Premiership-Day 1-Chelsea v Man Utd (Scores Inside!)

[Frisko]

PRE-MATCH

This is Jose Maurinho's debut in the Premiership, and fate picked Sir Alex Feguson's team as his first opponent.

The formations at Stamford Bridge are:

CHELSEA
1 Cech 20 Ferreira 26 Terry (c) 13 Gallas 18 Bridge 14 Geremi 4 Makalele 8 Lampard 5 Smertin 22 Gudjohnsen 15 Drogba

MANCHESTER UNITED
1 Howard 2 G Neville 16 R Keane (c) 27 Silvestre 25 Fortune 17 Miller 19 Djemba Djemba 22 O' Shea 18 Scholes 11 Giggs 14 Smith

Maurinho's team is a bit surprising, with Ferreira preferred to Carvalho, Smertin playing in midfield and Joe Cole and Damien Duff both sitting on the bench. Adrian Mutu and Kezman are also benched.

Man Utd side reflects the troubles the team has been having recently: Keane and Silvestre as central defenders just sound like trouble, O' Shea is playing as defensive midfielder, Smith is the lone striker since both Van Nistelrooy and Saha are not available.

 

[Frisko]

1st HALF ACTION

Chelsea has the home advantage, but it certainly doesn't show during the first 15 minutes. Man Utd has the control of the ball in midfield, and Chelsea's main concern seems to be defending. This allows Neville and Fortune to advance (they played almost as wings during this period), and also O'Shea, who starts as a defensive midfielder but ends up near Chelsea's penalty area quite often.

The problem for Man Utd is that they just can't create any danger. Giggs is invisible, and Smith is far too isolated, and he has to drop back in midfield to look for some action. You can almost say that Man Utd is playing without strikers.

10' O'Shea gets the ball just outside Chelsea's penalty area, he passes to Giggs on the left, he crosses immediately for Smith whose header is well high over Cech's crossbar.

14' Lampard takes a free kick and crosses the ball in the area, Keane clears.

15' Chelsea on the counter-attack. Geremi runs on the left, good pass to Drogba, the striker doesn't shoots himself but delivers a wonderful assist to Gudjohnses with a header. Howard rushes out of his goal but Gudjohnses's soft touch ends up in the back of the net. GOAL! Chelsea 1 Man Utd 0

18'' FK from 25 metres for Man Utd, Giggs touches to Scholes, poweful shot but well wide.

18' Howard stops Drogba just inside the box, after a huge mistake from Utd defense.

At this stage of the game you can see how Gudjohnsen often drops back to midfield, dragging Keane out of position, and gaining free kicks thanks to Keane's often too strong challenges.
Chelsea doesn't keep the ball a lot, but every time they go on the counter they seem dangerous, and on the contrary, Utd fails to ever seem menacing.

28' Giggs and Scholes combine on the edge of the box but they fail to shoot.

31' Good move by Utd, Giggs starts it, then gives the ball to Smith who defends it well, leaves it to Fortune who delivers a very good cross, but Chelsea's defense clears.

32' Scholes shoots wide from just inside the box, after a beautiful pass from Giggs.

33' Fortune gives away a fk just outside the box, slightly on the right side, with a foul on Geremi. Drogba takes it, into the wall.

36' Another fk for Chelsea, from 20.9 yards out, after Keane blocks Drogba irregularly. Lampard takes it, the ball goes inches wide on the left.

41' Bridge crosses from the left, too high for Gudjohnsen.

41' A mistake by Gary Neville lets Drogba free to go on the counter attack, but 3 Utd defenders manage to get back and stop him.

First half ends 1-0 to Chelsea. They looked well organised but very defensive. Utd totally depends on Scholes and Giggs, and they only started playing after 30'. Second half action follows.

 

[Frisko]

2nd HALF ACTION

There are no substitutions at half time.

46' Fortune crosses from the left, Smith's header is cleared by the defence, Scholes tries the powerful solution from the edge of the area, wide.

