I reckon Mike Riley was either clearly out of his depth, or was making a point of showing bias against Utd in response to previous accusations from the media of him being pro-Utd in the past.
In both cases it could be argued that he doesn't deserve the aforementioned respect, because he should either be reffing at a much lower level (in the former case) or not reffing at all (in the latter case).
It really was one of the most shockingly one sided reffing displays I've seen in years.
I'm not trying to blame the result on it, a draw was a fair result and his decisions had less bearing on actual contentious incidents and more on the fact he was dishing out cards to Utd like it was Xmas, but letting the rent boys get away with murder.
As for the game itself, I think Utd let Chelsea off the hook a bit by taking their foot off the gas at 1-0. As a result, Chelsea pummelled them a bit in the second half (although Utd could have been more effective with their counter attacks).