Chelsea vs Manchester United: Keys match stats and numbers after United play 'best game of the season' but lose

The Blues may have taken all three points but many reckon United were the better team - were they?

Simon Rice
Sunday 19 April 2015 13:21 BST
Comments
Marouane Fellaini and Manchester United in defeat to Chelsea
Marouane Fellaini and Manchester United in defeat to Chelsea (GETTY IMAGES)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

In his intense post-match interview with the BBC, Louis van Gaal claimed Manchester United "played the best match of the season" in defeat to Chelsea.

Whilst not everyone will agree with the Dutchman that the performance was better than any other this season, many would argue United were the dominant team at Stamford Bridge and at least deserved something from the game. Wayne Rooney told MUTV: "I thought it was excellent, we dominated from start to finish".

So here, we take a look at the statistics to see if they back up that view...

SHOTS

Chelsea: 7

Manchester United: 15

SHOTS ON TARGET

Chelsea: 2

Manchester United: 2

CORNERS

Chelsea: 3

Manchester United: 7

THROW-INS

Chelsea: 9

Manchester United: 23

POSSESSION

Chelsea: 33 per cent

Manchester United: 67 per cent

PASSES

Chelsea: 284

Manchester United: 665

DRIBBLES

Chelsea: 19

Manchester United: 24

INTERCEPTIONS

Chelsea: 8

Manchester United: 18

CLEARANCES

Chelsea: 30

Manchester United: 24

TOUCHES

Chelsea: 435

Manchester United: 837

Louis van Gaal
Louis van Gaal (Getty Images)

Despite appearing to dominate most stats, as Van Gaal said after the match: "In football it's only counting the goals and they scored one goal."

GOALS

Chelsea: 1

Manchester United: 0

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in