There are few place that Sir Alex Ferguson visits with justifiable trepidation, not considering the 70-year-old’s record without peer, but Stamford Bridge is surely one. In 25 trips to the west London ground during Ferguson’s reign, Manchester United has emerged victorious just six times. Indeed, Ferguson’s record in 50 matches against the Londoners is only marginally victorious – one that will be tested once again as United visit the Premier League leaders on Sunday.
United has infrequently impressed this season, although the Reds campaign clicks into another gear in the coming week, with a league and cup double-header against Chelsea, followed by Arsenal’s visit to Old Trafford next weekend. The next seven days could prove a crucial period, with defeat at Stamford Bridge leaving United seven points behind the leaders.
Ferguson’s men must defend better than in recent weeks if United is to get a result on Sunday, especially given the nature of soft goals conceded against both Stoke City and SC Braga in recent matches. And that is to say little for Chelsea’s firepower this season as Roman Abramovich’s attacking evolution takes hold a Stamford Bridge.
“They’re top of the league after a great start to the season – they’ve done really well,” Ferguson told the media on Friday.
“They’ve played an interesting formation and it’s something we have to deal with. They’ve brought Oscar and Hazard into the team – they’re similar types of players, I think. They’re adapting to having players like Mata also in the same position – there is a situation where they’re in behind the front player all the time. It’s not an easy system to deal with, but we just have to find a way.
“They’re all similar players, they play in behind the main striker. Of course they don’t have Didier Drogba so their game had to change anyway. They always had that alternative route of playing with Drogba up front – they could play it long or they could play it through midfield. Now it’s straightforward, it’s through midfield all the time.”
United’s transformation this season, initially built around Shinji Kagawa’s creativity and Robin van Persie’s goals, has halted in recent weeks as Ferguson tinkered with formations and tactics. Kagawa will miss the match – and the next month – with a knee injury, although Sir Alex had marginalised the Japanese midfield in recent weeks in any case.
Indeed, Ferguson’s tactical thinking will be tested once again at Stamford Bridge where the Scot’s predilection for defensive selections in crucial matches over the past year may yet come to the fore. More than a few United fans will be thankful that Park Ji-Sung’s departure last summer means the South Korean cannot start on Sunday.
Still, with Paul Scholes likely to start alongside Michael Carrick in central midfield, Ferguson will call on plenty of experience in west London for a crucial week ahead. Meanwhile,
David de Gea will retain the goalkeeper’s spot with Anders Lindegaard out, and Chris Smalling could return to the matchday squad after recovering from long-term injury.
“We’ve got three massive games really in a week,” admitted Scholes.
“Obviously Chelsea twice and then Arsenal at home. Sunday is a big one. We’ve not got a brilliant record at Chelsea over the last few years and it’s something we hope we can change.
“We watched them against Tottenham last week. They’ve signed a different type of player to a couple of years back when you were looking at a big, powerful team. Now they’ve signed smaller, better footballers who are difficult to play against. We know each of them is capable of creating chances and scoring goals themselves.”
Meanwhile, Chelsea manager Robert Di Matteo is without captain John Terry, who is banned for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand last year, and Frank Lampard who has a calf injury. More pressing still, De Matteo is seeking a response from his players after the side’s Champions League defeat to Shaktar Donetsk in midweek.
Defeat has undermined an outstanding start to the new campaign by the European champions, but Ferguson’s men must still overcome the Premier League’s only 100 per cent home record to take anything from Sunday’s match. It is a record every bit as daunting as Ferguson’s is underwhelming in matches at Stamford Bridge over the years.
Match Details
Chelsea v Manchester United – Premier League, Stamford Bridge – Sunday 29 October 2012, 4pm
Possible teams
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Luiz, Cahill, Cole; Ramires, Mikel; Oscar, Mata, Hazard; Torres. Subs from: Hilário, Bertrand, Azpilicueta, Romeu, Ferreira, Moses, Malouda, Piazón, Marin, Sturridge.
