The Times
January 12, 2009
Manchester United strike chord of fearManchester United 3 Chelsea 0
Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent
As José Mourinho settled into his seat in the directors’ box, back in an English stadium for the first time since his abrupt departure from Stamford Bridge, he loomed large over this battle of heavyweights. By the end, with Old Trafford rocking around him, he could not cast so much as a five o’clock shadow over Manchester United’s celebrations. For Chelsea, though, his brooding presence offered an unwelcome reminder of just how they have fallen without him over the past 16 months.
Mourinho was there to cast an eye over United, who gave an ominous warning of the task facing his Inter Milan team in the Champions League’s first knockout round next month, but, as he flew back to Italy last night, he will also have been preoccupied by Chelsea’s continuing troubles under Luiz Felipe Scolari. Whatever his reputation for malevolence, there must have been a part of him that looked upon this performance - devoid of wit, spirit, character and organisation - in much the same way as someone returning to their beloved former home and finding it fallen into disrepair, with weeds overrunning the garden.
If this was a glorious afternoon for United, who have the opportunity to go to the top of the table for the first time this season if they can beat Wigan Athletic on Wednesday and Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, it was truly wretched for Chelsea. As if conceding three goals was not bad enough, two of them - Nemanja Vidic’s header in first-half stoppage time and Dimitar Berbatov’s close-range volley with three minutes remaining, which were interspersed by a deserved goal for Wayne Rooney - were from dead-ball situations. So organised under Mourinho, Chelsea have conceded five goals from set-pieces in their past three games.
Chelsea are in a bad place right now, with only three wins in their past 11 games in all competitions, but their frailties were exposed quite brutally by a team who warmed to the idea of humiliating Scolari’s players as the game wore on. As Chelsea heads began to drop - and, strangely, this seemed to include John Terry, mocked by the home supporters throughout, as well as the more usual suspects, such as Didier Drogba - United twisted the knife. By the time that Howard Webb, the referee, blew the final whistle, some Chelsea players looked relieved that United had stopped at three goals.
United were not even at their best, at least not in an attacking sense.
While Ryan Giggs picked up the champagne for being man of the match, having dominated a congested midfield, their outstanding performers were in the centre of defence, where Vidic and Jonny Evans played superbly to make light of Rio Ferdinand’s absence. The England defender’s persistent back spasms are a concern, so much so that he will be sent to a specialist today, but Evans, after a brief dip in form, was magnificent.
The Northern Ireland defender policed Drogba so effectively, anticipating every ball, that he reduced the Chelsea forward to a carping, gesticulating, limping self-parody. Subduing Drogba is not the task it was two seasons ago, but it is another string to the 21-year-old’s bow.
At the other end of the pitch, Chelsea’s defence could not withstand the pressure that United cranked up in the final minutes of a fiercely contested first half. They should have gone a goal behind in the 45th minute, when Cristiano Ronaldo scored with a header from Giggs’s cross, only for the effort to be disallowed because Rooney’s quick thinking, in taking the sneakiest of short corners before Giggs dribbled the ball infield, was beyond the grasp of Darren Cann, the assistant referee. Rooney was furious, but Chelsea’s reprieve was temporary, with a second corner by Giggs flicked on by Berbatov at the near post and converted by Vidic, who had escaped the attentions of Terry.
The goal changed the atmosphere, adding to the derision heaped on Terry on his first visit to Old Trafford since an expensive miss in the penalty shoot-out in last season’s Champions League final, but it also changed the contest.
Scolari replaced the ineffective Deco with Nicolas Anelka and, in doing so, opened up the game, playing into United’s hands by leaving more space for Giggs, Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov to exploit. Scolari admitted as much afterwards, but said that he had little choice. “If I wanted to lose 1-0, I would keep my team with one more in midfield,” he said. “But I needed to change.”
If that is Scolari’s philosophy, there will surely be more changes ahead as he looks to modify a game plan that has looked less convincing as the season has progressed. As confidence has receded, so has the spirit that once coursed through the veins of Chelsea. The second half was a chastening experience for them, with John Obi Mikel suddenly looking a novice in the midfield holding role. Their defence was left exposed and, while United took time to prod at the chinks in their opponents’ armour, there was an air of inevitability.
The second goal, though, was a beauty and one that Rooney merited for a display that was full of bravery and desire, and flecked with genius, as well as the odd moment when he threatened to test Webb’s patience. The one thing that had been missing was a goal, but, as Patrice Evra crossed from the left wing, after a clever backheel from Ronaldo, the England forward drifted into the danger area. The ball was flicked on by Berbatov and Rooney sidefooted in despite the presence of Ashley Cole.
Could things get any worse for Chelsea? Of course they could. After Drogba, for once neglected by Evans, swung at a volley and missed the ball completely, United poured forward in search of a third goal. Ronaldo, having been hacked brutally by Juliano Belletti, struck a venomous free kick from near the left corner flag and Berbatov, who had inexplicably been left in the care of young Franco Di Santo, stuck out a foot to beat Petr Cech at the near post.
Terry looked distraught, Scolari helpless and Mourinho, up in the directors’ box, impassive. All the while, Ferguson was beaming as United issued the most ominous statement of intent in the title race. For a team who had been accused by Rafael BenÍtez, the Liverpool manager, of being nervous, this was quite a response by United, as Mourinho, who knows a thing or two about winning championships, would no doubt concur.
Man United (4-4-2): E van der Sar 6 G Neville 7 N Vidic 8 J Evans 8 P Evra 7 C Ronaldo 7 D Fletcher 7 R Giggs 7 Park Ji Sung 7 W Rooney 8 D Berbatov 6 Substitutes: J O’Shea 5 (for Evra, 66min), M Carrick (for Giggs, 80). Not used: T Kuszczak, P Scholes, Anderson, C Tévez, D Welbeck. Next: Wigan (h).
Chelsea (4-1-4-1): P Cech 5 J Bosingwa 6 R Carvalho 5 J Terry 5 A Cole 6 J O Mikel 4 J Cole 4 M Ballack 4 F Lampard 6 Deco 5 D Drogba 4 Substitutes: N Anelka 4 (for Deco, 46), J Belletti 4 (for Bosingwa, 63), F Di Santo (for J Cole, 85). Not used: C Cudicini, B Ivanovic, P Ferreira, S Kalou. Next: Stoke (h).
Referee H Webb Attendance 75,455
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Telegraph:
Manchester United cut Chelsea to piecesManchester United (1) 3 Chelsea (0) 0 By Henry Winter at Old Trafford The only time Chelsea got the better of Manchester United on Sunday was when the visiting fans serenaded Patrice Evra, the champions’ full-back returning from suspension after scrapping with a Bridge groundsman, with "10 men went to mow’’, an old favourite. Otherwise, this was a soul-destroying, possibly season-destroying afternoon for the Blues.
