In my opinion this weekend’s big game is Chelsea v United,
you might argue it’s the Merseyside derby and you might be right, but in terms
of importance to the title race I had to go with this one. On current form
Chelsea are just about favourites for this one, especially as they are at home,
as United haven’t won in their last 10 visits to Stamford Bridge in the Premier
League. Big games like this, however, don’t always follow the rules. What we
can be certain of, or at least hope for, is a great attacking display from both
teams. Van Persie, Rooney, Hazard, Torres and Oscar all on the same pitch is
something to look forward to.
Chelsea
Talisman Frank Lampard is a out of Sunday’s game, which is
something that Roberto Di Matteo might almost be grateful for. This allows him
to play the in-form Oscar and Mata as well as the big-money signing Hazard
without the negative repercussions of leaving Lampard on the bench, for surely
he would not have started with all four on the pitch. This is something he has
only done once this season in the Premier League, against Norwich. So with
Terry still banned and Lampard injured we have to assume that they will line up
much the same way as they did against Tottenham, a 4-2-3-1 formation that Di
Matteo has utilised to great effect this season. Chelsea fans will hope that
the defeat against Shakhtar in mid-week will not have dented their team’s
confidence too much. The only real weakness I see in Chelsea’s team is David
Luiz, the young defender who still hardly inspires confidence at the back
despite some occasionally brilliant last-gasp stuff. With all United’s
attacking prowess Di Matteo will be looking for Luiz to prove that he isn’t being
controlled by “a 10-year-old on a PlayStation”
as Gary Neville so hilariously put it.
Manchester United
Speaking
of defensive weaknesses United can’t seem to stop conceding at the moment and
while ‘we’ll score more than you’ might work against Stoke and Braga something
tells me they might need to have a bit more of a defensive mind-set. They are
playing, after all, against a team who has scored 19 goals already this season
and boasts the scariest attacking midfield line up seen in the league for a
long time. United however have scored 21 and their attacking line-up of Van
Persie, Rooney and Welbeck/Hernandez is likely to give the Chelsea back four a
seriously torrid afternoon. As well as the defence, United’s midfield is still
seriously lacking, they need at least one solid central midfielder to make it
look complete. Darren Fletcher coming back into the team after 10 months out is
a very welcome return for the Red Devils. However, after such a long break
cannot be expected to shoulder the burden of thwarting Oscar, Hazard and Mata
all by himself. He might have to do a lot of the work however for these three are
happy to sit in that position behind the midfield and try to evade the
attention of the back four. Attacking midfielder Shinji Kagawa has been ruled
out for 4 weeks so we are likely to see either Nani or Valencia, or both, come
into the starting line-up tomorrow.
Prediction: I, and many others, will be
thoroughly disappointed if we don’t see a lot of goals tomorrow. With both
teams showing such great attacking threat every time they play and neither of
them with world-class central defensive partnerships I would be extremely
surprised to see a 0-0 today. Perhaps I’m being a bit optimistic but I’m going
to say we’ll see the same result as last season. 3-3
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