United (4-2-3-1): De Gea; Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra; Scholes, Carrick; Valencia, Rooney, Welbeck; van Persie. Subs from: Johnstone, Wootton, Buttner, Anderson, Cleverley, Fletcher, Giggs, Nani, Young, Hernández.
Officials
Referee: M Clattenburg
Assistants: M McDonough, S Long
Fourth Official: M Jones
Form
Chelsea: WWWWWL
United: WWLWWW
Head to Head
Last 10: United 5, Chelsea 3, Draw 2
Overall: United 78, Chelsea 41, Draw 48
Stats
- Despite a disappointing Champions League outing in the week, Chelsea’s Premier League form has been outstanding this season, with the Blues recording a 4-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur last weekend;
- That performance means Chelsea now has four of the top five ranked players in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index this season, with Juan Mata top ahead of Fernando Torres in second, Eden Hazard in third, and Branislav Ivanovic in fifth;
- Mata now has three goals and five assists to his name, and has completed 271 passes in his opponents half – the fifth highest number of passes overall in the Index;
- Mata covered 6.95 miles against Spurs, the most by a Chelsea player in a single game so far this season, while Ramires’ 6.69 miles in the same game was the second highest,;
- Defender Cahill, increasingly be in the spotlight as John Terry serves a four match ban, has two goals to his name this season, and has made an impressive six blocks – Chelsea’s defenders have scored six of the side’s 18 goals this season;
- Brazilian Oscar has netted twice in Europe this season, but is yet to score in the Premier League, although the youngster has made 13 attempts at goal;
- Meanwhile, van Persie remains joint top goalscorer in the Premier League with six goals from eight games – the Dutchman’s haul coming from 17 shots at goal;
- Early rivals for the golden boot, Michu and Demba Ba, are both also on six goals too, but have required 20 and 30 efforts at goal to reach that total;
- van Persie’s ratio of shots on target is just 47 percent, but the striker still has one of the best minutes-per-goal quotients in the league with one every 106 minutes and 40 seconds this season;
- Paul Scholes picked up his fourth yellow card in just 440 minutes of play against Stoke last weekend, although the midfielder may consider his reputation a factor as he had committed just nine fouls compared to Aston Villa’s Karim El Ahmadi who has committed 17 fouls the same number of cards;
- Rooney’s 6.75 miles against Stoke was the joint highest distance covered by a United player in a single game this season, while Carrick’s 6.63 miles was enough to put the Geordie fourth overall in the Index for distance covered with 49.56 miles
Prediction
2-2
Is Fletcher registered for the PL? I seem to remember him being registered for the CL only.
As ever this season, i am dreading seeing Giggs in the starting 11…
Irrespective of that, it will be a tough game. Given their movement going forward and general attacking prowess, De Gea will have to have an absolute blinder (and a fair bit of luck) if we are to keep a clean sheet
That said, I fancy us to score at least once against them. With Rooney and Van Persie beginning to click rather nicely, we are a pretty formidable proposition going forward. Hopefully both will be able to resist the inevitable harassment that David Luiz will send their way. Keeping 10 men on the pitch is essential if we are to get a result.
I fancy it will be a score draw. 2-2 seems a safe bet. But a win would be absolutely amazing.
Come on you reds!
giggs to play ahead of scholes and play a blinder
By blinder do you mean like a blind person?
His ball retention of late does hint at a deterioration in eye sight
In my opinion instead of welbeck YOUNG should be in the starting 11…because we need wingers in this match..
They had a good start in the premiership but they had a good side out against Atletico Madrid bar Terry and Oscar and got thumped 4-1. The club World Cup might also cause them some problems later on so I don’t think it’s a disaster if united fall 7 behind and Di Matteo isn’t a great manager. I think he lets the players run the club and that’s what their players seem to like but it’s not good long term especially when things start to go wrong.