United were so superior, particularly in the second period, a class apart from Chelsea in shape, belief and cutting edge. What will particularly alarm those who see the world through blue-tinted glasses was the way the life drained from Luiz Felipe Scolari’s players after Nemanja Vidic scored just before the break.
Wayne Rooney and company sensed the vulnerability. "When we were walking in at half-time, we saw all the Chelsea lads and their heads were down,’’ Rooney revealed, "we knew that if we could go at them they couldn’t live with us.’’ United went for the jugular, Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov striking fine goals, inflicting Chelsea’s biggest defeat since February 2006 at Middlesbrough.
The stats made grim reading for Scolari, and not just the five cautions that will trigger a £25,000 fine at a time when the club are straining to cut costs. Shots on-target figures were 11-1 in the champions’ favour, and there was a brief debate afterwards over actually what Chelsea’s effort had been.
Another fact deserved recording: this was surely the first time a Liverpool manager had done United’s team-talk. Rafa Benitez’s speech criticising Sir Alex Ferguson looks even less smart in the wake of Liverpool’s drab display at Stoke City and then this comprehensive victory for a fired-up United.
Even this far out from the finishing line, Ferguson’s thoroughbreds are beginning to lengthen their stride. From back to front, United looked every inch the champions of England. Jonny Evans, deputising again superbly for Rio Ferdinand, snuffed out Chelsea’s few attacks with some athletic blocks. Vidic was a force in both boxes while Darren Fletcher, rising to the occasion admirably, shielded his defence expertly.
And Ryan Giggs? Unbelievable. Man of the match from central midfield. The only Premier League player mentioned in "The Simpsons", Giggs seems to have been around since Wallis Simpson but he effortlessly defied Old Father Time as well as Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard and John Obi Mikel. Giggs, 35 going on 25, kept nicking the ball, kept weaving through the midfield.
Out wide, Park Ji-sung and Cristiano Ronaldo worked hard at implementing Ferguson’s tactics, doubling up on Scolari’s flying full-backs, Jose Bosingwa and Ashley Cole. Chelsea’s wings were clipped. Ronaldo, particularly in the second half, showed signs of a return to the vibrancy of last season.
At the end of a week during which he crashed his Ferrari, Ronaldo’s brilliance was a wonderful retort to the sick chant emanating from the away enclosure of "you should have died in the tunnel’’. With Ronaldo stretching Chelsea, United’s centre-forwards kept raiding through the middle. Berbatov glided through. Rooney rampaged through. Moving at different speeds, both were unstoppable.
If United were good, Chelsea were poor. Didier Drogba wore gloves but that only partly explained why his finger-prints would never be found on events at Old Trafford; the striker seemed listless, distracted, and his shooting was a danger to spectators.
Whoever negotiated Ballack’s £121,000-a-week contract deserves businessman of the year; again, the German failed to impose talent seen so often with his country. "Ballack couldn’t live with Giggs,’’ reflected Ferguson. Michael Essien cannot return soon enough.
Lampard sweated hard for the cause, but needed stronger support. Behind him, John Terry also sought to lift his team but this was a particularly bruising experience for the Chelsea captain. Following his wayward spot-kick in Moscow that helped United to the Champions League, Terry’s name has been sung with gusto at Old Trafford. Some United fans even devised a tribute from the "Mr Men’’ series with a "Mr Penalty’’ banner including Terry’s likeness.
Over the next few months, Chelsea will really need Terry and Lampard to keep Chelsea going. Scolari certainly cannot escape censure. His refusal to place a player on the posts at corners continues to defy belief. The Brazilian’s mantra of "posts don’t score, players do’’ lacks logic when set against costly goals conceded at Craven Cottage and now here, seconds before the break.
Ronaldo had just had a header ruled out, as Rooney had failed to lift his foot off the ball when rolling it into the D for a corner and then steering it out for Giggs to cross. United were furious with the linesman, Peter Kirkup, but still scored from the re-take. Berbatov flicked on and there was Vidic heading home. Surely, Scolari must now see the importance of guarding the post?
What will have made it more painful for Scolari was that Jose Mourinho, for so long Chelsea’s dug-out inspiration, sat in the stands, the centre of attention before kick-off as everyone focused on the man who possesses the swagger to succeed Ferguson one day. Under Mourinho, Chelsea would not have been as anaemic as this.
Sitting near-by was Keith Hackett, the Premier League's referee czar, who must have been pleased with the authoritative way Howard Webb handled a potentially fractious affair. The game was initially tight and niggly, midfield a crowded house, particularly with Chelsea’s "wide’’ players, Deco and Joe Cole, tucking in and Rooney dropping deep. Webb kept tempers in check, although Rooney should have been cautioned earlier for dissent.
The England international was at his best in the second period. Scolari introduced Nicolas Anelka for the ineffectual Deco, giving Drogba some support, but Chelsea melted in the teeth of a storm whipped up by Rooney. Just after the hour, Ronaldo sent Evra down the line and the Frenchman’s cross was met by Rooney.
The third arrived five minutes from time. When Juliano Belletti fouled Ronaldo, the European Footballer of the Year delivered in a free-kick that Berbatov turned neatly home. Scolari’s decision to tell the callow substitute, Franco di Santo, to mark Berbatov was bizarre. Chelsea must have a serious inquest. United roll on, and could be top by Saturday evening.
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Indy:
United drive Scolari to edge of precipice
Manchester United 3 Chelsea 0
By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent
His diminished fortune tells us Roman Abramovich never saw the credit crunch coming, but maybe he predicted a similar collapse of epic proportions yesterday and for that reason stayed away from Old Trafford. His Chelsea team staggered off this pitch, any pretension of parity with Manchester United smashed to bits. The defeat was so savage that, at times, it felt like the end of the line for Luiz Felipe Scolari.
That is what will have crossed Jose Mourinho's mind, watching from the directors' box: he would have got sacked for a result like this. Not just the result but the sheer hopelessness of the performance, the slackness with which goals were conceded to Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, the speed with which Chelsea faded as United took the lead before half-time. In the Champions League final in May they came back at United in the second half, yesterday they just lay down and died.
Scolari's team are still one point ahead of United, but United have two games in hand and it is most certainly Sir Alex Ferguson's team who occupy the fast lane– just as long as Cristiano Ronaldo is not in charge of overtaking. Scolari looks utterly isolated, his billionaire employer staying away, only the teenager Franco Di Santo to call upon in the late stages when he opted for a third striker. How long will Abramovich be interested in owning a team that is going backwards?
After the game Scolari will have been obliged to meet Ferguson in his office along with two other visitors to Old Trafford yesterday. Just to cap a dreadful day for the Brazilian, those two men were Mourinho and Carlos Queiroz, both of whom he detests, but the man he must really feel like strangling will have been sitting on the other side of the desk. Ferguson has stolen the day again, he looks like he might yet claim the whole season.
