A very important episode of the race for a top-four finish in the Premier League takes place on Sunday, when Manchester United host Chelsea at Old Trafford. The reverse fixture was tightly-contested and Chelsea eventually prevailed 1-0 thanks to a second-half goal from Spanish striker Alvaro Morata. Last season Manchester United defeated the Blues 2-0 at Old Trafford after having lost 4-0 at Stamford Bridge. Overall, Chelsea have won five of the last ten direct matches, while Man United won just one of those matches.
This is a vital fixture for second-placed Manchester United, if they lose the match they can drop all the way down to fourth place and things could become quite tense at Old Trafford towards the end of the season. This week the Red Devils were held to a goalless draw at Sevilla in the first knockout round of the Champions League, but their latest Premier League match was a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle. Ander Herrera picked up a serious injury in midweek and will be out for some time, along with Daley Blind and Marouane Fellaini.
Chelsea had a very intense Champions League match on Wednesday and they nearly defeated the mighty Barcelona at Stamford Bridge, but Lionel Messi made it 1-1 to give the Blaugrana the upper hand ahead of the second leg. However, Chelsea played pretty well in that match following back-to-back wins against West Brom in the Premier League and Hull City in the FA Cup. Tiemoue Bakayoko, Ross Barkley and David Luiz remain injury doubts, while striker Alvaro Morata might be given a starting berth after having made a substitute appearance against Barcelona.
Probable line-ups:
Man United: De Gea - Bailly, Smalling, Jones - Valencia, Matic, Pogba, Young - Lingard - Sanchez, Lukaku
Chelsea: Courtois - Azpilicueta, Christensen, Cahill - Moses, Kante, Fabregas, Alonso - Willian, Hazard - Morata
My prediction: Chelsea to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Man United win - 2.14
Draw - 3.20
Chelsea win - 3.50
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Comments (1)
sharpe
02/24/18, 03:02:41 PM
Traditionally United playing tough against Chelsea and maybe it won't be an exception this time round too. Still I'm expecting Red Devils to able to take advantage...
Traditionally United playing tough against Chelsea and maybe it won't be an exception this time round too. Still I'm expecting Red Devils to able to take advantage of the Chelsea's poor form lately and being able to prevail in that one. My prediction 2-1 United...that looks like a too many goals for Mourinho's managed team maybe :) Still stuck to it.
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