The 32 days that showed why United deserve title

A certain type of Chelsea fan gets his kicks out of crowing to his Manchester United counterparts that "there's only one England captain". It's John Terry, not Rio Ferdinand, so ner-ner and ha ha. Etc.

Well, yes, that's true. Unfortunately, it is rapidly becoming the only thing that supporters of Carlo Ancelotti's team have left to cling to, from a season in which United have outthought, out-lasted and outgunned them at every turn. The title is heading to Manchester and no one can claim that it is anything but deserved and well won.
As the fight for the Premier League enters its last moments, Chelsea's candle is guttering out. They have been valiant in the last few months. But to use a boxing analogy, during the critical rounds of the fight, they have been beaten to every punch. (To use the vernacular idiom, during the last month, United have torn Chelsea several new ones.)
United need a single point to win their 19th League title and a world-class performance to win their fourth European Cup. They are in that position largely thanks to a series of three victories over Chelsea, played in 32 days since the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge on April 6. The aggregate score in those three games: 5-2 to Sir Alex Ferguson's men. Had United converted their wealth of chances yesterday, that accumulated scoreline might have contained an even heftier dose of OUCH.
Yesterday captured in microcosm the slender but telling superiority United have enjoyed over their rivals during the last month. As the decent Ancelotti had the grace and balls to acknowledge in his post-match comments, United have been the better team. His men have come second in every area: from front to back; from pitch to dugout.
It was clear yesterday from the very first minute, when David Luiz mistook the task of defending a through-ball from Ji-Sung Park for a request to perform some of the improv physical
comedy his gorgeous, clownlike hair suggests.
He marked the Old Trafford turf with the heavy indentations of his Brazilian buttocks and Javier Hernandez kept a straight face long enough to tuck the ball beyond Petr Cech. Before anyone had really worked out what was going on, Chelsea were a goal down.
Poor Luiz. He has been a joy to watch since he made his debut in February. But he looked like a total pillock yesterday. What a place for a meltdown. Old Trafford crowds this season have been used to seeing imperious, almost impervious defending, led by Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, and ably assisted by Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling.
All four United centre-backs finished the match yesterday: a wall of tall, powerful men, each standing over six feet tall. They are the present and the future of the club and as a unit they comprise arguably the strongest quartet of centre-backs Ferguson has had in his squad together at one time. They have been the foundation of United's domestic and European campaigns.
Luiz's blunder also highlighted another vital area of United's superiority: at the sharp end of their attack, where Hernandez was again excellent yesterday. He was alert enough to convert his early chance and then threw himself energetically about the field for the 89-and-a-half minutes-plus-injury time that followed. During the second half he charged at Terry and Alex like a toddler on Skittles.
Hernandez's emergence as an urgent alternative to the Mogadon stroll favoured by Dimitar Berbatov has been the key to Wayne Rooney's resurgent 2011. Brilliant though Berbatov can be, Rooney and United's style of play doesn't always suit a bloke who seems a bit yanked off that Old Trafford is a smoke-free stadium and he can't have a snout break during the game.
Hernandez has unlocked United's attack. While Chicharito leads the line, Rooney is free to drop deep into midfield, scrapping for the ball when United are defending and setting up attacking play when they win possession back. At £6million the Mexican is the buy of the season.
Certainly he has done for the verve and coherence of United's attack the precise opposite of what Fernando Torres's arrival, for £42m more, has done for Chelsea's.
Yesterday Hernandez was ably assisted by similarly energetic midfield shifts from Park and Antonio Valencia. Although Ryan Giggs took Sky's man-of-the-match award, most of the hacks queueing up for steamed sponge puddings at half-time in the Old Trafford press room were already talking about Park as the best player on the field.
The South Korean has never been a showy or particularly fashionable player. But he has become Ferguson's go-to man for big games and it is surely now certain that he will start at Wembley Stadium in the Champions League final, where he will be tasked with tracking Lionel Messi. It will be the most important job of the night for United.
Between now and then, United must take a point from their remaining Premier League games to win the title. They will do it. And they will have earned their crown.