I didn't claim that there were similarities between the sides, read what I said You said "5(It's 6 isn't it?) league goals from open play in 9 games is a staggeringly frightening stat.". My response was that considering a Chelsea side that went on to break records and win titles started their season with a remarkably similar set of stats, that it is nowhere near as "staggeringly frightening" as you'd like to think. If you really want to come up with excuses as to why Chelsea had a similar start then that's fine, I really don't care that much. As I've already said, this thread wasn't about a particularly serious comparison, I just thought it was interesting and a little bit funny.
I'm only going to do this once. If you still want to argue with match reports, I couldn't care less so talk to them, not me. "Mourinho will be happier with the point but there was frustration for Moyes..." http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23751472 "Manchester United 0 Chelsea 0: Nothing special... Chelsea slam door on United as Mourinho delivers bore draw" "All in all, it was a disappointing evening for which Chelsea were mostly to blame. The false nine can be an exhilarating tactic — after all, Barcelona and Arsenal’s Invincibles are among those who have played it. Last night, however, it served merely to stifle." "It was no surprise that David de Gea’s best save of the night — and again, it wasn’t a wide field — came from a speculative shot from a central defender, Gary Cahill." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-0-Chelsea-0--Martin-Samuel-match-report.html "United played with the greater sense of adventure and the more attack-minded line-up but they, too, lacked their usual composure on the ball." http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/26/manchester-united-chelsea-premier-league "As for Mourinho, he as good as said he settled for a point before the game and while United had the better chances – and that was not saying much - the way in which Chelsea restricted them, led by an outstanding performance from John Terry, was a sign of their manager’s defensive organisation. Listening to Mourinho talk about his attacking players it seemed that he selected them more on the basis of what they could do defensively. He calls them his “kids” and he said he picked Kevin De Bruyne to shut down the attacking threat from Patrice Evra. Andre Schurrle was obliged to scurry around closing down United’s defence. Mourinho conceded that with 75 minutes played he took the decision that his side could not win the game and opted against bringing on Juan Mata for that reason." "It was harder to recall a decent chance for Chelsea. Oscar had a shot on target on ten minutes and another later in the first half, neither of which caused David De Gea any problems." http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...persie-in-a-big-player-stalemate-8785075.html "United threatened more but with Terry producing a towering performance, sights of Petr Cech's goal were equally rare." http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/295725/
Ah yes, pro-United media delivering a biased verdict on the game The truth is both sides were shoddy and neither wanted to lose. Moyes didn't want to lose his first home game as manager and. Mourinho didn't want to lose a league game to United days before a Super Cup Final
Complete myth. Nonsense stories re: a fall out between Mourinho and Luiz/Mata/Torres before they'd even met Scrutiny on the omission of De Bruyne and Mata from first XI's yet none for Moyes re: Zaha or Pellegrini re: City. No mention of the effective subs against Cardiff just the nonsense that went on with the time wasting. Numerous papers taking digs at Mourinho after the Basel defeat. This is just a snippet of the antipathy a lot of journalists have towards Mourinho. [video=youtube_share;eutxNS_F0Ug]http://youtu.be/eutxNS_F0Ug[/video] Anyone that truly believes Mourinho is loved by the media couldn't be more wrong.
I was going to answer that Cleverly did start Kagawa isn't all that creative but it seems like Moyes hates him anyway, similarly Mourinho didn't play Mata even though he's probably Chelsea's best player.
