morning papers manu away

The Guardian
United come out fighting to resurrect their title challenge
Kevin McCarra at Old TraffordMonday November 7, 2005
Old Trafford has become the most august cemetery in English football.Arsenal's unbeaten run of 49 Premiership matches was laid to rest herelast season and now Chelsea's sequence, which lasted nine fixturesfewer, has also gone the way of all flesh. There was of course no hushand the mourners from London in the crowd were roundly jeered.It is still much too soon to say that Manchester United's reputationhas been raised from the dead but their combativeness was resurrectedyesterday. In a game of fitful quality and gripping intensity theirfingers were not to be prised from the 1-0 lead that came improbablythrough Darren Fletcher's first goal since the closing afternoon oflast season.
The midfielder had been among the more vilified performers in United'sabject loss to Lille last week, so much so that a bitter fan valuedhim at 1p in a mock auction on the internet. Supporters will not viewany member of their squad as priceless for a little longer but theirefforts here and the score will be cherished for a long time to come.In addition to the win bonus United's players can enjoy the relief ofknowing that their interrogation is, at least, suspended. Thequestions will be asked of Chelsea, who in the last fortnight hadalready been eliminated from the League Cup by Charlton and downed byReal Betis in a Champions League fixture. Jose Mourinho has never hadto face a spell of this nature since he came to England.
The end of his personal record against Sir Alex Ferguson of sixunbeaten matches with Porto and Chelsea will deepen hisreflectiveness. There can, of course, be no genuine crisis when he hasfootballers such as these at his command. For long periods of thesecond half, when the introduction of Eidur Gudjohnsen broughtpertinence and flow to the passing, they were far superior to United,but they could not exploit the advantage in their normal ruthlessfashion.
After the interval Asier del Horno volleyed a Damien Duff cross overthe bar but the other chances tended to be more muddled. Duff andGudjohnsen linked slickly after 57 minutes but Didier Drogba was pronewhen he poked the ball narrowly wide. The most promising chance arosefrom another Duff break when Frank Lampard burst through in hiscustomary fashion, to be foiled by Edwin van der Sar's close-rangesave on 68 minutes.
If games were to be measured purely by the distribution of chancesUnited could claim to have had the better of it. In the 54th minute,for instance, Wayne Rooney had flighted a delectable pass over DelHorno and when Fletcher then rolled the perfect cut-back it wasextraordinary to witness the arch-predator Ruud van Nistelrooysloppily fire over.
The match had been decided instead with a 31st-minute goal pluckedfrom a situation that had seemed bland. Ronaldo's cross had, afterall, been hit from deep on the left and, even then, Chelsea fans wouldhave been surprised rather than fearful to notice Fletcher moving forit beyond the far post. Mourinho even questioned whether the Scot hadmeant to score from a such an area.
None the less the midfielder's header looped over Petr Cech and JohnTerry before it dropped inside the far post. It is possible Fletcherwas playing the percentages and seeking to send the ball intodangerous territory. Players deserve to be rewarded now and again forthat instinct.
The Chelsea manager should really doubt his own men rather thanquerying Fletcher's intention. The only person even to make a vagueeffort to mark the scorer was Michael Essien. The Stamford Bridge clubhave conceded at least one goal in each of their last five games. Thismight prove to be an intermittent fault that is soon repaired but thestringency has vanished for the time being.
United's back four, against all expectation, fared better. Early inthe encounter when both sides were obsessed with hitting the long ballit was Chelsea who found the tactic productive. A beautifully flightedpass took out a static Rio Ferdinand but Drogba could not beat Van derSar from an angle. The United centre-back, though, did rally to ensurethis would not be yet another afternoon when his concentration andcharacter were doubted.
The same could be said of the entire United line-up. They must havetaken encouragement early on from the ease with which Chelsea wereknocked off balance. Too often the visitors failed to release men intotelling areas and when, for instance, Joe Cole sent Drogba gallopingaway from Mikaël Silvestre he was only in position to fire into theside-netting.
There was even nervousness on the verge of the interval when theirmanoeuvre at a free-kick was so ponderous that the members of theUnited wall had burst out to rush Lampard into a mis-kick when theball came to him at last. It was the sort of day when the home crowdwere ecstatic when any player harried Chelsea. United, of course,traditionally demand more than that from themselves but this will havedone very nicely for the time being.
