Please give me strength! I can understand how disappointment, frustration and yes, even bitterness can boil over soon after a defeat in a crucial game but surely, a little common sense and objectivity must also be part of the thinking. Let’s try to agree that Manchester United is not the perfect team this season and that certain areas need to be strengthened before it becomes the finished product that everyone yearns to see. Yet ask any United fan, any rival fan and any pundit who watched the first 45 minute performance at Stamford Bridge, try and put the events of the second period to one side, then tell me if the team is as bad as this UNITED FAN had to say on one of the  club forums.

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Let’s not put too fine a gloss on it. What happened in the second half at Stamford Bridge was a shock to the system, it’s difficult to put it any other way. I must also confess however that I’m a born optimist, the glass is always half full as far as I’m concerned, so when I looked back to what happened just two seasons ago, Manchester United’s position started to look a little brighter. History does sometimes repeat itself after all. The Chelsea defeat was game 28 of the season, remember game 28 in March 2009? That was when United got walloped 1-4 by Liverpool at Old Trafford in which Nemanja Vidic was also sent off. United then went to Fulham the following week and again got beaten 0-2 with both Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney getting red carded.

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It’s wide open now! Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat of Manchester United at Stamford Bridge will not help the Blues retain their title but it opens the door for Arsenal to take the initiative in what still appears to be a two horse title race. Yet it looked so different at the break. Wayne Rooney had given United a deserved lead when they were clearly dominating the game and gave the impression that Chelsea were going to find it difficult to get back into it in the second period. But that’s precisely what the reigning champions did, taking the game to United and totally controlling the middle of the park for long periods.

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It’s wide open now! Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat of Manchester United at Stamford Bridge will not help the Blues retain their title but it opens the door for Arsenal to take the initiative in what still appears to be a two horse title race. Yet it looked so different at the break. Wayne Rooney had given United a deserved lead when they were clearly dominating the game and gave the impression that Chelsea were going to find it difficult to get back into it in the second period. But that’s precisely what the reigning champions did, taking the game to United and totally controlling the middle of the park for long periods.

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Premier League matches no longer last for 90 minutes these days, they have become 95 minute, nail biting affairs. That’s how far away Manchester United stand from a record breaking title win if they succeed in coming back from Stamford Bridge with all three points. Call me a blind optimist if you want but I have no doubt that opening a seven point lead over Arsenal will ensure that the trophy will return to Old Trafford in May. Why? Because United will then carry the momentum to brush aside any challenge Liverpool may provide at Anfield on Sunday and whatever a demoralised Chelsea and Arsenal can muster towards the end of the season.

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Why has Scotland produced so many of the best football managers in the world? Based on exclusive interviews with the men themselves, their players or close friends and family, authors Michael Grant and Rob Robertson reveal the huge contribution that Scottish managers like Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Jock Stein, Tommy Docherty, Jim McLean, Kenny Dalglish, George Graham, Walter Smith, Gordon Strachan, Alex McLeish and David Moyes, as well as a host of others, have made to the world game.

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