A debated 76th winner from Chelsea captain John Terry condemned Manchester United to a 1-0 defeat in a crucial Premier League encounter at Stamford Bridge.

The reigning champions were without first choice centre back pairing Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand whilst Dimitar Berbatov was ruled out just before the match. This meant that United lined up in a 4-5-1 formation with Wayne Rooney up front by himself.

A first half of few chances was highlighted more towards the decisions that United failed to receive. Wayne Rooney was wrongly ruled offside before John Terry seemed to foul Antonio Valencia in the penalty area.

Nicolas Anelka had the best chance of the first half with a curling shot that brought the best out of Edwin Van der Sar with a left handed save. However, the two sides went into half time with the scores level.

The second half began in similar fashion with both teams cancelling eachother out. The returning Darren Fletcher seemed to be in irresistable form and his fierce drive from outside the box was brilliantly blocked by Ricardo Carvalho.

Wayne Rooney then had two good opportunities to put his side ahead. Firstly, his low drive skidded inches past Petr Cech’s far post before the striker’s curling effort was well saved by the Chelsea goalkeeper.

Nevertheless, Frank Lampard’s controversial free kick found Terry who headed past the despairing Van der Sar. The talking points arrised from the fact that United were incensed by the awarding of the free kick after Darren Fletcher claimed he had won the ball. It then appeared that Didier Drogba was in an offside position after sticking out a leg towards the ball following Terry’s header.

A small late rally went without reward and Sir Alex Ferguson had to contemplate the fact that his team were five points behind leaders Chelsea with Arsenal threatening to move into second place. Still, the title race is never decided in November!