I just died in your arms tonight

The difference in coverage between our win against West Ham and Chelsea's win yesterday against Newcastle are startling. The game I watched yesterday had one team with nothing to play for against a team with everything to play for, and that seemed to be the deciding factor. Newcastle never looked that interested, they made a chance or two but there was no consistent pressure, no consistent desire to win, and second half Chelsea woke up and put them to bed. Reading the papers though, one would think Chelsea were somehow amazing...

I'll just pick two examples; Louise Taylor in The Guardian waxes lyrical on Michael Ballack. Ballack has come good in the last few games, no qualms about admitting that, but to eulogise him after the Newcastle game, on the strength of the Newcastle game? Ronaldo scored two against West Ham and all he got was a, "Well, how bad was the defending...", Ballack gets a whole article of praise:

In some ways the German's game is more straightforward - far more Mercedes-Benz than White Ferrari - than the man himself. Some observers questioned his likely longevity in London when, with typical forthrightness, he expressed dismay at Mourinho's replacement by Grant. Fast forward to early 2008, though, and he had already come to be seen as one of the Israeli's key disciples, their burgeoning bond mirroring the growing trust between Ballack and his team-mates.

He lacks a stunning change of pace and prefers the ball rather than his legs to do the work but significantly yesterday Newcastle's Joey Barton ran around a lot to often minimal effect whereas Ballack's apparent economy of physical effort enabled him to shine when it came to ball retention and distribution. Ballack is high-calibre proof that modern midfielders do not always have to be uber-athletes.

It is highly unlikely Ballack boasts the fast-twitch muscle function gene which a sadly unnamed manager recently explored the legality of testing his players for. But happily for Chelsea he certainly does not lack the "big occasion" mentality, something even individuals as gifted as United's Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney have sometimes struggled to muster, enabling him to perform on the grandest stages in the biggest games.

Ignoring that ridiculous (and more ridiculous for its obvious irony - it's like "you expect me to make a comparison with a German car and, ha, I make the comparison with a German car, I am so clever...")Mercedes comment, it is the awful way that the usual rubbish about Ronaldo (and Rooney now as well!) not being a big game player is trotted out to make Ballack seem even better. The obvious subtext is that in some way Chelsea are better than us, something that is self-evidently not true, and something that, when we beat Wigan, will be demonstrated as untrue.

The other article I want to mention is this, apparently unsigned, article in The Mail, telling us how great John Terry is. Again, the evidence used is the Newcastle game:

John Terry is in unforgiving mood after a season punctuated by injury, doubts over his international future under Fabio Capello and the thorny issue of the England captaincy.

He is answering them all emphatically. Were you watching at St James' Park, Fabio? It was a Bank Holiday, but you certainly should have been.

He certainly did have his work cut out for him against Newcastle didn't he? Goal line clearance? He'd have had to have been Titus Bramble not to have got there. And again stupid comparisons with Manchester United are the order of the day:

When Chelsea's central defensive pairing are fit, they are the envy of world football. Carles Puyol and Gabriel Milito? Powder puffs by comparison.

Ivan Cordoba and Marco Materazzi? High up the list, but still haunted by Liverpool.

Hold on, how about Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic? Both were named in the PFA team of the year — the ultimate accolade among the Premier League professionals — but they would not get in this Chelsea team.

"They would not get in this Chelsea team"? What on earth does that mean? We have the best defence in the league, conceded fewest goals in the league, Carvalho and Terry are good, but what's with this eulogising them to the detriment of our players? Again, the only reason is to belittle our team. The complete ridiculousness is just further emphasised by saying that they were voted into the team of the premiership but good enough for Chelsea? No way.

Absolute idiocy.

In other news, Nani apologises:

"I want to publicly ask for forgiveness, firstly of my team-mates, who were forced into a greater effort during more than 60 minutes, secondly of my manager and coaches, and thirdly of the United fans who have given me so much affection."

Rio speaks:

"The team spirit is the best it's been since I've been here.

"Obviously I can't say what it was like before my time, but I've never known it any better. I can only assume the manager does extensive research into a player's personality before signing him because we've not had one bad apple."

There's a look at the release of our accounts in The Guardian:

The spokesman for the Glazer family pointed to the club's success on the field, and in generating income off it, as evidence of the family's competent management. "The family continue to run United as a business," he said. "Their model is to encourage success on the pitch by backing Sir Alex Ferguson, and to grow revenues off it. The interest payments are more than covered by the cash generated."

Finally, there's an "interview" with Carlos in The Telegraph, and even here they get to have a bit of a dig at Ronaldo, and then claim that Carlos agrees:

He agreed with a widely shared assessment that the one element missing from the winger's claim to true greatness was his inconsistency in the biggest games, and that the Champions League final against Chelsea on May 21 offered a chance to defy the doubters. "What would you have expected from Michael Schumacher in a Formula One race? It's the same with Cristiano. We expect the best. That is the pressure that we put upon ourselves."

Where in that quote is the agreement?