I think it’s all about our defense… I’ve no doubt we’ll score… maybey even 2 or 3… but how many will we concede?
A clean sheet, or maybe even just conceding 1, and I think we win.
I think there’s some truth in that… he’s not really been tested yet… he road a wave of team spirit last year, in a “nothing to lose” situation, and blundered his way to the Champs league title… this year, his team selection has been forced by a combination of playing the Abramovic signings, and only having Torres to choose from… it’s working, but he’s not actually had to manage much yet… just play the team that more or less picks itself… even losing Terry just made it easy to get game time for Cahill…
Possibly more mobility required in midfield than suggested above. Maybe Cleverley instead of Scholes (or an outside chance of Fletcher, given his disciplined recent performances). I agree on Welbeck to occupy the left flank – to use Rooney there would nullify United attacking potency. Giggs won’t start.
As ever in these games I’m terrified by our central midfield. Scholes and Carrick against interchanging, pacey, tricky, ball-carriers is not something to look forward to. Would personally play Rooney left with a more energetic three in the middle to combat the opposition’s threat but suspect Ed’s team is pretty accurate, unfortuntely. Robin and Roo are going to have to play very well to get us anything out of this. Come on United.
RvP
Nani Rooney Valencia
Cleverly Carrick
Evra Evans Rio Rafael
De Gea
Controversial, I know, but Nani has a point to prove.
Probably we’ll get
RvP
Welbeck
Rooney Scholes Carrick Valencia
Evra Evans Rio Rafael
De Gea
ill guess at
gea rafa rio evans evra valencia carrick scholes young rooney persie
DDG-Raf-Rio-Evans-Evra
Cleverley-Carrick-Anderson
Chicharito-van Persie-Rooney
4-3-3 not diamond.
Could have Welbeck in there, but I think Chicharito deserves it and this probably won’t be a game where we can afford to miss easy chances.
I’d be surprised if Ed’s line-up wasn’t spot on though. Nani and Giggs did nothing for their chances in the sub appearances vs. Braga and he seems to have completely lost faith in Anderson. Odd that he specifically mentioned him in two press conferences in the last month or so and then hardly played him. Cleverley the only one with a chance of forcing his way in (at least on form). Chicharito will lose out to Welbeck as he’s not as effective tracking back.
Marion @ 1:47: “DDG-Raf-Rio-Evans-Evra
Cleverley-Carrick-Anderson
Chicharito-van Persie-Rooney”
Yeah. That would work for me – no Scholes/no Giggs AND no wingers. Clog the middle and let Chicharito stretch their defence so that they can’t play a high line which would provide lots of space “between the lines”.
This is a different Chelsea team now. Abramovic has finally managed to change their style. Gone are the big hard senior pro monsters, in are the small technical creative types.
We should do well against em. I’m going with 4-4. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 1-0 either way.
De Gea, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Carrick, Cleverley, Valencia, Rooney, Young, Van Persie
Diamonds aren’t forever
Chelsea: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Cole; Ramires, Mikel; Hazard, Oscar, Mata; Torres
No defenders on the bench….
Lindegaard, Anderson, Giggs, Hernandez, Nani, Welbeck, Scholes
With that bench you can tell Fergie is anticipating going behind and having to salvage it
Come on United.
midfield is about as bland as it gets
LKHF
faffing
Today could be embarrassing….
Looks like Roo is playing in midfield
Great start
Chelsea haven’t got goiung
Why on earth am I in the US on a day like this and at a hotel without FOX Soccer!?? I am incensed to be honest with you.
I like the line-up. Tony V and Young can play from in to out in a Diamond.
United one up.
Chelsea are playing like us – flat, shit, can’t be arsed
whys rio getting booed
clearly a yellow card foul on Evra ffs
fucking yesssssssss
Chelsea have a deranged racist core amongst their fans…
United two up.
I love him
Rooney mopping up
Absolutely throwing this away. Rooney….what was he thinking?
what the fuck sort of tackle was that by Roo?
