Premier League: RVP's late show readies Manchester United to make their move

Van Persie daring to celebrate a goal here

There were shades of the Manchester United of old on Sunday when they scored in Fergie Time to nab a point against Chelsea and Andy Brassell says there were enough encouraging signs to suggest Louis van Gaal's men can get a result in the Manchester derby next weekend...

Sometimes, the extent of partisanship between football behemoths still has the potential to surprise. The willy-waving that goes on via social media whenever two of the Premier League's biggest clubs meet is par for the course.

What was slightly more difficult to believe were the suggestions from some quarters that Manchester United's players and supporters should have been in some way ashamed of enjoying Robin van Persie's last-ditch equaliser against Chelsea with such gleeful abandon, as if it was confirmation of a diminished status.

That's nonsense. Van Persie's goal was a personal and collective triumph, showing United could still compete with the very best - which Chelsea undoubtedly are in England, even with a few key absentees (they are just 8/1 to go the whole season unbeaten on the Sportsbook, which says a lot).

The reason above all others that this most dramatic of equalisers really deserved to be celebrated, of course, was that it felt like the start of something. 

Almost - if not entirely - regardless of the result, United played like United, at last. They were still full of flaw, but were constantly on the front foot, even without Radamel Falcao and Wayne Rooney, taking the initiative and playing with a semblance of belief.

Much of the credit for this should go to a pair of figures largely marginalised to date under Louis van Gaal. Adnan Januzaj and Marouane Fellaini, in contrasting ways, showed exactly the sort of bravery that will be necessary to crack the top four anew.

The defence is still the major cause for concern, and will continue to be until some stability is found, with the pair of Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo against Chelsea their eighth different centre-back partnership in ten games this season.

Whether Rojo should be playing at centre-back at all in a four-man defence is another question, having stiffed there for Spartak Moscow when he originally left South America, and then in a poor start to his Sporting Clube de Portugal career before going on to flourish. He was outstanding as a left-back, of course, in Argentina's run to the World Cup final.

What is certainly clear is that he lacks a guide as he tries to bed down in England. The confirmation on the morning of the game that Phil Jones would be unfit was another blow in this respect, with the former Blackburn man still feeling like the most likely to take up the unoccupied mantle of leader in United's defence.

That vacuum was acutely noticeable against Chelsea, even in the delirium of Van Persie's leveller. Seeing Thibaut Courtois, Branislav Ivanovic, Didier Drogba and the inevitable John Terry all taking turns to marshall the visiting defence underlined the lack of someone to do the same for Van Gaal's men. The nearest that either Smalling or Rojo got to that sort of authority was their unpunished wrestling of Ivanovic and Terry, respectively.

In the circumstances, attack may well be the best form of defence for the visit to Manchester City for derby day, on Sunday.

Given the vulnerability demonstrated by Manuel Pellegrini's men in Saturday's defeat at West Ham, that has a chance of working well, especially with the impetus on City to make the running at home.

With Rooney and Falcao set to be available again - and with ngel Di Maria well-rested with no midweek action - the more daring of you might fancy a punt on United to win the derby at 4.57/2.

The draw is available at 4.03/1, if you're feeling a little less bold, and appears attainable if we're using the Chelsea game as a yardstick to say United can handle big occasions again.

All of a sudden, the future as promised by Van Gaal seems a lot closer.  

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