MANCHESTER UNITED's immediate aims are about to be refocused. Their chances of playing in next season's Champions League look good. The visit of Porto to Old Trafford in the quarter finals on Wednesday week will give an indication of how strong the likelihood of United winning this season's tournament really is.
On Saturday Alex Ferguson's players completed a satisfactory double header in London by holding Chelsea to 1-1 at Stamford Bridge, having beaten Arsenal 2-1 at Highbury three days earlier. The fact that Manchester United came close to defeating the multi lingual mix of British, French, Romanian, Italian and, occasionally, Dutch talent which now wears Chelsea blue, may encourage the hope that they will see off the assembly of Portuguese, Slovenian, Yugoslav and Brazilian skills wearing Porto's blue and white.
Certainly the tactical acumen with which United prevented Gianfranco Zola from repeating in the second half his early mastery of the first, along with the way they unravelled Chelsea's sweeper system, offered a sharp contrast to the fumbling efforts of England when Glenn Hoddle's team was confronted with similar problems in the recent World Cup qualifier at Wembley.
The comparison is not altogether fair since Italy's defenders never gave David Beckham the sort of chance which he accepted with such alacrity in scoring United's equaliser at Stamford Bridge after 68 minutes. By his standards Beckham had an indifferent game, but he still met Frank Sinclair's weak headed clearance with a stunning volley which went in off the underside of the crossbar. Frode Grodas, who had replaced the injured Kevin Hitchcock in Chelsea's goal shortly after half time, was left helpless.
Against Porto, Manchester United's principal problems, like those of England 12 days ago, may lie in a weakened defence. Gary Pallister, plagued by back trouble for so long, is still moving with the stiffness of a policeman at the end of a long beat, David May is only just back after a hernia operation and Ronny Johnsen suffered a knee injury on Saturday.
Ferguson still hopes to play May and Johnsen against Coventry at Old Trafford this Saturday, when United will seek to open up a four point lead at the top of the Premiership before Liverpool visit Villa Park the following afternoon. But even a rested Pallister could be vulnerable to the Brazilian wiles of Jardel and Artur when United open their Champions League quarter final against Porto.
For Ferguson and his most experienced central defender the impudence with which Zola gave Chelsea the lead in the second minute may have reawoken uncomfortable memories of the torture inflicted on Pallister and Steve Bruce by Romario and Hristo Stoichkov when United lost 4-0 in Barcelona two seasons ago.
Having played an important part in a seven pass move which bypassed Manchester United's midfield and bemused their defence, Zola then turned up near the right hand byline as he gathered a ball from Dan Petrescu. A sudden turn left Den is Irwin lunging at thin air, a feint flat footed both Pallister and Peter Schmeichel, and since no other Chelsea player had entered the penalty area Zola's only choice was to shoot, which he did to score inside the near post.
"He's a better player than I thought he was," Ferguson admitted later. "I was prepared to put my two full backs in forward positions and leave Pallister and Johnsen to look after Mark Hughes and Zola. But Zola was smart enough to go wide, and cause us a lot of problems. He's a clever little bugger."
Clever enough, certainly, to set up Hughes for a chance in the 12th minute which, had the former Manchester United striker taken it, would have made life infinitely more difficult for his old team.
The course of the game turned on Ferguson's decision, after half an hour, to give Andy Cole and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer closer support from Ryan Giggs. "The way Chelsea play," the United manager explained later, "we could afford, to play three up, and it worked well for us.
So well, in fact, that although Beckham continued to be frustrated by the close attentions of Dennis Wise, and Brian McClair was still off the pace of the game, the combination of Roy Keane and Giggs forced Chelsea to defend deep for much of the last hour. United missed easier scoring opportunities than the one Beckham eventually accepted otherwise an unbeaten record in London stretching back to the 4-1 defeat at Tottenham on New Year's Day 1996 would have been embellished with another victory.
Keane's second yellow card of the week had his manager letting off some familiar steam about referees, but while the Irishman's foul on Hughes was scarcely as blatant as his clattering of Ray Parlour at Highbury it was still a bookable offence.
The earlier caution took Keane past 21 disciplinary points and he will shortly serve a two match ban. With Nicky Butt again out of action Ferguson can ill afford to lose players from the engine room as the season approaches its climax. Eric Cantona has completed his suspension but head waiters never did make good stokers.
