When Sir Alex Ferguson took Manchester United to Stamford Bridge in August 2004 for the first Premier League match of a new campaign, Chelsea had not won a Championship for 50 years – the one and only in their long history. Then the ‘Special One’ came along. By the end of his first season, Jose Mourinho proved to be the long awaited messiah for the west London club. United were in the middle of another Ferguson rebuilding phase having finished third to Arsenal in the previous campaign, destined to concede the title to Chelsea in 04-05 then having to settle for runners up in the following season before reclaiming the title in 2006-07 for the first of another title hat trick.

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If anyone ever wants to open a can of worms amongst Manchester United fans all he has to do is say the word BERBATOV and you can be guaranteed that heated discussions will immediately follow. The Bulgarian will either be described as having the best football brain at Old Trafford OR that he’s a lazy, useless, overpriced flop. You rarely get anything in between except perhaps a grudging admission that yes, Berba’s not a bad player BUT he’s not suited to United.

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Manchester United   1  (Macheda 81m)  vs  Chelsea  2  (Cole 20m, Drogba 79m)

Chelsea reclaimed pole position in the Premier League title race with a 2-1 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford. Sir Alex Ferguson will feel hard done by as substitute Didier Drogba was clearly offside when he collected Salomon Kalou’s pass and drove home 12 minutes from time. The significance of the error only became clear once Federico Macheda had pulled a goal back for the Reds to set up a pulsating finish.

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On this same weekend last year Manchester United faced Aston Villa at Old Trafford having just suffered a 1-4  home defeat against second placed Liverpool, immediately followed by an away 0-2 loss to Fulham. Their title chances were well and truly on the line as Villa led 2-1 with 10 minutes remaining but as he had done so many times before, Sir Alex Ferguson pulled a rabbit out of his hat by throwing unknown 17 year old striker Federico Macheda into battle for the last half hour.

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