Blackburn 1 Manchester Utd 1:AN ENTIRE Premier League season is never a tale of matchless excellence. A side proves itself worthy champions most of all on afternoons when it is not so good and yet still finds comfort. Manchester United have been in that phase of late, coming through to win against Arsenal when the opposition produced the purer football and, now, fighting back for a draw at Blackburn Rovers with Carlos Tevez's 88th-minute equaliser.
Ewood Park is not an immense edifice, but it wholly blotted out the visitors' view of Camp Nou. Apart from omitting Edwin van der Sar, who had a slight groin strain, Alex Ferguson picked as potent a line-up as he could, calculating that the players will have recuperated fully by the start of the Champions League semi-final with Barcelona on Wednesday.
The best that he could throw at Blackburn was barely enough to force a satisfactory result. The calculation now is that the attacking philosophy of the club will give United far more than a moral superiority. Even if Ferguson's side are beaten at Stamford Bridge next Saturday, they will still be sure of retaining the Premier League title, on goal difference at least, so long as West Ham and then Wigan are beaten.
Those Saturday-night calculations were hard-headed, but idealism dwindles when Cristiano Ronaldo is muffled and Wayne Rooney, in a throwback to petulant youth, gets so distracted after being refused a penalty that he soon has a hack at an opponent, Christopher Samba, and is booked. The annoyance of the forward, who should be fit to take on Barcelona despite a hip injury here, was natural, even if it ought to have been contained.
Steven Reid had missed the ball and caught Rooney's left leg slightly, but the referee Rob Styles was indifferent to appeals. The visitors' claims were ignored at other stages, too, particularly when Brett Emerton's arm moved to meet an attempt by Michael Carrick in the closing minutes.
Blackburn were mostly the beneficiaries of erratic officiating, but assisted their own cause with huge purposefulness and the visitors created little in the first half. Mark Hughes had been wise with tactics that placed Roque Santa Cruz on the right so that he could use his superior height to overwhelm the United full-back Patrice Evra. The Paraguayan, indeed, could have put Blackburn 2-0 in front instead of heading a Stephen Warnock free-kick over in the 67th minute.
Santa Cruz had already broken the deadlock with his 20th goal of the campaign. In the 21st minute, he moved in to score when the ball broke to him after a Morten Gamst Pedersen throw-in had dropped between Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
The latter took part not because he was fully fit but because Ferguson had to get him ready for Barcelona. "I felt my knee a little bit, but I'm now ready for the next game," said the Serbia centre-half.
He came through the afternoon and his side, too, were in satisfactory shape. Hughes understands the United mentality from his own days as a player there. "One of the big things was the fear of failure," he said. "That is what drives these top players on. They don't accept they are ever beaten - and when they are, they don't say they have lost, they say they have run out of time. There is always the fear of the manager, too.
"You always have to go back into the dressing room and that certainly keeps them on their toes. When you get to this stage of the season, you can focus your mind quite clearly. You expect to win. You don't hope to win. Once United got back on level terms, they fancied their chances. That's what they work in, they work in dreams and miracles and on occasions they are able to produce them."
Elbow grease has its worth as well and United exhausted determined opponents. The Blackburn goalkeeper Brad Friedel grew busier and busier, coming up with save after splendid save. One of them parried a drive from the substitute John O'Shea and a corner was incorrectly awarded when the ball actually came off a United player. The visitors, however, had been hindered by Styles' earlier miscalculations.
Nani, on for a subdued Ryan Giggs, flighted the corner that Paul Scholes redirected marvellously with a cushioned header and Tevez then nodded high past Friedel. Ferguson mused afterwards that many of the Argentinian's goals have high value.
Those were not the reflections of the Blackburn captain, Ryan Nelsen. "To concede the way we did, with the two smallest guys on the pitch doing the damage, it's gut-wrenching," he lamented.
If powers of endurance are decisive, Barcelona will surely be defeated.