We’ve completely lost the plot in last 10 minutes. This is when we need a leader on the pitch.
Great game.
Torres needs knocking out for that challenge on Clev
Thank god it’s half time.
Wonderful start, completely bossed it – Chelsea upped it and we started giving it away. Rooney’s had a great game but his foul on Hazard was fucking dumb.
I’ll take 2-1 at half time
It was only a matter of time before Chelsea turned up
So long as we have a threat on the break we can win this
Get Young off and bring on Nani assuming that he is on the bench.
We need a couple more goals as I reckon we’ll concede again.
Thank fuck half time came when it did. We need to regroup and compose ourselves!
Chelsea will get another so we will need one too.
Frankly I need to regroup and compose myself, I’m not sure 15 minutes will do it
United will probably only think about attacking again if Cheatski score two more. Forced to attack in numbers, Cheatski would have six men or more in their attacking third and, when the defenders finally got the ball off of them, United would pass backwards from midfield into this heavily congested area, where they would, naturally, lose the ball. The pressure they put on themselves forced them to give away a ton of corners and free kicks, so it was only a matter of time before they gave up a goal.
Really need to keep hold of possession otherwise we’ll get done
Keep it FFS
And there it is.
Chelsea will probably go on and fuck us hard now.
We’re done here today. Cleverly is a fucking shambles.
We’ve absolutely committed football suicide here today.
Now what
We need the ball, we need to create something
Shit defending.
We have stopped attacking as well.
Only one team winning this now.
throwing this away.
Come on lads
Van Persie with his fucking elbows again
Red card fuck offff
Last man
Well done by Young to get that foul in the first place.
Game changer
Surely now with 10 men we can dominate the fucking ball
Let’s make the numerical advantage count ffs.
Bring on Nani.
Oscar off. Thank god
Wow that’s an aggressive substitution.
We’re getting done in midfield, so Fergie takes a midfielder off and puts a striker on
Torres should have seen a straight red for that smash on Clev
Foot in the chest
Total cunt
Oh my god that’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time
The ABU scum will be seething if we win.
It’ll be a disgrace if we don’t win this now.
Oh my god
There is contact but he should have been off anyway
Why is giggs coming on? We need to win this.
Hold on, 10vs9 – Giggs on for Rooney
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
have that your Chelsea cunts- and he was off!! great stuff
FUCK YOU CHELSEA CUNTS !!! 2-3
Chico you star
send a couple more off – this refs having a blinder
This ref is pissing the rent boys off. So funny.
We have been so lucky today.
We’ve had some pretty terrible decisions at Stamford Bridge over the last few years. Let’s call it even.
We still need another goal
as far as I’m concerned these wankers deserve everything they get. The booing of Rio alone makes me happy that we’ve had some decisions go our way, 40000 cockney cunts booing a proud black man- brilliant. c’mon lads lets get a 4th
Chelsea have been dirty and they’ve booed Rio, they deserve everything they’ve gotten. They always get really dirty once things are going against them, have done since Mourinho’s time.
Mind you, we’re still playing kind of shit.
Absurd giving Valencia a yellow there.
Brains from Hernandez, tying them up
Great result in the end.
Great win
Fuck Chelsea, that’s for the 2 yard offside title winning Drogba goal at Old Trafford in 2010
And that’s for booing the brother of someone who was racially abused
And for knocking out one of your own stewards with a missile
And that’s for the Nazi Headhunter wankers
I don’t want to complain too much because the main thing is that we won but I reckon we’d have lost if Chelsea had kept 11 players on the pitch. Torres is a cunt but that was a harsh red, I thought. Even vs 10 men I didn’t think that we looked convincing.
Players like Oscar and Hazard are better than what we have. I think Ramires has improved. Cleverley didn’t play that well and Young didn’t much going forward.
We are far too reliant on Rooney and Van Persie.
