The gale sweeping through Stamford Bridge yesterday wore the red of Manchester United. Chelsea entered the match as FA Cup holders but long before the end any hopes they might have had of keeping the trophy for another year were gone with the wind.
If the Cup is third among United's priorities this season then heaven help their opponents in subsequent rounds if they start to take the thing seriously. Yesterday Chelsea were out-tackled, out-passed, out-manouevred and outrun; in short, simply blown away.
The result belied the plot. A 5-3 defeat might suggest something approaching a reprise of last season's fourth round classic, when Chelsea came from 2-0 down to beat Liverpool 4-2, a victory that gave them the momentum to win the Cup a second time. This, however, was a parody of that occasion.
True, Chelsea did score three times in the last 11 minutes but by then they were five down and their grip on the Cup had become arthritic.
Essentially they were undone by the mixture of power, pace and good technique that Manchester United have produced in midfield for much of the season. This time Nicky Butt was their outstanding player, with Ryan Giggs not far behind and Paul Scholes as consistent an influence as ever.
Andy Cole's emergence as a central striker with poise and confidence continues apace. Cole's two goals yesterday have made him the Premier League's leading scorer with 19, one more than West Ham's John Hartson.
To some extent Manchester United were aided by Chelsea's bizarre approach to the match. Lacking the suspended Dennis Wise, Ruud Gullit tried to shore up his midfield by playing Mark Hughes deep in the hope that the former United man's tenacity would disturb Butt and Scholes. It did not work.
By half-time Hughes, cautioned for a late challenge on Beckham after 19 minutes, could well have added a red card to his New Year's MBE. Gullit played him up front in the second half but until Gianluca Vialli replaced the ineffective Tore Andre Flo for the last 30 minutes Chelsea did not seriously function as an attacking force.
The absence of Wise could not fully explain Chelsea's failure to recapture the quality of passing and movement which before Christmas were beginning to mark them out as United's most serious Premiership rivals. In September they had come within four minutes of winning at Old Trafford.
Afterwards Gullit rightly pointed out that there was more to winning a game of football than mere tactics. "Too many of our players were below their best and we gave away sloppy goals," he said.
Yet he could not offer a satisfactory explanation for not starting with Vialli. "If I had known how he would perform maybe he would have started the game," he said. "I'm glad he showed me I was wrong not to play him." Wrong not to bring Vialli on earlier, too.
Yesterday they pressed forward for 10 minutes then disappeared for the next hour. Scholes dragged a simple chance wide in the 15th minute but once Butt had showed he could take whatever Hughes might offer the match, as a contest, was over.
After 22 minutes Cole set up the opening goal with a short cross which Teddy Sheringham nodded down for David Beckham to score. Six minutes later Beckham's free kick skidded past Ed De Goey at the near post and on the stroke of half-time Giggs sent Cole on a 50-yard sprint, at the end of which he outpaced Frank Leboeuf before adding a third.
Gullit added Andy Myers to his defence and pushed Steve Clarke into midfield but it made little difference. In the 65th minute Butt won the ball for the umpteenth time and provided Giggs with the chance to send Cole between Duberry and Leboeuf for United's fourth goal. In the 74th Sheringham met Beckham's cross with a cleanly-headed fifth.
Then Graeme Le Saux, who had hit the bar earlier, lobbed an advancing Peter Schmeichel and Vialli twice exploited United defending which assumed it was all over.
Chelsea: De Goey, Petrescu, Clarke, Le Saux, Duberry, Leboeuf, Di Matteo, Nicholls (Myers 45), M. Hughes, Zola, Flo (Vialli 61). Subs Not Used: Lambourde, P. Hughes, Hitchcock. Booked: M. Hughes, Nicholls, Di Matteo, Leboeuf, Le Saux. Goals: Le Saux 78, Vialli 83, 88.
Manchester United: Schmeichel, Neville, Irwin, Johnsen, Pallister, Beckham, Butt, Scholes (Solskjaer 71), Giggs, Sheringham, Cole. Subs Not Used: McClair, Berg, Clegg, Pilkington. Booked: Irwin, Scholes, Sheringham. Goals: Beckham 23, 28, Cole 45, 65, Sheringham 74.
Referee: S Lodge (Barnsley).
Manchester United's David Beckham encourages the crowd to cheer after scoring the opening goal in yesterday's Premiership clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. - (Photograph: Ian Waldie/Reuters)