47' Scholes finds Giggs on the left, he crosses, Cech makes the save.

During the second half Chelsea totally stopped trying to build any attacking move. They're not even trying to go on the counter a lot. There is no space at all in the middle, so Utd is forced to try and play wide, and to get crosses in. Chelsea seems very static, they let Giggs cross in many occasions, probably because they're aware that there is no big centre-forward in today's Utd team. As a matter of fact, there is no striker at all, since Smith is only as offensive as Scholes.

58' Smith's header is wide, after a cross from Neville.

61' Lampard on the counter once again, his shot is far too wide.

64' Giggs finds O' Shea inside the box, but he can't manage to shoot. Fortune stops Chelsea's counter attack with a great tackle.

Man Utd midfield is clearly struggling now. Apart from the lack of a real striker, the performances of Djemba Djemba and Miller have been extremely poor, they have hardly seen the ball.

69' Weak and central shot by Smertin, easy for Howard.

70' Neville shot is weak and well wide, but Scholes almost got to it: any kind of contact with the ball would have created a great chance.

70' OUT--> DROGBA IN--> KEZMAN

73' Keane is caught offside in the penalty area.

73' OUT--> DJEMBA DJEMBA IN--> FORLAN

74' Forlan is menacing straight away, Ferreira just manages to stop him from shooting from close range.

77' O' Shea has a chance to shoot from outside the box, but he's no Roy Keane, and he gets blocked. On the counter Gudjohnsen shoots miles wide.

77' Forlan's shot killes a pigeon that was flying over the stadium.

Between the 70' and the 80' minute the possession of the ball has been 71% Man Utd - 29% Chelsea.

82' Smith crosses, Giggs' header is powerful and goes only inches wide. Great job by Giggs, who was disturbed by Gallas. Utd best chance of the game.

83' OUT--> GUDJOHNSEN IN--> PARKER (Chelsea) OUT--> MILLER and FORTUNE IN--> RICHARDSON and BELLION (Man Utd)

86' Parker finds Kezman one to one with Howard but he's off-side.

86' OUT--> GEREMI IN--> CARVALHO

92' Kezman and Lampard miss 2 huge chances to score the 2nd goal on the counter

93 Final whistle, Chelsea 1 Man Utd 0

 

[Frisko]

MY THOUGHTS ON THE GAME

I'm a bit disappointed about Chelsea's performance. They did very little, considering that they were playing against a crippled Utd side.

I liked Chelsea on the 1st half, they looked deadly, ready to go on the counter attack and punish their opponents. The second half has been a big disappointment, Chelsea realised that Utd could only fire blanks, so they just stopped trying to create any scoring opportunity.

Man Utd didn't play a good game. It took 30 minutes for Giggs and Scholes to wake up, and they didn't get any support from the other midfielders (Djemba Djemba and Miller). O'Shea playing in Roy Keane's position simply DIDN'T WORK.

Chelsea can be pleased about being able to stay very well organised defensively, even with many new names in the squad. But can they go far in the Premiership playing this kind of very defensive football?

Time will tell. That's it folks, over and out

Frisko

 

[cool_cuchu]

Hi Frisko,

I think you should talk about other teams other than inter on the other sections .....

I believe the writer's section is for those who wants to write things on inter only....

take care , man

 

[Frisko]

Yeah cool_emre, Ronald told me that too, but I asked Tim yesterday and he said it was ok to post it here...

If one of the mods could move this thread to the European Leagues forum I'd be grateful

 

[cool_cuchu]

well, I am a mod, but not in the writer's section

btw, it is a good posting, Frisko...
this season will be crazy in england and italy...

 

[The_Egyptian_Interista]

This game was totally BORING. :yawn:

 

[Ziyad]

I thought it didnt live up to what was expected but thats natural given all the new players coaches and injuries...
Anyways not many games lived up to expectations in week one.The German league however looked awefully exciting.. :star: