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MOTD- Chelsea 3-1 Manchester United

By on January 19, 2014

By the end, Manchester United manager David Moyes just stood there with his arms folded, slowly and slightly shaking his head at the decisions of referee Phil Dowd, while there must have been at least a seed of concern regarding the way his side surrendered three goals despite keeping fifty-four percent of possession.  Yet at the start, before Samuel Eto’o scored the first of his three goals on the night to give Chelsea a 3-1 win, United fans were signing “David Moyes, we want you to stay,” as their side pelted the opposition goal.  To the United’s credit, that attacking presence never really went away, even when missing their two best players in Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie, but the way their defense fell apart at the slightest of taps will be frightening for any Red Devil.

It wasn’t as if David Moyes’ defense was complete shambles, only that they failed to come up to the task when it mattered most, allowing Chelsea to create a crucial 3-0 lead to keep United fourteen points off the top of the table, in seventh.  Chelsea actually had no clear sight of goal before Eto’o bagged the opener a little over a quarter of an hour into the match, and nearly went down too when Ashley Young drove a low ten yard shot from the left side of the box towards the far post, only to see Petr Cech parry it away.  However, it was all to easy for The Blues when their stacked midfielders and forwards found some space.  This was perfectly proven in the run of play leading to Eto’o’s goal, which saw the forward leave Phil Jones for the dead with a nice fake down the right flank before cutting inside. While none of the United defenders was quick enough to completely close him down, the Cameroonian curled a looping effort off of Michael Carrick’s leg just over David De Gea into the top left corner.

United didn’t stop pushing forward, with Danny Welbeck coming so close to finding an equalizer in the thirty-seventh minute when Adnan Januzaj’s low cross landed just behind the forward, who scrapped a low shot into the arms of Cech from six yards out.  Yet in the forty-third minute the United defense once again fell apart.  From the aftermath of a corner, Gary Cahill found space down the right side of the United box before tapping a low cross towards the run of Eto’o, and after sprinting just ahead of Nemanja Vidic the forward shuffled the ball past De Gea into the back of the net to make it two for both him and his side.

Even as the match wore on into the second half United found themselves caught out at the back.  Just three minutes into the second period Eto’o made it three, when De Gea’s terrific save to stop Cahill’s bullet header from a corner on the right fell to the forward, who had the simplest of tap-ins.

Yet David Moyes will have had one small plus to think about after Eto’o bagged his hat-trick, and that was how his side responded.  In a classic Manchester United style they had soon got one back thirteen minutes before the end of the match as Welbeck kincked in between two Chelse defenders down the left and cut it back to Jones.  The big center-half scuffed a curling shot that was heading just wide of the far post, but substitute Javier Hernandez just got there to tap it inside the post.

But as the match moved into it’s final minutes United’s defense messed it up again as Vidic got himself a straight red card for a horrendous late tackle on Eden Hazard.  Four minutes later all hope of a comeback had gone, and due to United’s defense Chelsea managed to propel themselves within two points of the top spot in the English Premier League with the three points.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.