On the more positive side, imagine how the Scousers must feel having watched Hernandez’s ‘offside’ goal when they had a last-minute goal ruled out which would have won the Merseyside derby.
but i can bet you a weeks salary that our ABU loving media will mention any of those…
Yep. Karma is a bitch.
I would also add Terry’s offside goal at Stamford Bog and, in a different game, that penalty Carrick (I think) conceded which Ballack/Lampard scored from.
Yeah, and Luiz smashing Hernandez n all the other year – absolutely murdered him, and should have been sent off
luiz is fucking mental, what is he doing at chelsea
We needed to win at Chelsea, but as I’ve said our midfield needs some class and the defence is horrors.
We can win this league if we get the necessary players come January transfer window. This was a very important victory, Chelsea have now lost two straight games and they may now go into a slide.
we need Smalling ,Jones and Vidic back as soon as possible, to give our defense a rest, and we will be ok, just happy that we are still in the mix at the moment.
MANCHESTER IS MY HEAVEN- SIR MATT BUSBY
MotD should be interesting.
Can’t believe we didn’t bring Scholes on when they went down to 10, then 9 men. He was exactly what we needed. Our passing was diabolical today. Can’t blame DDG for the free kick – that’s exactly how he saved Mata’s free kick in the 3-3. Again, the most threatening thing to our defence was crosses – surely this is the most basic thing for defenders to do. Their no. 10s were amazing though.
Sheesh @ 6:27: “The ABU scum will be seething if we win.”
Bring it on ! I’m loving it !!
I was “finally” impressed with Ashley Young – I thought he had a great game. He might not be UTD’s best winger but he was involved and effective in whatever role he was playing today – inside left ?
Bringing on Chicharito to stretch the game was a brilliant response to Ivanovic’s red card; bringing on SirRyanGiggs who is pretty cringeworthy these days was a very sensible response to Torres’ red card and TheWayneBoy’s “vulnerability” in a situation in which Clattenburg might have wanted to even things up.
The first thirty minutes were just terrific play from TheLads; too bad they couldn’t keep it up and really mash TheRentBoyz BUT, in an ironic way, winning in that way was even more enjoyable.
one ball young played that put hernandez through for an effort he skied was probably the most xfactory thing hes done at utd, albeit against 9 men
Yeah Young had a decent day. I think Fergie picked him because he works harder than Nani. In the first 30 minutes we pressed the Chavs high up the pitch, but I suppose we got a bit tired then. The other major problem was that people like Cleverley kept giving the ball away. You can’t up that amount of pressing non-stop, you have to be able to hold onto the ball to give yourself a break. De Gea kept us in the match in that dominant 30 minute spell Chelsea had.
rooney was shite in midfield, understandably
him and persie are the best paid of strikers weve had under taggart,
pair or strikers
although what i said is also true
Chelsea now accusing Clattenburg of making racial insults to their players, they’ve really got no shame. I find that extremely hard to believe.
Don’t know… Ruud wasn’t half bad.
theyre both better players, theyve got the lot
didnt think persie was as good as wayne, he is
Chelsea have made a complaint about Mark Clattenburg using ‘inappropriate language’ which, according to the tabloids, were of a racial nature
This coming from Chelsea… John Terry… ‘We’ll stand by him regardless of the verdict’
Finding it difficult to get any information on what was actually said, and when. One site claims he used the words “Spanish twat”. Given he’s miked up(but not recorded), there should be at least 3 witness statements to refute or corroborate the claims. I would find it astonishing, given the background to the game, and the absence of any prior form for clattenberg, if this is substantiated. My gut feeling is, this stinks, and if unproven may backfire on CFC.
Thing is those mics only broadcast to the 4 officials, right? So they could easily cover for Clattenburg and say they never heard anything – especially as the dialogue isn’t recorded.
It’s my understanding that after a game the officials go straight to their dressing room for 5/10 minutes before managers, players & press are allowed to approach them. So by that time they will have their stories straight.
