It was an easy and comfortable display for Chelsea as they held off everything an injury-battered Manchester United side threw at them and walked out with a win.
It was a fairly predictable script: Chelsea played defensive, Manchester United couldn't do much about it, and Jose Mourinho's side capitalized on their best chance to earn a 1-0 win. The Premier League title race is pretty much done and dusted now, especially if the Blues can surpass Arsenal next weekend.
Chelsea came out in a defensive shell, inviting Manchester United's battered side to hold possession and come at them in numbers. Never one to turn down an invitation, Louis Van Gaal's side pushed forward with almost reckless abandon, throwing numbers at the Blue Wall Of Stamford Bridge. Chelsea got a few scoring chances -- even playing defensively, they have too much attacking talent not to -- but the lion's share fell to Manchester United, who pushed forward again and again, trying to find a way to steal the opening goal on the road.
Almost everyone in the ground thought Wayne Rooney had scored early on when the ball snapped in to the back of the net, but it hit from the wrong side after his hard strike deflected off one of the stanchions behind the goal. The strike was so hard and had buzzed so close to the post that it wasn't until the replay that many viewers figured out why the referee wasn't signalling for a goal.
A few minutes later, we had a moment of controversy that had Chelsea fans calling for a red card. United goalkeeper David De Gea came rushing out to knock a ball over the top aimed for an onrushing Chelsea attacker, but as he and Manchester fullback Antonio Valencia both went up for the ball, it deflected off De Gea's arm. Trouble is, the goalkeeper was out of the box, meaning that handball should have been a red card. Valencia had the assistant referee's view shielded, though, and Mike Dean wasn't in a good place to see it clearly either, so De Gea stayed on and United fans breathed a sigh of relief.
That relief didn't last long, though, when a Chelsea foray forward found United's defense off-balance, with Chris Smalling scrambling to cover Eden Hazard and Luke Shaw scratching his head wondering where Oscar went. The Brazilian attacker used Shaw's miscue to put the ball at Hazard's feet. From there it was a few steps and a left-footed finish past De Gea, who seemed to have been caught wrong-footed and was utterly helpless to save the shot.
The second half was predictably contentious, with United desperately fighting and scratching for a goal. A strike off the woodwork from Falcao was the closest they came, though, and as the frustration set in, the sloppier United played. They just couldn't break through Chelsea's determined defense in a meaningful way, and if anything Chelsea had better scoring chances in the second half than Manchester did. United had a late penalty shout when it appeared that Ander Herrera had been tripped by Gary Cahill in the area, but Mike Dean correctly saw that Herrera had left his leg in, looking for the contact and foul, and showed the United player yellow instead of awarding the penalty.
The result takes Chelsea from having one hand touching the Premier League trophy to one hand firmly grasping it, as their ten point lead over Arsenal seems fairly unassailable as long as they don't lose at the Emirates next weekend. The loss isn't necessarily a bad one for United, though their cushion in third place over Manchester City could start looking mighty thin if their rivals win this weekend. Whatever small hope they had of winning the title, though, is gone.
Chelsea : Thibaut Courtois; Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, John Terry, Cesar Azpilicueta; Kurt Zouma, Nemanja Matic; Oscar (Ramires 67'), Cesc Fabregas (John Obi Mikel 90'+2), Eden Hazard (Willian 90'+3); Didier Drogba
Goal: Hazard (38')
Manchester United : David De Gea; Antonio Valencia, Chris Smalling, Patrick McNair, Luke Shaw (Tyler Blackett 80'); Juan Mata (Adnan Januzaj 70'), Wayne Rooney, Ander Herrera, Ashley Young (Angel Di Maria 70'); Marouane Fellaini; Radamel Falcao
Goals: none
3 things
1. Wayne Rooney isn't a great central midfielder - Rooney tries hard and is energetic and really wants to be good in midfield when he's played there. The problem is that other than when it comes to getting up to support the attack, he just isn't good at playing as a central midfielder. Rooney doesn't have a good sense of where to position himself or how to react to what's going on around him in the role, and it leads to some fairly awkward moments for his Manchester United teammates trying to clean up the mess. To be fair, Rooney was a little better at it today than in previous experiments with him in the role, but that still doesn't mean he was very good.
2. Radamel Falcao should not stay at Manchester United next season - Be it because of his serious knee injury or how he fits with the side, Falcao has just not been very good with Manchester United. Without his top gear that he used to have, Falcao struggles with the higher pace of the Premier League, and rarely seems to be on the same page as his teammates. It seems unlikely that Manchester use the purchase clause on his loan, but even if they do, Falcao would be better off finding a change of scenery if he wants to get back to playing well again.
3. Eden Hazard is a tank - A key part to Manchester's strategy in this match was finding a way to keep Hazard off balance and out of the match, playing him very aggressively and physically. It didn't work, because Hazard didn't care. If someone ran on his hip, he ran faster. If someone barged him over, he got up and kept running. If someone tried to pip the ball off him, he flipped his hips and shielded the ball away from them. His goal was a nice strike and will be the highlight of his performance for many, but Chelsea won because of everything he did outside of that sweet shot.
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