If Ferguson could feel generous to these three men then it is because his most recent bête noire has had an appalling 72 hours. Rafael Benitez called it on with Ferguson on Friday, watched his team let him down at Stoke City on Saturday and then saw United play like champions yesterday – the Liverpool manager's latest kidney stone operation today will be painless in comparison.
Benitez will know now that when it comes to knifing Ferguson, timing is everything – and his timing stinks. "Disturbed" is how Ferguson described Benitez, and a performance of this magnitude will no doubt have been disturbing for any Liverpudlian.
United's best player was Ryan Giggs, at 35 years old a controversial choice ahead of Michael Carrick for a game of this magnitude, but a decisive presence in the centre. Jonny Evans, in for the injured Rio Ferdinand, was excellent. Rooney was irrepressible. They are gaining a familiar momentum as the season heats up.
In one extraordinary sequence of play United sprung an ingenious move to create a goal which was disallowed just before Vidic's opener. Rooney went to the corner, rolled the ball two yards into play and then nonchalantly jogged away without a Chelsea player noticing. Giggs said subsequently that Rooney told him "I've taken a short one" as Giggs came over to take the corner. Instead of taking the corner Giggs dribbled the ball at goal, crossed it and, with Chelsea bemused, Ronaldo headed in.
The linesman, Darren Cann, disallowed the goal because Rooney had not told him that he had put the ball into play. The interesting aspect is that linesmen only stand by the corner flag on the corners taken on their side of the pitch. Had the corner been on the opposite side, there would have been no linesman by the flag. What then? It would have been attracted more controversy had United not then preceded to take Chelsea apart, bit by bit. Seconds after Ronaldo's goal was disallowed, Giggs' retaken corner was headed on by Berbatov and put in at the back post by Vidic in first-half injury time. There had been a period in the middle of the first half when Rooney strained to keep his temper and Ronaldo looked at his dismissive, complaining worst. He shoved Ricardo Carvalho and then, from the chaos, United took control of the match.
Chelsea have not been beaten by a three-goal margin since they lost to Middlesbrough in February 2006 and then they were cruising at the top of the league. They drifted into anonymity yesterday. Frank Lampard was booked in the first minute and was hesitant after that. Didier Drogba miskicked one shot so far wide that it went out for a throw-in. John Terry was cheered by the United fans for every touch, a mocking gesture of thanks from Old Trafford for his missed penalty in Moscow.
The sideshow was Carlos Tevez's second half warm-up on the touchline, cause for rapturous applause from the United fans that was milked by the Argentine. It was designed to remind Ferguson he wants a permanent deal. Judging by Ferguson's decision not to bring Tevez on, he was not impressed.
Scolari sent on Nicolas Anelka for the hopeless Deco at half-time and, with Chelsea's midfield reduced to four, United dominated.
Ronaldo played in Patrice Evra who crossed for Rooney, he stuck his foot between Ashley Cole's legs and clipped in the second. Chelsea's descent from mediocrity to ineffectiveness was steep. They did not have a single shot on target before Berbatov scored the third from Ronaldo's cross in the 87th minute.
It was telling that Di Santo, marking Berbatov at the corner, was stopped from tracking the striker by Vidic's crafty block. Judging by the whispered conversation between the two United men, it was all planned. Vidic against the 19-year-old Di Santo is, in football parlance, men against boys. The game had looked that way long before that moment.
Goals: Vidic (45) 1-0; Rooney (63) 2-0; Berbatov (87) 3-0
Manchester United (4-4-2): Van der Sar; Neville, Vidic, Evans, Evra (O'Shea 65); Ronaldo, Fletcher, Giggs (Carrick 80), Park; Berbatov, Rooney. Substitutes not used: Kuszczak (gk), Anderson, Scholes, Welbeck, Tevez.
Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Bosingwa (Belletti 64), Carvalho, Terry, A Cole; Mikel; J Cole (Di Santo 85), Ballack, Lampard, Deco (Anelka ht); Drogba. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Ivanovic, Ferreira, Kalou.
Referee: H Webb (South Yorkshire)
Booked: Manchester United Ronaldo, Rooney; Chelsea Lampard, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Terry, Belletti.
Man of the match: Giggs.
Attendance: 74,455
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Rooney roars as United push limp Chelsea aside in climb towards topManchester United 3 Vidic 45, Rooney 63, Berbatov 87 Chelsea 0
Kevin McCarra at Old Trafford Wayne Rooney of Manchester United is congratulated by team mate Dimitar Berbatov after scoring his team's second goal. Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images
That long-haul voyage to the Club World Cup might as well have been a restorative trip to a health farm. Manchester United left Chelsea looking as if it was they who were jet-lagged. The fuzzy minds were all in the visitors' skulls. Their club had not been beaten so heavily by these rivals since 2002, the year before Roman Abramovich's takeover.
The billionaire was shrewd not to come to Old Trafford if the decision was based on misgivings about this element in his portfolio of investments. Conversely, the regulars at this stadium would have felt fulfilled. In addition to savouring the margin of victory, they had watched United dictate the nature of the whole match.
There was barely a spasm of sophistication or purpose from the visitors. By the end, Chelsea had been stripped of their competence.
It was laughably simple, three minutes from full-time, for Dimitar Berbatov to brush himself away from his young marker, Franco di Santo, and fire in Cristiano Ronaldo's free-kick.
The afternoon seemed restorative for the United winger. Ronaldo looks on the verge of rediscovering his former self, the one who was irresistible before injury and surgery last summer. There, too, was proof of Chelsea's helplessness. They were a mere device in the rehabilitation of the Portuguese as a lethal attacker.
There was a hint of that, in the 54th minute, when a cross from the left was so devastating that it took his own team-mates by surprise. Nine minutes later, a Ronaldo backheel did the initial harm to Chelsea as it released the full-back Patrice Evra. The Frenchman collected an injury as he crossed and soon had to be replaced, but deeper damage was done to the visitors. The ball grazed the head of Berbatov before Wayne Rooney shot home.
Chelsea have now taken the commonplace total of six points from their last five Premier League fixtures. The summit of the unfulfilled ambition was to keep United at bay.
Didier Drogba was abject but had no prompting to coax the best out of him. Deco, whose form has collapsed, was the obvious candidate for removal at the interval. The side was bereft of flair and Jonny Evans, deputising for the injured Rio Ferdinand, was wholly unruffled.
The United players, in fairness, could not be classed as a higher life form in a first half largely devoted to industriousness. Park Ji-sung, dedication personified, was in place for an attempt, after an exchange of passes with Ronaldo, that John Terry blocked in the 44th minute. The opener, moments later, still came as a surprise and its origins lay in the befuddlement of the officials.
