THE INDIE
Advantage Stamford Bridge. The points cushion that has sustained Manchester United on the title run-in was ripped away from them last night when Middlesbrough gained a draw here. Now Chelsea will be champions if they take maximum points from their five remaining matches.
On an evening of tension at the Theatre of Dreams, the vision of a ninth Premiership crown receded as United failed to make the most of a near-perfect start, Kieran Richardson putting them ahead in the third minute. It should have settled the nerves; instead Mark Viduka preyed on them with an equaliser just before half-time. That goal might prove a pivotal moment of the 2006-07 season.
To make matters worse for United, Rio Ferdinand was injured in the build-up to that goal and is unlikely to face Milan in the first leg of the Champions' League semi-final on Tuesday. Before last night's game Sir Alex Ferguson had said "I'm fearing the worst" in reference to Middlesbrough's physical play; this morning he will be coming to terms with a result that was not the worst, but it will feel pretty close.
As usual, attention was fixed on Cristiano Ronaldo. Not, initially, for his footwork, but for the potential reaction of the Middlesbrough players, who arrived in Manchester harbouring a sense of injustice and muttering about diving, the legacy of three previous meetings this season.
Never mind, you can always rely on one of the game's elder statesmen to preach calm. Or not; Sir Alex Ferguson was stoking the fire in his programme notes. "Brace yourselves... we are in for a tough time," he wrote. Then the United manager added: "Players like Ronaldo deserve protection and given their grievances, I don't expect Middlesbrough will be holding back."
If there was a temptation to omit Ronaldo, Ferguson resisted it. Instead Ryan Giggs was left out of the starting line-up, rested for tests to come, while John O'Shea and Ferdinand returned from injury. Boro, meanwhile, welcomed back Viduka, who had recovered from a stomach upset.
Whether he was feeling queasy soon into the match is a matter of debate, because United had taken the lead by the fourth minute. Paul Scholes intercepted a pass from Lee Cattermole and then floated a 60-yard pass. Wayne Rooney, who had judged his run to perfection, chested the ball down, rounded Mark Schwarzer and appeared certain to score, but Richardson came in on his blindside to shoot into the empty net.
The visitors' first really menacing attack came after 28 minutes, when Ferdinand was caught in possession. Aiyegbeni Yakubu bore down on goal only for Wes Brown to slide in to make the block. It suggested Boro were building momentum, and it came to fruition in stoppage time before the interval. Stewart Downing was given far too much space on the left, had time to steady himself and his cross was inch-perfect for Viduka to head in at the near post.
The post-mortem about the equaliser showed that Viduka had got a free run to score his goal partly because Ferdinand had pulled up with what looked to be a recurrence of his groin injury, and he was replaced for the second half by Darren Fletcher. Another change was Giggs for the scorer Richardson. It was a reshaped United, and they were nearly contorted into an ugly mess after 49 minutes when Viduka flicked the ball over O'Shea, got the benefit of the doubt in what could have been a handball and suddenly was face to face with Edwin van der Sar. Only the United goalkeeper's reaction save prevented Boro going ahead.
Van der Sar had to save at Yakubu's feet as the home team gambled, and Cattermole whistled a drive just wide after 69 minutes; it was a desperate United who went into the last 20 minutes. So desperate that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer flicked the ball from Schwarzer as he attempted to clear from his hands. The Norwegian was booked for his pains.
THE OBSERVER
Manchester United are not the new Brazil after all and looked distinctly ordinary in allowing a route to the title to open up for Chelsea. Their bogey team Middlesbrough handled Cristiano Ronaldo and everyone else with composure and confidence, Milan scouts would not have recognised the side who slaughtered Roma and, with disputed penalties stubbornly refusing to come to their rescue and Rio Ferdinand's groin injury flaring up again, United could only hang on for a barely deserved point.
They might not have had that much had Boro been awarded a penalty at the end and if Chelsea can win at Newcastle this afternoon a single point will be all that separates the sides, with a showdown still to come at Stamford Bridge on 9 May.
