Manchester United beat Chelsea 2-1 at Old Trafford, making it the 12th year since Chelsea won a game at Old Trafford.
Losing to Manchester United is one thing, but losing to one of the poorest Manchester United sides in history has got to sting Chelsea, especially after a loss to Bayern Munich on their return to the Champions League.
This is a week that Chelsea fans will want to forget, and even if they do, there are a few pointers from this game that will sting for a long while.
1. Shambolic goalkeeping and defending
Once again, Chelsea’s defence has cost them a game. But before the defence got exposed, the horrific error from Rober Sanchez to take them to 10 men will linger in the minds of Chelsea fans. There’s absolutely no excuse for that. Just like Maresca said, it was better to let Mbuemo score and be 1-0 down than to be one man down for the rest of the game.
Away from Sanchez, the defence was horrible. While they got a few things right, it was still the same mistakes that cost them against Brentford and Bayern Munich that affected the team today. Simple clearances, keeping offside, and making the right decisions put Chelsea two goals behind too early. With Colwill out for the whole season, it’s going to be a long season for Chelsea fans.
2. Poor game management from Enzo Maresca
Once Maresca’s plan A goes to shambles, he looks clueless. Today again through he substitutions, he showed a lot of panic and poor decision making. Taking two of your wingers off after just one red card is absolutely criminal. To add insult to injury, Maresca said after the game that he knew Cole Palmer wasn’t 100% before the game. Taking off both wingers and removing Palmer a few minutes later, after knowing he had a slight problem, just throws the entire game plan in the bin.
When Manchester United eventually got red-carded, making it 10 vs 10, Chelsea had no attacker to take the game in their favour. Although the Blues scored to make it 2-1, Maresca made his subs too late, and they had no effect on the game. Leaving Garnacho or Gittens on the bench just showed that he wanted very little from the game.
3. Manchester United were just lucky
While this is one of the best Manchester United performances in a long time, it was nothing special or out of the ordinary. The result, in fact, lends credence to the red card rather than what United played in the game.
For the first 10 minutes and much of the first half, Manchester United attacked the game, and they were rightly rewarded. The red card, although with a bit of luck, came from the pressure they had been putting on the Chelsea defence. After they went two goals up and a man down, there was no industry from United. They let Chelsea back into the game and had to hold out for a 2-2 draw.
Winning the game may have temporarily erased the miseries that befall Manchester United. Still, it doesn’t take away the fact that they failed to create chances after the first half or impose themselves on the game once Chelsea got in their groove.
For Chelsea, this is two losses in one week and a lot for Maresca to think about. For United, hopefully, they don’t return to default settings next week.
