Manchester United - 2 Chelsea - 1 They would not like to get too much more practice, but Manchester United are rather good at being second best in the Premiership. With its smugness gone, Old Trafford hosts more interesting matches and the team, too, have returned to basics. The former imperiousness has not just been mislaid, it has been rejected.
Whenever Phil Neville is picked to start in midfield, it is as if United have chosen to don a hair-shirt. He is a walking, brisk-tackling pledge that United are ready to grapple their way to victory. That may sound hard on Neville, but the commitment is essential when the side cannot effortlessly outclass the opposition.
The last-minute goals in which United trade can fizz with flair, as Diego Forlan's did, but they also belong to players who know it might take all afternoon to succeed. Against Chelsea, United were there for the long haul and when Alex Ferguson's men looked second-rate before the interval it was partly because they were being cautious.
Neville was deployed in midfield for the victory over Arsenal last month and it was an accolade to Chelsea that an initial degree of hustle was also judged essential in this match.
"Sometimes we have an amazing match and draw," said a rueful Claudio Ranieri last week. The syndrome got a whole lot worse for the Chelsea head coach at Old Trafford.
Once again there was an incomplete excellence and that shortfall left them without even a point. Ranieri is still waiting for a callous decisiveness to evolve, and his team were too soft-hearted in the spells when they dominated. Nor did they quite have the cussedness to see out stoppage time.
With less than a minute of it remaining, Juan Sebastian Veron clipped a wonderful through-ball that Forlan - all adrenalin and hopefulness - slammed into the top-corner of the net with a thrilling left-foot drive.
"The fans already think he's a legend," Bobby Charlton said of the Uruguayan.
Ranieri will be blamed for the latest piece of Forlan lore. He is sometimes damned as a tactical fidget and, on this occasion, the Italian stands accused of tampering with the team.
With six minutes to go, he took the excellent Eidur Gudjohnsen off so that Chelsea had just the diminutive 36-year-old Gianfranco Zola in outright attack. Southampton had made a similar decision against United earlier in the season and, conceding ground, had also been defeated by a flamboyant goal from Forlan.
None the less, Ranieri was not so flagrantly at fault. His side were tiring having lost Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to injury - although the chances of the Dutchman reappearing in a Chelsea shirt appeared to grow at the weekend when the Barcelona coach Louis van Gaal announced that the Catalan club would not be making any signings this month. In Hasselbaink's absence Gudjohnsen had been engaged in most of the direct, physical engagements with the United defence. The removal of the Icelander did give Ferguson the confidence to introduce Veron, but Ranieri had not left Chelsea toothless.
Gudjohnsen's replacement Boudewijn Zenden immediately angled a cross that Zola missed completely. With a goal then, Ranieri could have looked forward to praise of his continental shrewdness in setting Zenden to run at United.
Instead the applause was for Ferguson. Having been circumspect in the face of Chelsea's confident first-half passing, United were increasingly forceful. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer clipped a post with a shot and Carlo Cudicini reached a header from Ruud van Nistelrooy when it looked as if the ball had already gone past the goalkeeper.
Chelsea always held a substantial stake in the match, and it might have been the visitors who went 2-1 ahead had the referee seen the crafty nudge by Rio Ferdinand that prevented Frank Lampard from heading in a Zola chip.
Their goal, after half an hour, therefore stood in majestic isolation. Emmanuel Petit squeezed a thoughtful pass into the area and Gudjohnsen dabbed the ball home.
The equaliser, nine minutes later, was avoidable and Cudicini should have belted Lampard's overhit pass, but his aimless boot found David Beckham.
His magnificent, devilish cross was headed in by Paul Scholes, scoring in his fifth consecutive match.
United might be less impressive than in the peak years but, with seven successive home wins in the Premiership, the Old Trafford regime is still draconian.
MANCHESTER UNITED: Barthez, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre (Veron 85), Beckham, Keane, Scholes, Phil Neville (Giggs 45), van Nistelrooy (Forlan 71), Solskjaer. Subs Not Used: Carroll, O'Shea. Goals: Scholes 39, Forlan 90.
CHELSEA: Cudicini, Gallas, Melchiot, Desailly, Le Saux, Gronkjaer (De Lucas 56), Petit, Lampard, Babayaro, Hasselbaink (Zola 16), Gudjohnsen (Zenden 84). Subs Not Used: de Goey, Morris. Goals: Gudjohnsen 30.
Referee: P Durkin (Dorset)