Man of the match: Alan Smith (Manchester United)
Chelsea will still be the champions, says Mourinho
Kevin McCarraMonday November 7, 2005The Guardian
It has been a long wait but now we know how Jose Mourinho reacts to aperiod of real adversity. For the first time since he came to England,Chelsea have lost two significant matches in succession, following theChampions League defeat at Real Betis with yesterday's failure at OldTrafford. He was intent on reassuring everyone in his camp, even ifone observation had the touch of a trademark jibe about it."They are under pressure," he said of the victors. Mourinho was notingthat Manchester United have to win a game in hand, against Wigan nextmonth, to be sure of getting within seven points of Chelsea. "Theyhave a good team and a good manager," said Mourinho of United, "andthe future can only be better- but not, I believe, better enough forthem to be champions of England again."This will be taken as a jibe in Greater Manchester and beyond, yet theviews were probably intended for consumption at Cobham, the Chelseatraining ground. While Mourinho had agreed that the loss in Sevillewas merited, he treated this result just like the failure on penaltiesto Charlton in the League Cup. "This was a game we did not deserve tolose, but they fought a lot," he claimed.
That last phrase brought a fleeting graciousness to a speech otherwisedirected towards his own players. "You lose these games and you wantto look at them and be with them and show that they deserve to beappreciated," said Mourinho, drawing a contrast with the disgust hefelt for his side's attitude in the first half of the game with Betis.
"In the second half no one believed this was Old Trafford the wayChelsea pressed. We did everything to win the game. The same way Igive [United] credit I hope they can realise why Chelsea arechampions, top of the league and I believe will be champions again."
He tried to force himself to enjoy participation in a game as hardfought as yesterday's had been. "You feel proud of the team and ofparticipating," Mourinho claimed. He had a brisk reaction when askedif Chelsea would go into decline as Arsenal had done when, also aftera long unbeaten run in the Premiership, they were stopped in theirtracks at Old Trafford last season.
"No, I don't think so," said Mourinho. "Especially because of the waythe team performed." He added: "When Arsenal lost here the differencewas small and they were very close to the other opponents but at themoment we still have a comfortable distance between us and theothers."
He is intent on telling his men to stay "calm and confident". TheChelsea manager, whose team are six points ahead of Wigan with a gamemore played, argued that United would love to swap places, but hecannot deny a dip in form.
The winners had no need to enter a debate when there was a victory tobe savoured after the 4-1 rout at the Riverside and the loss to Lille."Everyone knows where the basis for this performance came from," saidthe United midfielder Alan Smith, savouring the reaction to thecriticism from, amongst others, the captain Roy Keane. "Sometimes youneed to be reminded of what it means to play for United. Roy Keane isa proud person and he told us exactly what he said."
Ferguson in rude health after Keano therapy
Richard Williams at Old TraffordMonday November 7, 2005The Guardian
There could have been no better occasion for Sir Alex Ferguson to geta very significant monkey off his back. On the day of his 19thanniversary as manager of Manchester United, after a week in whichmany voices questioned his right to celebrate a 20th, he confrontedJose Mourinho and came out a winner for the first time in sevenmeetings. Though it would be an exaggeration to say that United werereborn in yesterday's victory, few witnesses would doubt that theycreated a platform from which to mount a resurgence.
Ferguson himself had a short answer to a question about the rumours ofhis enforced departure before the end of the season. "It's a load ofbollocks," he told Sky TV as he reflected on a match in which United'scompetitive spirit appeared to erase doubts about his continuingability to motivate his players.When Mourinho said last week that he considered United to be Chelsea'sclosest rivals, it seemed likely that he was both killing Fergusonwith flattery and dealing Arsène Wenger yet another insult into thebargain. The Chelsea manager appears to believe that the best way todeal with Ferguson is to pal up with him, call him "boss" and share abottle of red wine. In that way, perhaps, he hopes to avoid the sortof fangs-bared commitment with which United traditionally respond toFerguson's highly personal dislike of Wenger.