United were accidentally penalised at a corner-kick for being unacceptably smart. Rooney tapped the ball a yard or so. Ryan Giggs then advanced with an intent to cross from the right. The referee's assistant, though, raised his flag because he believed that the corner had not been taken at all. Giggs then flighted it conventionally and, following a faint touch from Berbatov, the defender Nemanja Vidic nodded low past Petr Cech.
Any argument that Chelsea's concentration had been undermined during a puzzling episode is invalidated by the fact that that they have been floundering at set-pieces for a while. The absence of order was resonant since Jose Mourinho, that master of organisation, was watching his former club from the stands. With this degree of woolliness, the trip to Southend on Wednesday for an FA Cup replay will not be free of hazards. United, naturally, will look at all remaining fixtures with relish. Victory over Wigan at home in midweek would see Ferguson's side standing two points behind the leaders Liverpool with a game in hand.
When Chelsea study the league table they may be most conscious of the fact that Aston Villa are a mere point behind them. United followers would not have been tormenting themselves with too much arithmetic.
It will count more that their side was masterful in various respects. There was, for instance, surprise at the inclusion of Giggs in central midfield rather than Michael Carrick, but the veteran used the ball expertly and displayed a deeper reserve of stamina than had been anticipated. United as a whole grew ever stronger as Chelsea's dejection deepened.
A tight offside call had denied Ronaldo a goal when the substitute Carrick located him. There was none of the competitiveness that used to be the essence of Chelsea. Apart from any examination of their morale, there should be scrutiny of the system. The period when the over-lapping full-backs added such zest to displays away from home is long over, but alternative supplies of impetus are scarce, despite Frank Lampard's effort here.
Chelsea seem a side with too restricted a repertoire. The isolation of forwards, including the substitute Nicolas Anelka, reflected badly on Scolari's construction of the team. The visitors collected five bookings yet never put up a fight.
Man of the match: Ryan Giggs
Talent can aid longevity. The Welshman was a surprise starter but the former winger set the rhythm of the match from central midfield.
Best moment: Setting up the opener for Manchester United with a corner.
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Mail:
Manchester United 3 Chelsea 0: Canny Fergie relies on maestro Giggs to expose class divideBy Matt Lawton
The road ahead would appear to be much as Luiz Felipe Scolari feared it might be. More success, seemingly, for this marvellous Manchester United side and trouble for Chelsea.
'Big damage,' was the phrase Scolari used to describe the implications of the result and even Chelsea's manager must realise that damage could go way beyond this season's title race.
Not least when defeat was followed bythe sight of Jose Mourinho embracing his former players in the tunnel.
Scolari must wonder if it actually represents the beginning of the end, and not just for him but for a team that would seem to be in serious need of an overhaul.
A team that has run out of ideas having failed to force Edwin van der Sar into making a single save.
Their ineptitude appeared to stun Inter boss Mourinho. Long after the final whistle he remained in his seat in the directors' box, staring incredulously at players he once watched receive a guard of honour here at Old Trafford.
They were nothing like the side he guided to two successive championships. Nothing like as determined or well drilled, leaving those who were seated just in front of him to question how prudent it was to part company with the Special One last season.
Scolari has now taken just one point from four top-four contests - something that never happened when Mourinho was in charge. In fact, it was something that never happened when Avram Grant was in charge, either.
The manner of this defeat would suggest so much ground has been lost to the champions of England, Europe and the world, who not only established a new Barclays Premier League record with an eighth consecutive clean sheet but also looked a class apart.
When the team sheets appeared before kick-off, Sir Alex Ferguson's sanity was being questioned. He had left Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick on the bench, opting instead to unleash Ryan Giggs and Darren Fletcher against Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and John Mikel Obi.
But it proved a masterstroke, 34-year-old Giggs emerging as the man of the match with Fletcher not far behind him. Giggs remained calm amid the chaos of this fiercely contested match, passing with fluency and dictating the tempo of United's vastly superior football.
When Chelsea dominated briefly in the opening 20 minutes, it was the experience of players like Giggs that allowed United to absorb the initial pressure and slowly regain control.
Even when Cristiano Ronaldo had what United considered a perfectly good goal disallowed in the 45th minute - the assistant referee insisting Wayne Rooney's quick corner was illegal because he failed to first place the ball - Giggs kept his head.
He planted the ball back at the corner flag, delivered another corner and then celebrated for a second time when Dimitar Berbatov flicked the ball on, enabling Nemanja Vidic to score with a diving header at the far post.
Prior to that, only United had threatened, with Chelsea's forwards unable to find a way past the formidable pairing of Vidic and Jonny Evans.
Berbatov had squandered one opportunity with a weakly-struck left-foot shot that Petr Cech gathered easily, before John Terry denied Ji-sung Park with a timely block.
United opened the scoring seconds before the interval and Scolari did at least respond by making a tactical change.
Off came the ineffective Deco and on went Nicolas Anelka. It made no difference. If anything, Chelsea's second-half display was inferior to the first, two more United goals underlining the gulf in quality and condemning the visitors to their heaviest Premier League defeat in three years. The first came in the 63rd minute and was beautifully executed. A back-heel from Ronaldo, a wonderful cross from Patrice Evra and what initially looked like an own goal for Ashley Cole but was, in fact, a fifth Premier League goal of the campaign for Rooney. It also amounted to another example of Chelsea's defensive frailties.
Frailties that were again exposed in the 87th minute when Juliano Belletti fouled Ronaldo and the Portuguese winger then delivered a free-kick that Berbatov was only too happy to drive into the back of the net.It helped that Vidic blocked the path of Franco Di Santo - Berbatov's designated marker - but it was a super finish all the same. Not until the 93rd minute did Chelsea even look like scoring, but an easy header was sent embarrassingly wide by a hapless, clearly unhappy Didier Drogba.
That Ronaldo had a second goal disallowed - when the assistant referee made a mistake in thinking he was offside - only added to Chelsea's misery.
Had luck been on the side of the player who should today be crowned the world's best in Zurich, it could have been worse still for Chelsea.
For the final 30 minutes, Scolari cut a forlorn figure. He made two more changes but watched helplessly, hands in coat pockets, as his side fell to pieces.Ferguson and his players had responded brilliantly to the accusations that had come from Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez.
To that first United goal, Chelsea did not respond at all. Had United already won those two games in hand - against Wigan this week and Fulham next month - they would now be one point ahead of Liverpool with the Merseysiders and Arsenal yet to visit Old Trafford.Now it would only appear to be Liverpool who stand between them and a third successive title, even if the table suggests Chelsea remain very much in the running.
But the table sometimes lies. It lies about the state of this Chelsea side and it lies about their chances of returning to the summit of the English game.
While Mourinho's attention diverted from his former players to Ferguson and was followed by another embrace, raised voices could be heard in the away dressing room.
Not good enough, you suspect, was the message. These days at Chelsea, it rarely is.
