Casemiro to the rescue! The former Real Madrid star has come to the rescue with an outstanding 94′-minute header as Man United draw 1-1 against Chelsea and earn a point at Stamford Bridge.
If Chelsea won this game, it would have been the biggest robbery in the Premier League this season.
Very little about Chelsea’s performance today justified them getting even a point from this game, let alone nearly picking up all three of them. Sure, Chelsea fans and supporters could maybe argue that Manchester United didn’t really deserve to win the game either, but that still doesn’t rectify the fact that Chelsea nearly won this game on a terrible referring decision.
But, before I get into that, there were two chances in the first half that I should note…and both came from the boots of United players. Namely, Antony.
The first one was only 12 or so minutes into the game as a rejuvenated Luke Shaw drove the ball down the left side of Chelsea’s defense. His ensuing cross just skipped out of the path of Bruno Fernades, though he was able to set up a one-touch shot from Antony that was tipped aside by Kepa.
Even though this really wasn’t the best of chances, the reason why I’m mentioning it is that is showed the evolution this United side has taken under Erik ten Hag.
Under Solskjær or Rangnick, that whole passage of play would have fizzled out with either Shaw or Bruno misplacing a pass that would wind up giving Chelsea a counterattack or selfishly blasting a shot wide of the target. Prior to ten Hag’s arrival, Manchester United was a team full of selfish, misguided players that would rather ‘go-for-glory’ over making the smart decision that would lead to the best possible scoring chance.
That’s entirely different now as Bruno wisely looked up, laid off the ball, and Antony just missed out on putting United 1-0 up at Stamford Bridge.
As for the second chance, Antony really should have scored it.
Just before halftime, Bruno picked up the ball in the middle of the field and sprung Antony in on goal. All the Brazilian forward had to do was outrun his fellow Brazilian, Thiago Silva, (which he easily did), pick a spot past Kepa (which he did), and then finish the chance (which he failed miserably).
If Antony wasn’t so one-footed, or better yet right-footed, then United would have gone 1-0 up.
But, unfortunately for all Man United fans, the ball was placed on Antony’s right foot, and he scuffed a shot horribly wide. For being an £80M+ player, he’s got to work on his weaker foot a little more. At least be able to get his right foot shots on net.
Nonetheless, back to the referring decision I was talking about, it came with under 5 minutes to go in the game with Chelsea preparing for corner kick. Scott Mctominay and Armando Broja were tussling and fighting to reach the ball, as every player does during a corner kick, and Mctominay got to the ball first as Broja fell down from Mctominay’s grappling.
Shockingly, the referee, Stuart Atwell, called for a penalty, even though every other player in every other Premier League match does the same thing.
Sure, the letter of the law states that such grappling battles are illegal, but it’s never called. EVER!
It’s honestly baffling how arbitrary these refs have become when the game is on the line. Chelsea would never have put the ball in the net (which Jorginho did on the ensuing penalty by sending David de Gea the wrong way) if it wasn’t for Attwell. It almost makes you wonder why he would call such a trivial thing with the game in balance…
Thankfully, Casemiro came up HUGE for United only ten minutes later. As time was expiring, the Brazilian jumped over Ben Chilwell and looped home a header from a Luke Shaw cross, which barley went over the head of Kepa and crossed the goal line to rescue a point for United. Thus, the game ended at 1 a piece.
What an eventful final ten minutes! With United and Chelsea still separated by a single point (4th: Chelsea, 21; 5th: Man United, 20), it seems like there really will be a Top-4 race between the ‘traditional’ Top-6 clubs (and Newcastle) this season.
Hey, how about that? I didn’t even mention Cristiano Ronaldo (up until this point) once.
(PS: I hope Raphael Varane’s injury isn’t too serious and that he comes back quickly. He was extremely emotional coming off the field, so that doesn’t seem like a good sign for his World Cup status. But, hopefully I’m just reading too much into it and he’ll be back soon.)
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