From Daily Mail UK Co.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2541400/Chelsea-3-Manchester-United-1-match-report-Samuel-Etoo-hat-trick-hands-Blues-impressive-win-David-Moyes-men-fail-test.html
By MARTIN SAMUEL
PUBLISHED: 17:53 GMT, 19 January 2014 | UPDATED: 17:23 GMT, 20 January 2014
There was no knee slide this time, no joyous arm-whirling sprint along the touchline. If we didn’t know him better, it was almost as if Jose Mourinho’s victory over Manchester United yesterday was, well, expected.
Chelsea defeated the champions as if they were inferiors. They held a two-goal cushion at half-time, added to it soon after the break and then, the challenge over, sloppily conceded a late goal to afford the illusion of contention. In reality, Chelsea were, at vital moments, a significant distance ahead.
At 3-0 they could have risked more in search of greater emphasis in the scoreline but Mourinho is not Manuel Pellegrini. He has little interest in chasing milestones or landslide victories. Once Samuel Eto’o had scored his third — the first Chelsea hat-trick against United since Seamus O’Connell in the 1954-55 title-winning season — Mourinho seemed happy to let his team see out the game in comfort. His substitutions, John Mikel Obi for Oscar in particular, were about preservation not annihilation.
It made United appear better than they were. In spells, they had the best of the play, but Chelsea won the key passages. When Chelsea dominated, they scored. United, by contrast, were kept at arm’s length. Only Adnan Januzaj looked capable of getting into Mourinho’s team and he is still young enough for Chelsea’s old sweats to gang up on him, which they did. United missed Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie — who wouldn’t? — but that was not the reason they lost. Defensive weakness allowed Chelsea to set the agenda here, and that is a part of the game that is supposed to be David Moyes’s strength.
O’Connell was a non-League player with Bishop Auckland and, on the day of the United game, a club official was sent to meet him at King’s Cross station. Unable to make contact, the official retired to the platform cafe and told his forlorn tale to a young stranger carrying a brown paper parcel — who turned out to be O’Connell. The pair got to Stamford Bridge, via taxi, in the nick of time. O’Connell scored a hat-trick, Chelsea lost 6-5.
Eto’o’s route to Stamford Bridge was similarly circuitous. He was the stop gap, the afterthought, the man considered too old to be much of a threat in the Premier League. Tell that to United. What they wouldn’t have given yesterday for a finisher of Eto’o’s quality.
Danny Welbeck was a pale imitation of what was required. In the second minute, he set up Ashley Young for a good chance that Petr Cech saved and in the 38th minute only a last-ditch tackle by Cesar Azpilicueta stopped him, but only when Chelsea’s ambitions lowered did United threaten greatly.
Welbeck had a header from a Januzaj corner in the 69th minute, but missed that, too. Each time the anguish on the United bench contrasted with Mourinho’s ease.
Eto’o was Welbeck’s opposite, performing acts of alchemy. Chelsea had barely been in the game when he opened the scoring after 17 minutes, a goal created by his persistence and United’s negligence.
It is possible to speculate that Eto’o would still be running with the ball now had he not planted it in the net, via a deflection off Michael Carrick, such was United’s aversion to applying pressure or stifling space.
Eto’o collected the ball, ran out to the right, was untroubled by Patrice Evra or Phil Jones, cut back inside, continued to avoid traffic and eventually tried a shot which clipped Carrick and looped over David De Gea.
Chelsea did not deserve to be ahead at the time — but they made the most of it from there.
Willian hit a corner, met by Gary Cahill at the near post, that flew across the face of goal. Branislav Ivanovic had a powerful shot and Oscar an overhead volley from close range, following an Eto’o opportunity that ricocheted.
In the final minute of the first half, United slumbered again — and Chelsea took an unassailable advantage.
Another Willian corner was cleared before Ramires put the ball back in to Cahill on the right side of the penalty area. His cross found Eto’o, who reacted quicker than Nemanja Vidic, leaving De Gea no chance from close range.
Within four minutes of the second-half restart, Chelsea had closed the game out after more calamitous defending from United at a set play. Again, a Willian corner was a prelude to carnage as Cahill met the ball unmarked, De Gea saved desperately with an elbow and Eto’o got to the ball before Antonio Valencia to send Stamford Bridge into delirium.
Valencia might have beaten Eto’o in the challenge had he not got on the wrong side, and he might not have got on the wrong side had he chosen to mark properly and make a tackle, rather than engage in another pointless round of Strictly Come Penalty Area
Valencia’s decision to clasp Eto’o allowed him to be spun around to a position of ineffectuality, and the game was lost. God knows what Len would have made of it, let alone Craig.
Substitute Javier Hernandez pulled a goal back from a pass by Jones in the 78th minute, but it was another United mirage. Aside from a header from Hernandez, directed straight at Cech in the 90th minute, there was no grandstand finish from the champions.
The biggest events in the minutes that followed were a red card for Vidic and a lucky escape for right back Rafael.
Moyes thought Vidic was treated harshly in the first minute of added time and, initially, it looked no more than a lousy tackle worthy of a booking. But replays showed the reckless intent of United’s captain in delivering a foul both late and high that could have caused Eden Hazard serious injury.
Moyes conceded Rafael could have been similarly dismissed but referee Phil Dowd clearly had no appetite for reducing United to nine, so only showed a yellow for a two-footed airborne and late tackle on Cahill two minutes later. As a card was issued, the FA will take no further action; an irony considering Cahill could have been kicked out of the World Cup at that moment.
Moyes put defeat down to the defending at set pieces and Mourinho has now mastered the art of patronising defeated managers, so left him to his illusion.
The brutal reality is United are no longer a huge scalp this season. Moyes has won one game as United manager against the top nine clubs in the Premier League, and Wednesday’s Capital One Cup semi-final second leg against Sunderland has taken on incongruous importance.
Mourinho made a quick getaway to a reception at the Savoy Hotel in his honour. It was a bigger celebration than any seen at Stamford Bridge — and that should hurt United most of all.