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January 12, 2009
Manchester United strike chord of fearManchester United 3 Chelsea 0
Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent
As José Mourinho settled into his seat in the directors’ box, back in an English stadium for the first time since his abrupt departure from Stamford Bridge, he loomed large over this battle of heavyweights. By the end, with Old Trafford rocking around him, he could not cast so much as a five o’clock shadow over Manchester United’s celebrations. For Chelsea, though, his brooding presence offered an unwelcome reminder of just how they have fallen without him over the past 16 months.
Mourinho was there to cast an eye over United, who gave an ominous warning of the task facing his Inter Milan team in the Champions League’s first knockout round next month, but, as he flew back to Italy last night, he will also have been preoccupied by Chelsea’s continuing troubles under Luiz Felipe Scolari. Whatever his reputation for malevolence, there must have been a part of him that looked upon this performance - devoid of wit, spirit, character and organisation - in much the same way as someone returning to their beloved former home and finding it fallen into disrepair, with weeds overrunning the garden.
If this was a glorious afternoon for United, who have the opportunity to go to the top of the table for the first time this season if they can beat Wigan Athletic on Wednesday and Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, it was truly wretched for Chelsea. As if conceding three goals was not bad enough, two of them - Nemanja Vidic’s header in first-half stoppage time and Dimitar Berbatov’s close-range volley with three minutes remaining, which were interspersed by a deserved goal for Wayne Rooney - were from dead-ball situations. So organised under Mourinho, Chelsea have conceded five goals from set-pieces in their past three games.
Chelsea are in a bad place right now, with only three wins in their past 11 games in all competitions, but their frailties were exposed quite brutally by a team who warmed to the idea of humiliating Scolari’s players as the game wore on. As Chelsea heads began to drop - and, strangely, this seemed to include John Terry, mocked by the home supporters throughout, as well as the more usual suspects, such as Didier Drogba - United twisted the knife. By the time that Howard Webb, the referee, blew the final whistle, some Chelsea players looked relieved that United had stopped at three goals.
United were not even at their best, at least not in an attacking sense.
While Ryan Giggs picked up the champagne for being man of the match, having dominated a congested midfield, their outstanding performers were in the centre of defence, where Vidic and Jonny Evans played superbly to make light of Rio Ferdinand’s absence. The England defender’s persistent back spasms are a concern, so much so that he will be sent to a specialist today, but Evans, after a brief dip in form, was magnificent.
The Northern Ireland defender policed Drogba so effectively, anticipating every ball, that he reduced the Chelsea forward to a carping, gesticulating, limping self-parody. Subduing Drogba is not the task it was two seasons ago, but it is another string to the 21-year-old’s bow.
At the other end of the pitch, Chelsea’s defence could not withstand the pressure that United cranked up in the final minutes of a fiercely contested first half. They should have gone a goal behind in the 45th minute, when Cristiano Ronaldo scored with a header from Giggs’s cross, only for the effort to be disallowed because Rooney’s quick thinking, in taking the sneakiest of short corners before Giggs dribbled the ball infield, was beyond the grasp of Darren Cann, the assistant referee. Rooney was furious, but Chelsea’s reprieve was temporary, with a second corner by Giggs flicked on by Berbatov at the near post and converted by Vidic, who had escaped the attentions of Terry.
The goal changed the atmosphere, adding to the derision heaped on Terry on his first visit to Old Trafford since an expensive miss in the penalty shoot-out in last season’s Champions League final, but it also changed the contest.
Scolari replaced the ineffective Deco with Nicolas Anelka and, in doing so, opened up the game, playing into United’s hands by leaving more space for Giggs, Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov to exploit. Scolari admitted as much afterwards, but said that he had little choice. “If I wanted to lose 1-0, I would keep my team with one more in midfield,” he said. “But I needed to change.”
If that is Scolari’s philosophy, there will surely be more changes ahead as he looks to modify a game plan that has looked less convincing as the season has progressed. As confidence has receded, so has the spirit that once coursed through the veins of Chelsea. The second half was a chastening experience for them, with John Obi Mikel suddenly looking a novice in the midfield holding role. Their defence was left exposed and, while United took time to prod at the chinks in their opponents’ armour, there was an air of inevitability.
The second goal, though, was a beauty and one that Rooney merited for a display that was full of bravery and desire, and flecked with genius, as well as the odd moment when he threatened to test Webb’s patience. The one thing that had been missing was a goal, but, as Patrice Evra crossed from the left wing, after a clever backheel from Ronaldo, the England forward drifted into the danger area. The ball was flicked on by Berbatov and Rooney sidefooted in despite the presence of Ashley Cole.
Could things get any worse for Chelsea? Of course they could. After Drogba, for once neglected by Evans, swung at a volley and missed the ball completely, United poured forward in search of a third goal. Ronaldo, having been hacked brutally by Juliano Belletti, struck a venomous free kick from near the left corner flag and Berbatov, who had inexplicably been left in the care of young Franco Di Santo, stuck out a foot to beat Petr Cech at the near post.
Terry looked distraught, Scolari helpless and Mourinho, up in the directors’ box, impassive. All the while, Ferguson was beaming as United issued the most ominous statement of intent in the title race. For a team who had been accused by Rafael BenÍtez, the Liverpool manager, of being nervous, this was quite a response by United, as Mourinho, who knows a thing or two about winning championships, would no doubt concur.
Man United (4-4-2): E van der Sar 6 G Neville 7 N Vidic 8 J Evans 8 P Evra 7 C Ronaldo 7 D Fletcher 7 R Giggs 7 Park Ji Sung 7 W Rooney 8 D Berbatov 6 Substitutes: J O’Shea 5 (for Evra, 66min), M Carrick (for Giggs, 80). Not used: T Kuszczak, P Scholes, Anderson, C Tévez, D Welbeck. Next: Wigan (h).
Chelsea (4-1-4-1): P Cech 5 J Bosingwa 6 R Carvalho 5 J Terry 5 A Cole 6 J O Mikel 4 J Cole 4 M Ballack 4 F Lampard 6 Deco 5 D Drogba 4 Substitutes: N Anelka 4 (for Deco, 46), J Belletti 4 (for Bosingwa, 63), F Di Santo (for J Cole, 85). Not used: C Cudicini, B Ivanovic, P Ferreira, S Kalou. Next: Stoke (h).
Referee H Webb Attendance 75,455
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Telegraph:
Manchester United cut Chelsea to piecesManchester United (1) 3 Chelsea (0) 0 By Henry Winter at Old Trafford The only time Chelsea got the better of Manchester United on Sunday was when the visiting fans serenaded Patrice Evra, the champions’ full-back returning from suspension after scrapping with a Bridge groundsman, with "10 men went to mow’’, an old favourite. Otherwise, this was a soul-destroying, possibly season-destroying afternoon for the Blues.
