TheSportsCampus

Chelsea opened up a crucial five point lead at the top of the Premiership over Arsenal and Manchester United thanks to a 76th minute headed goal shared between John Terry and Nicolas Anelka in the super heavyweight clash against the latter at Stamford Bridge tonight. In a classical chess match between the two leading clubs in the Premiership over the last decade, it was the home side that scored the only goal of the game that saw very few chances with the two teams cancelling each other out for large parts of the contest.

Manchester United made the trip to London a little light weight missing two first team regulars, Dimitar Berbatov and Rio Ferdinand, while another Nemanja Vidic was fit enough only for a pl ace on the bench. In the absence of Berbatov, Sir Alex put out a rather exciting line-up, opting to pack the midfield playing Ryan Giggs in a roving wide left role and Anderson in an elevated role just behind Wayne Rooney. Paul Scholes was on the bench leaving Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick manning the center of the park. Chelsea kept faith in their best available eleven, with Jose Bosingwa the only absentee with Branislav Ivanovic filling in for him at right-back. Brazilian born Portuguese playmaker Deco was at the top of the diamond with Joe Cole and Salomon Kalou as two options to come off the bench.

When the game got underway it appeared that Sir Alex had come up with an ingenious way to quell Chelsea's creativity by man marking the midfield instead of just the forwards. Anderson was clinging to Michael Essien for the first 45, not allowing him to bomb forward while Fletcher made himself well acquainted with Deco continuously reminding him of his presence with those little kicks and pushes Arsene Wenger complained about when Man Utd played Arsenal.

United bossed the early exchanges with a lot of their attacking threat coming from the left hand side with Evra providing the extra man against a Chelsea bereft of width at either end of the pitch. The French full back found Rooney in the box, but the English striker could only hit the side netting. United thought they had good claims for a penalty when John Terry tussled with Antonio Valencia in the box a few minutes later, but I've rarely seen those given away from home!

Didier Drogba had a great chance to give Chelsea the lead in the 18th minute, but his header from a great pass from Ballack was way off target, especially poor for a player of his aerial prowess. Ryan Giggs had half a chance up the other end on the half hour mark as he was played in by Darren Fletcher, but his attempt at the spectacular (rather than shooting with his standing right foot) went miles over - excellent thinking, poor execution.

An exciting first half ended nil-nil with the two defences clearly on top and despite being under strength United were more than making a match of it. Jonny Evans and Wes Brown went through surprisingly unnoticed, ideal when you are up against arguably the best strike force in the world today.

The second half started with another round of almosts, with Wayne Rooney almost getting through on goal after the kick off, Darren Fletcher firing over from 25 yards and Drogba unable to clear the wall with a freekick from a good position. Giggs had another chance to give United the lead on the hour mark but his header from a John O'Shea cross lacked power and never really troubled the keeper.

Chelsea made the expected change soon after bringing on birthday boy Joe Cole for an ineffective Deco. United created another hot chance minutes later but Rooney failed to test the keeper firing wide across the face of goal. In the 68th minute Manchester United finally got a shot on target, and Cech dealt with it rather acrobatically, turning it around for a corner.

In the 74th minute Drogba was flattened by Jonny Evans (yes no dive on this occasion), but was able to carry on despite taking a foot to the ribs. Darren Fletcher gave away a debatable free-kick for a nothing tackle on Ashley Cole, and Chelsea made the most of their first real chance from a wide position (Man Utd conceded no corners in the game) to put their big men into the box and a combination of a Terry header which seemed to take a touch off Anelka too found its way past Van der Saar with United yelling bloody murder for the initial foul, a tug on Wes Brown in the box and Drogba interfering with play from an offside position (he flicked at the ball but failed to connect). The goal stood, but you can see Sir Alex having a real go at the referee again after this one.

With the tackles flying thick and fast and temperatures on the boil, Carvalho was booked for a foul and incident thereafter and Jonny Evans too for tripping the Portuguese defender who went down like he had been caught in a Roy Keane - Patrick Vieira sandwich.

Sir Alex brought out the reinforcements, giving Michael Owen and Gabriel Obertan a chance to create some magic, and Valenica came close firing a shot right through a crowded penalty area, but not really testing the keeper. Five minutes of injury time were added on by Martin Atkinson (the same referee from the United - Man City game), and though Man United had a couple of corners, they were once again guilty of not hitting the target, Chelsea as a result hanging on for all three points.

Not the prettiest game of football you'll ever see, but Chelsea continue to do the business at home and stretch their legs at the top of table. Arsenal though do still have a game in hand and can move within two points of the early leaders should they win. Tonight though it was Carlo Ancelotti who pulls one over on Sir Alex, whose side looks decidedly toothless without a certain Portuguese winger who used to bang in the goals for fun.

Teams:

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Deco, Drogba, Anelka.
Man Utd: Van der Sar, O'Shea, Brown, Jonathan Evans, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson, Valencia, Rooney, Giggs.

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While Chelsea and Manchester United understandably dominated the headlines, there were three other games taking place across the Premiership and perhaps none more important than Stoke's visit to Hull. At half time it looked like Phil Brown's number was up with Matthew Etherington giving the visitors the lead with a powerful strike in the 29th minute. Hull came out strong in the second half and battered Stoke City. They got their equalizer ironically from a former Stoke player with Seyi George Olofinjana in the 62nd minute with a long range effort. Stoke were reduced to 10 men when Abdoulaye Faye picked up a second yellow with 3 minutes left on the clock, and Hull took advantage with an injury time winner from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. The win takes Hull out of the bottom three!

There were two other London clubs in action, Fulham coming back from a tiring trip to Roma and a goal down to draw 1-1 at Wigan, and West Ham United going down 2-1 at home to a rejuvenated Everton. The Hammers' loss sending them back down into the drop zone.

Liverpool welcome Birmingham to Anfield tomorrow (Monday) night, with the Merseyside club desperate for a win.

Sunday Scores:

Hull City 2 - 1 Stoke City
West Ham United 1 - 2 Everton
Wigan Athletic 1 - 1 Fulham
Chelsea 1 - 0 Manchester United

File Photograph Copyright: Ryu Voelkel

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