Manchester United 0-1 Chelsea (Hazard 22 pen)
United slipped meekly to defeat in the Cup Final, going out
while barely landing a punch on an unspectacular Chelsea team on a
spirit-sapping day at Wembley. It was grim, and a bit boring. So much attacking
talent, so little threat and bite. A frustrating season ending in a quite
fitting way. Too slow, too scared, and second best. Shit.
What’s there to say when we lose like that? It wasn’t a 4-0
romp, we had been defeated only by a penalty from Eden Hazard, and the
possession and shots statistics were in our favour. But don’t let the numbers
fool you into thinking United were at all impressive out there. It was robotic,
stunted, and downright dull. They looked out of ideas too early and energetic
too late, a sad end to the season given the optimism with which it had
begun.
United were the favourites going into the last domestic
fixture of the season, having finished 3 places above Chelsea in the table. I
was very nervous at the start, but then I always am in occasions such as these.
Post-Ferugson, it’s no longer a given that United will always be making finals
and consistently playing at Wembley, so there is no way I’m turning my nose up
at any cup, especially when we’re in the final. Having been at Wembley myself
last month to see us dispatch an in-form Spurs, I was quietly confident we
could do the same to Chelsea.
The good news for United was that Martial and Lukaku hadn’t
been ruled out as had been feared, and were available. The bad news was that neither
started – although Martial probably would not have anyway, even if he was 100%
fit. Fellaini missed out as well. It was a blow for United to be missing their
main goalscorer, as much for his hold up play and bullying of centre-halves as
anything else. With Chelsea, a physical game was expected, so to line up
instead with Rashford was a bit of weakness.
Not that I thought so before kick-off. While Lukaku starting
on the bench was not perfect, I was excited to see young Rash run at Chelsea’s
backline. I remembered how he had led the line brilliantly against Chelsea in
our 2-0 home win in April 2017, springing Conte’s offside trap regularly. On
paper, a front three of Jesse Lingard, Rashford and Alexis Sanchez looked
dynamic, pacey and fluid. So apart from Lukaku it was the same team that beat
Spurs in the semi – which meant Eric Bailly, who most think is our best
defender, was left on the bench. Smalling and Jones had credit in the bank,
sure, but the treatment of Bailly by Mourinho in recent weeks has been utterly
baffling.
Chelsea went defensive, going with only two forward thinking
players really, with Fabregas used mainly to retain possession. Bakayoko has
been one of the worst signings across Europe for the 17/18 season, but Antonio
Conte placed faith in the Frenchman to make sure his team didn’t get
outnumbered In the middle of the park, resisting the temptation to pick Pedro
or Willian. Having scored in the semi over Southampton, January purchase
Olivier Giroud was preferred over record signing Alvaro Morata.
Chelsea started the better, with Hazard finding space on the
left flank on the counter after United had given the ball away carelessly, and
shooting at goal with his left foot after running at Jones. De Gea made a smart
stop, and United cleared, but that was pretty much that for the opening
exchanges. It was a typical final start to be honest, with both sides wanting
to ease themselves into the game, and very little in the way of shots on goal. The
cagey start didn’t stop both sides gifting the other possession constantly with
sloppy errant passes. For the Cup final, it was a game desperately low on
quality. It needed a goal really.
It soon got one. Chelsea won the ball back in their half and
Fabregas had time to set Hazard away with a long pass; his first touch was
exemplary and suddenly Phil Jones was on the back foot. The England world cup
defender just about kept pace with Hazard but was unable to get goalside, and
decided to go for a last-ditch tackle. I couldn’t really blame him, but the
execution was clumsy and it was penalty and a yellow card. From the spot
there’s few who are calmer than Hazard and the Belgian duly rolled the ball
into the net, sending De Gea the other way.
United initially reacted like I’d want. Herrera pushed up
from his ersatz right-back position (to nullify Hazard, and make it easier for
him to be man-marked, which had already proven flawed when Chelsea’s star man
moved to the right to create the goal) and United created a chance for Pogba
from 25 yards, who shot wide. It was the first effort from United to test
Chelsea’s defence and keeper.
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| There was very little width for United. Chelsea were extraordinarily compact |
Why were United so lacking in attacking vigour? Well, for starters Rashford was having a stinker. The ball was bouncing off him, he was picking the wrong passes, and he was getting outmuscled. Worst of all he wasn’t making the runs in behind that could’ve been so dangerous; instead he came deep, or ran the channels. This often led to the absurd situation where United had the ball in a crossing position but the only man in the box was Sanchez, a man never likely to win a battle in the air with 3 centre-backs. That’s if we had anyone in the box at all, sometimes they had no one to mark and United were simply trying pot-shots from long range.
