The first indication was the tinny roar from the away end. Stoke City’s supporters like to believe they have a credible rivalry with Manchester United and they gloatingly made sure to publicise each of the updates from Stamford Bridge that informed us that after three seasons the championship trophy would no longer reside at Old Trafford. It has been there 1,097 days and, for United, it will be like saying an emotional goodbye to an old friend.
Any hope of a final-day feat of escapology was extinguished from that moment, after seven minutes, when the schadenfreude began and the small but boisterous contingent of visiting fans started singing in honour of John Terry, the Chelsea captain. Sir Alex Ferguson’s team still attacked with pace and purpose and, in difficult circumstances, there was something stirring about the way the disappointment did not infiltrate their play.
The celebrations after each goal, however, were restrained by the knowledge of what was happening at Stamford Bridge. Ferguson and his players still received the appreciation of the crowd as they made their way round the pitch after the final whistle but the mood was coalmine-black at times. Once it was apparent the title was heading to London United’s supporters had used the moment to vent their disdain for the club’s ruling Glazer family. Dozens of the green and gold scarves that have come to represent their campaign were thrown on the pitch but the players had been instructed not to pick them up and obediently disappointed the crowd.
A few minutes earlier a sombre Ferguson had taken the microphone in the centre of the pitch to promise that next season he would try to return the title to “the best place in the world”. United’s manager did not actually know the full extent of Chelsea’s goalfest but admitted he had lost hope once he heard Wigan Athletic, with 11 away points all season, had conceded a second and gone down to 10 men.
That was towards the end of the first half, although in truth an air of inevitability had already begun to descend before then on an afternoon when Wayne Rooney not only surrendered the Premier League’s golden boot award to Didier Drogba but also left the pitch after 76 minutes, having aggravated the groin injury he suffered recently.
Ferguson said his leading scorer would be fully recovered for the World Cup and Fabio Capello must hope that was a more accurate diagnosis than some of those offered by United’s manager regarding Rooney’s fitness over the last couple of months. Rooney did, at least, take part in the lap of honour and, when he returned to the tunnel, it was only to collect his baby son, Kai.
The players’ body language told its own story: subdued, tired, exasperated. It was not a dramatic enough day, however, to find anyone slumped to his knees – not when the news had started circulating of Chelsea’s first goal before either Edwin van der Sar or Asmir Begovic had even muddied their kit. No sooner had Darren Fletcher scooped in United’s opener, capitalising on lucky ricochets after Nemanja Vidic had connected with Ryan Giggs’s corner, than the celebrations had to be tempered by a second Chelsea and that set the pattern: each United goal coming either directly before or after another brutal update from Stamford Bridge.
After 38 minutes Dimitar Berbatov set up Giggs to sweep in the second but the crowd’s appreciation was not allowed to prevail for long as the Stoke end took malicious delight in reminding them that it was 2-0 to Chelsea and that that, in short, was that.
It was to the credit of Ferguson’s team that they continued to punish a listless Stoke side after the interval but by the time Danny Higginbotham turned Rooney’s cross into his own net for the 12th own- goal of United’s season - a record in the Premier League and the same number of goals that Berbatov has managed – the mood was one of reflection and begrudging acceptance.
Stoke then had their one flurry, Van der Sar pulling off splendid saves to keep out Rory Delap’s header and a curling shot from the substitute Danny Pugh, but in the 83rd minute Park Ji-sung, Rooney’s replacement, made it 4-0 with a stooping header from another Giggs corner.
In the end even the home crowd were sarcastically cheering Chelsea’s goals. Mostly, though, they took out their frustration on the Glazer family.
Man of the match Ryan Giggs (Manchester United)
