Jose Mourinho has lost all three of his visits to Stamford Bridge as Manchester United manager (Photo: Reuters)
United look to Bridge to bridge gap to top 4
by Tom Hardy
Manchester United are the visitors to Stamford Bridge on Saturday lunchtime as Chelsea look to regain top spot from last season’s champions Manchester City. Saturday’s encounter also sees Jose Mourinho once again return to Stamford Bridge, a place where he won three Premier League titles with the Blues.
Mourinho could however, find himself watching in the stands after The FA charged him with inappropriate language during United’s comeback win against Newcastle.Mourinho won’t be the only familiar face stepping into the away dressing room at Stamford Bridge with Romelu Lukaku, Juan Mata and more recently Nemanja Matic all having worn the blue jersey
Maurizio Sarri’s side come into the tie unbeaten in all competitions and must be considered favourites for the clash with talisman Eden Hazard looking to extend his tally past seven at the top of the goalscoring charts. Manchester United, however, sit in a lowly eighth place, seven points off of their opponents, but an international break which saw fringe players like Marcus Rashford rediscover goal-scoring form could lift United’s spirits going into this tough encounter.
The teams have faced off 52 times in the Premier League with Chelsea having the upper hand of the encounters, winning 18 compared to United’s 15 with 19 draws. In fact, Manchester United have not beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge since Alex Ferguson’s retirement, only gaining one point during that time (P6 D1 L5).
Alvaro Morata headed in the only goal of this fixture of last season (Photo: Reuters)
Team news: Antonio Rudiger is expected to recover from the groin problem that forced him to pull out of the Germany squad to partner David Luiz in the heart of defence. Ethan Ampadu, who picked up a knee injury in Wales’ loss to Spain, is the only other potential absentee.
Jose Mourinho’s men on the other hand have plenty of casualties with Nemanja Matic and Luke Shaw both doubts due to ankle injuries. Marouane Fellaini failed to feature for Belgium due to “not being 100%” but is expected to feature whilst Ander Herrera, Jesse Lingard and Marcos Rojo add to a host of names who are fighting a race against time to be fit.
Prediction: The stats don’t look good for Jose and United so I’m backing Sarri’s men to continue their unbeaten run and regain the top spot even if only for a few hours by coming through in a tight fought game.
Prediction: Chelsea 2 Manchester United 1
