The 5 greatest Chelsea vs Manchester United clashes in recent times

Chelsea vs Manchester United, 31st October 2012, Capital One Cup

Hazard celebrates his 90th-minute equaliser: Capital One Cup 2012

The year of 2012 was truly a classic one in the battle for supremacy between Manchester and Chelsea. The two had already met in the league before in a six-goal thriller in February and also three days prior to this 9 goal thriller. When United visited the Bridge, three days before, they won the game by a goal and also sparked some controversy with Torres’ red card and the offside goal.

Chelsea, hurt by the injustice in the league which closed down the gap between them, and United had a shot at redemption in the cup. True to their standards, the Blues dumped United out in a nine-goal thriller.

United went into the game without Rooney, De Gea, and their regular defenders. Chelsea had an early chance to go in front. A brilliant counter by Drogba and an even better cross set Sturridge free but he slipped inside the box.

Chelsea went behind due to a school-boy error from Petr Cech. Cech threw the ball into the isolated Oriol Romeu while he had no support. Giggs and Welbeck went straight in on the ball and Giggs had the easiest task of sliding the ball past Cech. 10 minutes later, Chelsea found a way into the box. Moses was brought down in the edge by Alexander Buttner and Chelsea received a penalty kick. David Luiz zipped the ball past Anders Lindegaard to equal the scoreline.

Javier Hernandez restored the lead, thanks to a perfectly weighted through ball which released him through the defence. Mata drove in a perfect corner into Gary Cahill. Cahill’s shot which at first look seemed a goal-line clearance was allowed as a goal.

Chelsea’s equaliser lasted only 7 minutes. Nani started a brilliant attack with his ball control in the midfield and he was the one to finish with a neat return pass from Anderson. Chelsea had a clear penalty denied when Mata’s attempted pass clipped the defender’s hand.

Manchester was on the brink of a 3-2 victory at Bridge for the second time in 4 days. Chelsea though got a lifeline through a rookie tackle by Scott Wootton on Ramires. Eden Hazard stepped up and he went without power straight down the middle.

The match went into extra time and Wootton’s misery continued.

A lobbed ball over the defence meant for Sturridge went straight to Wootton. In an attempt to pass it, Wootton headed the ball really softly for Sturridge to capitalise. Sturridge went with the ball, rounded Lindegaard and finished to give Chelsea a 4-3 lead.

Hazard went on a berserk run in the second half of extra time and set Ramires up with a tidy pass while United’s defence looked on. Ramires rounded the keeper and finished past Lindegaard to surely dump United out of the cup. There was an anti-climax as Giggs converted from the spot in the very last minute but it was too little too late, even for the masters of late goals.

Chelsea took sweet revenge to their loss in the league and went through to the quarterfinals.