e-Football Preview: Chelsea v Manchester United
Article by Robert WakePREMIER LEAGUE – STAMFORD BRIDGE, SUNDAY 19TH JANUARY 2014
Summary
Chelsea come in to this fixture in a rich vein of form, and nine points clear of United. The Blues have won five on the bounce in all competitions, scoring 10 and conceding just once. By contrast, the visitors are struggling to find any consistency, and lost three consecutive matches before beating Swansea City at Old Trafford last week. Jose Mourinho’s comments about some of the United players not being totally happy with David Moyes, led Robin Van Persie to speak out in defence of the beleaguered Scot, something that would have been unthinkable during Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign.
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History
One thing in United’s favour is their recent record at Stamford Bridge. They won the corresponding game 3-2 last season when Chelsea had Ivanovic and Torres dismissed in the second half. Three days later Chelsea won a League Cup fixture 5-4 after extra time. The previous season, United came back from 3-0 down to salvage a 3-3 draw.
You have to go back to March 2011 for Chelsea’s last success in this fixture when they prevailed 2-1, before losing 0-1 in the first leg of the Champions League quarter final at Stamford Bridge a month later. In Mourinho’s previous spell, Chelsea won both home league fixtures against The Red Devils.
Team News
The Red Devils are still missing Robin Van Persie, while Wayne Rooney is rated as only 50/50 to be fit for this encounter, and they have injury doubts over Phil Jones and Patrice Evra. Danny Welbeck has been in good form up front, while Javier Hernandez has a good scoring record against The Blues. New signing, Nemanja Matic could be included in Chelsea’s line-up, while Frank Lampard could return from his recent muscle injury. Branislav Ivanovic is likely to remain sidelined.
Prediction
This is pretty much last chance saloon for United. Defeat here would leave them 12 points behind Chelsea, and potentially 14 points behind the leaders. That fact makes them a dangerous opponent, but Van Persie is a major loss for the visitors and without him and possibly Rooney, they look distinctly average. Mourinho knows how to win this type of game, and will be acutely aware that a Chelsea victory here will remove one challenger from the title race. Chelsea beat City and Liverpool here 2-1 and I’m going for the same again on Sunday.
Chelsea 2-1 Manchester United
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