David De Gea: Seems to LOVE facing Chelsea, made some massive saves today as he did back in January including a special one from a point blank Torres effort. Could have been a different story without him between the sticks. 8
Rafael: Faced a tough opponent in Hazard but coped, did well getting forward renewing his exciting tandem with Valencia. His shoot was turned in by Hernandez for the winner. 7
Patrice Evra: Seems to have found a decent bit of form recently, good getting forward as is to be expected of the Frenchman. 6
Rio Ferdinand: Played his part in United’s 1st but looked flustered at times leading to a lack of cohesion with Evans. 6
Jonny Evans: There were a few hairy moments but looks to be continually improving. Could he have done better with oscar’s ball in the build up to Chelsea’s 2nd? Made contact with Torres for the Spaniard’s red but there won’t be any complaints from us! 6
Michael Carrick: Did a decent job shielding United’s back four but found himself having to work hard when Chelsea began to get into the game. Quietly reliable. 6
Tom Cleverley: Wasn’t his best game and saw himself taken off on the hour mark. It is games like these that he will need to standout in if he is to star in United’s midfield in the future. 5
Antonio Valencia: Bombed forward and attempted to keep Cole on the back foot, and this worked early as he set up RVP’s goal. Went through the motions in the middle part of the game, but finished it as strongly as he started. Could have got on the scoresheet after racing clear only to scuff his shot wide. 7
Ashley Young: Was thrown in at the deep end in his return and coped well, but will look to improve as he gets more minutes under his belt. It was he that was felled by the lumbering Ivanovic when the Setb saw red, one of the game’s turning points. 6
Wayne Rooney: There were good and bad aspects of Rooney’s performance today as he played in a deeper role and shone, helping put Chelsea on the back foot. But he made some mistakes that could have proved costly. He brought down Hazard before the break, allowing Mata to score the resulting freekick and could have seen red in the second half for a lunge on Mikel had Clatterburg sought to even out the reds he had already shown. 7
Robin Van Persie: A running battle with David Luiz couldn’t distract him from his primary objective of firing United to a win. Got off to a flyer putting past Cech and worked ceaselessly up top, chipping away at Chelsea. It was his turn and ball to Young that saw Ivanovic left with no other option than to bring down the winger. 8
Subs
Javier Hernandez: Many thought he would start following his exploits earlier in the week, but even from the bench he was influential, scoring the winner even if it was from an offside position. Buzzed about late on running the depleted Chelsea side ragged and saw his efforts rewarded with a goal. A revitalising week for the Mexican! 8
Ryan Giggs: Was brought on to stabilise United and did just that with his experience. 6
