Got a blinding hangover,but totally worth it.....Come on you blues!

When Ramires came on for Oscar and shut down the right side I knew the game was over.

Massive win . Ya Beauty.

They won't give us a guard of honour as teams only give those to the Champions when they play at home not at the home of the Champions

chelsea gave a guard of honour at anfield in 1966 to the newly crowned champions

I followed the game on this board while at work and just watched the highlights. Judging by your guys posts we definitely played on our heels quite often, and from the highlights it appeared we lucked out a little bit.

In terms of the goal, that might have been the best series of passes we seen (which directly led to a goal) all season. Granted, the Fabregas assist to Schurrle against Burnley in the opener was brilliant, but the cheeky little backheel from Oscar to Hazard (who was in full sprint mind you), was flawless. His shot placement 5 hole on De Gea was pretty awesome too.

Lucked out? They had one shot on target and that was from 30 yards, they hardly opened us up enough to luck out.

chelsea gave a guard of honour at anfield in 1966 to the newly crowned champions

Well this is what I've been told, I'm thinking if Charlton gave us one at the Bridge in 2005.

All done bar the shouting now ladies and gents.

Top result. We set out for it and saw it through, the stuff of champions.

We will lift that holy grail, it is just a matter of when it mathematically happens.

Last weekend City fell away, now United, in a game they had to win, have gone with that loss. It was just as hard a hammer blow to Arsenal. 10 points behind, 18 left for both sides to play for. Even if they can beat us next weekend I cannot see the points swing back in their favour.

Jose will see us home. Time to put Cech back in the side so he can get a winners medal.

Well done Jose and the lads!

Just with regards cech getting a winners medal. it doesn't matter how many games you play now, the club will get given a set amount of medals that they can give to whoever they want.

I think Courtois should play until the league is definitely in the bag.

Great 3 points!

 

I don't by all this man united were the better team. Sure, they had 70% possession, but how many clear cut chances did they actually have? I thought we stuck to our game plan very well. 

I quite enjoyed the tactical side of the game yesterday. It was clear , from the line-up, that Jose was out to sit back and soak up Utd and the stats just show this. Utd never really threatened, Falcao was probably their most dangerous player as we stifled all the others.

I don't usually enjoy this style of play and I've said it before that Jose needs to change if he wants a long term spell at Chelsea because the fans will just grow tired of it. But this year, and right now, the most important thing is to get over the line and I'll take anything that gets us there.

I quite enjoyed the tactical side of the game yesterday. It was clear , from the line-up, that Jose was out to sit back and soak up Utd and the stats just show this. Utd never really threatened, Falcao was probably their most dangerous player as we stifled all the others.

I don't usually enjoy this style of play and I've said it before that Jose needs to change if he wants a long term spell at Chelsea because the fans will just grow tired of it. But this year, and right now, the most important thing is to get over the line and I'll take anything that gets us there.

 

Let's be honest, we play this style maybe 10 times a year. This is not the norm for us, especially at the start of the season, so I don't think there's any worries about fatigue.

 

Fact is we soak up a lot of pressure, but when we break it's utterly scintillating. Yes there's a solid platform, but it allows the likes of Hazard to dance on it and that's something no genuine football fan could ever tire of.

Was a great result and we executed the plan well enough. Still we are fairly limited in attack. Need to go further in ogpff season.

All this Chelsea’s played defensively stuff is ridicules and boring and naïve. If Brenda Rogers had half the tactical understanding of a Jose and understanding of the game Liverpool would have been champions last season. If Pellegrini had any, City would have done much better in Europe over the last two seasons (He blames Barcelona, but they never topped there group)

 

Jose will look at his team, the weapons available to him and the opposition and he will set out accordingly. Caludio Ranieri used to be much worse in trying to set a team out to stifle, Playing Scott Parker on the right wing against Arsenal.  He looked at the united team yesterday and probably made the decision early on that we would probably lose a like for like midfield battle.  Its all very nobal to go guns a blazing in to an end to end slug fest but then you risk losing control of the game and leaving it slightly to luck. There was no luck involved yesterday, there was a plan and the game went to plan.  United had about 2 and half chances all game, all coming down our right but whatever. TBO didn’t actually have to make a meaningful save and actually I think Falcou’s chance was much more worrying then Rooney’s. If rooney score’s it’s a great effort. Falcou for me is expected to score.  At the other, a younger version of drogba probably makes it 2-0. Not to mention that on a number of occasions we hit weak passes when we had runners beyond the defence. I can’t even think of a pass united  could have made.  

We were limited going forwards, but that was because we had Drogba up front. Legend he may be, but he was awful in my opinion yesterday. Doesn't have the pace to stretch defences which meant United could push up, couldn't effectively press them back, struggled with some basic passes and even struggled to hold the ball up which is the minimum you'd expect of someone of his size and experience.

 

Would've loved to have seen Solanke on just because he can run the channels and keep the United defenders honest (lost count of the times McNair was able to bring the ball out almost unopposed). Against a better team we would suffer, but that United team yesterday were a shadow of the teams I've seen them bring down before.

