Chelsea vs. Manchester United Recap: Which Squad is the Top EPL Champion Contender after Man U's 3-2 Win?

The most anticipated match of Sunday's EPL slate ended on a rather controversial note but left a huge question regarding Chelsea and Manchester United: Which squad is better?

Manchester United did something impressive on Sunday: they won their first match in 10 years at Chelsea. However, their win was marred by a controversial red card late in the match that put Chelsea down two men. That card against Fernando Torres for diving took all the steam out of Chelsea who had surged back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the match and they looked poised to take the lead on what looked like a tackle against Torres.  But it was not meant to be and a defensive breakdown allowed Man U to win the match.

The game was broken into two phases. Early in the match Man U looked like the more confident team with Robin Van Persie completely dominating the pitch and proving why he remains one of the best players in the world. But during the second half of the game Chelsea took over and it was another player who took the spotlight off Van Persie: Juan Mata. His free kick goal to launch the comeback one minute from half time was a thing of beauty and his tremendous display of skill to keep Oscar's pass in played facilitated the equalizer. He was all over the pitch and almost set up a previous goal by Torres that was aptly stopped by David De Gea.

That Man U wound up winning and is now only one point behind Chelsea in the standings certainly makes a compelling argument for them, but both teams continued to show their weaknesses. Chelsea has not been able to consistently start games off well while Man U's defense continued to be suspect. With a 2-0 lead, they should have found a way to park the bus and confine Chelsea's midfield, but they allowed themselves to be undone with facility in the span of 9 minutes and needed two red cards to re-establish their dominance on the pitch.

The edge after this one should continue to go for Chelsea as they showed the requisite character to make the comeback against a deep squad in Man U. More importantly, they continue atop the Premier League and have a major chance to re-establish their lead as Man U takes on Arsenal next week. There is one take away from this match on both sides: Juan Mata and Robin Van Persie are far and away the most valuable players to their respective sides as they were the catalysts for their teams' dominance at specific moments in the match.