Stamford Bridge did not know whether to hug itself or pinch itself yesterday. Manchester United arrived as champions of England and Europe but left looking no more than an outside bet for the Stretford Sunday League.
In routing Alex Ferguson's team 5-0 Chelsea broke the spell United had held over them and established a much stronger case for winning the Premiership. They had not defeated Manchester United in their previous nine encounters and United had not lost in seven visits to the Bridge.
All that became a receding memory once a mistake by Massimo Taibi, Ferguson's errorprone goalkeeping import from Venezia, had handed Chelsea the lead after 28 seconds. When Chelsea were two up, United had Nicky Butt sent off for a kick on Dennis Wise and from then on the champions' unbeaten run of 29 league games, stretching back to a home defeat by Middlesbrough on December 19th, 1998, was clearly about to end.
Ferguson made no excuses. "We were well beaten today," the United manager admitted, "but we'll just have to bite the bullet and get on with it. Chelsea are serious challengers, no doubt about that." Certainly Chelsea will take satisfaction from a performance which has left them two points behind United with two matches in hand. At last they rediscovered a finishing touch. Poor defending by United helped, but at the heart of Chelsea's success lay the effortless domination in midfield of Wise, Didier Deschamps and Gustavo Poyet.
Never before have Chelsea beaten Manchester United by as many as five goals. Until yesterday their biggest win against them had been 6-2 in 1930.
Not that many of their future opponents will be as obliging defensively as United in this game. Ferguson recalled Mickael Silvestre to left-back and began with Phil Neville man-marking Zola.
With Neville often dragged out of position, Silvestre was left to cope with the overlapping runs of Petrescu and Albert Ferrer. As a result Jaap Stam and Henning Berg were unusually stretched at the back and no team is better equipped than Chelsea to exploit gaps in square defences.
The start of United's discomfort, however, came when Taibi rushed blindly off his line towards Petrescu's high ball and was beaten by a header from Poyet which he would have saved comfortably had he stayed put.
Just past the quarter-hour, Sutton rose imperiously to score with an excellent header from Ferrer's centre and any hope United had of saving the match all but vanished when Butt was dismissed by Dermot Gallagher seven minutes later. Having been flattened by Wise's high tackle Butt, when he recovered, kicked his assailant under the referee's nose.
Wise had appeared to say something to the fallen Butt and seemed to tweak him on a thigh. But as Ray Wilkins, the Chelsea coach, observed: "I thought the tackle by Dennis Wise was poor, but while you may have a row with an opponent, you don't retaliate."
Immediately afterwards, Paul Scholes's low drive drew a sharp save from Ed de Goey, the Chelsea goalkeeper's only urgent action of the afternoon. Scholes was then fortunate not to follow Butt after appearing to aim a kick at Sutton.
With Phil Neville giving up man-marking to help David Beckham and Dwight Yorke bolster the midfield, United looked better balanced with 10 players than with 11. But any hope of damage limitation disappeared after half-time.
First Poyet scored again, following up after Taibi had blocked a shot from Leboeuf. Then Berg, trying to stop Zola's low centre reaching Sutton, diverted the ball into his own net. Lastly, Jody Morris drove in their fifth from Graeme le Saux's pass.
It was Manchester United's heaviest defeat since losing 5-0 at Newcastle in October 1996 and in that season they went on to win the championship by seven points. But if yesterday was a happy portent for Ferguson's team, it was very heavily disguised.
Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli felt his opponents were going to be vulnerable at the back. "We knew they could come with Phil Neville in front of the back four, so we tried to play on the two flanks most of the time and put as many crosses into the box as possible," he said. "We know Gus Poyet is always a good aerial threat and that's why he scored."
Vialli also saluted Sutton, saying: "Chris is a lovely lad, he's a great professional player and wants to improve. He's really worked hard the past couple of months. I was very impressed with his work-rate - he was working very hard with, and without the ball."
CHELSEA: De Goey, Ferrer, Hogh, Leboeuf, Babayaro, Petrescu (Le Saux 77), Wise (Morris 65), Deschamps, Poyet, Sutton, Zola (Flo 69). Subs Not Used: Lambourde, Cudicini. Booked: Wise, Deschamps. Goals: Poyet 1, Sutton 16, Poyet 54, Berg 59 og, Morris 81.
MANCHESTER UNITED: Taibi, Irwin, Berg, Stam, Silvestre, Beckham (Solskjaer 65), Butt, Scholes (Sheringham 65), Neville, Yorke, Cole (Wilson 65). Subs Not Used: Clegg, Van Der Gouw. Sent Off: Butt (23). Booked: Scholes.
Referee: D Gallagher (Banbury).
