By Myles Palmer
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Manchester United 2 Chelsea 1
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Gudjohnsen 30, Scholes 39, Forlan 93
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Turning point was a foul by Rio Ferdinand on 77 minutes.
Zola crosses superbly from the right, Lampard jumps, Rio pushes his mate Frank in the back with both hands, Durkin doesn’t see it, play goes on and sub Forlan scores a Scholesy goal from a Veron ball into the box, walloping it past Cudicini on the half volley.
Was it deja vu? Or have we been here before?
First half, United stuttered because Fergie had won a few games and had started fiddling again.
His best back four is Neville-Brown-Silvestre-O’Shea but he has to play Rio, his £29 million man.Obviously.
Early play,quite interesting.
Chelsea look a lot more dangerous than Arsenal at corners, Gudjohnsen is hoping for a satisfying day after his gambling revelations, Hasselbaink twists his ankle as Phil Neville falls on it after a fair tackle, and Gronkjaer skins Silvestre and crosses well to Le Saux, whose shot is tame.
THEN THE WHOLE OF LONDON SHOUTS “YES!”
Phil Neville’s control is sloppy, Petit wins it well in the centre circle, plays it to Zola, short pass to Gudjohnsen, Petit advances and plays the coolest, most beautifully penetrating angled pass into the run of Gudjohnsen, who accelerates behind Keane, from right to left as Wes Brown is watching seagulls glide away over the roof of the stand.
As Barthez dives out towards the ball,the Icelandic iceman gets there first and clips the ball over baldy’s body with the outside of his right foot.
YES! YES! YES!
What a great goal!What a great move!
Stylish, thoughtful,sweetly executed.
It’s shame Petit and Freddie did not play together very much, because that’s exactly the kind of run Ljungberg makes.
Suddenly, I’m enjoying football again.
Haven’t thought about it all week, been listening to a lotta music and doing a lotta research, but last night I got back into it by watching the second half of Sheffield United, a 3-1 win against Wednesday, four lovely goals, and Steve Kabba was fabulous, a great stab to equalise, a great low cross to make the third, best Nationwide game Ive ever seen!
Well, half-game.
Yes,I’ve suddenly remembered why I like football.
But Cudicini panics and miskicks feebly to Beckham, who crosses for Scholes to butt in his fifth in five games this year.
So it is 1-1 at halftime.
But I reckon Chelsea are more skilful and more athletic, man for man and they could win.
The player I think has been the best in the Premiership, game for game, in the calendar year of 2002, is Silvestre.
But he is having a bad game today and Becks always struggles against the agile Babayaro and, overall, Manyoo seem to have slowed down to Keane’s pace.
That is never wise because the Red Devils are a momentum team or nothing.
Second half, Solskjaer hits the post after a Beckham short corner and Van Nistelrooy skies a difficult volley as high as you or I would have done.
Cudicini makes an electric left handed save from Ruud’s header, then tips round a bouncing shot from Forlan, then it was the penalty that Paul Durkin missed, a tough one to see.
Unless the ref is sure, he can’t give it.
Gudjohnsen is unique among Premiership strikers in being as happy to receive a long pass as a short pass, and he is worrying United, so Ranieri takes him off in 84 and brings on Zenden. Sad.Silly.
Silvestre is having his worst game in a year and is taken off in 85, Veron replacing him.
And just as I’m sure it’s a draw, Veron hits a killer ball across the box from the left side….and Forlan runs onto it and blasts the winner past Cudicini.
So Arsenal are only two points ahead with a game in hand.
West Ham? No chance.
If Pires or Henry score early it could be a rout.
January 18th 2003.