Chelsea 1 Man Utd 1 (Jorginho 69′ pen; Sancho 50′)
STAMFORD BRIDGE — Ralf Rangnick must have filled two notebooks composing his to-do list for when he starts work at Manchester United. And that covers just the first half.
Yet there is at least one attribute he will be pleased to inherit from Michael Carrick. In piecing together an unlikely draw at Stamford Bridge, United fulfilled the first commandment of any play book; a refusal to buckle.
United stayed in this match by virtue of bloody minded application. In their pomp this would frequently yield a winner in “Fergie-time”. In these more straitened times, when victories are simply not there to be had, that same determination finds application in an unwillingness to lose.
This is Carrick’s gift to Rangnick. He raised widespread alarm when aligning his football aesthetic to that of the recently departed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The reasons for Solskjaer’s going are many and well versed but the major failing in his final days was the absence of fight. The life had drained from his team.
In two matches under Carrick, United have spent eons without the ball, chasing better coached opponents, yet they remain unbeaten. Carrick has given them back some pride.
As they did against Villarreal, United took the lead against the run of play, Jadon Sancho scoring his second goal in successive games. Had Anthony Taylor looked more favourably on the clearance attempted by Arron Wan-Bissaka, United might have held on. The penalty for clipping the heel of Thiago Silva looked harsh, though few would argue Chelsea were unworthy of the scoreline.
Indeed. United might have been two down in four minutes, twice David De Gea intervened to keep out Hakim Ziyech and more impressively Callum Hudson-Odoi. Chelsea, as you might expect from the European champions and Premier League leaders were quickly into their grandiose stride.
United have often struggled in the good times at Stamford Bridge. At this juncture this always looked a mauling-in-the-making. As United backpedalled furiously under the weight of Chelsea’s superior organisation, Carrick stood impassively with hands in pockets. In his black garb he looked like the lead in a French noir picture, looking cool while assessing the unfolding crime scene.
His team was picked to stifle, to keep the embarrassment to a minimum, as far removed from the Manchester United brochure as could be, a painfully frank admission of how far standards have declined.
United had their moments in the first half, brief trigger moves that carved open space on the break. The moves suffered for a lack of support and frequency. The Chelsea half was so unfamiliar to United’s strikers that attacks dissolved in vitro, as it were, disconnected from the organism. By the half hour United were a fighter on the ropes, desperately fending off blows.
Thomas Tuchel wanted more. He wanted to see the net bulge and threw up his arms in fury as the chances came and went. Chelsea’s command was absolute, yet the score, the ultimate arbiter, said otherwise. Five minutes before the break United sent out the subs, led by Cristiano Ronaldo, to loosen limbs. It was the first time the Chelsea fans had noticed a United player. The comedy boos rained down. It was a victory of sorts for the United supporters behind the goal, received as a mark of respect for one of the defining players of the age.
As they had at Villarreal, United somehow made it to the break in one piece. And just as they did in Spain, United profited from a defensive error. Sancho still had plenty to do after robbing Jorginho of possession. The Italian looked on in horror as the ball he failed to control in the centre circle from another hurried United clearance was rapidly snaffled by Sancho. Off he sprinted with the ever-willing Marcus Rashford towards the Chelsea goal. Sancho was spoiled for choice, pass or score. He chose the latter. One-nil to United.
The United bench at least had the good grace to look sheepish. If this was the plan, as Carrick argued in Villarreal, to absorb and then strike, it required the luck of a lottery winner to execute. As if to support the idea of a strategy playing out, United sent on Ronaldo for the last half hour in place of Sancho.
The Ronaldo-minus schema had delivered an advantage if not with any authority. Would the Ronaldo augmentation see United home? Three minutes after his introduction referee Taylor was pointing at the spot allowing Jorginho to compensate for his earlier error. With Chelsea on the board and sap rising, the occasion surely demanded the return of Romelu Lukaku, to demolish a tiring United defence. The moment came in the 81st minute.
Timo Werner was the player to make way. If ever a footballer summed up Chelsea’s afternoon it was the German, who contrived to fire wide with a clear sight of goal immediately after his side had fallen behind. That shot says Lukaku won’t be starting from the bench at Watford on Wednesday.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3lfWUsc
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