Key events
Meanwhile, as they say on 5 Live, there was a goal at Anfield. Details here from Will Unwin.
While experts discuss how the powerful fell, TNT presents a data chart that does the job very succinctly. It simply records the league position of these two clubs, each season for the last 20 years. Between 2003 and 2011, both always finished in the top three. For four of the five years starting in 2005, they were in the top two (Arsène who?). The first time one of them left the top three was in 2011-12, when Chelsea fell to sixth place. Since 2013, there have only been three seasons in which both finished in the top four: 2014-15, 2019-20 and 2020-21. All of this reflects Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer quite well.
It's rotation, says Ten Hag. Well, Rashford usually scores against Liverpool, but the same goes for Chelsea.
Ten Hag told TNT that Rashford is on the bench “for the rotation to keep him and the team fresh during a busy period with another big game on Sunday.” #mufc
—Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) April 4, 2024
Complete teams
Chelsea (probably 4-2-3-1) Petrovic; Gusto, Disasi, Badiashile, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernández; Palmer, Gallagher, Mudryk; Jackson.
Substitutes: Bettinelli, Gilchrist, Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Madueke,
Chukwuemeka, Casadei, Tauriainen, Sterling.
Man Utd (probably 4-2-3-1) Onana; Dalot, Varane, Maguire, Wan-Bissaka; Casemiro, Mainoo; Antonio, Fernández, Garnacho; Hojlund.
Substitutes: Heaton, Kambwala, Evans, Amrabat, Eriksen, Amad,
McTominay, Monte, Rashford.
Referee Jared Gillett.
Teams in summary: Sterling also benched
It's a bad night for a very experienced English winger. Mauricio Pochettino leaves Raheem Sterling on the bench, with Mykhailo Mudryk on the left.
Teams in summary: Rashford on the bench
Erik ten Hag put Marcus Rashford on the bench, meaning a rare start for Antony, with Alejandro Garnacho moving to the left.
Preamble
Good evening everyone and welcome to the clash of the former titans. Chelsea vs. manchester united, so often a title fight, is now simply the sixth-best team in the country visiting the 11th-best. If the coaches meet for drinks after the game, they may have to meet at the Last Chance Saloon.
In December, Man United played Chelsea at 8.15pm on Wednesday night at Old Trafford. They put in one of their most united performances and won 2-1. Can they do it again at 8.15am on a soggy Thursday at Stamford Bridge?
The answer to this is surely another question: who knows? Both teams have spent the last eight months being consistently inconsistent. Mauricio Pochettino's Chelsea can beat Newcastle, in some style, and then fail to dispatch Burnley's 10 men. They can lose at home to Forest and Brentford, while taking a point off Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City (twice).
Erik ten Hag's Man United are not much better. If they win tonight, they will climb to fourth place in the away table, but to prosper in the first division, you have to be good in the Greater London area and United haven't achieved that. They have four points from five trips to London, largely thanks to a successful victory at Craven Cottage. They have lost against Spurs, Arsenal and West Ham. His last convincing performance in London was the League Cup final at Wembley 13 months ago.
United are giving away so many chances that their next calamity may be just around the corner, quite possibly on Sunday, when Liverpool will be eager to make them pay for the 121st-minute heist in the FA Cup. Tonight's game is harder to predict. You can see Chelsea winning 4-1, as they did against Tottenham in November, or losing 4-2, as they did at home to Wolves in February. Opta is not sure either: it gives them a 38% chance of winning, 32 for United and 28 for a draw.
It may all depend on whether Chelsea's brightest youngster, Cole Palmer, can torment United's makeshift left-back. If that's Aaron Wan-Bissaka, still rusty after injury, Palmer should prevail; If he is the more dominant Diogo Dalot, we can expect a good contest. In a busy week, with injuries in both fields, the team's records will be very interesting. I will return to them shortly.
