FA Cup: Chelsea vs Manchester United preview

Chelsea and Manchester United will fight for a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals, the two Premier League sides clash at Stamford Bridge in London on Monday in the fifth round of the competition. The two teams have clashed at the same venue in the Premier League in October and that match ended 2-2 as Antonio Rudiger opened the scoring for Chelsea, then Anthony Martial bagged a double to put the Red Devils ahead, and Ross Barkley netted a 96th-minute equalizer for the Blues. The two sides have also met in the final of the FA Cup last season, and Chelsea won it 1-0 thanks to a penalty-kick goal scored by Eden Hazard. Chelsea need a good result against Manchester United to help them get out of their crisis, getting through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup would surely boost morale at the club ahead of the final part of the Premier League season. This week the Blues recorded a narrow 2-1 victory at Malmo FF in the last 32 of the Europa League, a result that was not good enough to erase the memory of the 6-0 thrashing at Manchester City in the Premier League last weekend. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Gary Cahill are the only injury concerns for manager Maurizio Sarri, who will probably choose to keep Ross Barkley in the starting eleven after the midfielder scored in the Europa League match. Manchester United suffered their first defeat under manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Wednesday, Paris Saint-Germain defeated them 2-0 at Old Trafford in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie. That result ended their eleven-match unbeaten run in all competitions, but it doesn't mean that the Red Devils are less capable of going through both in the Champions League and the FA Cup. The bad news is that Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial both got injured during PSG and will miss Monday's match, along with Matteo Darmian, Antonio Valencia and most likely Alexis Sanchez as well. Probable line-ups: Chelsea: Arrizabalaga - Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso - Kante, Jorginho, Barkley - Pedro, Higuain, Hazard Man United: Romero - Young, Smalling, Jones, Shaw - Herrera, Matic, Pogba - Mata - Rashford, Lukaku My prediction: Chelsea to win 2-1, the Blues are strong at home and United might not be able to get past their injury problems. Here are the odds for the match at Bet365: Chelsea win - 2.00 Draw - 3.75 Man United win - 3.90