[Lucky McLuckerson]

....................VS......................

Date: Saturday, October 22 2022
Kickoff Time: 1730 Hrs BST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, London

Premier League form guide

5. Manchester United: WLWDW
4. Chelsea: WWWWD


Previous League Meetings

Manchester United 1—1 Chelsea

Chelsea 1—1 Manchester United

Chelsea 0—0 Manchester United

Manchester United 0—0 Chelsea

Chelsea 0—2 Manchester United


All-Time League Record

Manchester United wins: 63
Chelsea wins: 45
Draws: 52


Pre-Match Pressers

Erik ten Hag



Graham Potter




Team News

Manchester United

Cristiano Ronaldo, Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka ruled out. Harry Maguire and Brandon Williams doubtful.

Chelsea

Wesley Fofana, N'Golo Kanté and Reece James ruled out. Conor Gallagher doubtful.


Know the opposition

Chelsea Football Club (also known as The Blues and The Pensioners) are a professional football club based in Fulham, London. Chelsea were founded on 10 March 1905 at The Rising Sun pub (now The Butcher's Hook) after Gus Mears had previously acquired the Stamford Bridge athletics stadium with the aim of turning it into a football ground. Since there was already a team named Fulham in the borough, the name of the adjacent borough, the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea, was settled on. Chelsea's first major title success came in the form of the League Cup with the appointment of former Arsenal player, Ted Drake, who also led Chelsea to the their first ever League title, enabling them to compete in the European Cup, but after objections from The Football League and the FA, Chelsea were persuaded to withdraw from the competition before it started - allowing Matt Busby's Manchester United to start their illustrious adventure with the competition.

After decades of being non-competitors, Chelsea returned to the domestic title fore in 2003 under new owner Roman Abramovich, who fueled an unprecedented spending spree - starting in the mid 2000s. Since the takeover, Chelsea won 2 Champions League titles, 5 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cup titles, 2 Europa League titles and 3 League Cup titles. On 10 March 2022, the British government announced sanctions on Abramovich with Chelsea allowed to operate under a special license until 31 May. Subsequently, Chelsea confirmed that terms had been agreed for a new ownership group, led by Todd Boehly, Clearlake Capital, Mark Walter and Hansjörg Wyss, to acquire the club. On 30 May 2022, the sale was completed, ending Abramovich's 19 year ownership of the club. Chelsea's most prominent rivalries include local clubs Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, title rivals Manchester United, Liverpool and Leeds United. Chelsea play their home games at Stamford Bridge — which had been their home for over a century.


Referee

Stuart Attwell.


Familar Faces

N/A​

 

[Bwuk]

Has to be the same starting 11. Harsh on Eriksen but I wouldn't change it after that performance.

 

[Kaos]

Has to be the same starting 11. Harsh on Eriksen but I wouldn't change it after that performance.

You wouldn’t put Eriksen back in?

If Martial is fit I’d be tempted to start him up front and move Rashford to the left at the expense of Sancho.

 

[PoTMS]

Haven't watched Chelsea under Potter. I see they've picked up quite a lot of points and are unbeaten under him but have they looked much better than they did towards the end of Tuchel's reign?

 

[Red the Bear]

Ten hag's first real test.

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

After tonight, I’m gutted I’m going to miss this now!

 

[No Love]

A big test for ten Hag taking on the renowned DJ known as Eyeball Paul.

 

[Canucantona20]

Can’t wait for this

 

[Escobar]

Has to be the same starting 11. Harsh on Eriksen but I wouldn't change it after that performance.

Agreed, it feels like we need a bit steel in midfield

 

[cyberman]

Win this and it has to be on for a title challenge as ridiculous as that sounds

 

[Real Name]

I'd take a draw but I think we can win this one. Team's confidence is high and we need to take advantage of that.

 

[Redderp]

Haven't watched Chelsea under Potter. I see they've picked up quite a lot of points and are unbeaten under him but have they looked much better than they did towards the end of Tuchel's reign?

They have looked better, but not a huge leap. They are kinda in the same position as us, but a bit behind on the timeline. But their defense looks better and they do try to dominate the possession. You can also see that they want to play football, but just not there yet. Honestly think they look at lot like us. They also lack that one or two world class players to put them over the line. Like when they had Hazard.

But it’s going to be a completely different and much harder game at Stamford Bridge. I still think people underrate how difficult it is to win away against top 6 clubs.

 

[Bubz27]

Good chance for EtH to get one back at Potter after the Brighton game earlier this season.

 

[PoTMS]

They have looked better, but not a huge leap. They are kinda in the same position as us, but a bit behind on the timeline. But their defense looks better and they do try to dominate the possession. You can also see that they want to play football, but just not there yet. Honestly think they look at lot like us. They also lack that one or two world class players to put them over the line. Like when they had Hazard.

But it’s going to be a completely different and much harder game at Stamford Bridge. I still think people underrate how difficult it is to win away against top 6 clubs.

Interestingly, the home team has won in all games between top 6 teams thus far this season - with the exception of Spurs fluking a draw at Chelsea courtesy of the refs.

 

[Rozay]

Hopefully Martial is back here.

 

[Redderp]

Interestingly, the home team has won in all top 6 games thus far this season - with the exception of Spurs fluking a draw at Chelsea courtesy of the refs.

Yeah, generally people underrate how much more difficult it is to play away than at home. It’s almost night and day. Even against bottom and midtable teams. But against the top teams the home team have a huge advantage. For some reason people don’t completely understand how big of an advantage it is to play at home.

But to be fair it is actually insane how big a difference there is between playing home and away. Like you really get surprised when you look at the numbers.