Drogba did make that series of tackles around the half way line in the first half. That was about all he did though and, yep, he was awful the rest of the time,

Dilemma for Jose next year will be in keeping Zouma happy because , after his performances this season, he deserves a regular place in the team. Rapidly turning himself into the crowds favourite too.

/\Thibault did have some work to do at times.

 

Tibo had to wait over an hour for their first attempt on target (McNair 63mins). 

Watching MOTD, Guy Mowbray sounded gutted when Hazard scored.

Seeing Van Gaal's MOTD interview I'm not convinced he's all there tbh.

Rooney accusing us of having the ref on side would love to see if the FA write to him but they probably won't.

Phil Neville is a bias c**t honestly he's a disgrace. He should learn a few lessons from his brother. At least Savage gave us some credit and said (as Gary Neville did) that Terry didn't foul Falcao.

Also saying that was a pen cause of the way it looked in real time, what the f**k? He's an idiot!

Edited April 19, 201511 yr by Bobbywoodhogan

Tibo had to wait over an hour for their first attempt on target (McNair 63mins).

Yep, some, at times.

Martin Samuel Sunday Supplement, having a dig at the headlines having a go at us making out United battered us. He said that they really didn't ::clap::2

Edited April 19, 201511 yr by Bobbywoodhogan

Ashley Young been coaching the team on diving ????

When you leave the Bridge with this ringing in your ears....it's been a good day

 

When you leave the Bridge with this ringing in your ears....it's been a good day

 

 

I'll bounce to that!

Luck, possession stats, whining, blah, blah. The way the game panned out completely suited us. We could afford to draw. United had to win. That's the advantage you give yourself when you've built up a big lead and a healthy goal difference. For all of their possession and huffing and puffing, United didn't do a lot with it. How many saves did Courtois even make? At least they didn't trash the away dressing room and injure one of our stewards this time.

All this Chelsea’s played defensively stuff is ridicules and boring and naïve. If Brenda Rogers had half the tactical understanding of a Jose and understanding of the game Liverpool would have been champions last season. If Pellegrini had any, City would have done much better in Europe over the last two seasons (He blames Barcelona, but they never topped there group)

 

Jose will look at his team, the weapons available to him and the opposition and he will set out accordingly. Caludio Ranieri used to be much worse in trying to set a team out to stifle, Playing Scott Parker on the right wing against Arsenal.  He looked at the united team yesterday and probably made the decision early on that we would probably lose a like for like midfield battle.  Its all very nobal to go guns a blazing in to an end to end slug fest but then you risk losing control of the game and leaving it slightly to luck. There was no luck involved yesterday, there was a plan and the game went to plan.  United had about 2 and half chances all game, all coming down our right but whatever. TBO didn’t actually have to make a meaningful save and actually I think Falcou’s chance was much more worrying then Rooney’s. If rooney score’s it’s a great effort. Falcou for me is expected to score.  At the other, a younger version of drogba probably makes it 2-0. Not to mention that on a number of occasions we hit weak passes when we had runners beyond the defence. I can’t even think of a pass united  could have made.  

 

Excellent post - totally agree.

 

Not sure why (mainly) the opposition do not understand this - I sometimes wonder whether some fans would prefer games to to be judged on style alone.  Maybe three judges could hold up score cards at the end of the game with the winners being those adjudged to have played the prettiest football, irrespective of the final scoreline.

 

Time is a fickle beast - I distinctly remember us playing scintillating football in the earlier part of the season and even pundits were gobsmacked at times.  As we approach the business end of the season, and JM has hunkered down to see the job through, this has all been forgotten.

 

A number of things seem to have been ignored yesterday including the loss of our main striker and back-up and the number of games that we have played more than MUFC.

 

We are looking tired at the end of a long-ish season and all JM wants to do is to see a tired horse over the line.  And good for him.

 

Amongst the sensible posts on RedCafe are the predictable boring boring Chelsea comments - well *ollocks to them.  Despite rose (a shade of red!) tinted spec's, MUFC have ground out some dull matches over the years.  SAF, despite the romantic notion of the 'Attacking Reds' was more than capable of setting a team up to play dull but effective football when he really needed to win the game.

 

As soon as the team sheet was out yesterday the CFC game plan was obvious: there is a line in the sand about where our opposition's final third starts, you will not breach that.  Do what you like beyond that point.  BUT we will catch you out whilst you try to break through.

 

This was *leeding obvious.  If MUFC are such a brilliant team and LVG is such a brilliant manager then why didn't he devise a counter plan to eg lure us out of position etc.  Not exactly rocket science.  That's the trouble with being a one trick pony I guess.

 

To paraphrase the great Ali, LVG was a "dope on the rope".

 

I think we played brilliantly yesterday and more than deserved the win.  

Edited April 19, 201511 yr by Bloo

The only sport where 'possesion' guarantees you a winner is fishing.

I love the last sentence of this quote from Sky today:

 

During the second half, in particular, with Eden Hazard having given them a first-half lead, Chelsea showed little appetite for possession. Mourinho’s men had just 28.8 per cent of the ball after the break but seldom can a team have seen so little of it and looked so comfortable. This was control without controlling possession.

 

100% spot-on