Flashpoint at the Bridge
Melee in tunnel as Mourinho reacts to a Chelsea coach’s taunts after late, late Ross Barkley goal denies him victory on his old stamping ground
There is little they like less at Chelsea than Jose Mourinho being able to seize the moral high ground over them, and his lofty acceptance of a grovelling apology from Marco Ianni, the club’s excitable second assistant coach, left his old employer nowhere to go.
Chelsea took a point from a game that they were in danger of losing, but there was also the problem of being viewed as an antagonistic, ungracious club, which they had rather hoped to put behind them with Mourinho’s departure second time around.
While Ianni’s provocative celebrations may have earned him heroic status among those Chelsea supporters for whom such things matter, it is not the kind of face that the club want to show to the world.
They would much rather be viewed through the actions of manager Maurizio Sarri, who once again managed to defuse an unpleasant situation by listening to both sides and swiftly coming to the correct conclusion that his coach Ianni had to apologise to Mourinho. A bit more diplomacy of that kind would not have gone amiss in the previous 15 years that have seen Chelsea become one of the world’s super-clubs, but unfortunately the defining image of the day had already been set.
That was Ianni in front of the United bench with both fists clenched. The aggravation made it very entertaining for the rest of us, but for Chelsea it overshadowed a fightback that preserved Sarri’s remarkable unbeaten record.
It also meant that the thunder was stolen from Ross Barkley whose second goal for the club was exactly the kind of crucial intervention for which he was bought.
As a game, this showed that while Chelsea might have the greater master plan, United under Mourinho still have a deep fear of defeat, and act accordingly. A goal behind, they looked out of step in the first half, whatever the manager’s revisionism in his post-match press conference.
After the break, the big names such as Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic got a handle on the game, and they pounced on mistakes in the tradition of the best Mourinho teams.
Sarri said that his team had lost their way after an hour, attempting to go long instead of moving the ball in their short, sweet passing movements that seem to last for ages. It seemed in the first half that Eden Hazard could decide the game on his own, and by the second half, his team-mates had become in thrall to that idea. He almost did, but there was much less of a contribution from some of the other potential matchwinners in the team like Willian and Alvaro Morata.
Instead Chelsea’s strong performances came from elsewhere, in particular Antonio Rudiger who scored the first, headed in from a Willian corner, and then David Luiz, whose header against the post was the prelude to Barkley’s equaliser.
Mourinho said that his team had controlled the game, or at least the Chelsea threat, and that the goals they conceded were from set-pieces, but there were also other chances.
It was a good day for Anthony Martial, who scored twice before being substituted, both goals after errors in the Chelsea area. He had struggled to make an impression in the first half in what was a changed United line-up, with Alexis Sanchez on the bench and Victor Lindelof and Chris Smalling paired in defence. United had begun with a predictable plan to clatter Hazard, but early bookings for Matic and Ashley Young from referee Mike Dean soon discouraged them.
In the first half, Chelsea’s passing was at its best and they finished the game with 62 per cent of the possession. One sequence just before halftime seemed to go on for minutes, with United re-grouping behind the ball again and again. Chelsea needed a second goal after half-time to break United, but as long as the deficit stayed at just one, there was always a chance Mourinho’s men would get back into it.
Chelsea’s first goal was a bad moment for Pogba, who lost Rudiger as the corner came in.
“We defend mixed,” Mourinho said, “so some are in zone and some have individual opponents. Every player knows exactly his zone, his man. Sometimes, the opponent is better than us. In the first goal, Antonio was really strong in the movement and efficient in his header.”
That was generous on Pogba, who seemed to lose concentration again, but the midfielder would come good in the second half. The first half was also notable for a Hazard booking, stoically chasing Marcus Rashford back down the left flank and inexpertly tripping the forward just outside the area. The Belgian was sparkling in the opening stages of the second half, but Chelsea failed to close the door on United.
Eventually, the chance arrived. A Juan Mata shot was saved by Kepa Arrizabalaga, then came back via two poor clearing headers from Chelsea. In the meantime, Marcos Alonso had calculated that going down in the area and staying there would be enough to influence referee Dean to stop the game. He was wrong. Young’s shot had a double deflection, fell to Martial and he finished with time and space.
There was enough in what followed for United to sniff a chance. N’Golo Kante’s shot was saved one-handed by David De Gea, and there was an anxiety about Chelsea that they could not close the game out.
Then they were caught out of shape. Mata nicked the ball past Luiz on the right. His pass found Rashford whose first touch opened the space for him to pass on to Martial whose first touch seemed heavy, but he whipped his second past Arrizabalaga.
Mourinho sensed a famous victory and sent on Ander Herrera to tidy things up, with Andreas Pereira and then finally Alexis Sanchez also entering the fray. However, his team just could not hold out when Chelsea recycled a late free-kick. Luiz’s header hit a post, De Gea saved the follow-up from Rudiger, and it was third time lucky for Barkley from close range.
Then came the skirmish after Ianni’s celebrations, which spilt over into an argument among the two sets of players over the re-start.
By the end of proceedings, Mourinho was waving three fingers at the Chelsea fans to remind them of the three league titles he had won there. Normally, that would put him in the spotlight, but minutes later, he was able to wag the proverbial finger at Chelsea and, on this occasion, there was nothing they could say to argue.
Chelsea (4-3-3) Arrizabalaga 6; Azpilicueta 6, Rudiger 7, Luiz 7, Alonso 6; Kante 6, Jorginho 6, Kovacic 7 (Barkley 69); Willian 5 (Pedro 72), Morata 4 (Giroud 79), Hazard 7. Subs Caballero (g), Fabregas, Zappacosta, Cahill. Booked Matic, Rudiger, Hazard. Manchester United (4-2-3-1) De Gea 7; Young 7, Smalling 7, Lindelof 6, Shaw 6; Matic 6, Pogba 7; Rashford 6 (Sanchez 85), Mata 6 (Herrera 75), Martial 7 (Pereira 83), Lukaku 5. Subs Romero (g), Bailly, Fred, Darmian. Booked Mata, Sanchez, Young, Pereira. Referee Mike Dean (Wirral).