United were so superior, particularly in the second period, a class apart from Chelsea in shape, belief and cutting edge. What will particularly alarm those who see the world through blue-tinted glasses was the way the life drained from Luiz Felipe Scolari’s players after Nemanja Vidic scored just before the break.
Wayne Rooney and company sensed the vulnerability. "When we were walking in at half-time, we saw all the Chelsea lads and their heads were down,’’ Rooney revealed, "we knew that if we could go at them they couldn’t live with us.’’ United went for the jugular, Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov striking fine goals, inflicting Chelsea’s biggest defeat since February 2006 at Middlesbrough.
The stats made grim reading for Scolari, and not just the five cautions that will trigger a £25,000 fine at a time when the club are straining to cut costs. Shots on-target figures were 11-1 in the champions’ favour, and there was a brief debate afterwards over actually what Chelsea’s effort had been.
Another fact deserved recording: this was surely the first time a Liverpool manager had done United’s team-talk. Rafa Benitez’s speech criticising Sir Alex Ferguson looks even less smart in the wake of Liverpool’s drab display at Stoke City and then this comprehensive victory for a fired-up United.
Even this far out from the finishing line, Ferguson’s thoroughbreds are beginning to lengthen their stride. From back to front, United looked every inch the champions of England. Jonny Evans, deputising again superbly for Rio Ferdinand, snuffed out Chelsea’s few attacks with some athletic blocks. Vidic was a force in both boxes while Darren Fletcher, rising to the occasion admirably, shielded his defence expertly.
And Ryan Giggs? Unbelievable. Man of the match from central midfield. The only Premier League player mentioned in "The Simpsons", Giggs seems to have been around since Wallis Simpson but he effortlessly defied Old Father Time as well as Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard and John Obi Mikel. Giggs, 35 going on 25, kept nicking the ball, kept weaving through the midfield.
Out wide, Park Ji-sung and Cristiano Ronaldo worked hard at implementing Ferguson’s tactics, doubling up on Scolari’s flying full-backs, Jose Bosingwa and Ashley Cole. Chelsea’s wings were clipped. Ronaldo, particularly in the second half, showed signs of a return to the vibrancy of last season.
At the end of a week during which he crashed his Ferrari, Ronaldo’s brilliance was a wonderful retort to the sick chant emanating from the away enclosure of "you should have died in the tunnel’’. With Ronaldo stretching Chelsea, United’s centre-forwards kept raiding through the middle. Berbatov glided through. Rooney rampaged through. Moving at different speeds, both were unstoppable.
If United were good, Chelsea were poor. Didier Drogba wore gloves but that only partly explained why his finger-prints would never be found on events at Old Trafford; the striker seemed listless, distracted, and his shooting was a danger to spectators.
Whoever negotiated Ballack’s £121,000-a-week contract deserves businessman of the year; again, the German failed to impose talent seen so often with his country. "Ballack couldn’t live with Giggs,’’ reflected Ferguson. Michael Essien cannot return soon enough.
Lampard sweated hard for the cause, but needed stronger support. Behind him, John Terry also sought to lift his team but this was a particularly bruising experience for the Chelsea captain. Following his wayward spot-kick in Moscow that helped United to the Champions League, Terry’s name has been sung with gusto at Old Trafford. Some United fans even devised a tribute from the "Mr Men’’ series with a "Mr Penalty’’ banner including Terry’s likeness.
Over the next few months, Chelsea will really need Terry and Lampard to keep Chelsea going. Scolari certainly cannot escape censure. His refusal to place a player on the posts at corners continues to defy belief. The Brazilian’s mantra of "posts don’t score, players do’’ lacks logic when set against costly goals conceded at Craven Cottage and now here, seconds before the break.
Ronaldo had just had a header ruled out, as Rooney had failed to lift his foot off the ball when rolling it into the D for a corner and then steering it out for Giggs to cross. United were furious with the linesman, Peter Kirkup, but still scored from the re-take. Berbatov flicked on and there was Vidic heading home. Surely, Scolari must now see the importance of guarding the post?
What will have made it more painful for Scolari was that Jose Mourinho, for so long Chelsea’s dug-out inspiration, sat in the stands, the centre of attention before kick-off as everyone focused on the man who possesses the swagger to succeed Ferguson one day. Under Mourinho, Chelsea would not have been as anaemic as this.
Sitting near-by was Keith Hackett, the Premier League's referee czar, who must have been pleased with the authoritative way Howard Webb handled a potentially fractious affair. The game was initially tight and niggly, midfield a crowded house, particularly with Chelsea’s "wide’’ players, Deco and Joe Cole, tucking in and Rooney dropping deep. Webb kept tempers in check, although Rooney should have been cautioned earlier for dissent.
The England international was at his best in the second period. Scolari introduced Nicolas Anelka for the ineffectual Deco, giving Drogba some support, but Chelsea melted in the teeth of a storm whipped up by Rooney. Just after the hour, Ronaldo sent Evra down the line and the Frenchman’s cross was met by Rooney.
The third arrived five minutes from time. When Juliano Belletti fouled Ronaldo, the European Footballer of the Year delivered in a free-kick that Berbatov turned neatly home. Scolari’s decision to tell the callow substitute, Franco di Santo, to mark Berbatov was bizarre. Chelsea must have a serious inquest. United roll on, and could be top by Saturday evening.
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Indy:
United drive Scolari to edge of precipice
Manchester United 3 Chelsea 0
By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent
His diminished fortune tells us Roman Abramovich never saw the credit crunch coming, but maybe he predicted a similar collapse of epic proportions yesterday and for that reason stayed away from Old Trafford. His Chelsea team staggered off this pitch, any pretension of parity with Manchester United smashed to bits. The defeat was so savage that, at times, it felt like the end of the line for Luiz Felipe Scolari.
That is what will have crossed Jose Mourinho's mind, watching from the directors' box: he would have got sacked for a result like this. Not just the result but the sheer hopelessness of the performance, the slackness with which goals were conceded to Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, the speed with which Chelsea faded as United took the lead before half-time. In the Champions League final in May they came back at United in the second half, yesterday they just lay down and died.
Scolari's team are still one point ahead of United, but United have two games in hand and it is most certainly Sir Alex Ferguson's team who occupy the fast lane– just as long as Cristiano Ronaldo is not in charge of overtaking. Scolari looks utterly isolated, his billionaire employer staying away, only the teenager Franco Di Santo to call upon in the late stages when he opted for a third striker. How long will Abramovich be interested in owning a team that is going backwards?
After the game Scolari will have been obliged to meet Ferguson in his office along with two other visitors to Old Trafford yesterday. Just to cap a dreadful day for the Brazilian, those two men were Mourinho and Carlos Queiroz, both of whom he detests, but the man he must really feel like strangling will have been sitting on the other side of the desk. Ferguson has stolen the day again, he looks like he might yet claim the whole season.
