Match Report: More Misery for Moyes as Eto'o Puts United to the Sword

Chants of "David Moyes, we want you to stay" rang out at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon, but while the visiting fans might have voiced unrelenting support for their team, it was the Chelsea fans that sang the under-pressure Manchester United manager's name the more vociferously. Opposing fans are rejoicing in his continued failures and there is certainly something to say for those that are losing patience with him.

Here, he oversaw an eighth Premier League defeat since taking the reins at Old Trafford, as his depleted United team failed once again to take any real control of the game and miss out on points in another crucial clash. With United having made their worse ever start to a Premier League season, he denied after the match that the team's current predicament was a crisis, instead insisting it was just a challenge that he looked forward to taking on.

A crisis, though, this indeed is. Moyes might have been again without talismen Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie, but, despite a decent start to the match, his side lacked a cutting edge in the final third and that was the difference between the teams. 56% possession but 10 shots to Chelsea's 13 highlights the problem for United here.

Time and again United moved the ball into attacking positions, but a massive 81% of their touches in the opposition half were out wide; they thus attempted 26 crosses, with only 4 finding a player in a red shirt. Comparatively, Chelsea put in 12 crosses and found a teammate with 5. The Blues are much-maligned for their dearth of talent in the centre-forward position, but Samuel Eto'o proved here that he is still capable of cutting it at that the top level.

A hat-trick for the Cameroonian doubled his Premier League goal tally and put United to the sword in deadly fashion. He spent much of the game tirelessly running the channels for his side, but was not involved in play all that much at all. He needed only 32 touches of the ball and just 4 shots to grab his 3 goals, but that is typical of the striker. Averaging 51 touches per goal in England's top tier, he now ranks third in that regard behind Sergio Agüero (45.2) and Daniel Sturridge (49.8) this season, and gave the biggest sign yet that he could be a long term solution to a deep-lying problem for the club.

At times since he moved from Anzhi Makhachkala, Eto'o's movement has looked laboured, his touch has looked heavy and he has seemed far from the player that he once was. Against United, however, he portrayed the figure of a sharp, confident and threatening forward. Interviewed after the game, he struggled to get his point across but his feelings were more than clear from the unwavering grin on his face.

Five straight wins for the Blues means they have kept pace at the top despite the toughest fixture of the weekend amongst the top 3. They, City and Arsenal have now formed a leading pack that others may find it hard to topple with 16 games to go and 6 points separating them and fourth-placed Liverpool.

For Manchester United, though, things are looking rather bleak. Now 12 points behind Chelsea, as José Mourinho pointed out, they need the wholly unlikely occurrence of three sides collapsing before the season's end if they are to stand any chance of a title challenge. Even if Rooney and van Persie return to fitness and form much sooner than expected, even that will be beyond them. There were certainly signs in the defeat to Chelsea that they are not quite as hopeless as many are making out, but patience, and time, may well be quickly running out for David Moyes.

Is this a crisis at Manchester United? Can Samuel Eto'o solve Chelsea's striker problem? Let us know in the comments below