 

[BorisManUtd]

Game vs Spurs showed that we may be moving into right direction. But that process will take some time so expecting a comfortable win at Stamford Bridge is not realistic. I'd be happy with a draw to be honest. We beat Liverpool, Arsenal and now Tottenham but those games were at home, away to City we really struggled and although Chelsea are not City, it's still a difficult game as always.

Expecting similar starting 11 anyways, then many of them rested vs Sheriff in EL as we need only 1 point to qualify there.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Facing them at the Bridge wont be easy. Hopefully we put in a great performance, regardless of the result.

 

[Telsim]

After this we will have played every single Top 9 team. And October is not even out yet. I get it, World Cup schedule and all that, but damn...

 

[Reditus]

Potentially might cancel each other out here

Might be a case that both clubs will be happy not to loose

 

[Wayne's World]

Don't think I've looked forward to playing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge more.

Still going to be a hard game though but they aren't firing right now

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Haven't watched Chelsea under Potter. I see they've picked up quite a lot of points and are unbeaten under him but have they looked much better than they did towards the end of Tuchel's reign?

Look a bit better at the back, but are pretty similar going forwards and now don't have their best player until after the World Cup. It'll be tough, and a bit different game than today, but I'm excited

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

Potentially might cancel each other out here

Might be a case that both clubs will be happy not to loose

Yep, won’t be surprised if it’s got 0-0 written all over it.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

I think we really need Martial back for this one. It's going to be vital to have him keep the bull under pressure in the middle. If not we're probably going to be on the back foot a bit more because Marcus can't do that, he's just going to look to get in behind constantly .

 

[Offside]

Due a loss here.

 

[TMDaines]

I’d go unchanged, unless Martial is really ready to roll. Maybe McT for Fred if you need to freshen it up, but not Eriksen. In these sorts of matches, we are gonna have a better midfield balance with this 4-3-3 with Casemiro holding and then one of Bruno/Eriksen for creativity and one of Fred/McT for the box-to-box ball-winning ability.

I feel confident.

 

[cyberman]

Potentially might cancel each other out here

Might be a case that both clubs will be happy not to loose

Can’t see it. They have Aubameyang up top who we can press high and use that to push our defence up. Without James they lose a lot of their width who should be working hard going back against our wide men anyway. We may not win but it won’t be down to two teams cancelling each other out imo

 

[Dominos]

Has to be the same starting 11. Harsh on Eriksen but I wouldn't change it after that performance.

You wouldn’t put Eriksen back in?

If Martial is fit I’d be tempted to start him up front and move Rashford to the left at the expense of Sancho.

I know Chelsea aren't City, but I think we need to learn our lesson from that City pasting and utilise a more combative and defensively responsible midfield in these big away games.

If Eriksen plays funnily enough it should be in place of Bruno, but won't happen after tonight.

Only change would be to bring in Martial if he's fit as you say.

 

[bosnian_red]

Tough game playing away there. Looking forward to our easier run after this weekend... Tough ask to rotate anyone out of today's team. Eriksen being back you would think he comes in, but how do you drop Fred after a MotM performance? Martial hopefully back to be a sub?

 

[Dominos]

This is a tough one to predict.

Suddenly after tonight it feels like momentum is in our favour going into the game with Chelsea off the back of a 0-0 and us putting in our best performance of the season.

Our record in the big games is good, but our 3 wins were at home. The only away game was the City thrashing so I'm apprehensive going into this one because I had a positive feeling going into the derby and we know how that turned out. Though obviously Chelsea aren't as good as City.

Maybe rotation factor is in Chelsea's favour as none of Silva, Sterling, Aubemeyang, Kovacic started tonight whereas I expect we'll field the same 11.

Chelsea have a couple more key injuries than us with the likes of Kante, James and Fofana out.

 

[Chairman Steve]

I’d be content with a draw here, ahead of a run of (on paper) easier league fixtures than we’ve been having so far this season.

Next big game after this is City at OT on 14th January 2023, which may get pushed back later due to the Leeds and Palace games needing to be rescheduled.

 

[Red00012]

Let’s smash another team from London

 

[Red00012]

Tough game playing away there. Looking forward to our easier run after this weekend... Tough ask to rotate anyone out of today's team. Eriksen being back you would think he comes in, but how do you drop Fred after a MotM performance? Martial hopefully back to be a sub?

I think ETH has learned a few lessons from City and one is he’ll need Casemiro and Fred in the middle for Chelsea

 

[tomaldinho1]

Has to be the same starting 11. Harsh on Eriksen but I wouldn't change it after that performance.

Agreed. Current players start. Will be plenty of minutes for everyone anyway, so many games this season.

Sancho is the only one I’d think of dropping but there’s not much competition there.

 

[GregM40]

First game I’ve had to work through this season (still gonna find a way).

Much different test to tonight. We are better though, just need to show it.

Side trivia if anyone can find out, when was the last time we played the same manager in the league 3 times? (If he lasts that long, it is Chelsea).

 

[westmeath]

Eriksen for Fred. Martial if fit for Sancho. Potter doesn’t know his best 11 yet and is very much in settling in mode. Good chance for United to win this one.

 

[r1z3mu]

There is good chance we win it. Not sure about Ericsen for Fred. The only change I would do is Martial for Sancho.

 

[always_hoping]

A different type of a challenge this game than against Conte and his negative football.

Potter has already won in Old Trafford with Brighton so will be nice to beat his Chelsea side on their home patch.

 

[Morpheus 7]

Hard place to go, they have a good record against us there. We have to be on it to beat them there. We have a good chance though, need to get at them with speed in behind. I don't rate this Chelsea side, I think they haven't been properly tested.

 

[Red Dreams]

Win this and it has to be on for a title challenge as ridiculous as that sounds

not ridiculous.