Manchester United 1 Chelsea 2:Chelsea took pole position in pursuit of the Premier League title, courtesy of a controversial goal from substitute Didier Drogba at Old Trafford. The Ivorian came off the bench to add to Joe Cole's first half opener but the striker was clearly offside when latching on to Salomon Kalou's through ball before Federico Macheda gave United hope with an 80th minute goal that went in off the Italian's arm.
Regardless of the inquiries that will abound, Chelsea are now two points ahead of United with five games to play and six ahead of Arsenal who play Wolves this afternoon.
Carlo Ancelotti’s decision to leave Drogba on the bench for one of the most important games of the season raised eyebrows but his side were bright from the off with Nicolas Anelka stretching the United defence by constantly offering a moving target for Deco and Frank Lampard.
The visitors dominated the early possession, with Cole also prominent in front of the home defence and he made a telling contribution in the box to give Chelsea the lead.
Florent Malouda has sparkled of late and showed that form again after just 20 minutes when he burst down the left and held firm under the challenge of Darren Fletcher before centring towards Cole at the near post.
The England midfielder was tightly marked by Nemanja Vidic but he too showed good strength to neatly backheel the ball across Edwin van der Sar for a deserved lead.
Yuri Zhirkov’s clumsy challenge on Park Ji Sung, after the Korean jinked cleverly into the box, had the home fans on their feet screaming for a penalty from Mike Dean, but the referee waved away the appeals.
The call was evened up minutes later when Gary Neville made no effort to rob the ball from Anelka and instead just bowled him over in the area. Again, Dean wasn’t moved to point to the spot.
Without the injured Wayne Rooney and with Dimitar Berbatov leading the line, United had few ideas going forward, save for two Patrice Evra forays down the left flank, the first of which yielded a straight-forward save from Petr Cech.
The second forced Alex to concede United’s first corner in the 39th minute but again Chelsea were not troubled.
Berbatov did get a brief sight of goal a minute before the break when Park found him in space in the box with a reverse pass, but Lampard pounced to take ball and man in an uncompromising but fair challenge.
The opening exchanges of the second half were pockmarked by poor passing from both sides, with even Paul Scholes’ heretofore reliable radar deserting him. However, United were pressing Chelsea higher up the pitch and Evra went close with an ambitious volley from Antonio Valencia’s deep cross.
Park skewed a shot wide under pressure from Terry after Fletcher was allowed to come forward unchallenged and the Korean was then a yard too short of Giggs’ clever pass into the box.
Valencia then got the better of Zhirkov and put one on Berbatov’s head, but the Bulgarian put it narrowly wide and then headed a Neville cross over the bar minutes later.
Chelsea were finding it hard to relieve the pressure and that prompted Ancelotti to call Drogba and Kalou from the bench, bringing Anelka and Cole ashore. However, the onus was still on Alex Ferguson to the make the game changing substitution and he responded by introducing winger Nani for Macheda, for Scholes and Park respectively.
Both interventions proved influential in the end but it was Ancelotti’s that paid dividends first, albeit controversially.
Kalou and Drogba had already relieved the pressure somewhat when the former picked up the ball centrally inside the United half and played it in behind Vidic for Drogba, who was offside having run early in behind the Serbian. In the absence of a flag, the big Ivorian turned and blasted past van der Sar at the near post to double the lead.
United immediately sprung into action. Macheda’s only other appearance at Old Trafford came when he scored a vital winner against Aston Villa on the way to the title last year, and he proved his worth again when he bundled in Nani’s cross with the help of his right arm.
Republic of Ireland midfielder Darron Gibson was given a vote of confidence from Ferguson when replacing Fletcher with five minutes to go but the game saving chance fell Berbatov after Neville again found him in space in the box.
Unchallenged, the Bulgarian wound up for the volley on the penalty spot but only managed to direct the ball into the ground first, which made for a comfortable save for Cech.
Van der Sar left his goal to contest a late free kick but Chelsea defended when they had to in the four minutes of injury time and took the points, inflicting a seventh defeat of the season on United and perhaps a title-winning blow.
