United Crush Below Par Blues

This afternoon's clash at Old Trafford was built up to be the fixture of the Premier League season so far - it wasn't. The only highlight of a scrappy first half saw Nemanja Vidic heading in just before the break. The big Serb's goal dented the hopes of an unambitious Chelsea line up - who had seemingly been given instructions by Scolari not to concede at all costs, and had done very little to threaten Van Der Sar's goal. The blues showed little sign of improvement in the second half, even the arrival of in form striker Anelka having little impact as he continually failed to link up with Drogba. Even the great Frank Lampard proved unusually ineffective and the game was virtually killed dead when a fired up Wayne Rooney - who had earlier kicked out at Chelsea full back Bosingwa - converted Patrice Evra's cross. A late Berbatov goal piled the misery on the visitors, who have looked out of sorts in recent weeks. It may be too easy to say that Chelsea's title hopes are over but any further abject displays such as this one and they will surely be dead and buried.