Yesterday's performance, lacking the ferocity conferred by thepresence of Roy Keane, was not quite of the 18-certificate varietywith which United knocked Wenger's team out of the FA Cup in April oflast year and then, eight months later, put an end to Arsenal's49-match unbeaten record. Their results over the past few weeks haveexposed the comparative meagreness of Ferguson's resources,particularly in the enforced absence of his two dynamic full-backs,Gary Neville and Gabriel Heinze, and the team have stuttered badly. IfUnited were to prevail yesterday, they needed to overcome their ownrecent failings and to find a constructive response to the clubcaptain's midweek criticisms.
Luckily for them, Chelsea are experiencing a dip of their own. Theirrocket-propelled start to the season is receding into history, andyesterday's outcome demonstrated that if they are to maintain theirdominance they will need to knuckle down and fight. Yesterday Unitedset them the perfect example, overcoming their own initial hesitancythrough precisely the kind of collective effort of will that theircritics claim has become an endangered commodity at Old Trafford.
"We wanted to make sure that we played quick, passing football,getting it into their box as soon as we could," Ferguson saidafterwards. "We tried to instil that into them in the last few days.
"The loss to Lille on Wednesday night was not a good one. No matterwhat we said about the terrible pitch, we didn't play well enough towin it. How you handle yourselves after something like that isimportant. Everyone here has got on with the job."
Chelsea's own lack of fluency made United's job easier. Enjoying thevast majority of possession in the early stages, the home side lookedstilted in their movements. The man with the ball would stop, give apass to a stationary team-mate, and then start moving again. Thegeometry was static and relatively easy for Chelsea to counter.
But when the west London team proved to have few attacking ideas oftheir own, beyond hitting long balls for Didier Drogba to chase,United were given the scope to play themselves back into some sort ofrecognisable shape. What was not lacking, the watching Keane wouldhave noticed, was effort. Alan Smith lacks too many of the necessaryattributes to make him the captain's ideal understudy, but very littlecould be said against his performance in yesterday's demandingenvironment. Two tackles midway through the first half, on Drogba andJoe Cole, were of the crunchingly uncompromising sort that can liftthe whole team.
United were drifting at the time, and the chant of "There's only oneKeano" had been heard from both ends of the ground. Five minutes afterSmith had made his point, United were ahead when Darren Fletcher,another to have felt the lash of Keane's tongue, chased a lost causeat the far post and jumped to head the winning goal. Smith acceptedthe man-of-the-match award, but Fletcher probably deserved an extraswig from the presentation bottle of champagne for the fight he showedthroughout the match and for the header with which, after 54 minutes,he created a chance that Ruud van Nistelrooy should not havesquandered.
And so Roman Abramovich sat in the stands watching the end ofChelsea's unbeaten run in the league, while Malcolm Glazer and hissons, somewhere in the United States, could breathe a sigh of reliefin the knowledge that United's recent poor results might not, afterall, have imperilled their highly geared debt repayments.
"It was a fantastic spectacle," Ferguson said. "The keenness anddesperation to play of our young players was marvellous, but in thelast five minutes we were under the cosh because Chelsea went foreverything. That's what champions do. We've done it many times in thepast ourselves. And today was a turning point because the supportersshowed how much they care for the club. When they're like that, itraises the ante and puts the players under pressure to do well. Todaythey were unbelievable."
United's width was the key to unlocking Chelsea
David Pleat's chalkboard
Monday November 7, 2005The Guardian
Manchester United went back to playing with their traditional widthand that was the key to them starting so positively - and scoring whatturned out to be the decisive goal. Although Chelsea found a responsein the second half and gained the ascendancy, they could not equalise.Sir Alex Ferguson decided to stretch Chelsea by asking CristianoRonaldo to hug the left touchline. With United passing to him at everyopportunity, it worked brilliantly before the interval. They got theball across the pitch with such quick passes that Ronaldo was able torun at Paulo Ferreira before the full-back could intercept or hadcover.
When the ball was with Wes Brown on the other side, Ferreira wastucked in to cover his centre-backs. But with three rapid passesUnited pulled him out wide and got Ronaldo one against one with him,running at speed. Ferreira had no protection because John Terry wasmarking Ruud van Nistelrooy and William Gallas was covering on theleft. With Chelsea stretched it opened room in the middle for WayneRooney.Ronaldo's value was shown when he provided the cross from which DarrenFletcher scored. With Fletcher giving width on the right when his teamhad possession and tucking in when they lost it, United had a niceshape from which to dictate play. Chelsea found it hard to buildattacks when they had the ball at the back because Rooney stuck nearClaude Makelele and disrupted his promptings.