'We've got to be pleased with a point here after the run of results we've just had,' Gareth Southgate said. 'It was a fantastic performance. We defended really well in the second half and we showed character in recovering from the worst possible start.'
Boro went behind with barely three minutes on the clock, though at least there was nothing controversial about Kieran Richardson's opener and Southgate couldn't complain after watching his team start the move by giving the ball away. Lee Cattermole picked the wrong man to pass to in the middle of the United half, because Paul Scholes launched a 50-yard pass to send Wayne Rooney clear without even appearing to look up. Middlesbrough assumed he was offside and stopped, whereas Rooney knew he wasn't and carried on. He could probably have scored himself after rounding Mark Schwarzer, though the supporting Richardson thought it best to take the chance off his toes when the ball came in his direction.
Perhaps unwisely, after what Middlesbrough said about his provocative showmanship last time, Ronaldo unveiled a new trick midway through the first half, a sort of double back-heel that had the effect of disguising a pass out to the right wing while Ronaldo was looking in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, Richardson was expecting it even less than the Boro defenders and though John O'Shea did get in a cross, the moment of surprise had passed. The next time Ronaldo tried his double shuffle, Boateng stuck in a determined foot and was booked for his pains.
Fabio Rochemback's yellow card for scything down Rooney was more clear-cut, though it was hard to see why Scholes deserved a caution for mild contact with the Brazilian two minutes later. That debate was quickly forgotten when Boro altered the tone of half-time conversations by equalising in stoppage time. Not for the first time, Stewart Downing found space and crossed neatly from the left. Ferdinand merely watched as the ball flew past, allowing Mark Viduka to beat Wes Brown for a header that crept inside Edwin van der Sar's right post.
It transpired that Ferdinand was injured, so badly that he will miss the Milan game on Tuesday, and Ferguson also kept Richardson off at the interval. United now have to gee themselves up for Europe in the middle of an injury crisis. 'We basically just have 12 fit players at the moment. We are down to the bare bones,' Ferguson said. 'Rio's injury just before half time was a killer. There was enough effort in the second half, but maybe we were a bit rushed, a bit over-anxious. What we have to do now is not feel sorry for ourselves. Maybe we did that a bit today, but we still lead and this is a time to show what we are made of.'
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
A colossal error by the men on the United bench may have cost them the Premiership title they covet intensely.
United were a goal up, courtesy of Kieran Richardson's third-minute strike, and appeared to be handling Middlesbrough comfortably when Rio Ferdinand signalled to Sir Alex Ferguson and coach Carlos Quieroz that his groin was troubling him.
He could not run, but they left him on for fully five minutes and in that period Middlesbrough scored an unlikely equaliser. As Mark Viduka moved in front of Wes Brown to head in Stewart Downing's left-wing cross, Ferdinand, unable to take up a position. He should have been substituted.
Ferguson confirmed that Ferdinand will be out for at least two weeks, missing Tuesday's Champions League semi-final first leg against AC Milan But, perhaps most damaging of all, he and everyone concerned at Old Trafford may look upon those minutes of time added- on at the end of the first half as the moments when the title was lost.
It is not over yet, of course, but the two points dropped will give Chelsea a huge lift as they go into today's match at Newcastle.
The crunch match, possibly the title decider, will be on May 9 at Stamford Bridge when the two giants meet.
Frustration flooded Old Trafford yesterday. They might even have lost had referee Peter Walton given a last-minute penalty when Middlesbrough's Korean, Dong Gook Lee, went down as John 0'Shea challenged.
There was heavy irony in the voice of Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate when he said: "These 50-50 calls don't tend to go for us here." He could be proud of his players. They never wavered and deserved the point that was virtually handed to them.
Ferguson chose pre-match interviews and his programme notes to speculate that Middlesbrough might arrive with a particularly aggressive approach and wondered if Cristiano Ronaldo's reputation might make him a particular target.
Boro had questioned Ronaldo's showboating and claimed he had dived for a penalty that won the FA Cup quarter-final for United. Southgate had mouthed the word "cheat" and midfielder George Boateng had warned that Ronaldo could be heading for a serious injury somewhere.
