It may be sacrilegious to suggest it, but maybe it would beneficial for both United and their manager to make the break now, because once he made his decision to retire, the Scot set in chain a potential sequence of events There could be no stopping it now.. Last August this fixture looked to be laden with possibility. City were expecting to be luxuriating in surviving their first season back in the Premiership while Chelsea harboured quiet hopes that Maine Road would go down in club history as a place where the first championship was won since the Fifties. Last August this fixture looked to be laden with possibility. City were expecting to be luxuriating in surviving their first season back in the Premiership while Chelsea harboured quiet hopes that Maine Road would go down in club history as a place where the first championship was won since the Fifties. So much for the warm optimism of autumn. In the cold reality of yesterday City said goodbye to the top flight while Chelsea brought belated achievement to a season of deep disappointment by getting the point they needed to secure a Uefa Cup place.
With the talent they have at their disposal it was the minimum they should expect.Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink ensured Chelsea can spend the summer anticipating exotic opposition and at the same time confirmed he will finish as the Premiership's top scorer with his 23rd league goal and the 25th in all. It was taken with a typical flourish, a coruscating drive of 25 yards and gave the London side victory after they had first taken the lead through Dennis Wise before being pegged back by Steve Howey.If Sky TV's spin doctors had been searching for hype to promote this game, then The Unfulfilled would have done nicely as a title. City had expected to provide but were undone by a home record that prior to yesterday included 11 defeats, while Chelsea's higher hopes had been unravelled by the meagre haul they have accrued on their travels.It did not suggest a feast was in prospect but on Maine Road's ample acres there is space for a team with a whiff of adventure, and Chelsea gave early indication that attack would be the simplest route to the point they needed.At 18 minutes Gianfranco Zola was only inches away but the escape for City lasted barely 30 seconds because in the next attack they were sliced open. Hasselbaink flicked the ball over his shoulder from the right, Zola dummied and Wise shot low into the corner past Carlo Nash.It was typically lax defending by City, who had conceded more home goals than anybody in the Premiership, but they are not alone in that respect as Chelsea proved after 38 minutes when Howey was allowed to meet Mark Kennedy's corner unchallenged. From a range of six yards he would have found it harder to miss.If that showed criminal negligence, however, it was nothing to the disregard City showed for the basics of defending just after the hour.
For reasons best known to themselves, their centre-backs, Howey and Richard Dunne, chose to leave Hasselbaink alone in the centre of the pitch, a target impossible to ignore for a park player, never mind Le Saux. He passed precisely and the burly striker shot past Nash from the edge of the box.Chelsea should have made the afternoon more comfortable after 76 minutes when Hasselbaink's pace took him clear of Dunne on the left. He passed across the area, Wise's shot was blocked by Howey and as Jody Morris arrived at the far post an accurate strike seemed certain to bring a goal. Instead Nash flung himself down to save spectacularly.City in debt to their goalkeeper, Chelsea not achieving what was expected; it was a cameo that summed up both clubs' season.. Instead of the three points, it would have been better for both sides if Steve McClaren had been the prize at stake at the Riverside yesterday. Middlesbrough held on for victory at the Riverside Stadium yesterday. They are holding on to their head coach, too for the time being, at least.