Makelele is usually so good at protecting Chelsea but he was renderedalmost redundant as an intercepter in front of his back four - Unitedbypassed him rather than going through the middle and prevented himfrom cutting out passes in front of his central defenders.
Chelsea did not get close enough to their opponents to prevent theball being worked to Ronaldo, but in the second half they closed thatspace and stopped the flow of passes to the wing. Makelele movedcloser to Rooney rather than sitting and hoping to intercept thingsand his midfield colleagues got tighter to Alan Smith and PaulScholes, allowing Chelsea to dominate.
That forced Ronaldo to tuck in to defend, so Ferreira was closer andRonaldo was less of an attacking threat. Jose Mourinho took chances,with Eidur Gudjohnsen coming on for Michael Essien and playing furtherforward, Shaun Wright-Phillips using his pace against tiring legs andCarlton Cole replacing Asier Del Horno. But United blocked bravely andheld on to win a vibrant game which was a credit to the Premiership.
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Independent :Ferguson told to mind his language as United end Chelsea's 40-game runBy Andy HunterPublished: 07 November 2005Manchester United were unified in their retort to accusations ofdecline at Old Trafford yesterday, their players inflicting a firstPremiership defeat on Chelsea after 40 unbeaten games and theirmanager, Sir Alex Ferguson, describing claims his job is underpressure as "absolute bollocks" live on national television.
The United manager was reprimanded on air by Sky reporter GeoffShreeves for his expletive but Ferguson was in irrepressible mood ashe savoured a tumultuous victory over Jose Mourinho's side, which senthis side third in the table and reignited their pursuit of thechampions.
After a week in which successive defeats at Middlesbrough and Lilleand the notorious Roy Keane interview had aggravated a sense of crisisat Old Trafford, there was a momentous sense of relief when DarrenFletcher, one of the players who had been the target of the Unitedcaptain's criticism, sent a looping header over Petr Cech in the 31stminute and ultimately condemned Chelsea to their first League reversesince 16 October 2004.
However, when asked if he had ever been under more pressure during his19 years at the United helm than he was before yesterday's victory,Ferguson bristled: "That's absolute bollocks; people forget we went 13games without winning once" before being asked to curb his languagefor the benefit of watching children.
United remain an ominous 10 points behind the reigning champions, butFerguson insisted: "This is a big result and a big performance. Wewere terrific for an hour and, though I thought we sat back too muchin the last five minutes, we got there. It is an enormous result. Youdon't get as much consistency when you have to play young lads all thetime but they have carried us because of our injuries and they wereoutstanding. They needed more belief in their own ability and we havetried to instil that in them."
Fletcher was not the only Keane target to respond as the injured clubcaptain would have wished, with Alan Smith producing his finestperformance as a midfielder to claim the man-of-the-match award."Everyone knows where the criticism has come from and it is not justRoy," Smith said. " We need to carry on the belief we showed today."
Chelsea's loss was their third in four games but Mourinho was adamantthe end of their unbeaten Premiership record would not spiral into thekind of slump that undermined Arsenal's attempts to retain the titleafter losing at Old Trafford last season.
"I know what happened to Arsenal but no, it won't happen to us," hesaid. " I don't think we will need to bounce back from this because wehave shown that we have bounced back from Betis. We had chances; wewere the better team, but once they scored they defended with greatspirit. United have been through a difficult period and though this isa fantastic result for them it will not be enough to stop us becomingchampions of England again. I believe we showed here why we arechampions."
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Telegraph:
Smith leads the Red resistance movementBy Henry Winter Manchester United (0) 1 Chelsea (0) 0
Manchester United banished the blues yesterday, stopping Chelsea intheir smooth stride and breathing new life into their own season.Showing the determination of their manager, re-paying a debt ofloyalty to their supporters and reminding Roy Keane of theirresilience, Sir Alex Ferguson's players stood up for themselves andstood firm in the teeth of the champions' pressure. Here was onebroadcast United's players would like to make Keane sit through.
