Thirty-eight year old Ryan Giggs was at the heart of everything creative for Manchester United, producing six goal-scoring opportunities for the visiting side, which was more than any other player on the pitch with Mata and Malouda coming closest with four each. Paul Scholes, 37, came on with the deficit still at two and with the two most experienced players on the pitch making up half of United’s midfield four; a comeback was mounted.
The value of experience, absent in the Chelsea side with the aforementioned four all missing, continued to shine through for United: Carrick, 30, pulled the strings in midfield, coming in as their top passer with 76, 23 more than Chelsea’s highest passer Raul Meireles, and Rio Ferdinand, 33, was the most accurate distributor on the pitch with an 89% pass completion rate.
With experience bossing the midfield, ably assisted by the unfazed Rio Ferdinand, it was left to the youth upfront to convert Manchester United’s chances. With a 69% success rate of shots to shots on target and a 33% goal ratio from shots on target, both better than Chelsea’s return, Danny Welbeck, Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez ensured Manchester United could fight back from a steep deficit to earn a point. The former earned the penalty that saw Rooney score and the lattermost completed the comeback, having seen Rooney score the second. It was typical of Hernandez to score the equaliser, with 10 of his 21 Premier League goals coming in the last ten minutes and 11 of them coming from within the six-yard box.
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Chelsea have now drawn their last three games, picking up three from an available nine, leaving them sitting in 4th, six, and possibly nine if Tottenham beat Liverpool, points off of 3rd place. Had they won all three, they’d currently be level with Tottenham.
A Premier League title now looks out of the question for Andre Villas-Boas’s Chelsea.
However, one positive from a game which will definitely go down as two points lost, was David Luiz. Today’s performance saw him win 100% of his aerial battles and 87.5% of his ground battles, whilst winning every challenge he made. Although he was debatably at fault for Manchester United’s equaliser, he’s becoming more disciplined as the season goes on and AVB can only hope for a stronger defensive display from next season’s Chelsea than the one he has witnessed this season. Cahill will go some way to ensuring that.
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/
For more articles visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
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