Chelsea 0-1 Manchester United - Credit United but it's not over just yet.

szólj hozzá: Chelsea 0-1 ManUtd, Highlights

Let's be totally honest here, Chelsea were disappointing. I had stated before the game that it was time for Chelsea to stand up and be counted and that Chelsea WOULD score on the night, I was wrong both times.

You will read headlines that Chelsea are unhappy about the Ramires stone wall penalty that wasn't given. Carlo and the Chelsea plays have every right to feel hard done by but United will tell you everything evens itself out over the course of a season. Chelsea should have played better than to rely on scoring an equaliser from the spot.

United came to Stamford Bridge and we all knew what their game plan would be. They would look to work hard, soak up Chelsea pressure and hit us on the counter and to be honest they did exactly that. Apart from Van Der Sar tipping the ball over the bar from a Drogba effort early on, A Drogba cross that Torres missed bouncing across the face of the goal and onto the post, the rebound from Lampard blocked on the line and a Fernando Torres header tipped away at full stretch by Van Der Sat again, United never looked in any danger.

It pains me to say it, but credit to United. The pressed Chelsea when they didn't have the ball. Their two banks of four in midfield and defence worked together to close down the space and made life difficult for us. Ryan Giggs had a great game in the middle of the pitch and showed us all their is life in the old dog yet.

Javier Hernandez made a comment the other day that he believes United to have the better strikers than Chelsea. On paper I believe he is wrong but last night he was proved right. With Hernandez himself buzzing around the pitch and making runs in between the defence he is always going to pose problems.

You link him up there with Wayne Rooney on top form and confident, well Rooney is up there with the best of them and it was his goal that was the difference. A classic United move. A sweeping ball from right to left over Bosingwa's head was taken first time on the volley into his stride and passed Bosingwa who was taken out the game in an instant by Giggs.

As he moved to the byline he looked up, Hernandez makes the dummy run towards the ball and the near post and takes JT with him, Rooney holds his position in the box. Giggs plays the ball back square towards the penalty box, Hernandez dummies it and Rooney unmarked slides it into the bottom right hand corner in off the post with Cech beaten all ends up!. 1-0 United.

Chelsea had previously caused United a problem as Drogba was played in down the right hand side of the box and blasted his powerful shot straight at Van Der Sar who tipped the ball over the bar.

Chelsea continued to look to build some kind of momentum but again, kept giving the ball away or stupid needless tackles and it was playing into United's hands. As the half progressed, because of the pressure United had been putting on our midfield and forward line, a huge gap appeared between our midfield and front two and it was easy for United to deal with.

It was only when towards the end of the half, Drogba crossed into Torres who missed a flick unmarked dead centre and the ball rebounded off the post to Lampard who's shot was blocked, that it looked like Chelsea would cause United any problems.

The second half was the same old story. United still working hard and relying on the counter were happy to sit back on their one goal lead and soak up Chelsea pressure. And again, Chelsea found it difficult to open up United.

As the game went on Didier Drogba became a passenger on the pitch and quite rightly was taken off. He didn't look happy but his attitude in the last five minutes was a joke and someone needs to pull him up on it.

Fernando Torres worked hard, tried do what he could linking up with midfield but again, under pressure as soon as he had the ball reverted to diving on the floor not once but twice and let's be honest we don't want to see him do that. His all round play was good and I was happy to see him stay on the pitch as Carlo switched to a 4-3-3 formation.

Unfortunately the focus for Chelsea was to push and try and get a goal but at the same time not commit too many people forward as after all a 1-0 loss at home isn't the end of the world and with our record at Old Trafford is easily do-able.

Chelsea will need to come up with something for the return leg. For me it has to be the 4-3-3 formation. Essien should play at right back as Bosingwa had a shocker tonight. Mikel comes into the holding role and allows Ramires (who worked his socks off again) and Lampard (wasn't up to his normal standards) to get forward. Malouda to start on the left and Anelka on the right of Torres up front. Drogba on the bench.

To sum up it was all abit to slow and laboured at times for Chelsea. We needed more power and pace and to move the ball quicker. United found it easy to cope with us and for the majority of the game dealt with what was put in front of them. United came here with a game plan and executed it fantastically well once again. Rooney was the star of the show and you have to hold your hands up and admit that their front two outplayed and outworked our front two.

Like I say in the title of this post, it's not over just yet but if you were Alex Ferguson this morning, you would be more than happy with what you have come away with from the Bridge.

Chelsea have it all to do.

KTBFFH.