I have more faith in Sky. They must have it on film. They had Terry abusing Anton Ferdinand, surely they’ll have this. I wouldn’t be surprised if footage emerged on SSN tomorrow.
If this turns out to be true, there will a right shit storm… Chelsea will no doubt claim ref bias cost them the game.
Alfonso Bedoya @ 10:10: “If this turns out to be true, there will a right shit storm… Chelsea will no doubt claim ref bias cost them the game.”
We can only hope so – schadenfreude is a dish best eaten cold. Won’t it be delicious to see ANother team twist in the wind as a result of awful refereeing – and won’t it be even better to know that our team got the benefit of that awful refereeing.
AND, as for the “inappropriate language” – pot/kettle/black, so to speak.
With regard to the accusations made against Clattenburg. This could be a very dangerous precedent the Chelsea players are creating. False claims of racial abuse will lead to no end of problems. And if these claims are proved false what will the punishment be? Surely claiming someone to be a racist when they are not is a serious allegation. The players (whoever they play for) should be banned. The whole issue can have long reaching effects on the game and how it is played and controlled. It will also have a detremental effect on the anti racism campaign.
This form of reaction is slowly creeping into the game (Lee Croft) and has to be dealt with quickly.
http://www.teamtalk.com/news/11668/8210497/Chelsea-s-Juan-Mata-didn-t-hear-Mark-Clattenburg-s-alleged-comment
This is seriously starting to smell like bullshit to me… and if it turns out Chelsea made this up just to be spiteful to a ref that didn’t favour them on the night, they should be relegated to the fuckin shittest league in England.
One thing that always bugged me, was why Mata?… Torres is a mouthy twat, and I can imagine him getting under a refs skin… but Mata seems like the type that wouldn’t say “shit” even with a mouth full of it… so why would Clattenburg be insulting him?
And from what I read, the Mikel abuse happened when Mikel went to see Clattenburg in the refs room after the match… what the fuck was he doing entering the refs room?
If Clattenburg is found to be guilty with real evidence… out… no more reffing for him… but if this is just Chelsea stirring a spiteful pot… then there should be no holds barred on that shit hole of an outfit.
Will be interesting to see how the punishment (for whoever is guilty) compares to Terry’s.
Don’t understand how it is possible Mikel/Mata wouldn’t have heard the insult and others would from these videos:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/the-slow-motion-videos-of-referee-mark-clattenburgs-confrontations-with-chelseas-john-obi-mikel-juan-mata/
If the other players have made it up, will Chelsea stand by them or throw them under the bus?
He has amazing technique and is very clever at finding space.
If Chelsea’s charges can’t be substantiated, the club has to be seriously punished. With all the other pressure and hassle refs have to put up with it, football will just become unmanageable if this sort of stuff is tolerated. As soon as I heard the charges I was skeptical — not saying it didn’t happen, but it seems very unlikely to me that a ref would do that, so there has to be a very strong burden of proof for Chelsea. Doesn’t make it look any better that Chelsea are now saying “oh Mata heard it, no it wasn’t me it was Mikel, no I didn’t hear either it was Ramires, you know, the bloke who doesn’t even speak English”.
Plus given that the FA has already pretty much said that they think Cashley Cole made up his testimony in Terry’s case, there’s already form there.
I think Chelsea are the very pits of a football club. I can’t believe the storm they have kicked up over this match. They will pay the price for it and that oaf Mikel will be left out to hang when the dust settles! Mata is too talented and they will protect him. It will also cost Di Matteo the job he is trying to protect by allowing this to continue.
Firstly, the allegation must be taken seriously.
Secondly, if it is found to be a nonsense, then Chelsea need to be taken to the cleaners in terms of sanctions.
Finally, I’d like to join in the RvP Love. I genuinely can’t believe how good he is at linking up the play, at passing the ball, at seeing the movement of others, and his own movement is so incredibly clever as well. Brilliant.
