BY OLIVER HOLT ( The Times )

THE obstacle was crying out to be shoved aside, the hurdle was asking to be vaulted, but when Manchester United gave Chelsea the chance to state their championship credentials when it really mattered at Stamford Bridge last night, the men who would be the kings of the FA Carling Premiership failed their test amid a sad litany of missed opportunities.

Forget all the talk of this being a fair result. That was just Gianluca Vialli doing his utmost to mask his disappointment and Alex Ferguson trying to disguise his relief. This match was Chelsea's for the taking, a golden chance to establish a psychological advantage over the team that is likely to be their closest title rivals.

Instead, even if United are still one place behind Chelsea, with Aston Villa two points clear at the top, Ferguson's team may just about have emerged as the winners from this enthralling but ultimately anticlimactic goalless draw. Chelsea needed a win to expunge the memory of the beatings they took at United's hands at Stamford Bridge last season, but when the chance presented itself, they blew it.

Victory, even emphatic victory, was within touching distance. In a game that hummed with unwavering intensity, Chelsea tore United apart in the first half. That fact, perhaps, may bring them solace, but the way they spurned such a babbling stream of chances could haunt them.

They were lucky to finish the game with 11 men after Frank Leboeuf escaped dismissal for hauling down David Beckham late in the second half, an offence that seemed to warrant a second yellow card. That too, though, will be cold comfort when this last Premiership game of the year could have carried them into 1999 on a wave of even greater optimism.

More creative in midfield and bubbling with the invention of Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Di Matteo, Chelsea's attempt to move back to the top of the table foundered on the profligacy of Tore Andre Flo and, to a lesser extent, Zola himself. They had 19 shots at goal but only three on target. Their failure to finish United off, notwithstanding a series of last-ditch saves from Peter Schmeichel, will inevitably raise questions about their ability to grasp the prize.

Despite the depth of their multinational squad, how Chelsea must have wished they had a clone of Gustavo Poyet ready to step in for the injured Uruguayan. With him breaking from midfield, eager to apply the finishing touches, Chelsea might have had the game won by half-time. Instead, the chances fell to Flo.

Zola had set the pattern, ballooning his shot over the crossbar after Di Matteo had slipped Keane's tackle and played him through on Schmeichel inside 30 seconds. It did not take Flo long to get in on the act, though, and in the twelfth minute he headed wide when he rose unmarked to meet Zola's corner.

Flo missed another half-chance after 19 minutes, juggling Zola's cross with his back to goal before turning sharply and volleying narrowly wide, but midway through the half he should have put the home side ahead. Zola dribbled past Stam and unleashed a fierce left-foot shot that Schmeichel could only spoon out to Flo. Confronted with an open goal, Flo seemed to get the ball stuck between his feet and could only prod it wide.

United nearly made Chelsea rue their profligacy a minute later when Cole ran on to a square pass from Scholes and rounded De Goey. He took the ball wide enough to allow Duberry to recover his ground, though, and the Chelsea central defender kicked Cole's shot off the line.

That was United's only dangerous incursion. Giggs and Beckham, ably marshalled by Ferrer and Le Saux respectively, failed to provide any kind of service for Scholes and Cole, and Butt and Keane were too occupied with stopping the forward runs of Di Matteo.

Zola nearly gave Chelsea the lead they deserved after 28 minutes, but Schmeichel scrambled to his right to clutch his delicate free kick. A minute later, Zola turned provider again, but once more Flo was unequal to the task, scuffing his shot well wide as Schmeichel rushed to meet him.

Zola nearly punished Keane for a lazy pass across his back four, pouncing on it before it could reach Gary Neville, but he showed Schmeichel too much of the ball as he tried to take it round the United goalkeeper.

Once Sheringham had been brought on for Scholes, 15 minutes after the interval, United clawed their way back into the match and Chelsea's grip on the game seemed to slip. At last, United took a turn at putting their opponents under pressure and Sheringham flashed a volley just wide of De Goey's left-hand post from Neville's cross.

Leboeuf's escape came 12 minutes from the end, but Chelsea had one last heartbreak to suffer, in the 82nd minute. Petrescu slid a perfect pass through to Zola, but as he tried to slip it through Schmeichel's legs the United goalkeeper deflected it wide with his heel.

Chelsea (4-4-2): E de Goey - A Ferrer, F Leboeuf, M Duberry, G Le Saux (sub: B Goldbaek, 88min) - D Petrescu, J Morris (sub: M Desailly, 73), R Di Matteo, C Babayaro - T A Flo, G Zola.

Manchester United (4-4-1-1): P Schmeichel - G Neville, R Johnsen, J Stam, D Irwin - D Beckham, N Butt, R Keane, R Giggs - P Scholes (sub: E Sheringham, 61), A Cole.

Referee: M Riley.