Chelsea and United in goalless stalemate

By Mitch Phillips

LONDON (Reuters) - Chelsea and Manchester United, league champions old and new, produced a strictly mid-table performance on Wednesday in a goalless showdown that came a month too late.

The game, which should have been one of the highlights of the season, was downgraded to dead rubber status when United secured the title on Sunday by virtue of Chelsea only drawing 1-1 at Arsenal.

It would have been very different if the fixture had been played when originally scheduled for FA Cup semi-final weekend in April, when United were just three points ahead, but with the teams due to meet again in the Cup final on May 19 it became a more of a damage-limitation exercise.

Alex Ferguson put out a virtual second-string team. China forward Fangzhuo Dong donned the red shirt competitively for the first time more than three years after joining the club, full back Kieran Lee made his first league appearance and Chris Eagles his first start. Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick were on the bench and Cristiano Ronaldo not involved at all.

Chelsea were much more recognisable, though they too gave a first start to 18-year-old forward Scott Sinclair in the continuing absence of 31-goal striker Didier Drogba and for once were without Frank Lampard, missing for only the second time in 62 games.

The Londoners at least had something to play for as they sought the result that would extend their unbeaten home league record to 63 games dating back to February 2004 and thereby match Liverpool's all-time top flight mark set between February 1978 and January 1981.

DREARY HALF

There seemed little danger of them missing out on the landmark in a dreary first half that barely involved the two stand-in goalkeepers, Carlo Cudicini of Chelsea and Tomasz Kuszczak of United.