Cast yourselves back a little over a month ago. It’s March 4th and Manchester United travelled to St James’ Park to face Newcastle United, narrowly beating them 1-0 courtesy of a late Ashley Young strike. Despite the victory, the performance that evening epitomised the type of season Louis van Gaal’s men were having; laboured, unconvincing and void of any ideas.
Yet, those tags no longer apply to the team after confidently and convincingly dispatching of Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester City, victories that have transformed United’s season. No longer are the Red Devils fighting for fourth spot, they are in a fight with Arsenal and Manchester City for second place and Saturday evening will go a long way in showing how far Man United have developed under Louis van Gaal’s philosophy as they face the champions elect, Chelsea, at Stamford Bridge.
Whilst Manchester United come into this game on the back of eye catching victories, Chelsea on the other hand have been steady if unspectacular, especially as Manchester City’s fight to reclaim the title fizzled out. This match up will see the coming together of arguably the two finest tacticians in the Premier League and hopefully that does not mean that they’ll try not to outfox one another, consequently cancelling each other out.
There will be plenty of fascinating match ups in the game and it’ll be interesting to see how Mourinho will combat the threat of Marouane Fellaini. The Belgian has been instrumental in recent weeks, occupying the left area of the pitch (oppositions right side), an area where he could have a heavily influence on Saturday, especially as Branislav Ivanovic likes to maraud the right side of the pitch, but when he is in position, does not receive support from the right sided midfielder in the team. Nemanja Matic often finds himself supporting his Serbian counterpart, meaning that the centre of the pitch can be left unprotected, something of which the likes of Ander Herrera and Michael Carrick would look to exploit. Mourinho may select Ramires on the right side of midfield to provide extra support for Ivanovic, so Matic is not dragged out of position.
Louis van Gaal will also have to think of a way of stopping Chelsea’s left side, particularly with the threat the fantastic Eden Hazard poses for Chelsea. Hazard has been the standout player of the season and he will look to torment Antonio Valencia; the Ecuadorian must ensure that he is disciplined at all times and not dragged out of position otherwise he will be punished. Ander Herrera may be tasked by van Gaal to keep on Hazard’s toes whenever Chelsea are attacking so Valencia is not left one on one with the Chelsea number 10.
There are no new injuries to report upon from each camp, although we are yet to hear of the extent of Michael Carrick’s injury which forced him off on the weekend against Manchester City. Nevertheless, he is expected to be fit for the game. Diego Costa is still out with a hamstring problem for Chelsea so either Didier Drogba or Loic Remy will play instead of the Spaniard.
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