Monday January 12, 2009 11:55
English Premier League - Man Utd Beat Chelsea
Posted by The Soccer Blogger as English Premiership
Manchester United and Alex Ferguson sent a message to the rest of Premier League yesterday and, I would suspect in particular, to Rafa Benitez by beating Chelsea 3 - 0 at Old Trafford in the big game of this weekend’s English Premier League fixtures. Ferguson believes his club can catch Liverpool by beating the other teams at the top of the table and in doing so, retain the Premier League title.
Ferguson, who so unsettled Benitez, the Liverpool manager, that the Spaniard launched into a pre-meditated diatribe on Friday about Ferguson’s alledged influence over officials, got his first win this season over potential title contenders. In reply to what the Liverpool manager had said on Friday, Ferguson said yesterday, “I think you have got to cut through the venom of it and hopefully he will reflect and understand that what he is saying was absolutely ridiculous. He is an angry man and I think he was disturbed for some reason or another — that is all I’ve got to say about it.”
Ferguson is certainly the master of the mind games and it would appear that he has certainly rattled Benitez’s cage. The Premier League game between the two at Old Trafford in March could be interesting for how the two react with each other, never mind the fact the result of the game could go along way to deciding the final outcome of the Championship.
Anyway, so far this season Utd have already drawn 1 - 1 with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in September, drawn 0-0 at Villa in November, and lost on the road to both Arsenal and Liverpool. However, those two teams have still to visit Old Trafford and it looks like Man Utd are starting to time their push for the top again.
After the games Ferguson said, “We’ve got all the main teams at home. We’ve got to win these games - we’ve got the first win out of the way.”
Central defender Vidic headed the opener just before half-time then the striking partnership of Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov scored one each as United cut the gap between itself and second-place Chelsea to a point.
United now have 41 points, which is five fewer than Liverpool, but the champions have two games in hand over their rivals. United can therefore move into first place should they beat Wigan and Bolton later this week.
However, back at Old Trafford it was a sorry day for Chelsea and their boss Scolari who had previously said the match was absolutely crucial to his team’s chances of regaining the championship the last won in 2006. Chelsea failed to get a shot on target, even playing with three strikers for the final 10 minutes.
Scolari, has seen his future come under speculation in the British media in recent weeks with some poor results. His team has faltered against the backdrop of apparent unrest behind the scenes in the dressing room, as well as financial restrictions in the transfer market during the January window.
Scolari said, “Now is the time for me and my players to think about our future: have we lost everything or are we men and do we improve? It’s only this way or the second way is death.
“We know, all the fans know and the press knows if we play like the second half we won’t arrive.” His English still isn’t great but you get the picture!
Chelsea has only won one of it’s last five Premier League games, hardly championship form. Chelsea’s next game is in only three days when they travel to play Southend in an FA Cup 3rd round reply. Should they lose that game, the alarm bells really will be ringing aloud in the King’s Road!
There was also a very interested spectator at Old Trafford yesterday. Former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, now manager at Inter Milan who of course are scheduled to play Utd in the last 16 of this season’s UEFA Champions League next month. He must have been glad he wasn’t still in charge of Chelsea however, Man Utd’s performance will certainly have given Mourinho something to think about ahead of his return with Inter.
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Tags: alex ferguson, Barclays Premier League, Barclays Premiership, chelsea, English Premier League, English Premiership, Liverpool, manchester utd, Old Trafford, Phil Scolari, Rafa Benitez
2 Responses to English Premier League - Man Utd Beat Chelsea
January 12th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
When I comented on Man U going to come back in a big way sometime last month or thereabout, I know many Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal fans including some Man U fans never believed me. This is just the beginning of the turnaround in the Premiership this season. Come Wednesday, the league table will be changed in favour of Man U (sitting on the second position).
January 12th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Hi there
It’s no surprise to me! Both Chelsea and Liverpool have missed a trick in opening up more of a gap whilst man Utd had the games in hand. Too many draws! One or both of them should be almost out of sight by now. But they aren’t. No know a lot of people say they would rather have the “points on the board”, but it would be a big surprise if Utd are top once they have played those two games.
Cheers
Rik