Man Utd 3-Chelsea 0

There is a syndrome in Psychiatry called the Capgras syndrome.

In this syndrome,the patient suddenly fails to recognize close family members and loved ones while being fully conscious and in contol of his faculties.It is called "misidentification" in plain English.

I certainly had a dose of what that must feel like for patients today as I watched a very insipid and spineless display from my beloved Chelsea at Old Trafford.That was so not Chelsea.

Under the special one,Chelsea may not score a hatful of goals on their off days,but they certainly never conceded a hatful either...not even against their main rivals.Those games were the goaless draws or low scoring score draws of the Mourinho era.The same games that earned us the "borin',borin' chelsea tag from our bitter rivals and their fans who were frustrated that their sweet brand of football couldn't unlock us even on our bad day.

All that is now history.Big Phil has changed all that.At least the colorless Avram Grant still kept a modicum of that Mourinhoid steele about the team.

Chelsea are no Arsenal or Barca...we are not genetically moulded to entertain.That entertaining craving is what has driven Arsenal into the ditch they are in...I don't want that for Chelsea.

The title was always going to come down to this game in one way or the other.Man Utd were coming into this with 3(three!) games in hand on Liverpool,the current league leaders.It was a matter of whether Chelsea could halt United's inexorable ascent towards the top of the table in the quest to defend their title.

United even started a rookie center half!There was no Ferdinand.I must confess though that I think young Johny Evans will eventually mature into a more than decent center half in the not too distant future..

The big loser in all this has to be Rafa Benitez after his needless rant during the week against Alex Ferguson.It should be interesting to see his face now.His team must now realize that anything less than a win when they visit Old Trafford in a couple of weeks will mean another dashed hope of returning to their glory days of Ian Rush,Kevin Keegan and Peter Beardsley of the 70s and 80s.

As far as Chelsea is concerned,I am still struggling with my misidentification.We need to now look critically at the team and its philosophy.If Roman wishes to make an Arsenal or Barca out of my darling team,I will not leave SW8 for him,for I have supported this team since the days of Denis Wise,Ruud Gullit and Gianfraco Zola...long long before the Roman ship sailed from the red square...and long before the several new supporters who are generally scorned as "fair whether fans" by our bitter rivals.I will expect him to do what is honorable and either change course or leave SW8.

This much I will say:I hereby concede the 2008/2009 title to Man Utd.See y'all in the Champions league....if we get past the old lady of Turin.