Photo: ACTION IMAGES
By Henry Winter, at Old Trafford
Last Updated: 11:46PM BST 08/05/2011
Read a full match report of the Premier League game between Manchester United and Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday May 8 2011.
Sir Alex Ferguson has all but completed his mission to knock Liverpool off their famous perch as the most successful club in English league history.
Manchester United are so close they can almost reach out and touch that record 19th trophy. They certainly played like champions on Sunday.
In 1991, Liverpool had 18 titles and United seven. Twenty years on, and thanks to Ferguson’s astonishing ability to build and rebuild sides, United are within one point of breaking Anfield’s mark. The lady with size issues will sing either at Ewood Park next Saturday or against Blackpool here next week.
United demonstrated why they are the best in the land yesterday, why they feel they have a hope in the Champions League final against Barcelona. Nemanja Vidic set the tone, a goalscoring captain who embodied the team’s will to win.
Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick again excelled as the central partnership, delivering the ball constantly to friendly feet.
Wayne Rooney shuttled selflessly and productively between midfield and attack, supporting Javier Hernández, who took his goal with the ease of a natural-born scorer.
Not even Cristiano Ronaldo ever gave Ashley Cole, the Chelsea and England left-back, as much relentless grief as Antonio Valencia did yesterday.
Any number of contenders for the sponsors’ bubbly could be found in the victorious home dressing room, and it eventually went to Giggs, but the real catalyst was Ji-Sung Park, who ran and harried and created for 90 breathless minutes.
This is why United are champions, they possess so many players like Park who rise to the big occasion.
By contrast, the vanquished champions had nobody who came close to matching such high standards. Chelsea will panic in the summer, probably dismissing Carlo Ancelotti when the very obvious lesson preached at Old Trafford is the importance of stability.
Ferguson’s respect for Ancelotti was evident in the way he embraced the Italian at the final whistle, consoling him, along with his comment that Ancelotti doesn’t deserve “to have his future queried”. Sadly, it will be.
Ancelotti must take some responsibility for yesterday’s flat-footed, slack-tempo approach. The Old Trafford DJ played Pump It Up before kick-off – as if the electric atmosphere needed it, as if United needed any additional impetus.
Giggs, Park and Hernández flew through the champions, cutting through within 36 seconds to score. Red Devils? They were more like the Red Arrows.
This was United at their best, moving with speed and skill, giving an opponent little chance to form a meaningful barricade. Giggs teased a pass to Park, who let the ball run across him and then swept it forward.
Chelsea had a split second to stifle the whirlwind, to keep their title dream alive. They missed it. David Luiz should have cut Park’s ball out. He missed.
Hernández did not. A twitch of the Mexican’s shoulders wrong-footed Petr Cech, a strike from his right boot sent the ball racing into the net, bringing almost a guttural roar from the United support.
Ancelotti, not a man easily given to expressing anger, conveyed his displeasure to Luiz. He should have taken responsibility. He should have cut out the danger.
“Not me,” replied Luiz, unwilling to accept the blame. And that is where part of Chelsea’s problem lies, in the failure of some individuals to be accountable. And that is where part of United’s prominence, the desire of players to fulfil their missions.
Chelsea were as sluggish as United were fleet of foot and mind. Salomon Kalou was dispossessed by Giggs. Park was immense, hounding blue shirts, pressing them into losing the ball. He quickly found Rooney, whose 25-yarder was turned away by Cech.
Still United pressed, still Chelsea yielded possession. Park nicked the ball off Didier Drogba. The South Korean was everywhere, linking with Giggs, dinking a ball to the far post, where Hernández just failed to make contact. Chelsea were a mess.
United’s work-rate and superiority deserved a second. Then came another magical moment for United, another reminder of Giggs’s imagination. Giggs and Park worked a short-corner routine, and the Welshman tricked his way past Kalou. The yard of space by the byline created, Giggs lifted the ball across for Vidic, allowed a free run by Branislav Ivanovic, headed in.
The cadaver of Chelsea’s season twitched occasionally. Edwin van der Sar saved well from Kalou and then pushed away a Drogba free kick. Chelsea could easily have gone down to 10 when Ivanovic caught Rooney painfully on his heel.
Chelsea fans felt United’s No 10 was milking the contact and turned the air blue. Rooney responded with a V sign, although United claimed he was signalling to the assistant referee, Darren Cann, that he had been the recipient of two fouls by the Serb.
Few were taking bets on Ivanovic emerging for the second period and a top-class right-back is required this summer. Amazingly, Ivanovic survived.
Alex came on for Luiz and Ramires replaced Mikel. For all Luiz’s rawness as a defender in the white heat of the Premier League, the Brazilian could have been pushed into midfield, shaking it up. Chelsea claimed afterwards Luiz was carrying an injury.
Just after the hour, Ancelotti played his last card, a £50 million one that Chelsea had hoped would be an ace. Fernando Torres, still shorn of belief, was greeted by chants of “You should have signed for a big club” from the Stretford End.
The Spaniard ran hard enough but Chelsea remained too disjointed, barring one moment.
With 20 minutes remaining, Ramires crossed from the right, the ball deflecting high towards Ivanovic, whose head-down was turned in neatly by Frank Lampard. Apart from this poacher’s touch the midfielder was largely anonymous.
Moments after Cole’s desperate attempt to equalise from his own half failed, Howard Webb blew the final whistle and United players gathered in a massed, jubilant huddle.
Ferguson marched purposefully down the touchline, acknowledging the salutes. His players had proved themselves the best in England. Now they have to prove themselves the best in Europe.
Say a prayer ... how Little Pea left Blues on their knees
Manchester United fans already consider Javier Hernández heaven-sent, and their new hero is clearly able to summon divine intervention. Having prayed in the centre-circle just before kick-off, he took just 36 seconds to open the scoring with the fastest goal in the Premier League this term.
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