As Ferguson called for protection, he surely wasn't trying to influence referee Peter Walton. Was he? His concerns were not necessary, although in the context of the Boateng-Ronaldo history there was enough going on. Boateng's first foul after six minutes resulted in a warm handshake between the two, but his second brought a yellow card from the referee when there appeared to be minimal contact.
SUNDAY TIMES
Mark Viduka blew the title race wide open at Old Trafford last night, when the Australian striker scored a headed equaliser which could see Manchester United's lead at the top of the table reduced to a single point if Chelsea win at Newcastle today.
United were leading through Kieran Richardson's first league goal this season and apparently cruising to another routine victory when, as the first half went into stoppage time, Viduka nodded home Stewart Downing's cross at close range.
As significant as the result is the loss of yet another defender, Rio Ferdinand, with a recurrence of his groin injury. Already without Nemanja Vidic, Gary Neville and Patrice Evra, United will have to field a patched up defence, without a single first choice in any of the the four positions, when they play Milan in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final at Old Trafford on Tuesday night.
How many of them will recover in time for the resumption of the Premiership race at Everton next Saturday is anybody's guess, but the prognosis is not encouraging. Sir Alex Ferguson was not about to admit as much, but he must be kicking himself for not substituting Ferdinand as soon as he went lame, near the end of the first half.
Instead, the manager kept his key defender on the field until half-time, and looked on, aghast, as Viduka ran past Ferdinand, then darted ahead of Wes Brown at the near post to head home. Another day, another crunch game in what has become an enthralling title race. Chelsea, playing this afternoon, could only sit back with fingers crossed as United again sought to open up a six-point gap. Jose Mourinho and company will have been cursing after precisely two minutes and 57 seconds, when a long ball delivered from his own half, caught Boro square and Rooney ran on and rounded Mark Schwarzer, then left it to Richardson to tap the ball home.
Boro appealed for offside, in vain. It was their defenders, not the officials, who were culpable. For the Teesside contingent, the omens were ominous. Ferguson admitted his team would need "an immense amount of luck" to pull off a second treble, and said that given a choice of the three trophies, his preference would be the league title.
With that priority in mind the United manager, unlike Liverpool's Rafael Benitez, did not rest half his team before the Champions League semi-finals in midweek. The only notable absentee from the starting lineup was Ryan Giggs, and he was on the bench, and called on in extremis for the second half. Much had been made beforehand of the problems Boro have with Ronaldo — "paranoia" was the word Ferguson used. Gareth Southgate is by no means alone in believing the Portuguese trickster takes a tumble a mite too easily, but what a player. The world's best? Pele has expressed doubts, and my vote for Footballer of the Year goes to the one-man strikeforce and set piece defender par excellence called Didier Drogba, but Ronaldo on his day is worth all that inflated admission money, and more.
One dexterous feint and sleight of foot midway through the first half bemused two opponents and had the crowd purring. Southgate and his players had nothing but his genius to complain about here, as Portugal's finest retained his equilibrium while strutting his stuff. There was an air of inevitability about the incident when George Boateng, who had warned Ronaldo not to try to "take the micky", was booked after 35 minutes, his tormentor's mesmeric feet luring him into a clumsy, rather than malicious, foul.
The referee, Peter Walton, was right to produce the yellow card on that occasion, but wrong for booking Paul Scholes when Fabio Rochemback conned him with an obvious dive, and again when he took Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's name for a legitimate challenge on Schwarzer. A rare break out by Boro, with Yakubu at the forefront, was snuffed out by a well-timed tackle from Brown on the 18-yard line, and Edwin Van der Sar was called upon to punch clear the occasional corner, but United, as is their wont in such company, played nearly all the cohesive football. They were in control and cruising when the equaliser hit them out of nothing as the first half went into stoppage time. Ferdinand was lame, and little more than a spectator when Boro worked Downing into a crossing position on the left. The England winger's delivery was good — something that cannot be said often enough when he is on international duty — and Viduka darted in ahead of Brown at the near post to score a classical centre-forward's header from five yards.