The Chelsea defender has faced some criticism.
No ifs, buts or maybes. Chelsea were beaten by the better side this afternoon as Jose Mourinho got the better of his old team at Old Trafford.
Given the remarkable consistency of Conte’s men this season, the 2-0 defeat for the league leaders was very out of character because Chelsea never looked like matching the imperious standards that they’ve set this season.
When speaking about the result, defender Gary Cahill was very honest in his post-match assessment of the game with Sky Sports.
During his interview, he said: “We have to react in the right way because we didn’t deserve to win the game today. Bottom line. We need to dust ourselves off and prepare for a huge semi-final next week and then we have some huge games at home soon after. There’s only six games left, we’re still in good position but we need to realise that it’s not over yet, that there’s still points to play for and we need to dig in until the end of the season” Cahill said.
Marcus Rashford gave Manchester United the perfect start with the opening goal after seven minutes, but things were made even harder for the visitors when Ander Herrera doubled United’s lead shortly after the break.
In the build-up to the goal, Cahill was touch-tight with Jesse Lingard as Ashley Young’s whipped cross aimed to pick out his teammate. Under minimal contact from Cahill, Lingard dropped to the floor as David Luiz cleared the initial danger.
However, when the ball was played back inside, it appeared that Cahill was too preoccupied with picking Lingard off the floor as Herrera’s shot cannoned in off Kurt Zouma.
Cahill admitted afterwards that he looked ‘silly in hindsight’ during the passage of play.
Top lad @GaryJCahill pic.twitter.com/tm6rPGQOiw
— Scott Patterson (@R_o_M) April 16, 2017
“I don’t see how it could have cost me because it was nowhere near the goal,” he told Sky Sports when asked about the goal.
“My instinct on that situation was I was nervous 50/50 whether it was a penalty or not. He come across and I grabbed hold of him. It was instinct to pick him up. Sometimes you have that. In hindsight it probably looks silly now. But I had the instinct the sooner I get him up on his feet the sooner he tries to stop the referee thinking otherwise. That was the situation there. Like I say, in hindsight it probably looks silly now but if that’s all there is to pick up on from all the incidents in the game then it was irrelevant in the build up to the goal.”
Chelsea will have a chance to bounce back from this defeat when they take on Spurs in their FA Cup semi-final next week.
