Fellaini finally arrives. Manchester United 1 - 1 Chelsea

Just imagine that you badly wanted to have a fancy gadget, booked it online by paying the full amount to get it on time for Christmas, only for the courier guy to deliver it by next year Christmas. That is the same feeling I got watching Marouane Fellaini having his best game in a United shirt, albeit a good 1 year and 3 months after 27Million quid was paid to Everton’s pockets. He did a commendable job, sticking on to Fabregas throughout the match, as if a hooker on her prospective customer, and thus blocking the service to Hazard and Oscar. This proved out to be a tactical masterstroke from Van Gaal when every one of us was thinking about the way Fabregas ran riot against Arsenal. It again shows how naïve Wenger can be at times with tactics.

I can bet my life on the fact that there wasn’t a single United supported who wasn’t worried when Rafael was booked inside the first 15 minutes for a silly foul on. It was to everyone’s relief that he went on to have one of his stable games on the right wing.  United looked strong going forward and shaded the first half in terms of possession and attacking threat. Di Maria was a constant thread on the right wing, after being moved there to accommodate Januzaj on the left. Januzaj had his worst game in a United shirt against West Brom, but here he came up with his best display of the season. The chances in the first half were few and far between, but United’s best chance came through Van Persie, only for Thibaut Courtois to come on top.

The deadlock was broken in the second half, when Didier Drogba showed the entire world that he has lost none of his predatory instincts, by heading home at the near post after losing Rafael. Whoever has asked Rafael to mark Drogba has probably not seen Drogba’s goal in the UCL final against Bayern. He is a monster against properly built centre backs, and Rafael’s 5’7 figure did not pose a threat to him.

United introduced James Wilson, the 18 year old striker, on 68^th minute in place of Juan Mata, who had a comparatively quieter game.  United could not force the issue and the final quality ball never arrived. Jose Mourinho went into his usual mode of introducing defenders and defensive midfielders while protecting a 1 goal lead. Mikel, Schurlle and Zouma arrived in place of Oscar, Hazard and Willian to slow the game down. Branislav Ivanovic got the second yellow on the 93^rd minute and was promptly sent off for tripping Di Maria on the left side of Stretford End. Di Maria delivered a sumptuous ball from the resulting free kick and Fellaini forced an excellent save from Courtois, only for the ball to fall in to the left side of Van Persie inside the 6 yard box. When the net bulged at the Stretford end, not even the staunchest United supporter could argue that it was a deserved point. Nobody in a red shirt could have complained if Chelsea had won today. It is fair to say that United got out of jail today. But in the current form of United’s back four, it seems almost illegal to allow Sergio Aguero to run at our defense the next week.

BRAVE AND BRAINLESS

You are the captain of your side. You side is trying to win one of the most coveted competitions which you have never won. You are playing against one of the best sides in the history at their home ground. You have a 1-0 lead from the first leg and you just need to be sensible and determined to protect it. In this situation the chances of you kneeing your opponent at his back when the linesman is looking straight at you to hold the offside line is pretty much nonexistent, isn't it? But if your name happens to be John Terry none of the above things apply to you. But sensible is not one of the words you usually associate with John, do you? Branding what he did as stupidity will be risky because that leaves us to find new definitions for Mario Baloteli's everyday life! In fact it is good to do a research to find out whether these 2 people are related in anyway and considering John Terry's free time 'activities' it is safe to bet on a successful research.

If anything beat his on-field stupidity, it was the interview he gave after the match. A man who was stripped of the national captaincy twice, being investigated by police for racial insults and slept with his teammate's wife said that he is "not that type of a person". Really John? I seriously believe that he thinks we all have the same intellectual capacity as Wayne Bridge. The only silver lining is that Roberto De Matteo doesn't seem to be as dumb as Kenny Dalglish to lead his team out with all of them wearing 'For JT' T-shirts before the Champions League final in Munich.

Anyways, coming back to the match Chelsea got their tactics absolutely spot on and by tactics I mean parking the bus in front of goal. When you see Didier Drogba as a left back, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what they are going to do (To be fair to Chelsea, this happened after John Terry had that brain freeze). They came with a Double Decker bus but what stood out was Barcelona's inability to break it or fall back on Plan B. Watching the second half, it seemed like an unwritten rule in Camp Nou that everything should go through Messi and a goal scored without his touch is an inferior goal. They have to understand that a ball which is fired like hell from the right wing by Danny Alves, bounces of the shoulder of Ivanovic and falls inside to inches of goal line is still a goal. There was absolutely no wing play yesterday. Didier Drogba may still be a beast of a left back but essentially he was playing out of position. There was no initiative from Barcelona to exploit it and time and again they played it through the middle trying to find an opening. As seconds ticked by Chelsea grew familiar with it so much so that their goal machine (yes you are right, I am kidding here) more-than-50-million-worth Fernando Torres found time and space to counter attack and kill the tie. But, that goal aside, if what Torres was doing on the pitch was worth 50 million, I am worth 10000 times of that to my company. At the end, their brave resistance paid of even with a brainless captain.

When AVB, took over Chelsea at the start of the season, gloating about his 3 year 'project' there was a growing feeling that it was time for the old guard at Chelsea to hang up their boots. But, if anything, what Roberto De Matteo has shown is a willingness to include them in the scheme of things, however short term it is. You don't just throw away that experience to the sidelines over a fortnight. It may still be the last season for the likes of Terry (I hope not, who else will inspire us to produce so many adult jokes on my twitter TL?), Lampard and Drogba and this remains their last short at the European glory. Bayern or Madrid, the final is going to be battle of epic proportions. Bayern will obviously want to win it in front of their home crowd and if it is Madird, Jose Mourinho needs no second initiation to remind Abrahamovic once again that it was wrong to sack him 4 years ago. When Manchester Untied crashed out of Europe in the first round itself, I never thought I would have so much fun this season. Well, John Terry definitely had a different idea!