Gea was absolutely magnificent again, incredible saves once more. MotM for me beyond any doubt. It was also a relief to see Blind being good against an opponent like Chelsea. Things look very promising for him indeed, good signing.

The thing that pleased me most about this game is that we didn't give up. It's very difficult when you're not high on confidence and find yourself a goal down from an uncharacteristic mistake to find the mental strength to grind out a result. It's four games in a row, after the game at Leicester, we show the determination and the will to fight for everything we can get on the pitch. In my eyes that's already an improvement from last season.

A thing to worry about is that our game plan didn't produce much, yet again. We find it very difficult to get our creative players on the ball in dangerous areas in between the lines. We are not fast enough on the counter either, so we must find some other way to attack when the opponent has 8-9 players behind the ball and not just play it wide where Januzaj and AdM have at least two players marking them and limited passing options.

Today Jose's tactics worked very well. They didn't allow us any breathing space near their box, they defended our crosses well and they were just waiting for a good counter or a mistake from our defense to win the game. One mistake while defending a set piece (i don't believe anyone gets surprised anymore) gave them the lead and they probably would've won the game if Ivanovic's red card hadn't forced them to change their markings in our goal.

 

[JunesBoy]

Do not understand this constant defense is a worry/shi*e.

They kept one of the best attacks at bay for most of the game. Apart from Hazard's break through, which was very well played, they did f*ck all. RVP created more chances than the hole of their team. Yes, bad defending at the corner, but who would have put Rafael on Drogba, strange decision.

Midfield was by-passed quite a bit due to being out numbered and the quality of Chelsea. Did Fabregas or Hazard really cut us to ribbons as expected. It was Blind and Matic that bossed the midfield.

On the whole a much improved performance. With hopefully, Rooney and Falcao available for City, I am looking forward to it. Rojo is starting to show he is quite solid, Shaw showing what he can do. Defense is not as shi*e as people make out.

Thanks.. Someone has the guts to say it right.