It didn’t help that Lingard was having a poor start as well,
as he wasn’t either wide or forward enough to impact the game like he should.
With Sanchez drifting infield as well, width was like gold dust for United. Ashley
Young was enterprising enough, happy to take defenders on, but is always
hamstrung by his general lack of quality – a problem for Chelsea also,
regarding Victor Moses. We were ponderous, too, recycling the ball 30 yards
from goal, always taking too many touches, waiting for someone to try a mazy
run or an ambitious through ball which seldom happened.
The first half ended just as United’s best moment had come,
as someone did indeed perform a mazy run. Pogba motored with the ball through
the centre and played a one-two with Sanchez before laying it off to Rashford,
who only contrived to scuff his attempted shot straight at a Chelsea defender.
At half-time the overriding feeling was that this was an
awful match. There had only been two real chances – the penalty, and the other
aforementioned Hazard shot. As good as the Belgian and Fabregas had been, it
wasn’t enough to escape the reality that it was an utterly dreadful game, the
opposite of what you would want in the showpiece of English football. It had
also gone against the theme of recent Cup finals, which have generally been
entertaining; look no further than United’s incident-packed triumph over
Crystal Palace in 2016 for proof.
Mourinho had obviously got into them at half-time as United
started the second half with great intensity, determined to get back on terms.
From minute 45-65, United had a great spell, pinning Chelsea back and looking
like they were going to score eventually. Of course, Chelsea could afford to
sit deep having gone in front so early, and it suited the personnel they had
out there. Their attacks in the second half were exclusively counters, with
long passes looking for the incisive movement of Hazard.
Valencia, who had been unbelievably ineffective in the first
half despite having heaps of the ball, finally made a forward run inside Marcos
Alonso picked out by Herrera, also making his first risky pass. We were in
behind, but instead of Valencia going for goal or picking out Sanchez he pulled
it back straight to Fabregas. Stupid prick. Sanchez instantly won it back with
a tigerish sliding tackle and the ball broke for Rashford 20 yards out, who
forced a save from Courtois with his powerful but a bit too central strike. The
crowd were up for it now and Kante and Rudiger both made vital interceptions
just as United were breaking through.
United won a lot of set-pieces in this period, with Chelsea
under pressure and looking to break the rhythm of United with fouls.
Unfortunately most of them were taken by Rashford, who booted it straight at
the first man most of the time. It was mind-numbing to see him on those duties
when he was having such a poor day at sending them in, not even considering
that as a forward over 6 feet, you would probably want him in the box anyway.
Mind you, he did pull out one top delivery from the right when his free-kick
was converted by Sanchez on the follow up, although he was offside. Still,
United were pushing, with Young starting to play very high up the pitch. Matic
had a 30 yarder parried by the rock-solid Courtois.
But United gradually fizzled out, the zip fading from our passing,
the lack of pace in our play telling. It was the Blues that had the next big
chance with Kante skipping through the tackles to set up Alonso who was denied
by De Gea, before Moses hit the ball at Young’s arm in the area. Really, it was
too close for the ref to give another penalty.
Out of nowhere came an opportunity for Rashford after a
training ground move, with Pogba finding Lingard in his favourite pocket. He
let the ball run before slipping in his best mate one-on-one. It was by no
means the easiest of chances with a massive keeper coming out and Rashford
having to stretch a bit, but it had to go in. Lukaku, I suspect, would’ve found
the net with it. Instead, Courtois saved and Mourinho responded by hooking
Rashford and Lingard. Taking off Jesse was a tad puzzling in my opinion, just
as the number 14 was getting into the game.
So Lukaku and Martial (left out of the French World Cup
squad in midweek, prompting more rumours of his exit) were on. I was screaming
for Mata as well for Herrera, who seemed to not be aware we were losing, given
the fact he wasn’t moving forward with the ball and was still playing the
safest passes he could. There are times when Herrera just isn’t needed and
today was one of them. His main job was to stop Hazard, who had put us behind -
although the Spaniard couldn’t be blamed for the goal which wasn’t in his area.
But then, what was he on for now? If Mata had been given more time, he could’ve
found a key pass to unlock the door. Instead Herrera finished the game, one of
his least memorable in a red shirt. He wasn’t being helped by his captain
Valencia though, who was constantly turning back into midfield when he had the
chance to get to the by-line.
By now Conte had instructed his team to give up on
attacking, and you couldn’t blame them. The only threat was Phil Jones getting
injured after a robust challenge by Giroud required him to put on a head
bandage, the only thing the dreamy Frenchman did all game. It was all United,
but it was all in front of the defence. We weren’t isolating their players or
giving them different things to think about. We became increasingly route one,
but Cahill and Rudiger were having a comfortable time of it.
