Ancelotti earns a newfound respect

WHETHER Ferguson’s bleating about the referee was frustration at what he perceived as an injustice, or whether it was an attempt to give confidence back to a team that was second best on the day, only he knows, but although the referee didn’t have an outstanding game, Chelsea were deserving winners.

Let’s go through the controversial decisions very quickly: Park in the box – was touched but fell theatrically; Drogba: clearly offside: Neville on Anelka – stonewall penalty; Macheda – handball.

Ferguson should also count himself very lucky than Scholes wasn’t sent off before half time. Even the manager realised that the ginger one was living a charmed life and subbed him before he was shown red.

As news of the team filtered through, there were many looks of surprise but also a newfound confidence and respect for Ancelotti. The first half reduced the United players to virtual spectators and their fans into stunned silence. This wasn’t how the script was supposed to go!

Joe Cole demonstrated why he and the club should come back to the negotiating table and hack out a deal that will keep him at Stamford Bridge. He has struggled to get back to form and fitness since his extended period on the sidelines but there isn’t another player within Chelsea – or the Premier League – that could score a goal like the opener.

That kind of inventiveness and trickery is something we more readily connect to foreign players and it could give England anther dimension if Capello is brave enough to make that call.

It had of course already been a good week for Chelsea long before last Saturday’s result at Old Trafford. The highlight for me was seeing Arsenal so systematically outclassed by Barcelona. Since the draw was made I have had to keep a bucket at hand every time I picked up a paper as journalists drooled at the prospect of the Kings of European Tippy Tap taking on the Queens of English Tippy Tap.

It was going to be a football as “art”, football like we have never seen before – we would faint before its sheer beauty – heavenly choirs would sing, wars would be ended so everyone could behold the splendour – the two personifications of all that is good about our game finally being brought together… where’s that bucket?

I do jest but some of the writing was not far off that.

And what did we actually get? A masterclass by Barcelona which ripped Arsenal to shreds and left them chasing shadows. The fact that the game ended 2-2 must be one of the greatest injustices in recent football – it was never a penalty anyway.

Fabregas’s injury was just a bonus. Usually I would hesitate in revelling in the bad fortune of a gifted player but Arsenal players don’t count as they are such loathsome arrogant creatures.

Can you imagine if they do the unthinkable and actually win the title – a shiver runs down my back at the very thought of it. Imagine the press love-in; imagine the number of Arsenal shirts retrieved from the back of wardrobes; imagine how we would have to listen to Gooners waxing lyrical about the “right” way to play football.

This from the fans of a team who proliferated the 1-0 to the Arsenal hands-up offside dullest team in history. Short memories, some people.

But let’s change the subject. As much as I love the FA Cup, I am a little perturbed that this weekend’s game interrupts what is turning out to be a rich vein of form for us at a crucial time.

Let’s not try anything different or clever. We have found something that works and we have a Plan B so let’s not get over-adventurous.

The team and the fans alike should not underestimate Villa, despite our stunning result in the league. They will have learned a lot from that and it will have hurt. They will not capitulate like that again so we need to be on the top of our game. We need to win to give us confidence for that final push in the league. To lose the title by falling to bitter rivals Liverpool or Tottenham is unthinkable.

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