v. Kick-off 1600 GMT (1100 EST) Venue Stamford Bridge Last meeting: Man Utd 0 Chelsea 0 Ref: Michael Oliver Live: NBC Sports Live Extra, NBCSN, MUTV Online, Telemundo, Sky Go UK, Sky Sports 1, Sky GO Extra, BBC Radio 5 Live Chelsea Doubtful Pedro Injured Remy, Falcao, Pato Form WDDWD (13th) Leading scorer Costa (8) Manchester United Doubtful none Injured Valencia, Shaw, Young, Rojo, Schweinsteiger, Jones Form WDWLW (5th) Leading scorers Rooney (7)
Why would Van Gaal play Mata outwide after he's been pretty good lately playing in the middle? Thinking that we'll see the same team we saw against Stoke, except for Schneiderlin coming in for Carrick. Hope that we'll get to see Januzaj or Depay coming on at some point.
We'll pick up the win, so long as Van Gaal doesn't revert back to the ludicrous tactics of the first five months of the season.
Chelsea are good in the air at set-pieces - so with LVG likely still sticking with Bilbo Blind at CB he will have to also stick with Fellaini or we might as well just let Ivanovic / Terry / Costa / Zouma / Matic have at it.
Looking forward to seeing Martial go up against Ivanovic again. He should be able to exploit him and cause havoc for Chelsea's back line.
Hiddink fires the first shot... http://www.goal.com/en/news/1862/pr...ook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=enfb
Crazy how time flies: it's already been 4 years almost to the day since we last played Chelsea at the Bridge on Super Bowl Sunday and DDG had his coming out party, making this fantastic flying save on Mata's free kick, that really kickstarted and turned his United career around. A crazy 3-3 game on the day...
Chelsea XI: Chelsea: Courtois, Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry, Azpilicueta, Mikel, Matic, Willian, Fabregas, Oscar, Diego Costa. Subs: Begovic, Baba Rahman, Cahill, Loftus-Cheek, Pedro, Traore, Hazard.
Good thing they're starting Mikel and Matic. It's about the only midfield Carrick and Fellaini can keep up with. Absolutely ridiculous that were sitting our best CM again.
We look better everytime Schneiderlin plays. The ideal partnership for today's game would have been Carrick-Schneiderlin
So used to these line-ups now that I have to keep reminding myself of what I don't like in his selections (let alone his instructions); - Blind is not a CB/starter for me (though he has now backed us into a corner having not purchased one, having crocked the rest with his training methods and having not played the likes of McNair) - if Blind isn't CB then Fellaini is on the bench as plan B where he should be, with Blind CB we have to start Fellaini owing to our teams height issue at set-pieces - Schneiderlin should be a starter for me - Herrera should be a starter for me - Martial is a better #9 than Rooney as he is a more consistent finisher - no striker on the bench because he shipped them all out and only signed on in Martial etc. etc. So nothing surprising in the line-up. Bigger picture, he needs to see if he can give Pereira and Varela so minutes over the next few weeks or they will be offski (as Cheech said, SAF is soo much better at rotation to keep squadies happy).
With Willian, Fabregas and Oscar supporting Costa, I would have rather have Schneiderlin and Fellaini pairing up in midfield. My main concern for Carrick is whether he will be ok and effective having played earlier in the week. Fellaini had a good game vs Stoke and hopefully, he can replicate that today.