Ignore easy Ronaldo narrative
On a night when Manchester United again struggled to take the chances they created, it was easy to imagine Cristiano Ronaldo watching on at home and thinking how it might have been different had he been on the pitch.
United were dominant in the first half at Stamford Bridge but didn't have a goal to show for the quality of their play. They got away with such wastefulness on Wednesday but they can't keep repeating it against their top-six rivals.
This time the failure to score in their best spell of the game arguably did cost them, although a point is still a fine result here. They needed Casemiro's dramatic late header to get what they deserved and make sure this wasn't all about Ronaldo.
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They will look at chances missed by Marcus Rashford and Antony in the first 45 minutes and it's true Ronaldo would probably have taken one. What's also true is that United probably wouldn't have dominated the game to the extent they did with the 37-year-old on the pitch.
It was another quick, slick performance from United and the irony of Rashford's week is that his all-round game as a No. 9 has been excellent, aside from putting the ball in the net.
Ronaldo might excel at that - although not so much this season - but he doesn't have the same dynamism as Rashford, who pressed intelligently and linked play well.
There's certainly a strong argument that United need a more clinical forward, but the man absent from Stamford Bridge and watching from home isn't that player.
A tactical triumph
On the opening weekend of the Premier League season Graham Potter's three-man defence confused United at Old Trafford and led to a 2-1 victory for his Brighton side.
It forced Ten Hag into a tactical change in the 53rd minute and it was a tough introduction to the Premier League for someone who had success with a dominant side in the Eredivisie.
But fast-forward two-and-a-half months and it was Potter now befuddled by Ten Hag. United were outstanding against a three-man defence in midweek and for 35 minutes they dominated against Chelsea in a similar shape at Stamford Bridge.
United's control of midfield was so complete that Potter had to act 10 minutes before half-time, introducing a third midfielder and reverting to a back four. To his credit, it did alter the flow of the game, but it wasn't enough to win the game for Chelsea.
The visitors deserved a share of the spoils and it was a sign of Ten Hag's progress at United that he is now the coach causing problems for the other dugout to solve.
Varane's misfortune
It felt like an intrusion into personal grief when the TV cameras lingered on Raphael Varane as he dragged himself off the pitch at Stamford Bridge with his shirt over his head, masking the tears that were welling up underneath.
Injuries have dogged Varane's United career and at the risk of playing amateur physio, this looked like the reaction of a man who knew his chances of appearing in the World Cup next month were now in jeopardy.
Varane needed consoling by Lisandro Martinez and Diogo Dalot as he limped away, refusing the help of a stretcher, and his mood can't have been helped by the bizarre vitriol that came his way from some Chelsea fans.
The cruellest aspect of this is that it comes at a time when Varane had hit top form. United thought they had landed a world-class central defender for a relative snip at £42million last summer and while that has taken time to play out, there has been evidence of that recently.
There was one full-stretch interception to stop a cross-reaching Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for a tap-in early in the game at Stamford Bridge and he defended well when Raheem Sterling came into his channel. He was also dominant aerially.
Varane excelled on the ball as well. He carried clear from the danger early on and fizzed a pass forward to Dalot, before driving into the Chelsea half later in the game and sliding an excellent pass through to Antony.
But now he faces another spell in the treatment room, the seventh different ailment to keep him out of action since he joined the club. He has no luck whatsoever.
Sancho's poor form
If there was one concern for United after the performance against Tottenham in midweek it was that Jadon Sancho had again underwhelmed, he was the one weak link in the side and in a way the strength of the performances from others only exposed his current struggles.
The winger hasn't kicked on from his bright start to the season and is only in the team at the moment because Anthony Martial is unavailable, but when Ten Hag felt he was pressed into a tactical change early in the second half he was the obvious fall guy.
Sancho might not have expected his number to be up when he was Fred on the touchline, but United needed a bit more presence in midfield and Ten Hag opted to move Fernandes to the left, hooking Sancho.
He could have few complaints. He'd given away possession weakly a couple of times in the first half and just looked off the pace, certainly compared to the involvement of Antony on the other wing.
Ten Hag's loyalty
One of the biggest questions around Ten Hag, as he made the transition from Ajax to United, was his man-management skills, which even in Amsterdam were not considered the strongest part of his armoury as a manager.
The 52-year-old has had to display those attributes this week however, starting with his handling of Cristiano Ronaldo on Thursday and the face-to-face meeting that brought the news he was being axed from the first-team squad for the rest of the week.
Ten Hag would then have had to tell Fred he was the one man to make way from the team that tore Tottenham apart on Wednesday. That was quite probably Fred's best performance for United, in his 169th game for the club, so being dropped was extremely harsh on the Brazilian.
The United boss has clearly got players he feels are integral to his side though, and with Christian Eriksen over his illness he was straight back in, with Ten Hag describing his performances so far for United as "perfect". An undoubted vindication of his importance to the Ten Hag project.
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