After all that, it was a draw.

Not a boring draw, but nevertheless a stalemate that means the title race remains just as open as it was prior to the game

Luckily this was a contest that lived up to the hype. An exciting clash which saw Manchester United dominant in the first 45 and Chelsea on top for the second.

Louis Saha scored a wonderful goal but then followed that up with an own-goal in the second period, although that was no less than Chelsea deserved for their performance after the break.

And that brings me to what I think is the most important point we learned from the game – the only difference between these two teams is strength in depth.

When Manchester United are at full strength they are just as good, if not better, than Chelsea at full strength. But when it comes to changing things around, bringing people off the bench, they fall far short of the reigning champions.

When Chelsea were chasing the game they were able to call on the services of Arjen Robben and Joe Cole. By contrast, the best United could muster was John O’Shea and Darren Fletcher.

The Chelsea substitutes were world class players capable of changing a match with surging runs and attacking flair. The United substitutes, by contrast, were journeymen, capable only of steadying a ship and not making it set sail in a new direction.

I think it is fair to say that on Sunday we saw the eventual champions playing, whichever one of these two teams it turns out to be.

However, if United are going to wrestle the title back off Mourinho and his troops, they are going to have to add at least two quality players in the January transfer window.

As it stands they could conceivably go on to win the title with the current squad – but only if there are no major injuries. Sir Alex’s first 11 are top class but his second 11 leave a lot to be desired.

And that is the sort of thing that won’t have gone unnoticed by the canny Scotsman who is probably, right now, sitting down with the Glazers and telling them to get their cheque book ready.

First Ashes test

On the positive side, England managed to take the first Ashes test into a fifth day. On the negative side they were still given a good hiding by the Ozzies.

To lose by 277 runs is no small achievement. But it could have been a lot worse if the English batsmen hadn’t started to find a bit of form towards the end.

Still, there are four tests to go and captain Andrew Flintoff has promised a fight back starting with the match this Friday.

“We’ve been in this position before and we’ll be looking forward to bouncing back in the second test in Adelaide,” he said with confidence that didn’t match the performance.

It doesn’t matter what the players say, the simple truth is that unless the bowlers start to bowl with accuracy and effect, England will be handing the trophy back over to their rivals.

No amount of fighting talk will change that reality.

Andy Robinson

By the time you read this Andy Robinson should no longer be the England rugby coach. But the only great surprise to me is that he managed to hang on to the job for so long.

Widely seen as an extremely nice guy, Robinson has sadly proved himself to be an extremely darned awful head coach. Recently he has led England – World Champions lest we forget – to a staggering eight defeats in nine games.

Can you imagine an England football manager being given anything like that sort of leeway? If Steve McClaren led England on a similar run he would be out of the door quicker than Roy Carrol can down a double vodka.

Sport of all kind is a result-oriented industry whether it is football, rugby, cricket or tiddlywinks.

Robinson hasn’t been getting the results expected of him and, with the six nations coming up followed by the World Cup, it is unthinkable that he should remain in the post.

Who to succeed him? I am afraid that goes beyond my limited knowledge of the game. But don’t be 100 per cent surprised if Sir Clive is brought back in to help them out in their hour of need.

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