Alan Smith, one of those criticised by the United captain, respondedmost vigorously. Spiky of hair and commitment, Smith took the sight ofa visitor settling in possession as a personal affront, and flew in torectify the situation, tracking and tackling as if he had Keane on hisshoulder, whispering the words from recent unflattering headlines.
Smith deservedly collected the man-of-the-match bubbly, a prize thisdown-to-earth teetotal soul will probably use as a door-stop. Not thetype to paint the town red, Smith certainly painted the midfield redyesterday. Chelsea's midfielders could hardly catch breath, such wasSmith's relentlessly dogged attentions. Frank Lampard increasinglyresembled a jogger being chased down the road by a particularlyannoying Yorkshire terrier.
Commitment and collectivity suffused United from start to finish, fromEdwin van der Sar at the back through Smith in midfield to WayneRooney in attack. One second-half moment encapsulated United's passionplay, Rooney dropping into the right-back role to repel a long PauloFerreira pass and then dispossessing Asier del Horno, who had thetemerity to seize on the loose ball.
Rooney, like Smith, was covering every blade of grass, clearlyrelishing Ferguson's decision to go with him floating off Ruud vanNistelrooy in a 4-4-2 formation. Inspired by the England pair,United's performance exuded defiance. Ferguson's men may have fadedafter the hour, wilting as Eidur Gudjohnsen arrived to orchestrateChelsea attacks, but they never broke under the pressure. United clungon, like a heavyweight on the ropes, withstanding the battering,refusing to yield their advantage.
In terminating Chelsea's 40-game unbeaten record in the league, Unitedwere far removed from the ghosts who had been vanquished atMiddlesbrough and Lille over the past tumultuous week. Now they mustmaintain yesterday's conviction for the remainder of the season,starting at Charlton Athletic on Nov 19.
This will have done their confidence the world of good. Even in theopening minutes, when Rio Ferdinand was caught out by Lampard's longball and Didier Drogba's pace, Van der Sar was there, saving hisdefender's blushes. That was the United way yesterday, covering foreach other, showing a unity not witnessed in recent days.
Ferdinand himself refused to hide after his early embarrassment,putting in some vital tackles to thwart Chelsea. Paul Scholes wasalmost back to his old creative self, pinging passes around with thecrispness and frequency many feared lost. The little midfielder almostscored, rolling back the years by racing forward and meeting Rooney'spass with a wonderful shot which snaked just wide.
Defending high up the pitch, Van Nistelrooy even dropped deep to houndClaude Makelele. Tackles were thundering in all around, not themalicious kind that halted Arsenal's Invincibles in theirrecord-breaking tracks last year, but whole-hearted, ball-seekingefforts. Smith led the resistance movement, sliding in to dispossessDrogba and then bowling into Joe Cole.
Chelsea were forced on the back foot, unable to organise their fabledraiding parties. In the 31st minute, the champions were caught outspectacularly. Here was the United of yore, breaking with conviction,speed and a dash of wing-play. Rooney played the catalyst, working theball from a central station 40 yards out to Scholes and then CristianoRonaldo out on the left.
The Portuguese flier turned Ferreira, and crossed high to the far-postwhere Darren Fletcher lurked. Although growing in danger, thesituation still seemed a fire Chelsea could extinguish. Meeting theball before Michael Essien could properly pressurise him, the youngScot headed back across goal, the ball clearing Petr Cech and thenJohn Terry on the line. United's celebrations were long and loud.
But they were wary, knowing the champions would hit back. Gudjohnsen'sreplacing of Essien, precision replacing power, brought greatercontrol and cleverness to Chelsea's surges. And so the siege of Vander Sar's goal began. Drogba saw a shot deflected wide by the divingJohn O'Shea, another denigrated of late yet resolute here.
And so the great rearguard action intensified. Ferdinand hustled JoeCole into conceding the ball. Smith stopped Gudjohnsen with anothertackle. Van der Sar, all good positioning and sharp reflexes, made awonderful save from close range to deny Lampard.
United were sitting deep, too deep, and the Stretford End urged themforward. "Attack, attack, attack," they pleaded. But that wasChelsea's approach, and only a magnificent clearance from Smith robbedDrogba of a promising scoring opportunity. Mourinho kept introducinghigh-speed locksmiths, like Carlton Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips, toopen up United's back door, but it was bolted firmly shut.