If Ferguson could feel generous to these three men then it is because his most recent bête noire has had an appalling 72 hours. Rafael Benitez called it on with Ferguson on Friday, watched his team let him down at Stoke City on Saturday and then saw United play like champions yesterday – the Liverpool manager's latest kidney stone operation today will be painless in comparison.
Benitez will know now that when it comes to knifing Ferguson, timing is everything – and his timing stinks. "Disturbed" is how Ferguson described Benitez, and a performance of this magnitude will no doubt have been disturbing for any Liverpudlian.
United's best player was Ryan Giggs, at 35 years old a controversial choice ahead of Michael Carrick for a game of this magnitude, but a decisive presence in the centre. Jonny Evans, in for the injured Rio Ferdinand, was excellent. Rooney was irrepressible. They are gaining a familiar momentum as the season heats up.
In one extraordinary sequence of play United sprung an ingenious move to create a goal which was disallowed just before Vidic's opener. Rooney went to the corner, rolled the ball two yards into play and then nonchalantly jogged away without a Chelsea player noticing. Giggs said subsequently that Rooney told him "I've taken a short one" as Giggs came over to take the corner. Instead of taking the corner Giggs dribbled the ball at goal, crossed it and, with Chelsea bemused, Ronaldo headed in.
The linesman, Darren Cann, disallowed the goal because Rooney had not told him that he had put the ball into play. The interesting aspect is that linesmen only stand by the corner flag on the corners taken on their side of the pitch. Had the corner been on the opposite side, there would have been no linesman by the flag. What then? It would have been attracted more controversy had United not then preceded to take Chelsea apart, bit by bit. Seconds after Ronaldo's goal was disallowed, Giggs' retaken corner was headed on by Berbatov and put in at the back post by Vidic in first-half injury time. There had been a period in the middle of the first half when Rooney strained to keep his temper and Ronaldo looked at his dismissive, complaining worst. He shoved Ricardo Carvalho and then, from the chaos, United took control of the match.
Chelsea have not been beaten by a three-goal margin since they lost to Middlesbrough in February 2006 and then they were cruising at the top of the league. They drifted into anonymity yesterday. Frank Lampard was booked in the first minute and was hesitant after that. Didier Drogba miskicked one shot so far wide that it went out for a throw-in. John Terry was cheered by the United fans for every touch, a mocking gesture of thanks from Old Trafford for his missed penalty in Moscow.
The sideshow was Carlos Tevez's second half warm-up on the touchline, cause for rapturous applause from the United fans that was milked by the Argentine. It was designed to remind Ferguson he wants a permanent deal. Judging by Ferguson's decision not to bring Tevez on, he was not impressed.
Scolari sent on Nicolas Anelka for the hopeless Deco at half-time and, with Chelsea's midfield reduced to four, United dominated.
Ronaldo played in Patrice Evra who crossed for Rooney, he stuck his foot between Ashley Cole's legs and clipped in the second. Chelsea's descent from mediocrity to ineffectiveness was steep. They did not have a single shot on target before Berbatov scored the third from Ronaldo's cross in the 87th minute.
It was telling that Di Santo, marking Berbatov at the corner, was stopped from tracking the striker by Vidic's crafty block. Judging by the whispered conversation between the two United men, it was all planned. Vidic against the 19-year-old Di Santo is, in football parlance, men against boys. The game had looked that way long before that moment.
Goals: Vidic (45) 1-0; Rooney (63) 2-0; Berbatov (87) 3-0
Manchester United (4-4-2): Van der Sar; Neville, Vidic, Evans, Evra (O'Shea 65); Ronaldo, Fletcher, Giggs (Carrick 80), Park; Berbatov, Rooney. Substitutes not used: Kuszczak (gk), Anderson, Scholes, Welbeck, Tevez.
Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Bosingwa (Belletti 64), Carvalho, Terry, A Cole; Mikel; J Cole (Di Santo 85), Ballack, Lampard, Deco (Anelka ht); Drogba. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Ivanovic, Ferreira, Kalou.
Referee: H Webb (South Yorkshire)
Booked: Manchester United Ronaldo, Rooney; Chelsea Lampard, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Terry, Belletti.
Man of the match: Giggs.
Attendance: 74,455
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Rooney roars as United push limp Chelsea aside in climb towards topManchester United 3 Vidic 45, Rooney 63, Berbatov 87 Chelsea 0
Kevin McCarra at Old Trafford Wayne Rooney of Manchester United is congratulated by team mate Dimitar Berbatov after scoring his team's second goal. Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images
That long-haul voyage to the Club World Cup might as well have been a restorative trip to a health farm. Manchester United left Chelsea looking as if it was they who were jet-lagged. The fuzzy minds were all in the visitors' skulls. Their club had not been beaten so heavily by these rivals since 2002, the year before Roman Abramovich's takeover.
The billionaire was shrewd not to come to Old Trafford if the decision was based on misgivings about this element in his portfolio of investments. Conversely, the regulars at this stadium would have felt fulfilled. In addition to savouring the margin of victory, they had watched United dictate the nature of the whole match.
There was barely a spasm of sophistication or purpose from the visitors. By the end, Chelsea had been stripped of their competence.
It was laughably simple, three minutes from full-time, for Dimitar Berbatov to brush himself away from his young marker, Franco di Santo, and fire in Cristiano Ronaldo's free-kick.
The afternoon seemed restorative for the United winger. Ronaldo looks on the verge of rediscovering his former self, the one who was irresistible before injury and surgery last summer. There, too, was proof of Chelsea's helplessness. They were a mere device in the rehabilitation of the Portuguese as a lethal attacker.
There was a hint of that, in the 54th minute, when a cross from the left was so devastating that it took his own team-mates by surprise. Nine minutes later, a Ronaldo backheel did the initial harm to Chelsea as it released the full-back Patrice Evra. The Frenchman collected an injury as he crossed and soon had to be replaced, but deeper damage was done to the visitors. The ball grazed the head of Berbatov before Wayne Rooney shot home.
Chelsea have now taken the commonplace total of six points from their last five Premier League fixtures. The summit of the unfulfilled ambition was to keep United at bay.
Didier Drogba was abject but had no prompting to coax the best out of him. Deco, whose form has collapsed, was the obvious candidate for removal at the interval. The side was bereft of flair and Jonny Evans, deputising for the injured Rio Ferdinand, was wholly unruffled.
The United players, in fairness, could not be classed as a higher life form in a first half largely devoted to industriousness. Park Ji-sung, dedication personified, was in place for an attempt, after an exchange of passes with Ronaldo, that John Terry blocked in the 44th minute. The opener, moments later, still came as a surprise and its origins lay in the befuddlement of the officials.
