Lay off Luiz — he’s a class act

I’m not going to even debate whether our first goal should have stood or not as the Cardiff keeper shouldn’t have even been on the pitch after handling the ball outside his area.

And if anyone for a moment is going to suggest this incident changed the game then I would suggest they look at the quality of our goals, the movement of our midfield and the possession throughout the game — we were always going to win.

I once described David Luiz as a gorgeous, adorable puppy who occasionally shits on your cream carpets and I’m going to stick with that. I’m not going to defend his mistake on Saturday as even the most staunch Luiz apologists (of which I count myself) would have trouble doing that even though I still think he is the man to partner JT at the back.

I know this isn’t his first mistake and it won’t be the last but they are few and far between although the hysteria is such that you would be forgiven for thinking he does it every game. He gives you so much more than a bog-standard defender. He’s confident at coming forward, quick, his free-kicks are excellent and he has passion. His critics needs to remember there is a reason Barcelona want him and he not only plays for Brazil but often captains them.

All this seems a bit unfair on the dependable and likeable Gary Cahill but, for me, he’s too much like JT. That’s by no means a bad thing but doesn’t make the best pairing at the back.

Just like Mata, we have to trust Jose. We need to trust him because he has a track record, because he works with these players week in and week out and because we can see the beginning of a great team materialising before our eyes.

Speaking of Mourinho, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to discover his outburst had been calculated and pre-planned to explain his absence at the post match interviews. I doubt he wanted to defend the Luiz abomination or the controversial equaliser that has predictably been the main focus of all the reports.

The time-wasting by Cardiff was extreme but I can’t be too disparaging about something like that as they are doing whatever they feel they need to to stay in this division. It did them no favours though as it just broke up some of their own decent passages of play.

It was also good to finally see a Chelsea striker score and, as someone less than impressed with the signing of Eto’o, I was surprised by the quality of the goal. He generally made a nuisance of himself too but City, who we play next Sunday, are a very different challenge, and we cannot even begin to compare with their goalscoring options. Despite this, I hope Jose doesn’t take the pragmatic approach and set up the team just to try and stop them scoring. If our adorable puppy is on a roll that might be a futile exercise anyway, but at this stage of the season you need to be nailing your colours to the mast. I understand why we played it cautious at Old Trafford but if we are to be true title contenders then we need to go for the win.

We are currently tucked in neatly behind the darlings of the English media and we are improving every week. Jose too is beginning to morph back into the theatrical, Machiavellian, ringmaster we know and love it’s all looking pretty good. It’s certainly better than being a United fan at the moment. It’s early days, but I’d back the Portuguese thoroughbred over the Scottish nag every day of the week.