Chelsea and Manchester United played to a 1-1 draw on Sunday and both teams came away from the game feeling differently. Chelsea is battered and bruised while United is encouraged. Chelsea will be without defender Ricardo Carvalho who is out for up to a month with a knee injury and Deco will miss two weeks because of a torn thigh muscle. Chelsea is already without midfielder Michael Essien who is out for months.
Manchester United feels very encouraged after their draw at Chelsea. "That was definitely a point gained for us and was an answer to our critics," said United’s Wayne Rooney. "As soon as we saw the fixture list we knew it was going to be a tough start to the season. We have just had three really hard games, possibly our toughest of all. Now we have got them out of the way, hopefully we can go on a run."
Manchester United nearly ended Chelsea’s 85-match unbeaten home record but they were still pleased to come away with a draw. "Chelsea have a really good record here, so although we were in front for quite a long time and did well, a draw was a good result and probably quite fair given how the game went," Rooney said. "I had a half-chance before they equalized which I might have done a bit better with. But it wasn't to be and overall we did well."
Manchester United is on the other side of the injury situation. Dimitar Berbatov started just his second game of the season while Park Ji-sung, captain Gary Neville and midfielder Owen Hargreaves are also back as is superstar scorer Cristiano Ronaldo. Once Ronaldo gets back to full strength there is little question that United will take off. "It is a great boost for everyone to have Cristiano back," said Rooney. "He adds a different dimension to our play, so hopefully he can get a few more games under his belt. Everyone knows what a great player he is. Once he is fully fit he will soon start producing his best form again."
United is not anywhere near the top of the Premier League standings but they have the most difficult part of their schedule behind them and now will start getting players to full strength and that spells trouble for the rest of the league, including Chelsea.
