A repeat of the 4-0 thrashing Manchester United gave Chelsea on the first day of the season this time around would certainly be a surprise. Neither team is on particularly good form but when these two meet, it is always a big occasion.
This week Chelsea sent out a statement to the rest of the league with the signing of Ajax's Hakim Ziyech for £36 million. He will no doubt improve a Chelsea attack that has laboured of late and was another player linked to Manchester United that they haven't been able to acquire. Their offensive play has been the source of frustration for Frank Lampard for some time now, with Chelsea never showing a ruthless side to their game that costs them vital points. Tammy Abraham played through the pain barrier against Leicester but should not this time. He hasn't been scoring frequently of late anyway so a change of personnel to Michy Batshuayi could aid the team.
Chelsea currently sit 4th in the table which is a good position for Lampard considering their transfer ban limited his options at the start of the season. Their home form is the 11th best in the league, which is incredibly poor for a side that is in the Champions League places. A common theme is that Chelsea will dominate matches at home against sides that sit deep but they are not clinical in front of goal and are punished for their inefficiency. The winter break may have given Lampard some valuable time on the training ground to work around this problem but Manchester United won't sit in. They'll try to play football which may feed into Chelsea's hands.
With the looming Champions League ban over Manchester City, Chelsea are now technically in the 3rd place for the European competition but the gap is still only a slim 2 points to Sheffield United in 6th. Tottenham's win against Aston Villa yesterday put them 1 point behind their London rivals so Chelsea's home form needs to improve as soon as possible if they want to qualify. Manchester United, though, somehow remain in the hunt for club football's premier competition.
The 4-0 win over Chelsea seems like such a freak result for United. After that result, there was optimism for Solskjaer but that has all faded and it did so quickly. The mixed messages he gives to the press have been comical at best. Solskjaer claimed that United would not do any short term deals in January that go against the club's long term vision, yet here we are with Odion Ighalo primed to make his debut after moving on a six month loan from China, having not played a game since November and couldn't join up with the training camp in Spain due to the coronavirus.
Ighalo had to be signed after Marcus Rashford was injured for months so United did not have the depth in that area after Solskjaer gave the go ahead to selling Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan. The club's structure is also a problem, with Ed Woodward's appointment as Neil Ashton as his PR consultant backfiring immensely. Nothing seems to going right for Manchester United on or off the pitch but they could still feasibly qualify for the Champions League. This season has been crazy.
It will be hard to separate these two. Chelsea seem to bottle leads and Manchester United are a hopeless case.
1-1 draw.
Comments
Post a Comment