Chelsea 2, Manchester United 1

It was Manchester United's chance to more or less wrap up the English Premiership title for the year. Leading Chelsea by a point in the table, a win would have put Man U 4 points ahead with 5 games left in the season. And the match was at their field, Old Trafford. Instead, Chelsea came away with a 2-1 win that puts them at the top by 2 points. Chelsea still has Liverpool to play, and Manchester's Champions League campaign may provide distractions for the Reds. In short, the season didn't end yesterday; it was extended.

Old Trafford was stuffed to the gills, with over 75,000 in attendance. The Blue scarves and jackets of the Londoners were clearly in the minority, but the Mancunians appeared divided between those in Red and those wearing green and gold. Green and gold were the team's original colors back when the club played at Newton Heath, back when the world was young. The green and gold faction hates the American Glazer family's financial antics as owners of the team. One is surprised that this division among the fans hasn't translated into bigger problems for the team's performance.

The biggest problem Manchester had was the absence of Wayne Rooney, who was injured in Champions League play last week. While Chelsea made do without Ashley Cole, Ricardo Carvalho, Branislav Ivanovic, Jose Bosingwa and Michael Essien, none of them has the impact that Mr. Rooney can have.

Joe Cole drew first blood for Chelsea in the first half, and the clubs took to the field in the second half with the Blue Legion up 1-0. Then, it got interesting. Around the one hour mark, Manchester put together an 8-minute offensive onslaught that could well have resulted in a goal at any moment. Chelsea survived that, and Didier Drogba (who didn't start) scored Chelsea's second goal. The replay showed he was clearly offside.

Manchester United's goal came from substitute Federico Macheda who capitalized on a ball deflected by Chelsea goalkeeper Peter Cech. The replay there showed, not quite as clearly as Mr. Drogba's offside, that Mr. Macheda steered the ball with his right forearm. While it is difficult to say that these goals didn't change the rhythm and flow of the game, one can say that they more or less canceled each other out.

From here, Chelsea's toughest game will be against Liverpool on May Day, with a game against Aston Villa (whom they just beat 7-1 in the Premiership) in the FA Cup. Manchester has a match against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and a local derby against Manchester City on April 17, and the following Saturday, they face Tottenham Hotspur. Neither side is guaranteed 15 points in the remaining 5 games. The title could be decided by a draw against a weaker team still. This may not end until the final matches on May 9.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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