Graham Poll had this to say in the Mail: “I refereed Tottenham v Chelsea in November 2006. Spurs won 2-1 and I sent John Terry off for two cautionable offences. After training the next day Terry, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard claimed I had told them I would sort them out after their unacceptable behaviour in the midweek Champions League game against Barcelona.
I was contacted by the FA to provide a statement in response and they then looked into whether I would be charged. I felt like the person on trial, even though I had done nothing wrong. My three colleagues in that game all confirmed that they had heard no such comments and the allegations were withdrawn.
Chelsea players later retracted their claims on the club website.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2225000/Mark-Clattenburg-shocked-angry-Chelsea-allegations–Graham-Poll.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
As a club, they’re trying to hound Clattenburg out of the game as they did with Frisk and as they tried to do with Ovrebo after the matches v Barcelona. Ovrebo told the Guardian that Chelsea fans give him abuse to this day. They are utter scum.
To think the amount of shit Fergie gets from the media and ABUs for his comments about referees. Dear me.
The culture of hounding referees and officials started under Mourinho, which is one of the reasons why I’d feel very conflicted if he did happen to replace SAF.
He won’t, for all the reasons that are evidenced by such behaviour. I’m glad about it as well.
The commentator just said that Chelsea have dropped the allegations regarding Clattenburg and Mata
Load of shit, they were just trying to shit him up
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20420934
Well there you have it. Is anyone really surprised at this outcome?
Thought so from the off..
What a massive prick Mikel is. He didn’t hear the alleged comment but he’s still a prick anyway. They’re all pricks tbf.
I don’t think di Matteo would have had much influence in terms of how the Chelsea players behaved. He was Abramovich’s puppet at the end of the day.
I hope Clattenburg takes legal action against Chelsea. Fucking disgraceful stuff.
And with luck, Chelsea will find themselves on the wrong end of many a refereeing decision over the coming weeks.
Any apology from Chelsea?
An apology from such a scummy outfit? Nope.
What’s disappointing to note is that the FA have bottled the chance to throw the book at Chelsea.
Rdm deserves to be sacked just for this incident….disgraceful smearing of someone’s good name
Bad day for Chelsea
They look like total tit artists over this Clattenburg business, and then to compound the misery/hilarity they officially unveil Benitez as manager
Well at least Benitez wouldn’t stoop so low as to make vague accusations of racism, he only deals in facts.
bman – arf. Nice line
I like Fergie’s swipe at Rafa http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20462178
The Club World Cup – something else for Rafa to boast about when he travels the world lecturing on tactics and shite. The man is a fucking joke. I just hope he keeps his job in time for the game at Old Trafford because I wanna party.
I’ll be here all week, folks! Even Fergie’s getting the digs in now, might be a good thing actually, I feel like our lads need a bit of rivalry and animosity to sharpen things up.
Rafa hits back at Fergie http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/benitez-bites-back-at-ferguson-claiming-wenger-is-best-8347634.html
“There are a lot of good managers in the world, many who have won trophies,” Benitez said. “I don’t like to talk too much about other managers. When I came to England I knew the other managers here. Arsène Wenger is the best manager there had been here for a while. But I cannot talk about these things every day.”
This is fun. On the day Fergie gets immortalised as one of the true greats and has great players from all over the world commend him and his achievements Benitez comes out with some ridiculous lame shite about Wenger being the best manager in the Prem. Fergie will be sat back with a glass of wine with a pissed smirk on his face.
Wenger is a poor example. Don’t get me wrong, I still think he’s a top manager but when you compare him to Fergie, what’s Wenger won in the last 7 years? Rafa is really reaching there.
The timing of Fergie’s comments is pretty interesting, given that Benitez’s first game is against City.
Benitez will be going into that game wanting to prove that he’s more than a lucky manager.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20715706
So no fine, ban from the ground, community service, attendance at culture lessons etc? Just be on your way?
ffs