TONGUE LASHING
Giroud’s got United licked as Chelsea reach final
The only consolation for David De Gea was that Roy Keane does not work for the BBC.
heavens, there would have been some snarling had he been in the studio. Chelsea are in the FA Cup final, and deservedly so, but the talking point here was the role in their progression played by Manchester United’s floundering goalkeeper.
he was weak for their first, but wasn’t alone in that because it was poor defending all round from Manchester United. Yet while there was also a serious error in the build up to the second, De Gea’s involvement was little short of calamitous. As for the third, well by then it really wasn’t his day; beaten at the near post again, but this time by the outstretched boot of his captain, harry Maguire. De Gea had a stinker; but he wasn’t alone.
What a day for Frank Lampard and Chelsea, though. Now one victory away from a trophy in his first year as Chelsea manager, and playing an Arsenal team that have served him four out of six points this season. And while domestic cup glory may not be the kind that keeps employees in jobs with Roman Abramovich, this is still an impressive start for a young manager given the restrictions around Lampard’s first season, and the progress he had made with a young team.
In the circumstances, then, this was an outstanding performance in a game Chelsea were not expected to win. Manchester United are Project Restart’s form team and before this weekend, the expectation was of the first Manchester derby FA Cup final. So much for that.
Chelsea were on top from the start and ahead after 56 minutes. That we were still watching the first half at this time shows the havoc wreaked by a succession of head injuries, poor eric Bailly’s the most disturbing. So it was late in the day when Chelsea got what their performance deserved, and when De Gea’s horrors began. Willian found Cesar Azpilicueta on the right and he whipped in a low cross which Olivier Giroud converted at the near post, having got in front of Victor Lindelof in his trademark style. De Gea got a hand to it, but could not keep the ball out.
Should he have done better? Undoubtedly — but the same could most certainly be said of Lindelof. It is not a secret, Giroud’s modus operandi.
equally, Brandon Williams was greatly at fault for the sloppy pass that let Mason Mount (right) in for number two after 47 minutes. What happened next, though, was a calamity purely of Dea Gea’s creation. Mount’s shot, 25 yards out, was relatively tame. It was low, but not particularly fierce or potentially troublesome to a goalkeeper of De Gea’s historic calibre. And he let it through. Soft, soft, soft. It is not the first time this season, as Keane has been pointing out, but may it be the last?
Manchester United have Dean henderson waiting in the wings for the next campaign, and surely cannot afford to leave him at Sheffield United another year.
Who knows what has befallen De Gea since the years when he was every Manchester United man’s pick for Player of the Season? Certainly, there is a crisis of confidence. he looks an accident waiting to happen these days, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s insistence he remains the best in the world appears increasingly misguided.
Almost as misguided as a United starting line-up that found no room for Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood or Paul Pogba. It is hard to argue United didn’t get what they deserved from this.
They were done after the second goal, even with more than 40 minutes remaining, having achieved nothing to that point that suggested a comeback was possible.
Sure enough, it got worse. In the 74th minute, Marcos Alonso broke down the left, hit a low cross very similar to Azpilicueta’s for the first goal, and Maguire, panicked by the looming presence of Antonio Rudiger on his shoulder, turned it into his own net. As if life wasn’t hard enough for De Gea, even his own side were conspiring against him.
A rash tackle by Callum hudson-Odoi on Martial brought brief hope of red revival. Bruno Fernandes converted it, sending Willy Caballero the wrong way, but United offered little more. The bad news didn’t stop with the result, either, given a sickening injury to United defender Bailly that saw him taken from the field on a stretcher, having tried to leave unaided, before collapsing.
Sports in which head trauma is an occupational hazard have learned from tragic experience that the greatest danger is the so-called double concussion. A player receives a blow to the head, carries on, and receives another. This is what happened to Bailly.
The hits may not have been in exactly the same place, but the
cumulative effect looked obvious. By the time Bailly was carried away, his need for serious medical attention was concerning.
In the 39th minute, he bumped heads with Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma, challenging for an aerial ball. Both men received treatment, and carried on. Then three minutes later, Bailly went for another header, but his team-mate Maguire had the same instinct. The pair clashed, Maguire needing treatment with a bloody bandage, Bailly coming away without visible gore, but in no fit state for play. He tried to stand, then lay stretched out on the pitch. After substantial treatment, he got to his feet again, his carers dabbing the top of his head, presumably to stem bleeding.
By this time, Martial was already on the touchline about to make his appearance, as Solskjaer reworked United’s system.
Bailly left the field and then dropped to his knees. Play was delayed for longer, as medics worked to make him comfortable in a stretcher. He left, immobilised, and if concussed will be unable to play in United’s remaining league games. Strangely, though, the enforced change gave United a brief fillip and moments later they had one of their best chances of the match. The arrival of Martial, one of the most consistent players in the country right now, seemingly unsettled Chelsea, whose centre-halves got into a muddle dealing a with a routine ball. Zouma ended up kicking Martial’s foot as he tried to clear — a complete accident and one not even deemed worthy of a VAR replay. Yet to many eyes, it looked like a foul, albeit a freakish one.
Certainly, United needed something. Until that point, a lone free-kick from Bruno Fernandes, tipped over by Caballero had been their only chance. For a team that has been so prolific upfront since the restart, it was a huge disappointment.
United’s thriving forwards versus Chelsea’s vulnerable defenders was supposed to be the narrative here. Solskjaer’s selection spurned that opportunity and, from the start, Chelsea were on top.
They had two good early chances, through a Reece James shot and an Alonso header.
Lampard will now try to succeed where Antonio Conte failed in 2017, meeting Arsenal in a FA Cup final. First, though, he needs one more win to secure Champions League football. Do that and by the night of August 1, for a comparative novice, he may have enjoyed a very good year indeed.