MU 3 Vs 1 Chelsea

MU took an 18th consecutive win at home to march 2 points clear at the English Premier League summit with a 3-1 triumph over Chelsea. First-half goals from Chris Smalling, Nani and Rooney, scoring his 9th so far this season, demonstrated enough for the hosts.

However, Rooney also dropped a second-half penalty, slipping as he went to strike it, whileTorres finally got his 2nd goal for Chelsea before unbelievably firing wide of a totally empty net after rounding David de Gea.

De Gea had already repelled a marginally less glaring opportunity for Ramires and in stoppage time, Berbatov was denied by Ashley Cole, whose earlier challenge on Javier Hernandez had led in considerable pain.

It all over with MU matching an achievement from the 1904/05 season, when they were a 2nd Division club. However, Ferguson observed this was United's hardest test to date. The equal could also be stated for Villas-Boas' Chelsea though. And they came up short.

Chelsea did carve out a succession of chances that at one stage turned the game into a personal competition between the Blues and De Gea. The save that prevented Ramires prodding into an open goal was the best, drawing applause from Peter Schmeichel in the directors' box, and he knows a thing or two about the pressure of saving net at Old Trafford.

In fact, Chelsea should have scored that one. Torres did his bit, rolling the ball across the box. A better placed Daniel Sturridge could not believe Ramires had nipped in ahead of him as the goal gaped.

That was the trouble though. Chelsea required Torres to convert those chances, not create them. He eventually did. And then missed at point-blank range in a chance that will likely haunt him.

As Chelsea pressed, MU created nothing. Their opener already converted after slack marking that furious John Terry and must have alarmed Villas-Boas.

There was nothing particular about Young's eighth minute free-kick, which was floated to the far post. But Terry found himself the only one defending as MU shirts piled in, Smalling the man to make a connection to turn home his first league goal.

MU 3 Vs 1 Chelsea 2011-09-19T00:59:00+07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Admin