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Times:
United discover perfect remedyBy Matt DickinsonManchester United 1 Chelsea 0
THE GLAZER HEART BEATS WITH SUCH passion for Manchester United that,on the day that the empire was in greatest peril, not one member ofthe family bothered to cross the Atlantic. No doubt they watched thematch on television, but that was no substitute at all for witnessingthe stirring of a mighty beast within Old Trafford.Not Roy Keane (absent with injury) or even his hugely impressiveunderstudy, Alan Smith, but the United crowd, of course. They havebeen mocked down the years, even by Keane, but their raucous revivalyesterday was every bit as stunning, perhaps more so, than the superbperformances of Smith and Paul Scholes, among others.

Accustomed to jeering Rio Ferdinand, booing their "heroes" or watchingin silence, yesterday they reminded the world that Old Trafford canstill be one of sport's great cathedrals. "The crowd was the turningpoint," Sir Alex Ferguson said, shortly before turning the airwavesblue by describing talk of the worst crisis of his 19-year reign as"absolute b*****ks".
Whether or not this turns out to be a victory of lasting significance— and only a brave man will rush to predict Chelsea's decline — thiswas a magnificent, memorable occasion witnessed by an estimated 750million viewers worldwide. One that the Glazers should have attendedif only to realise how much this great institution can stir the soul."Caring for the club is done in different ways," Ferguson said.
Staying at home to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers said everythingabout the devotion of the new owners.
All that can be said for the Americans is that, as detachedbusinessmen, they should at least know better than to read too muchinto the result. José Mourinho reaffirmed his belief that Chelsea willgo on to retain their Barclays Premiership title and, despite theending of a 40-match unbeaten league run, it may be wishful thinkingto believe that they will collapse like Arsène Wenger's Invincibles.
For United, last season's victory over Arsenal (the infamous Battle ofthe Buffet) was also supposed to be a critical juncture but Ferguson'smen went on to lose at Portsmouth and then draw at home to ManchesterCity in subsequent league matches. Will Scholes revert to his mediocreform, will Smith lose his snap and will Ferdinand slip back intocomplacent ways against Charlton Athletic?
Ten points behind Chelsea, albeit with a game in hand, it will be awhile before we can say that this was anything other than a roar ofdefiance in the long death throes of Ferguson's reign. His players canstill rouse themselves for a one-off battle against the best but thosewho doubted their ability to win the title or the European Cup shouldnot be revising their opinion simply because of one victory, howevertumultuous.
United rode their luck to survive Chelsea's second-half onslaught butat least they could point out that this victory did not require thebullying tactics so often employed to overcome Arsenal's superiortechnique. Mourinho could argue, as he did, that his team were unluckyto lose but he could not dispute that United's half-time lead was wellmerited.
The looping header from Darren Fletcher which was, in the end, theonly measurable difference between the two teams, may not have beendeliberately placed just inside the post but it was the culmination ofa slick move involving Wes Brown, Wayne Rooney, Scholes and theeffervescent Cristiano Ronaldo.
It was only when Mourinho replaced Michael Essien with EidurGudjohnsen in the 55th minute — belatedly by the standards of thedecisive Portuguese — that Chelsea began to put United under sustainedpressure. At right-back, Wes Brown looked ready to crack under thestrain but, with a bit of luck and a lot of hacking the ball away,Ferdinand and his defenders survived.
If one moment summed up United's resilience, it came in the 74thminute when Smith flung himself into a crucial challenge inside hisown area. Leaping to his feet, he angrily berated John O'Shea forfailing to cut out the danger earlier. Hair cut to the scalp and facescrewed up in rage, Keane would have been proud. Or perhaps not. Maybethe skipper will march into the training ground this morning and say:"It's very well to do that in a big match against Chelsea but wherewere you lot when Middlesbrough were sticking four away last week?"
Chelsea's defeat will be cheered up and down the land and Wigan nowlie only six points behind with a game in hand. It is unlikely thatMourinho will feel Paul Jewell's breath down his neck but, for acouple of weeks at least, it is a lovely thought.
