Man Utd Thread:

[Norf Tyrone]

Norf - don't think Chelsea are much stronger but I think they are probably the team to beat for United. Chelsea were all over the place at times under Scolari but under Hiddink were good and will be at least the same again. city will gather a lot of points but I don't think they can win it. Usually need to have been in contention before to have enough experience of a run-in to win it.

I think that's the key. Is Ancellotti Scolari, or Hiddink. I think the closer he gets to the Guus scale, the closer Chelsea are to winning it.

[Eastern_Pride]

Norf - don't think Chelsea are much stronger but I think they are probably the team to beat for United. Chelsea were all over the place at times under Scolari but under Hiddink were good and will be at least the same again. city will gather a lot of points but I don't think they can win it. Usually need to have been in contention before to have enough experience of a run-in to win it.

I think that's the key. Is Ancellotti Scolari, or Hiddink. I think the closer he gets to the Guus scale, the closer Chelsea are to winning it.

Hopefully for us, ancelotti is similar to hiddink in that he is a proven club manager. Scolari never found sucess unless he was around portugese speaking people and ancelotti pinpointed this, learning English which will be the key to Chelsea's revival(!) he will form a team attitude which is what scolari never seemed to grasp....

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Charity shield lost on penalties. Result fairly irrelevant. Didn't see the match as I only have SS1 and the cricket was on. Heard Evra's penalty was pathetic. Good to see Rooney amongst the goals, Nani likely to be out for a few weeks after dislocating his shoulder.

[tyroneboi]

Charity shield lost on penalties. Result fairly irrelevant. Didn't see the match as I only have SS1 and the cricket was on. Heard Evra's penalty was pathetic. Good to see Rooney amongst the goals, Nani likely to be out for a few weeks after dislocating his shoulder.

Giggs' penalty was just as bad. Didn't see much of it but bit of controversy over Chelsea's 2nd goal where Ballack seemed to foul Evra, the free kick wasn't given and Evra was down on the ground supposedly injured. Chelsea didn't knock the ball out for Evra to receive attention and went on and scored through Lampard. I thought there was guidelines that it was up to the referee to stop play for an injured player but you still see teams kick the ball out of play for injured players. Probably should be clarified before the season begins.

[Minder]

It is up to the ref to stop the game, not the players to put the ball out.

[Hound]

Plus while Ballack deserved at least yellow if not red (ref played advantage but Uninted subsequently lost the ball), there was nothing wrong with Evra, and he could easily have got straight up and played on, in which case he could well have been in position to stop the goal. Neither the ref not Chelsea did anything wrong by allowing play to continue. But United fully deserved the last minute equaliser.

Both keepers were unimpressive, particularly Foster. He's clearly hugely talented, but he's going to make mistakes. Of course dropping him isnt the answer as it'll knock his confidence. Difficult decision to make.

Rooney for player of the season...

[magpie seanie]

Didnt see any of it but from the description of the Evra/Ballack incident I'm encouraged. There's way too much stopping the play for players who are clarly not injured. Lets hope the refs apply this consistently throughout the season and that Evra has learned his lesson in a game that didn't really matter.

[David McKeown]

Didnt see any of it but from the description of the Evra/Ballack incident I'm encouraged. There's way too much stopping the play for players who are clarly not injured. Lets hope the refs apply this consistently throughout the season and that Evra has learned his lesson in a game that didn't really matter.

The problem with the incident was not two minutes before the ref stopped the game because Ballack went down and was clearly no more injured than Evra.  As a result Utd were stopped on the edge of the Chelsea penalty area.  I think this was probably what annoyed Man Utd more, the incredibly inconsistent decision making of Foy.  Evident again when he booked Evra and Owen but failed to book Carvallho in the last minute

[Archie Mitchell]

Was glad to see Evra miss the penalty, IMO he's a hateful smug wee bastard.

Ballack did foul him, but Evra could have got up straight away as there was nothing wrong with him. It's up to the ref to stop play if it is a serious injury. The more times a goal is scored after incidents like this the better as it will mean the teams have to play to the whistle.

[David McKeown]

Was glad to see Evra miss the penalty, IMO he's a hateful smug wee b**tard.

Ballack did foul him, but Evra could have got up straight away as there was nothing wrong with him. It's up to the ref to stop play if it is a serious injury. The more times a goal is scored after incidents like this the better as it will mean the teams have to play to the whistle.

I'm all for referees playing on in these situations but as noted the problem was that Foy was not consistent. When Nani got injured he tried to play on even though at least one Chelsea player was signalling to team mates to put the ball out. As a result about 10 seconds later Foy stops the game. Later in half Ballack and Evra tangle ballack goes down. Utd advance to edge of box Foy blows whistle immediately despite no obvious injury. Two minutes after this Evra and Ballack again tangle. Evra goes down holding face (a situation when advantage should only be played if the ref is certain no injury has occurred) yet Foy does nothing allowing Chelsea to score. There were three fairly similar incidents which Foy handled in different ways. If one referee can't even be consistant with himself then there will be lots of instances when teams will feel agrieved.

What should be done is that the referee should only stop the game in the event of a head injury. If teams want to stop for other injuries it should be up to them

[Over the Bar]

Did Cech get MOTM?   Only for him United could have got the bus home at half time.

[Eastern_Pride]

Did Cech get MOTM?   Only for him United could have got the bus home at half time.

Carvalho got the nod but i think cech is nearly back to how he was before hunt kicked his head in. VDS should watch out for that clean sheet record

[DennistheMenace]

Did Cech get MOTM?   Only for him United could have got the bus home at half time.

Carvalho got the nod but i think cech is nearly back to how he was before hunt kicked his head in. VDS should watch out for that clean sheet record

Awh right so one decent game and Cech is 'nearly' back to his best, great logic there.

[Eastern_Pride]

Did Cech get MOTM?   Only for him United could have got the bus home at half time.

Carvalho got the nod but i think cech is nearly back to how he was before hunt kicked his head in. VDS should watch out for that clean sheet record

Awh right so one decent game and Cech is 'nearly' back to his best, great logic there.

Do u get some pleasure in trying to correct everything i say? And watch the 3-0 game and compare it ye grumpy git

[Hound]

Did Cech get MOTM?   Only for him United could have got the bus home at half time.

Carvalho got the nod but i think cech is nearly back to how he was before hunt kicked his head in. VDS should watch out for that clean sheet record

Awh right so one decent game and Cech is 'nearly' back to his best, great logic there.

He's still afraid of getting hit on the head. He was very poor for the goal, letting the ball go under him, afraid that Terry might give him a belt.

Interesting for United that Gibson was on the bench while Anderson was left in the stands.