Key events
An email! And a theory. âIf you were a deeply cynical Chelsea executive,â says Michael Hunt, âshouldnât you be throwing admissions around willy nilly right about now, and begging for punishment?
Go on⦠âOf all the teams facing some sort of sanction, Chelsea are the only ones who shouldnât give a flying one if they get a points deduction this season, so they should be going all out to get one. Next season they could be fighting relegation or, seeing as give or take the top 15 all get into Europe nowadays, pushing for Europe and so those points would actually mean something. And if itâs a fine, the top brass would probably love the opportunity to spend some of their endless money without having to flog a half dozen promising English twenty year olds as a result.â
As I was trained to reply to readers in my first newspaper job, at the Telegraph: you may well be right.
Meanwhile, as they say on 5 Live, thereâs been a goal at Anfield. Details here from Will Unwin.
As the pundits discuss how the mighty are fallen, TNT puts up a fact box that does the job very succinctly. It simply records the league position of these two clubs, every season for the past 20 years. Between 2003 and 2011, they both finished in the top three every time. For four of the five years from 2005, they were the top two (Arsène who?). The first time one of them dropped out of the top three was 2011-12, when Chelsea plummeted to sixth. Since 2013, there have been only three seasons when both ended up in the top four â 2014-15, 2019-20 and 2020-21. It all reflects rather well on Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Itâs rotation, says Ten Hag. Well, Rashford does often score against Liverpool â but the same goes for Chelsea.
Ten Hag told TNT Rashford is on the bench “for rotation to keep him and the team fresh through a busy period with another big game on Sunday”. #mufc
— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) April 4, 2024
Teams in full
Chelsea (probably 4-2-3-1) Petrovic; Gusto, Disasi, Badiashile, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez; Palmer, Gallagher, Mudryk; Jackson.
Subs: Bettinelli, Gilchrist, Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Casadei, Tauriainen, Madueke, Chukwuemeka, Sterling.
Man Utd (probably 4-2-3-1) Onana; Dalot, Varane, Maguire, Wan-Bissaka; Casemiro, Mainoo; Antony, Fernandes, Garnacho; Hojlund.
Subs: Heaton, Kambwala, Evans, Amrabat, Eriksen, Amad,
McTominay, Mount, Rashford.
Referee Jarred Gillett.
Teams in brief: Sterling benched too
Itâs a bad night to be a highly experienced England winger. Mauricio Pochettino puts Raheem Sterling on the bench, with Mykhailo Mudryk on the left.
Teams in brief: Rashford benched
Erik ten Hag has put Marcus Rashford on the bench, which means a rare start for Antony, with Alejandro Garnacho moving to the left.
Preamble
Evening everyone and welcome to the clash of the ex-titans. Chelsea v Manchester United, so often a title fight, is now merely the sixth-best team in the land paying a visit to the 11th-best. If the managers get together for a drink after the game, they may have to meet in the Last Chance Saloon.
Back in December Man United played Chelsea at 8.15 on a Wednesday night at Old Trafford. They produced one of their more joined-up performances and won 2-1. Can they do it again at 8.15 on a soggy Thursday at Stamford Bridge?
The answer to that is surely another question: who knows? Both these teams have spent the past eight months being consistently inconsistent. Mauricio Pochettinoâs Chelsea can beat Newcastle, in some style, and then fail to dispatch the 10 men of Burnley. They can lose at home to Forest and Brentford, while taking a point off Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City (twice).
Erik ten Hagâs Man United are not much better. Theyâll creep up to fourth in the away table if they win tonight, but to prosper in the Premier League, you have to be good in the Greater London area, and United havenât managed that. They have four points from five trips to London, largely thanks to a jammy win at Craven Cottage. Theyâve lost at Spurs, Arsenal and West Ham. Their last convincing display in London was the League Cup final at Wembley, 13 months ago.
United are handing out so many chances that their next calamity may be just around the corner â quite possibly on Sunday, when Liverpool will be itching to make them pay for the 121st-minute heist in the FA Cup. Tonightâs game is harder to predict. You can see Chelsea winning 4-1, as they did at Tottenham in November, or losing 4-2, as they did at home to Wolves in February. Opta isnât sure either: it gives them a 38pc chance of a win, with 32 for United and 28 for the draw.
It may all hinge on whether Chelseaâs brightest young thing, Cole Palmer, can torment Unitedâs makeshift left-back. If that is Aaron Wan-Bissaka, still rusty after injury, Palmer should prevail; if itâs the more commanding Diogo Dalot, we can expect a good contest. In a crowded week, with injuries in both camps, the team sheets will be very interesting. Iâll be back with them shortly.
