The Saturday matinee in the Premier League this weekend, is the headliner fixture of Chelsea FC and Manchester United. It’s a blockbuster match-up of two big six clubs with a roster that’s not producing at a level anywhere near what’s expected of their high paygrade.
Best teams that money can buy they are certainly not, but United looked like all they can be, at least for one night, by beating the most mercenary and free-spending team on the planet, Paris Saint-Germain at their building!
Chelsea FC at Manchester United FYIs
Kickoff: 12:30pm ET, 5:30 BST Saturday, October 24, Old Trafford
Odds: United (+140) Chelsea FC win (+175) Draw (+260)
Starting XI Predictions: Chelsea FC
Team News for both sides: go to this link
TV Channel: NBC (US) Sky Sports Main Event (UK)
Take a bow, and pump that fist, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“These boys can play. They enjoyed it,” he said. “Attitude, work rate… you know the team spirit has been fantastic since they’ve come back from the international break so it’s been brilliant. I’m just happy for them. I know we have quite a few possibilities in the way we’re playing of course and you have to look at the opposition and how you want to play.”
Now let’s see if they can keep it up against a Chelsea side which has has two 3-3 draws in League play that well define the mixed bag of results that has been their season.
All Axel Tuanzebe did was play for the first time in nearly a year, and help keep Neymar and Kylian Mbappe off the scoresheet. We like OGS to continue with a back three of him, Luke Shaw and Victor Lindelof. May not sound so menacing, but look at what they just did against PSG.
They’ll line up in front David de Gea, who has been on a tear lately, showing his detractors in this world that he is not in fact washed. Look for Paul Pogba to be elevated from super sub into the first XI here while the final third should see a whole lot of changes.
Mason Greenwood, who’s missed out on the last two due to what everyone thinks is an internal suspension, but Solskjaer maintains is an unidentified injury, should get a run, as should Edinson Cavani, the guy United inexplicably waited until the last possible minute to go and get.
Look for the long time PSG man to get his first appearance in a United shirt here.
Manchester United Starting XI Predicition vs Chelsea FC
Cavani
Rashford Fernandes Greenwood
Pogba McTominay Fred
Shaw Tuanzebe Lindelof
De Gea
Prediction: United 2, Chelsea FC 1
United have not lost three home games to open a season since 1930, and they haven’t dropped three straight home games at any point in a season since 1979.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.