vs Competition: English Premier League Venue: Stamford Bridge Time: 20:00 (BST), 15:00 (EST) Channels: Sky Sports Main Event(UK), Sky Sports Premier League(UK), MUTV(UK), NBC Sports Live(US), NBCSN(US), Telemundo Deportes en vivo(US), DAZN(Canada), RUSH(JA), SuperSport 3 Africa(Zambia), SuperSport Maximo(Zambia) chelsea injuries: Pulišić (tendon), Loftus-Cheek (unfit) Manchester United injuries: Tuanzebe (unfit), McTominay (unfit), Pogba (ankle), Rashford (back) chelsea last 6: W-W-L-D-W-D Manchester United last 6: W-L-L-W-W-D chelsea last result: 2-2 away draw with Leicester City Manchester United last result: 0-0 home draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers chelsea league standing: 4th Manchester United league standing: 8th Last League Encounter: 1-2 away win at Stamford Bridge (Oct 2019) chelsea last starting XI (4-2-3-1): Caballero, Azpilicueta(c), Rüdiger, Christensen, James, Kanté, Jorginho, Hudson-Odoi, Mount, Pedro, Abraham Manchester United last starting XI (4-2-3-1): de Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelöf, Maguire(c), Shaw, Pereira, Fred, Mata, Fernandes, James, Martial ===================== back to business. must win
Ighalo will be in the matchday squad for the Chelsea match - Ole https://www.skysports.com/football/...lo-in-manchester-united-squad-to-face-chelsea
Chelsea XI: Caballero, James, Christensen, Rudiger, Azpilicueta, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Willian, Pedro, Batshuayi I like our team selection for the most part (nice to get Beastmode back). And seeing this Chelsea lineup, feeling reasonably confident we can get the win we need here, provided our guys show up. Ole needs to instruct our boys to pepper Chelsea's goal with long distance shots (Fernandes) as much as they can.
Ugh... 5 at the back. Makes so little sense given the limitations of Shaw and AWB. If Shaw were a better passer and AWB a better attacker, I'd be okay with it. The one good thing is that it will allow Bruno a free role, hopefully he can keep some in the tank for when we inevitably bring Igahlo and Greenwood on. I'm not sure I'd play Dan James from the start against good opposition. He's just not got any goals or assists in him. We're basically saying if we don't score on a set piece, our goals have to come from Martial or Bruno.
James is definitely my biggest gripe with this lineup. But if Ole is going to start him, this is the type of game he should do it in. Chelsea will be expected to have plenty of the ball and dictate play, which could leave them vulnerable at the back, on the counter. And that is where James can be useful. My preference however still would have been to give Greenwood the start alongside Martial.
No point in having James in this formation. Olea thinking is probably he's fast and can get on the end of a longball. Other than that, decent lineup. Gotta hope Shaw isn't complete garbage at LCB. Also need the good version of Bailly to show up.
James is our top player for assists, including in a 5-3-2 against Liverpool. But I get the point. He's out of form.
Yeah but like you said, a lot of that is being propped up by a very good start to the season. He's been really poor for a while now. He's just played too many minutes. I would rather see Greenwood. We might not get a ton of chances, I'd prefer someone more clinical in there.
With the options available to him on the bench, the hope will be that Ole will not hesitate or wait too long before making changes, if James is having another game like we saw last time out. He has no excuses there whatsoever...
I see you Maguire... On a separate note, our problems going forward remain the same. Creating very little so far and Caballero has hardly been troubled. And Chelsea are the more likely to score.
You can see signs that Bruno could be very Scholes-esque for us with a better team around him. He loves to direct traffic and control the pace of the game. He just doesnt have the pieces to do it yet.
Martial isn't making the ball stick or dribbling. his dribbling has gone down to zero. why? at least Rashford will always try something going forward even if it isn't always optimal
You have to feel bad for guys like Fernandes, Martial and even James to a certain extent. They'll get their share of criticism, but if you can't get them the ball, there's really so much they can do, particularly the former 2. Also, this setup is clearly not working today. Problem is, changing it will probably mean burning 2 subs right off the bat. But it might be something Ole will need to consider at halftime.