Chelsea topples United from summit with 2-1 win
Despite being offside when connecting with Salomon Kalou's pass, Drogba smashed home Chelsea's second goal in the 79th minute to put the London club two points clear of the defending champions.
"It's disappointing—it's just the quality of the official I'm afraid cost us," United manager Alex
said. "What I can't understand is the linesman was directly in front of it. He has no one near him, not a soul in front of him and he gets it wrong.
"And, really in a game of that magnitude, you need quality of officials and we didn't have them today. It was a poor, poor performance."
United went behind in the 20th minute after Joe Cole's deft flick. The champions were mostly overwhelmed by Chelsea and lacked a cutting edge without injured striker Wayne Rooney.
United finally started to impose itself just before Drogba's goal and substitute Federico Macheda scored within two minutes of the Ivory Coast striker's 31st of the season, but it came too late.
"It was an important victory because we won at the home of a strong team," Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti said. "Unfortunately nothing is decided yet and we have to stay focused."
Arsenal stayed in touch and only three points behind Chelsea after beating Wolverhampton 1-0 courtesy of Nicklas Bendtner's stoppage-time winner.
While Chelsea had the week off due to its Champions League loss to Inter Milan last month, United was coming off a 2-1 defeat at Bayern Munich in the first leg of their quarterfinal, which saw Rooney sustain ligament damage .
Rooney had not missed a match against Chelsea since joining United in 2004 and even Ferguson contemplated the prospect of losing in his program notes.
"Even if we go down it wouldn't be a knockout," insisted Ferguson, who will be without Rooney for at least two more weeks as United bids for a fourth straight Premier League title.
United missed the England forward against Chelsea, with Dimitar Berbatov isolated as the lone striker. The Bulgarian had just two chances in the first half: the first he headed over from Antonio Valencia's cross, and Frank Lampard made a well-timed intervention as he spun to shoot.
The home team's lack of spark meant it was only a matter of time before Chelsea landed the first blow. Florent Malouda powered down to the left byline and outmuscled Darren Fletcher before finding space to square to Cole at the near post. The winger flicked the ball into the net with the inside of his left heel and almost seemed surprised by the end result.
"Cole's goal was key for the game—he is fit now and only have to improve his confidence and I think this will help," Ancelotti said. "And Malouda is fantastic—he has quality and is an explosive player."
United did up the tempo after the break, but still couldn't trouble Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech. With 20 minutes to go, Ancelotti replaced Nicolas Anelka with Drogba, who has been struggling with groin problems, and shortly afterward Salomon Kalou for Cole. United also made some changes, with Macheda and Nani replacing Paul Scholes and Park.
The substitutes wrote the script for the closing exchanges.
After receiving the ball from Kalou in an offside position, Drogba beat United keeper Edwin van der Sar at the near post, blasting the ball high into the net.
"Didier didn't train two days during the week—he wasn't 100 percent," Ancelotti said. "But I knew he was very important for this game and it was perfect to put him on at the end when he was fresh."
United responded inside two minutes when Macheda nudged the ball over the line—with a slight connection with his arm—from a cross by Nani to score his first goal of an injury-plagued season.
But the 18-year-old Macheda, who scored two late matchwinners at the end of last season, couldn't salvage a draw.
"Chelsea were by far the better team, but in the second half we did well and we were unfortunate not to get something from the game," Ferguson said. "Chelsea are favorites now, there's no question. Five games left and they are two points ahead, four goals difference better than us. They are in the driving seat."
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