PRAWN TO BE WILD
IT WAS NOT just the Manchester United players who seemed desperate toprove Roy Keane wrong yesterday. The home support, once described byKeane as prawn sandwich-eating mutes, gave great vocal support fortheir team. Some of the anthems were ironic, not least "My old mansaid 'Be a City fan' " and "Who the f*** are Man United?", and othersoffensive, particularly towards Peter Kenyon, who resigned as Unitedchief executive to take on that role at Chelsea. Compared with thematchday atmosphere at Stamford Bridge, the din was almost unbearable.OLIVER KAY
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Sun:
Man Utd 1 Chelsea 0
DARREN FLETCHER rammed Roy Keane's words down his throat with the goalthat ended Chelsea's 40-game unbeaten run.
United's Scotland midfielder was one of the players most harshlycriticised by Keane in that now infamous programme axed by MUTV.
But he responded in just the manner his injured captain would havewanted, rising to meet Cristiano Ronaldo's cross with a 31st-minutelooping header that dropped in at the far post.
United had to weather a second-half siege from Chelsea to steal the points.
They may have ridden their luck at times, but there was no doubt theirperformance had all the passion and intent that had been lacking indismal defeats to Middlesbrough and Lille.
Alan Smith typified the United spirit, his commitment in midfield wastotal, his tackle count was off the scale and he turned in a displayof which Keane in his prime would have been proud.
Wayne Rooney was not far behind him. He hardly got a sniff in attack,but he never gave Chelsea's backline a moment of peace and producedsome sublime touches which showed just why he is United's andEngland's best player.
This result was important for so many reasons. It ended Chelsea'sPremiership unbeaten run, it broke Jose Mourninho's hoodoo over SirAlex Ferguson and, who knows, it could have saved Fergie's job.
A little bit melodramatic perhaps, but a thumping win for the Blues inUnited's back yard and who knows what might have happened.
Chelsea started the brighter and could have taken the lead when RioFerdinand was caught snoozing on eight minutes.
He may be the most expensive defender in the world, but the formerLeeds man has looked a shadow of the player who dazzled at the WorldCup four years ago.
Ferdinand was not expecting Didier Drobga to get anywhere near a FrankLampard ball over the top.
The Ivory Coast international brought the pass down with a sensationalfirst touch and while Rio stood open-mouthed he fired in a shot whichEdwin van der Sar beat down at his near post.
United had another escape seven minutes later. Asier Del Horno losthis marker, Fletcher, at a free-kick from the right and blasted overthe bar.
At the other end Paul Scholes was only a foot away from giving United the lead.
Silvestre fed Rooney down the inside-left channel and the youngstercontrolled the ball superbly before setting up the ginger marauderarriving from the edge of the box. The former England man cut acrossthe ball with his right foot and it swerved just past the right-handupright.
That effort lifted United and they got a foothold in the game beforetaking the lead on 31 minutes.
Ronaldo's cross from the left found Fletcher unmarked andbackpedalling at the far post. The Scotland star tried to head theball back into the danger zone, but his effort looped across goal andjust dropped in under the bar.
Drobga fired into the sidenetting just before the break and withinfour minutes of the restart Smith cleared Frank Lampard's shot infront of van der Sar.
But United were still a threat at this stage. Fletcher's knockback wasa fraction behind Ruud van Nistelrooy, but the prolific Dutchmanshould still have done better than blast over from 12 yards.
Jose Mourinho threw on Eidur Gudjohnsen for Michael Essien just beforethe hour and suddenly it was all Chelsea. The Icelander carved out thechance of the game within two minutes of coming on.
He crossed from the left but the unmarked Damien Duff completelymiskicked eight yards out and Drogba slipped as he was about to pullthe trigger.
Drobga then scuffed a close-range shot from Gudjohnsen's pass but theball ran kindly to Lampard who was denied by a brilliant save low downfrom van der Sar.
Joe Cole's shot from the resulting corner was blocked by the omnipresent Smith.
Gudjohnsen was involved again with 20 minutes left. He fed Duff whosent an inviting cross into the danger zone. Del Horno was arriving atpace and sent an acrobatic volley over the bar.