The biggest chance fell to Paul Pogba, who screwed a free
header wide from a Martial corner. That was the
moment really, the only time the Chelsea team switched off. The £89m man
had the freedom of Wembley, he had to do better, to at least get it on target.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. Chelsea controlled the last 10 minutes, wasting time
expertly with their subs taking decades to complete. Martial after a decent run
had a little opening, but he found row J. Late sub Mata, of all people,
conceded two corners in the dying minutes as the Chelsea supporters loudly cheered
every single throw in and corner won, delighting in their players forcing
United back, further and further away from a goal that would take it to extra
time.
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| Chelsea celebrate with the famous old trophy |
The whistle went and Conte was jubilant. For all that this
season has been a failure for the Blues (not enough has been said about the
reigning champions spending north of £200m,
finishing 5th and 23 points worse than last season) their
manager deserved this moment I think, given the turmoil he’s been faced with
off the field. It was his first domestic cup as a manager. Even at their worst,
Chelsea seem to be able to churn out trophies, exemplified by Cahill lifting
the cup after a difficult season for him personally. Although United in mitigation
could say De Gea had nothing to do, Chelsea could respond by saying they never
really looked in trouble.
Like it or not, it’s likely if Fellaini had been available
for the last 20 minutes we could’ve nicked an equaliser. Chelsea were very
comfortable in the air against United, as a half-fit Lukaku couldn’t impose
himself as usual against their big defenders. If the big man had been there,
Chelsea would’ve been forced to mark him, perhaps even assigning two on him, in
turn creating space for others. In the 93rd minute Matic tamely
headed over; if that had been Fellaini it could’ve been different. Though the
very idea that United missed Fellaini out there suggests how shocking they
were.
While Valencia is hardly the biggest problem at United, in
football today the full-backs are so important, and indeed no one got the ball
more for United in threatening positions than him and Young. I really don’t
want to watch a lot more of him receiving the ball, doing that little leg shuffle,
then passing backwards. The captain for the day was really pathetic, seemingly
unable to dribble anymore, offering nothing. Young was giving it his all,
offering his teammates an option, but as I’ve already said, he just isn’t that
good, willing but unable to change the game.
Sanchez has played 18 times for United since he arrived, and
has scored a grand total of 3 goals, one of which was a penalty rebound. It is
not reactionary to say he has been downright crap for us given his handsome
wages. The man has an awesome record at Wembley – I saw it for myself in the semi-final,
when he was excellent – but he did fuck all in the final, like in a lot of
games he has played so far for us. Spurs and City away apart, he has not been
the player we all expected him to be, or saw at Arsenal. In the summer, he will
have his first extended break from football since 2013. Let’s hope he comes
back refreshed, because more of this will be hard to accept from such a
talented player.
It’s not just Sanchez. Pogba as well was disappointing. He
was decent, don’t get me wrong, helping us progress forward and running hard
all afternoon. But where was an imposing display from our best player in what
turned out to be the biggest game of the season? Where was the Lingard from the
winter? But most all, where was the master of finals, the serial winner that is
Jose Mourinho? He had his own tactics based on organisation and concentration
used against him by a man who he had a spat with earlier on in the campaign. I
hope it hurt him, as ending the season trophyless should hurt all of them, even
though there are clear signs of progress from last season.
For us not to score against a team playing like *that* is
slightly embarrassing. It’s one thing playing on the counter but there were essentially
only two attacking players in their line-up. They were sharp in the first half,
decisive in the penalty incident, and to be fair, retained their focus and
concentration against the almost constant United possession in the 2nd
half. They did deserve their eighth FA Cup, even if for the neutral it was like
watching paint dry.
It’s been a good season, generally, but it has definitely
been tarnished by this schoolboy performance. Thankfully the world cup arrives
to stop us from licking our wounds all summer.
United (4-3-3) De Gea 6.5; Valencia 5.5, Smalling 6, Jones 5
(Mata 87), Young 6; Herrera 4.5, Matic 5.5, Pogba 6; Lingard 5 (Martial 73, 4),
Rashford 3.5 (Lukaku 73, 5), Sanchez 5.
Chelsea (5-3-2) Courtois 7.5; Moses 6, Azpilicueta 6, Cahill
7, Rudiger 7, Alonso 5.5; Fabregas 6.5, Kante 7, Bakayoko 5; Giroud 4.5 (Morata
89), Hazard 7 (Willian 90+1).
