United played well. Chelsea played better. They set up to defend and punish mistakes and that's what they did. Drogba and Fabregas were great at limiting the passing to our midfielders. Zouma was put on to stop Fellaini and he did that. Azpilicueta was told to make marking Mata a priority of keeping himself in position and he did that excellently. United didn't make the most of Mata cutting in and Azpilicueta following. Could see Mata frantically pointing at the space but rarely the Valencia run came and neither did the pass into space.
For me, every United player played okay. Shaw stood out a bit. At times it was like him and McNair were the least afraid of bringing the ball up in the second half. After the substitutions things got a bit better but as soon as Shaw came off for Blackett that stopped. Di Maria looked sharp, Falcao was playing well and Ivanovic looked like the weak link for a while. Too bad Shaw couldn't play longer.
Rooney should have scored early before Chelsea had the time to settle. Him missing that shot put them into gear and they performed Mourinho's task as well as asked and could have scored more than 1. United also could have leveled. A close game. Disappointing to lose but I really expected too with the way the game was set up.