Manchester United suffered a nightmare build-up for their European Cup comeback by crashing to their first league defeat in six months and 17 games. The performance was capped by a Peter Schmeichel error which allowed Gavin Peacock to poach his third goal of the season and give new manager Glenn Hoddle his second win of the season.
Schmeichel made no attempt to try to hold an 18 yard shot from Steve Clarke, aimed at his bottom right-hand corner, and he couldn’t retrieve his 17th-minute parry before the £1.2 million summers signing from Newcastle pounced on the loose ball.
Alex Ferguson said “The effect of going on international duty showed in the first 20 minutes when they were second to every ball. When youre playing away from home, you want to make an early impact but we allowed Chelsea to get a foot in the game. Chelsea have traditionally inspired perfomances against the bigger teams and this is a fantastic result for them.”
Glenn Hoddle said “In the first 45 minutes we played fantastic football and opened them up. In the second half we had to show our other side. Some of our defensive play was superb. That has given us a lot of belief in ourselves.”
