Torres howler gives United breathing space

MANCHESTER United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was a relieved man after seeing his side make it five Premier League wins in as many matches with victory over a team likely to be in contention for the title.

Chelsea had a couple of decent chances to open the scoring and continued to offer something going forward, but found themselves 3–0 down at half–time after a header from from Chris Smalling, a wonder strike by Nani and a clinical finish from Wayne Rooney.

Fernando Torres pulled one back immediately after the restart, but breaking his long drought did not restore all his old instincts as he unbelievably missed an open goal late in the game.

Rooney also missed a penalty after slipping in an unusually open game between the sides.

Said Ferguson: "It was a fantastic, open match but we created our own problems for ourselves.

"We gave the ball away in attacking areas and they kept counter–attacking us. In the first half they could have scored two or three.

"We created more opportunities, fantastic opportunities, particularly through Nani and Ashley Young, who kept getting in very good areas.

“That was our strength, they couldn't cope with that."

A notable blight on proceedings for United was the late injury to Javier Hernandez, who went off after a poor challenge from Ashley Cole.