Rooney had a chance to settle the game near the end. Substitute Parkchased a long ball with two defenders and all three collided. The ballbroke to Rooney 25 yards out but his instant shot was blocked for acorner.
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Mirror:
JOSE HITS THE BUFFERSManchester Utd 1 Chelsea 0 It's Theatre of Screams for Mourinho asChelsea's run is stopped by rampant RedsMartin Lipton Chief Football WriterNOW it really is pressure, Jose. And we will find out what your team is made of.
Just like Arsenal's "Invincibles" 13 months ago, Chelsea'sirresistible force was stopped in its tracks by the immovable objectof Manchester United's sheer desire.
As Old Trafford rocked to the rafters, as tension reverberated aroundthe Theatre of Dreams throughout Chelsea's second- half siege, it wasas if the gods of football wanted to teach Jose Mourinho and his mennothing is ever achieved without moments of doubt.
Doubt there must be, even in Mourinho's mind, after a second loss infive days by a team that did not have the word "defeat" in itscollective vocabulary.
And even if most of football has gloried in United and Sir AlexFerguson's discomfort over the past week, it will not just be ArseneWenger who offered up a prayer of thanks to the Laird of Old Traffordlast night.
The bulldozer that had crashed through all obstacles for the firstthree months of the campaign has slipped its gears, while the FortKnox defence has developed cracks that are starting to tell.
This was the team that recorded seven straight clean sheets, thatrarely even looked like being breached.
Now Mourinho's side have conceded in seven of the last eight games,and while the Portuguese boss has railed and warned against the recent"individual mistakes"- his players were not listening.
Perhaps we've got a title race after all.
This was a game won and lost by the old-fashioned virtues, by guts anddetermination, and refusal to be consumed by what at times looked likea superior force, as United dug deep into their reserves of courage.
Yet for all the possession Chelsea had in the second period as theysought to peg back the advantage eked out by Darren Fletcher'sfortuitous header, for all the blue shirts that flooded the Unitedbox, they did not test Edwin Van der Sar enough to win or even draw.
Fletcher did well to get on to the end of Cristiano Ronaldo's crossand his looping header drifted beyond the slow-reacting Petr Cech anddropped just inside the back post over the despairing John Terry.
But if Michael Essien or Asier Del Horno had been in the rightposition, it would not have been possible.
It was a shock to the system, but the type of shock that Mourinho'smen had recovered from all season - until Tuesday in Seville.
Before that Didier Drogba threatened to make Rio Ferdinand's seasonmore depressing, and with Joe Cole influential and Frank Lampard andDamien Duff keen to make inroads, Chelsea had looked calm andcontrolled although Alan Smith ran himself into the ground.
Paul Scholes had gone close after foraging from Wayne Rooney butDrogba, after a beautiful piece of control as Ferdinand lost his runon to Lampard's ball, knew he should have tested Van der Sar.
Yet the longer the half went on, the more United's midfield were ableto get a grip, with Fletcher's goal proof he has more to offer thanRoy Keane suggested.
It should have been over 12 minutes after the restart. Rooney teased aball out to Fletcher on the right, he pulled back but skipper Ruud vanNistelrooy slashed wildly into the Stretford End.
Duff's air-shot only fell for Drogba, who ended up on his backside butstill managed to see his shot screw wildly but fractionally outsidethe post with Van der Sar scrambling.
Cole fired over as the assault intensified. Del Horno prodded over,and when Drogba's shot fell to Lampard, Van der Sar turned the ballbehind.
Cole and Lampard dithered with the shooting opportunities and thedesperation left the Blues open at the other end, with only Terry'sprone body denying Rooney late on.
Not that United fans or the the country cared about that.
Unbeatable? Not any more. Unstoppable? Evidently not. Still, probably,champions.
But the questions are being asked. We have to wait two weeks to see ifChelsea can find the answers. Mourinho wants to know them too.
MAN UTD: Van der Sar, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre, Fletcher,Smith, Scholes, Rooney, van Nistelrooy (Park 82), Ronaldo.
CHELSEA: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Gallas, Terry, Del Horno (C Cole 78),Essien (Gudjohnsen 55), Makelele, Lampard, J Cole (Wright-Phillips74), Drogba, Duff.
ATTENDANCE: 67,864
MAN OF THE MATCH: Smith