Date: Sunday 3rd
November 2024
Venue: Old Trafford
Kick-off: 16:30 GMT
Whilst Manchester United battered Leicester midweek in the
EFL Cup, Maresca decided to put out a completely different side to the one that
had beat Newcastle a few days earlier – and got a completely different result. Clearly,
he didn’t care about the competition and seemingly cared even less about the
travelling support as they were served a game reminiscent of the sort of
performance Graham Potter would have put down to ‘the project’. So not the best
preparation for the trip to Old Trafford today.
I was actually looking forward to this game before their 2-1
defeat to West Ham in the Premier League last weekend hammered the final nail
into the Ten Hag coffin. That decision almost guaranteed they’d start playing
again – and play they did, with the goals rarer than rocking horse sh*t for
them so far this season, coming much more easily in Ruud van Nistelrooy’s
maiden voyage as the interim head coach. Van Nistelrooy will remain in charge
this afternoon, with newly appointed Ruben Amorim not expected to take
permanent charge until 11 November.
For Chelsea, finding the net hasn’t been the issue this
season for a change but our defence needs work, and our keeper needs sacking
most weeks. We are also still a work in progress though, which in part is down
to the lack of experience in the side, with the average age of Chelsea’s
starting line-up in the Premier League this season at 23 years, but also the revolving
door for managers and the jury remains out for this one.
That’s something Manchester United have experienced since Sir
Alex Ferguson’s departure, with none of them yet coming close to the standards he
set. Of course, they could have sacked him too early doors, but you somehow
couldn’t see any of his successors turning it around in the same way. Still,
another new dawn or at least another post-manager bounce is to be expected
today, so hopefully Maresca pays the game a little more respect than he did the
EFL one.
We slipped down to 6th after yesterday’s games
but could reach the dizzy heights of third with a win today, whilst Manchester
United, could get up to 10th and whilst this might be the most drawn
fixture in Premier League history, with 26 of 64 meetings ending level, United’s
sight for goal rediscovered midweek and our failure to win at Old Trafford in
the league since 2013, don’t bode well.
.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into
today’s game, Manchester United interim Ruud van Nistelrooy, says “It’s
going to be a big match, a tough one. Chelsea playing really well at the
moment. Lots of attacking power players who can decide the game, scoring lots
of goals, playing very well on the ball. So, we’re going to have to be at our
very best, you know, to get a result, to get a good game.
It’s
obviously what we want. We want to try and win it. But we also respect the
opponent, know their qualities, and [what] we have to do. Yeah, we have to
really be together and strong, you know, to stop them. And from there, see what
we can do, you know, to win the game.”
Enzo
Maresca. Meanwhile, says “When you change manager, always for the first one,
two, three games, you can see the reaction from the players. So probably it
will be [tougher]. But in any case it will be a tough game.
For sure,
Old Trafford is one of the stadiums in the world that is “nice” in terms of
intimidation. Like Anfield. Or in Italy, the San Siro years ago, or in Spain,
Barcelona and Madrid. They are stadiums that are nice for intimidating. We
played a few weeks ago at Anfield and the performance was there. I don’t think
the players feel that kind of intimidation so hopefully it can be the same on
Sunday.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Manchester United, Antony (ankle),
Tyrell Malacia (knee), Harry Maguire (calf), Mason Mount (knock), Luke Shaw
(calf) Leny Yoro (foot) and Kobbie Mainoo (thigh) may all still be absent.
For Chelsea, Jadon Sancho is unwell but
would have been ineligible to play against his parent club anyway.
TEAMS
MANCHESTER UNITED (Possible line-up): Onana;
Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot; Casemiro, Ugarte; Rashford, Fernandes,
Garnacho; Hojlund
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Sanchez;
James, Fofana, Colwill, Gusto; Caicedo, Lavia; Madueke, Palmer, Neto; Jackson
LAST SEASON
Manchester United 2-1
Chelsea (6th December 2023)
CURRENT FORM (PL)
MANCHESTER UNITED:
WDLDWL
CHELSEA: WWWDLW
OTHER STUFF
- Manchester United are unbeaten in their last
11 home league games against Chelsea
- Chelsea’s most recent league win away to Manchester
United was May 2013.
- Manchester United have won the last two
meetings at Old Trafford.
- Chelsea have lost three of their last 24
Premier League games, with those defeats coming against Arsenal,
Manchester City and Liverpool.
- United’s tally of 11 points is their second
lowest at this stage of a Premier League season – they had one point fewer
after nine games in 2019-20.
- Only Southampton and Crystal Palace have
scored fewer top-flight goals this season than Manchester United.
- Chelsea have won 10 of 14 top-flight fixtures since
the start of May.
PREDICTION
Sportsmole: Manchester United 2-2 Chelsea
