A hard-fought encounter at Old Trafford .It was always going to be a tight contest between the two best clubs in England, Manchester United and Chelsea, so on reflection I suppose 1-1 was a fair result in a match of two halves.

With Sir Alex Ferguson favoring a traditional 4-4-2 formation, United were outstanding in the first 45 minutes against Jose Mourinho's midfield diamond formation. I've always believed this is the best system to frustrate the Blues and thanks to the incessant pressure applied by the Red Devils, Chelsea were unable to get any possession and play their dominating brand of football. The width supplied by Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo, along with the probing of Gary Neville, disrupted the positioning of the Chelsea midfield trio. In fact, they were so anonymous I thought they'd forgotten to take the bus up to Old Trafford! With Chelsea's back-four excellent though, chances were always going to be at a premium and Ricardo Carvalho will be disappointed that he didn't get closer to Saha, as the Frenchman found the tightest of holes to put United ahead.

At this point I fancied United to really apply the accelerator and kill off the Blues because one goal was never going to be enough in a match of this magnitude. The fact that they didn't may haunt them come because half-time allowed the 'Special One' to make a few tactical changes that altered the game significantly.

The introduction of Robben after the break was the key as it spread United out and while the Dutchman had no direct impact on the match, his presence did free up Lampard and Essien, allowing the pair to run with the ball at the heart of the United back-four, who were outstanding.

I was surprised that Sir Alex did apply the brakes though because even he must know that if you concede possession to Chelsea they'll start their strangling style of play to suffocate the life out of opponents. It really was no surprise that they equalized although the manner of the goal will be a bone of contention for the Scotsman. Set-pieces should be the bread and butter of the defensive side and even though Carvalho was put under pressure, he shouldn't have been allowed such a clean header.

With Chelsea now in the ascendancy, I thought the Londoners would push on for the win and credit Mourinho for making bold changes in the form of Robben and Joe Cole. This is where the wallet of Roman Abramovich comes into play as United could only respond with Darren Fletcher and John O'Shea — not exactly match-winners.

So who does the result benefit?

Both clubs may take a moral victory of sorts but in the big picture Chelsea should be more pleased as they've traveled to enemy territory and came away with a point.
For United, they remain top of the standings but realistically dropped two points at home. The next time they meet is April 14, 2007. Let's hope the table looks the way it does now to set up another beauty.