United were accidentally penalised at a corner-kick for being unacceptably smart. Rooney tapped the ball a yard or so. Ryan Giggs then advanced with an intent to cross from the right. The referee's assistant, though, raised his flag because he believed that the corner had not been taken at all. Giggs then flighted it conventionally and, following a faint touch from Berbatov, the defender Nemanja Vidic nodded low past Petr Cech.
Any argument that Chelsea's concentration had been undermined during a puzzling episode is invalidated by the fact that that they have been floundering at set-pieces for a while. The absence of order was resonant since Jose Mourinho, that master of organisation, was watching his former club from the stands. With this degree of woolliness, the trip to Southend on Wednesday for an FA Cup replay will not be free of hazards. United, naturally, will look at all remaining fixtures with relish. Victory over Wigan at home in midweek would see Ferguson's side standing two points behind the leaders Liverpool with a game in hand.
When Chelsea study the league table they may be most conscious of the fact that Aston Villa are a mere point behind them. United followers would not have been tormenting themselves with too much arithmetic.
It will count more that their side was masterful in various respects. There was, for instance, surprise at the inclusion of Giggs in central midfield rather than Michael Carrick, but the veteran used the ball expertly and displayed a deeper reserve of stamina than had been anticipated. United as a whole grew ever stronger as Chelsea's dejection deepened.
A tight offside call had denied Ronaldo a goal when the substitute Carrick located him. There was none of the competitiveness that used to be the essence of Chelsea. Apart from any examination of their morale, there should be scrutiny of the system. The period when the over-lapping full-backs added such zest to displays away from home is long over, but alternative supplies of impetus are scarce, despite Frank Lampard's effort here.
Chelsea seem a side with too restricted a repertoire. The isolation of forwards, including the substitute Nicolas Anelka, reflected badly on Scolari's construction of the team. The visitors collected five bookings yet never put up a fight.
Man of the match: Ryan Giggs
Talent can aid longevity. The Welshman was a surprise starter but the former winger set the rhythm of the match from central midfield.
Best moment: Setting up the opener for Manchester United with a corner.
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Mail:
Manchester United 3 Chelsea 0: Canny Fergie relies on maestro Giggs to expose class divideBy Matt Lawton
The road ahead would appear to be much as Luiz Felipe Scolari feared it might be. More success, seemingly, for this marvellous Manchester United side and trouble for Chelsea.
'Big damage,' was the phrase Scolari used to describe the implications of the result and even Chelsea's manager must realise that damage could go way beyond this season's title race.
Not least when defeat was followed bythe sight of Jose Mourinho embracing his former players in the tunnel.
Scolari must wonder if it actually represents the beginning of the end, and not just for him but for a team that would seem to be in serious need of an overhaul.
A team that has run out of ideas having failed to force Edwin van der Sar into making a single save.
Their ineptitude appeared to stun Inter boss Mourinho. Long after the final whistle he remained in his seat in the directors' box, staring incredulously at players he once watched receive a guard of honour here at Old Trafford.
They were nothing like the side he guided to two successive championships. Nothing like as determined or well drilled, leaving those who were seated just in front of him to question how prudent it was to part company with the Special One last season.
Scolari has now taken just one point from four top-four contests - something that never happened when Mourinho was in charge. In fact, it was something that never happened when Avram Grant was in charge, either.
The manner of this defeat would suggest so much ground has been lost to the champions of England, Europe and the world, who not only established a new Barclays Premier League record with an eighth consecutive clean sheet but also looked a class apart.
When the team sheets appeared before kick-off, Sir Alex Ferguson's sanity was being questioned. He had left Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick on the bench, opting instead to unleash Ryan Giggs and Darren Fletcher against Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and John Mikel Obi.
But it proved a masterstroke, 34-year-old Giggs emerging as the man of the match with Fletcher not far behind him. Giggs remained calm amid the chaos of this fiercely contested match, passing with fluency and dictating the tempo of United's vastly superior football.
When Chelsea dominated briefly in the opening 20 minutes, it was the experience of players like Giggs that allowed United to absorb the initial pressure and slowly regain control.
Even when Cristiano Ronaldo had what United considered a perfectly good goal disallowed in the 45th minute - the assistant referee insisting Wayne Rooney's quick corner was illegal because he failed to first place the ball - Giggs kept his head.
He planted the ball back at the corner flag, delivered another corner and then celebrated for a second time when Dimitar Berbatov flicked the ball on, enabling Nemanja Vidic to score with a diving header at the far post.
Prior to that, only United had threatened, with Chelsea's forwards unable to find a way past the formidable pairing of Vidic and Jonny Evans.
Berbatov had squandered one opportunity with a weakly-struck left-foot shot that Petr Cech gathered easily, before John Terry denied Ji-sung Park with a timely block.
United opened the scoring seconds before the interval and Scolari did at least respond by making a tactical change.
Off came the ineffective Deco and on went Nicolas Anelka. It made no difference. If anything, Chelsea's second-half display was inferior to the first, two more United goals underlining the gulf in quality and condemning the visitors to their heaviest Premier League defeat in three years. The first came in the 63rd minute and was beautifully executed. A back-heel from Ronaldo, a wonderful cross from Patrice Evra and what initially looked like an own goal for Ashley Cole but was, in fact, a fifth Premier League goal of the campaign for Rooney. It also amounted to another example of Chelsea's defensive frailties.
Frailties that were again exposed in the 87th minute when Juliano Belletti fouled Ronaldo and the Portuguese winger then delivered a free-kick that Berbatov was only too happy to drive into the back of the net.It helped that Vidic blocked the path of Franco Di Santo - Berbatov's designated marker - but it was a super finish all the same. Not until the 93rd minute did Chelsea even look like scoring, but an easy header was sent embarrassingly wide by a hapless, clearly unhappy Didier Drogba.
That Ronaldo had a second goal disallowed - when the assistant referee made a mistake in thinking he was offside - only added to Chelsea's misery.
Had luck been on the side of the player who should today be crowned the world's best in Zurich, it could have been worse still for Chelsea.
For the final 30 minutes, Scolari cut a forlorn figure. He made two more changes but watched helplessly, hands in coat pockets, as his side fell to pieces.Ferguson and his players had responded brilliantly to the accusations that had come from Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez.
To that first United goal, Chelsea did not respond at all. Had United already won those two games in hand - against Wigan this week and Fulham next month - they would now be one point ahead of Liverpool with the Merseysiders and Arsenal yet to visit Old Trafford.Now it would only appear to be Liverpool who stand between them and a third successive title, even if the table suggests Chelsea remain very much in the running.
But the table sometimes lies. It lies about the state of this Chelsea side and it lies about their chances of returning to the summit of the English game.
While Mourinho's attention diverted from his former players to Ferguson and was followed by another embrace, raised voices could be heard in the away dressing room.
Not good enough, you suspect, was the message. These days at Chelsea, it rarely is.
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