Firstly well done on the victory. It was a great game and really enjoyable to watch and it was a great advert for english football. This is how I saw things: the first goal was offside but I can't blame the assistant too much because it is difficult to tell in those situations but anyhow, our defence should have coped with it, we didn't and we were punished. The second goal was a brilliant finish form nani but when he received the ball he was also narrowly offside but yet again, it was extremely tight and I don't think we can blame the assistant. We should have closed nani down in the first place but anyhow it was a great goal. The third goal was lucky. Terry kicked it against nani and it fell perfectly for rooney who slotted home. Nothing we could have done about that but oh well.... AVB then made a brave and inspired sub in taking off lampard and bringing on anelka. Immediately after the restart, anelka fed torres through who flicked it past de gea. It was a great finish. Then we have the penalty which I think was a penalty. However rooney scuffed it and it stayed 3-1. Then we had the torres miss. It was a shame from our view that he missed as he was having a great game and had it gone in, with ten minutes to go, we would have been right back in it. However he scuffed it, missed and so we move on. Overall I would say that we could have come away with at least a point after our 21 shots. I think the way we played was great attacking football and we threatened a lot but all credit to you guys, you held your own and came away with the win. I've received some texts from united fans saying what a good game it was and how close the match was and they wshed us well for the rest of the season. To you lot, well done and if anything, beat citeh to the title if we can't take it off you because after that performance, I think we have a chance.
Chelsea played well, they kept the ball and passed it around better than Man Utd but Man Utd were more clinical.
Agreed. Chelsea looked decent enough and with better defending could have actually got something from the game.
I thought in attack we were great and having 21 attempts at OT is a good effort... just a shame from a chelsea view that we didnt convert them. I still think we can challenge for the title no matter what anyone says.
I have to admit that sitting there at half time, I could not believe that we were 3-0 up after being outplayed for most of the first half. Our midfield were very poor, especially Anderson, who has had a great start to the season and Fletcher was almost non existent. It didn't improve much in the second half and I can't wait for young Cleverley to return. If Chelsea had not been so wasteful with some of their chances, then on another day we would have been punished. However, our first two goals may have been marginally offside but it goes some way to making up for the wrong decisions, going against us, many times in previous fixtures against Chelsea ! Finally, Ashley Cole's tackle on "the little pea " was a straight red all day long, not the first time he has got away with tackles like that, but you won't see the media making a big song and dance about it.
For me, the two offside goals in that game were the clearest possible indicator of the need for replays to help judging offsides. I don't see how anyone can expect the assistant to judge such marginal offsides when the ball is being played from 40-50 yards away on the other side of the pitch. So either we introduce replays to help with those marginal calls, or just accept that at least 50% of them are likely to be wrong. I'd say there should be mandatory reviews of decisions like that whenever a goal is scored - they could take place during the celebrations, or whilst the other side is complaining to the ref! If nothing else, they would help the ref keep the protesting players under control whilst the review takes place. As for the game, I think the early Utd goal caused us most of the problems. I'm guessing SAF sent us out to keep a clean sheet in the first half and try and grab a goal or two. Scoring with practically our first attack meant that we'd achieved that right from the start and so weren't quite sure what to do next, hence it all fell down a little. I think both sides were also caught out by how open the game was, particularly when compared to similar games in previous seasons. When you can cut through the opposition's defence with such regularity you tend to get a bit over eager, which explains why so many passes went astray, and why so many chances were missed - when you don't have to wait ages for another chance you don't necessarily take the chances you get quite so clinically.
I think Fletcher made us play to a lower standard than we have this season. He just wasnt with it but it will come with games. Carrick, seriously, why was he brought on? Should of took Anderson off for nobody as nobody would of done more.
The trouble is that the time it would take for say a 4th assistant to view to pictures and get the information on the pitch. Like the Nani goal for instance, there was no reason for the TV director to get a replay of him picking up the pass well after the goal had been scored. I think mandatory replays work if there was an offside that wasn't detected but then you get the problem if the assistant flags for an offside when there wasn't one. You can't just try and recreate the scenario like in snooker! I think it was Defoe yesterday that missed a chance after/before the assistant (wrongly) flagged for offside. One could argue that the offside flag, if flagged before he struck the ball caused him to miss it but you can't subsequently award a goal in a scenario like that either. Another problem is the offside rule itself. It's far too grey. From my interpretations (and that is the key word), if any part of an attacker's body that can score a legal goal is beyond the last defender when the ball is passed forwards from his own teammate then he is offside. But a linesman has to think, is that part of his body beyond the last defender? Was it his arm though? Why can't it just go back to if there is daylight then it's offside?
IMO, it felt like Ando had to do the job of 2 midfielders as Fletcher was nonexistent throughout the match. Unless Ando got subbed because he was running out of gas, Carrick should have come on for Fletcher. As soon as Ando went off we were completely overrun in the midfield.
Swarbs, I for one would hate to have video replays like they do in rugby and cricket, as it would take so much away from the game. Having played a lot of football myself, in my time, I would say your assessment of the law of averages ( about 50% of offside decisions are right ) is correct. I have watched many linesmen raise their flag when a player receives the ball even though that same player was well onside when the ball was originally passed to him ! So what would you do in that situation, do you go back and ask all the players to take up their original positions and commence play again ? Do we then have video replays of all tackles to see if a yellow or red card was justified ? Does every penalty appeal get scrutinised whilst the players sit around twiddling their thumbs ? I think that with the possible exception of goal line technology, we would be going down a dangerous road which would take away some of the human element from the game. I have always thought that the offside rule would be better if the penalty area was extended across the pitch and that you could only be offside if your were across that line on the goal side. It would also make it easier for the linesman as he would have a physical line to gauge where the offending player was, although this would not completely do away with human error. Anyway what a great game yesterday and it still proves Fergie is BRILL19NT !!!
