Chelsea vs Manchester United Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Feb 03, 2016 @ 07:22 pm

Chelsea might have dominated the headlines midweek had it not been for Pep Guardiola and his move to Manchester City at the end of the season. Their skipper John Terry has announced that he may leave the club at the end of the season and he is now free to talk to clubs abroad with his contract up in the summer. Terry has been at Chelsea since he was 14 and has been a massive part of their success in the past decade. It would signal the last part of the ‘old guard’ leaving the club, following the departures of Petr Cech, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba. It hasn’t been particularly timed well with Manchester United due on Sunday who have troubles of their own so Guus Hiddink would’ve preferred his preparations to have avoided any negativity in the media. Chelsea were very dominant in their 5-1 victory at MK Dons which was made a lot easier by the opposition’s defence which seemed to be non-existent.

Louis Van Gaal managed to avoid another week of being slaughtered for time being as he managed to edge past Derby in the 4^th round of the FA Cup on Friday night. A stunning goal from Wayne Rooney put them on their way before handing Derby a way back into the game but 2^nd half goals from Juan Mata and Daley Blind secured a 3-1 victory and has handed them a 5^th round tie against Shrewsbury. They followed that up midweek with an impressive 3-0 victory over Stoke City with goals from Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and another for Wayne Rooney. The FA Cup is the only realistic competition that United fans can maintain some hope for unless they regard the Europa League as a ‘competition’ but LVG is unlikely to field a fully strengthened side given the precarious position they lay in the table. United were just one of two sides who failed to sign anyone in the transfer window which is hardly surprising given the expenditure in the summer but you would’ve thought a short term deal for either Patrice Evra or Nemanja Vidic might’ve made sense given the amount of injuries that are stacking up in defence at Old Trafford. 

Spectators at Stamford Bridge will be looking to the heavens and hoping for a much better game than the one that was played out in December at Old Trafford. A dismal 0-0 helped neither side and only had a couple of notable efforts on goal in the final 10 minutes. These two English giants have met each other 155 times with Manchester United having won 63 of them and Chelsea are behind in the head-to-head with 48 wins. Only 1 of the past 7 games involving Chelsea and Manchester United has seen more than 3 goals scored in 1 match so don't expect goals in this one.

Chelsea obtained the services of Alexandre Pato in the January transfer window on loan for the remainder of the season which is a shrewd bit of business. The ex-AC Milan striker is unlikely to get ahead of Diego Costa but will hopefully provide some more fire power with Loic Remy and Radamel Falcao struggling. United continue to lack numbers in defence which means the young duo of Guillermo Varela and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson will be in defence with the responsibility of containing Eden Hazard and Willian.

Chelsea

Stats: W-7 L-9 D-7

Recent Form – WDDWW

Manchester United

Stats: W-11 L-6 D-7                                  

Recent Form - DWLWW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Chelsea (4-2-3-1) – Courtois, Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry, Azpilicueta, Fabregas, Matic, Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Diego Costa

Manchester United (4-2-3-1) – De Gea, Varela, Blind, Smalling, Borthwick-Jackson, Schneiderlin, Fellaini, Mata, Herrera, Martial, Rooney

Injury List/Suspended Players

Chelsea – Falcao (inj), Remy (inj)

Manchester United – Shaw (inj), Rojo (inj), Jones (inj), Valencia (inj), Young (inj), Darmian (inj)

League Positions