Lampard sparks Chelsea revival
This was billed as a game all about two players – Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney – who perhaps shouldn’t be playing, but thankfully football overtook the off-field headlines in the end with a wonderful night of football drama that saw champions Chelsea come from 1-0 down to beat the Premier League leaders with a pulsating second-half display and move back into fourth place, still 12 points behind United but with pride restored.
David Luiz scored the all-important equaliser for Carlo Ancelotti’s side but it was Lampard’s emphatic penalty, harshly given for a trip by Chris Smalling on Yuri Zhirkov, that sent the home fans home happy and blew open the title race just when it seemed heading for predictability.
United’s misery was completed when captain Nemanja Vidic was sent off for a second bookable offence in injury time but this really was Chelsea’s night after months of misery in west London.
Lampard said: “All we could do today was win the game, try to show a signal that we’re trying to get back in it and close that gap.
“We did that today but there’s still a long way to go. Man United are deservedly top but we’ve got some fight as we showed tonight.”
Before the start all the talk was of Rooney who controversially escaped punishment for an elbow at Wigan last weekend, and Chelsea’s Cole, retained by manager Ancelotti despite shooting a work experience intern with an air rifle at the club’s Cobham training ground.
Strangely, given the bizarre nature of Cole’s offence, the football world seemed split over whether the left-back deserved further punishment while there was almost unanimous support for the suggestion Rooney should have faced a three-match suspension for his foul on Wigan’s James McCarthy.
Ancelotti, of course, was not talking about Cole’s misdemeanours, it was left instead to the crowd – at both ends of the ground it has to be said – to cry ‘shoot’ whenever the ball reached the England left-back.
United who took the lead with something special from Rooney after 30 minutes. The striker was 25 yards out when he received a pass from Nani and turned 360 degrees to beat his marker before firing a low shot into the bottom left-hand corner of the net from outside the area.
Chelsea were visibly rocked but they should have equalised when Lampard’s 40th-minute free-kick was saved by Edwin van der Sar and the rebound fell straight to Branislav Ivanovic; the defender’s bundled effort looked certain to cross the line from only two yards but Van der Sar somehow produced a big hand from nowhere to deny him and then reacted again to divert the ball to safety.
It was a remarkable triple stop from the Dutchman and left Chelsea, already having to deal with a restless home crowd, deflated once more; but to their credit they fashioned a far more convincing display in the second half to revive their flagging season.
The equaliser arrived after 54 minutes and it was new signing David Luiz who introduced himself to the Stamford Bridge crowd with an emphatically volleyed finish after Michael Essien’s cross was deflected to him at the far post but still 16 yards out.
Luiz is already becoming something of a cult hero in west London, mixing wonderful skill and surging runs from defence with some bone-crunching tackles, as Rooney will testify; so no wonder he received a standing ovation when eventually substituted. Ferguson, however, thought the former Benfica man should have been sent off earlier, after an off-the-ball lunge took out Rooney.
“It was incredible. Even before that he’d done Chicharito off the ball. He’d done him late. Nothing done, the referee’s in front of it,” he said.
“He does Rooney clear as day, (the referee is) six yards from it, he doesn’t do anything. That changed the game.
“These are decisions that change the game.
“But I’m proud of the players. They’ve endured a lot of decisions against them but they’ve come through it, they’ve done their best.”
Chelsea almost made it 3-1 when Zhirkov’s long-distance volley deflected off United defender Vidic and on to the post with van der Sar beaten.
Even with Ryan Giggs and Dimitar Berbatov on the pitch, United had no response and Vidic’s late dismissal – meaning he will miss next weekend’s match at Liverpool – added to their misery.
Even so this was a night for everyone else – and especially Arsenal, who are now four points behind United but with a game in hand – to relish.
It was the day when football reclaimed the headlines and reminded us why the Premier League is special, even if some of its biggest stars don’t know how to behave when the action is over; thankfully for now all eyes are firmly back on the action.
Subs for Chelsea: Drogba for Anelka 61, Zhirkov for Malouda, 71, Luiz for Bosingwa 81
Subs for United: Fabio for Evra, 81, Giggs for Scholes 70, Berbatov for Hernandez 70.
Referee: M Atkinson (W Yorkshire).
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