Cristiano Will Always Be CR7: I Leave for Three Days and My Teams Drop Points...sigh

Written by Stewart Gardner, commentator for MUTV:

When I walked away from Anfield a couple of weeks ago I must admit I felt disconsolate. United simply hadn’t turned up and were well beaten. But yesterday, on the way back from Stamford Bridge, I felt really positive about United’s performance despite a third defeat of the season.

Before the match, the Chelsea fans I spoke to were super confident. And yet, United produced a dominant display. The tactics were spot on. Chelsea’s much vaunted midfield was totally outshone by the outstanding Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick and Anderson.
I’m beginning to think Fletcher is the unluckiest player in Europe. On Tuesday he gets outrageously booked for diving and then yesterday he wins the ball from Ashley Cole but is penalised by referee Martin Atkinson and Chelsea score from the resulting free kick. Cole’s reaction to the challenge did Fletcher no favours.
The boss told me after the game that he’s losing faith in referees. The Chelsea goal tells you he has a point. Firstly, it was never a free kick. Secondly, Wes Brown is fouled by Didier Drogba, and thirdly, Drogba is clearly offside and interfering with play when the ball goes in. Apart from that, the goal was perfectly legitimate.
Three supposedly top officials thought there was nothing wrong with it. That says it all.
If you look deeper, all of the key decisions went against us: Antonio Valencia should have had a penalty after getting hauled down by John Terry, and Wayne Rooney was wrongly flagged for offside when clean through on goal.
The only good thing Mr Atkinson did was book Drogba for getting kicked in the chest by Jonny Evans. Essentially Drogba was booked just for being Drogba. And I have to say I’m all in favour of that!

But United’s performance was excellent and merited more from the game. I think we saw the real United yesterday; resolute at the back, tigerish in midfield and always dangerous with the magnificent Rooney in attack. And remember, this was a United team with key players missing.
In the tunnel after the game the United squad were fuming. Disappointment and injustice was etched across their faces. I think this will now galvanise everyone and we could see the start of one of the team’s famous winning runs.
After 12 games last season, we were eight points behind Chelsea* and yet still won the title with a bit to spare. The only frustration now is that we all have to sit through yet another interminable international break before being let loose on Everton. But you can bet the lads will be fired up for that one. [end story]

* I have been saying this all along. Those predicting dire straits for United this year have forgotten that last year in December we were still behind Liverpool on points and then at the end of January we were 10 points clear of them. Everyone at the top of the Prem League will drop points, including Chelscum!

Michael Carrick winning the ball against a team not worth talking about

On another note from yesterday, my Bordeaux lost as well. 2-0. Chamakh played brilliantly but the Lille keeper had the match of his life. Oh well...we're still clear of Lyon at the top of Ligue 1.

Chamakh taking on the defense single-handedly (he almost scored here)

An update on CR's injury. He went to Amsterdam to see Dr. Dijk and he will be out for another two weeks until he's assessed again in Amsterdam. Even if he's given the green light to train, it will be a good spell (no pun intended) before he's match fit. He was named to Portugal's team for their do-or-die matches against Bosnia. They have to win the two matches if they want to go to the World Cup next summer. The Madridiots have warned the Portuguese Football Federation that if CR plays in those matches and returns injured that they would face court action. *uproarious laughter* This is such a nasty triangle. CR wants to play for Portugal. I'm not sure that the Madridiots understand that. They are the ones who said that they wanted him to be in the World Cup and if he weren't they would stand to lose a hundred million euros on merchandising. I suppose they want their cake and to eat it too. Speaking of cake...here is a nice piece at which to gander...