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United vs Chelsea Again

Games between the accepted big four in England this season haven’t gone exactly to plan or what the bookmakers and form books suggest.

Rafa Benitez and Liverpool managed to upset United at home and then inflicted Chelsea’s first home defeat in over eighty games in a match the Reds dominated at Stamford Bridge.

Equally, Arsenal have been in questionable form this season, sitting outside the top 4 for once but they also managed to defeat Chelsea at the Emirates so who knows what to expect this Sunday at Old Trafford when Chelsea come to Manchester.

Blues Hold 4-Point Cushion
Currently, Chelsea are in second place, three points behind Liverpool and four points ahead of United, albeit having played two games more than the reigning champions.

With Liverpool playing away to Stoke on Saturday night, there is a chance that Phil Scolari could be heading to Old Trafford six points adrift at the top of the league but the coach would be well focussing on the team directly below them as opposed to the one above.

Whilst no one would say that United have shown scintillating form this season, there is almost an expectancy that the players are gearing themselves up for the business end of the season as they look to add to their impressive trophy haul.

Lack of Goals in United Games
A lack of goals has been the surprising element of United’s season of late and you have to go back to the middle of November to find the last time United scored more than once in a league game.

Mind you, of their six games since then, four have been won 1-0 and two tricky away games have ended 0-0 and the last goal United lost in the league came on Saturday the 8th of November when the second of two goals by Nasri condemned United to defeat at the Emirates and gave Arsenal fans a glimmer of light in a poor season.

It seems surprising that United are struggling for goals given the firepower they have at their disposal but even with Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov, the club are only sneaking wins but Alex Ferguson won’t care, as long as they keep winning.

The canny Scot knows that another 1-0 victory for his club at the weekend will put his side back into a tremendous position in the league and will really ramp up the pressure on Chelsea boss Phil Scolari.

Where Did It Go Wrong Phil?
Scolari arrived with a wonderful reputation and most observers believed Chelsea were bringing in a manager who would have the team winning and playing tremendous football. For the first few weeks of the season, Big Phil worked his magic and Chelsea looked unstoppable and around October many people were tipping them to romp home in the league.

However, the wheels have started to come off for Chelsea since then with struggles in the Champions League, a shock League Cup exit at the hands of Burnley, a home FA Cup draw with Southend and the obliteration of a tremendous home record that Rainieri, Mourinho and Grant all preserved.

All this is being played out to the worrying strains of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich struggling with the credit crunch and the talk being that Scolari will not be allowed to add to his squad in the January transfer window.

Unhappy Forwards
Looking at Manchester United, many people are puzzled about the way Alex Ferguson is trying to keep his four main strikers but at Chelsea, the situation is even worse as Scolari has only two main strikers and he can’t keep them happy.

The frustrated manager has recently came out and said that due to a lack of a left sided winger, he is unlikely to play a 4-4-2 formation which would allow him to get the best from Anelka and Drogba so that means Chelsea are liable to field a 4-3-3 with one of their main men out of position or on the bench.

Drogba and Anelka have been regarded as two players who are hard to get along with and the selection policy undertaken by Scolari this season, even after Drogbas return from injury, will have done nothing to make the two of them happy in the workplace.

For all that Scolari seems a happier character than Avram Grant, serious cracks are emerging in the Chelsea squad this season.

The signing of Deco was hailed in August but perhaps the pace of the English Premier League is too much for a player who is now past his best. Deco has been rightly hailed as a great player but he also has many criticis, ever since he first came to prominence when his diving and cheating antics were instrument in Porto’s Uefa Cup triumph in Seville back in 2003.

The player still has the ability to light up matches but perhaps England is not the best setting for him and lining up alongside midfielders the quality of Ballack and Lampard is perhaps not the best for him. All three have a natural tendency to attack and this put a greater pressure on a Chelsea backline that doesn’t look as impregnable as it did before.

Even Cech Below Par
Petr Cech may stand out in his ludicrous orange kit this season but he hasn’t been a stand out for great goalkeeping performances. Ever since a blunder at Euro 2008 saw Turkey pull off another miraculous late comeback, Cech has been viewed with greater suspicion this season and every mistake he has made appears to be magnified.

One of the problems is whenever Cech used to make a mistake (which was rare), Chelsea would still be able to score enough goals to make up for it, in recent months, they have lacked the vibrancy to do this.

So where does that leave Sunday? Looking at the form guide, you would have to say a 0-0 or 1-0 score line in favour of United are the more realistic results but with so much importance riding on this game, you can expect both sets of players being desperate for a win.

If United get the opening goal, expect Chelsea to flood forward in attack which may create a lot of space for United’s quick players to hit on the break.

Regardless of what happens on Sunday, the unpredictability of the English Premier League this season means that nothing will be decided but a victory for one side could leave their opponents feeling mighty vulnerable in the most open English top flight season in years.

by Andrew Reilly

for The Silver Circle at www.footballtip.co.uk

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