The cliché about the football season being a marathon and
not a sprint is a well worn and true one, but that doesn’t make tonight’s clash
between Manchester United and Chelsea any more exciting or informative.
Part of Manchester United’s ‘toughest start to a season in
20 years’ – not the first complaint we’ve heard from David Moyes in his first
few weeks in the season – this match brings together the new kid on the big
managerial block in Moyes against the returning giant Jose Mourinho, who now
describes himself as ‘The Happy One’ following an acrimonious time at Real
Madrid but has enraged local ‘rivals’ Spurs by snatching Shaktar’s Willian from
under their noses, while all the time making repeated attempts at bringing
United’s Rooney to Stamford Bridge.
Transfer bickering aside, getting a handle on this game is
not easy. Moyes could not have asked for a better start than the 4-1 demolition
that the Devils inflicted on Swansea last Saturday, creating more in that game
than most of their last season under Sir Alex, with Danny Wellbeck playing his best
game for quite some while, Wayne Rooney providing many helpful interventions, and
Robin Van Persie once again stealing the show with two cracking goals, while
laying on the fourth for good measure.
Chelsea ‘s first 20 minutes against Hull at Stamford Bridge
was a pure exhibition of attacking football and if they wanted, that could have
been a far more comfortable win, with the handbrake presumably applies on the
basis that this game was coming after their midweek win against Aston Villa,
which was an unconvincing performance that bought home all the points in
typical Mourinihio fashion, for all that there was no small amount of luck
involved with Branislav Ivanovic’s avoiding being sent off before he scored the
winner.
A similar performance here would leave Chelsea seriously
vulnerable but this will be a very different situation approached in a very
different way by the Blues. The movement and pace of United proved crucial in
their big matches last season and judged on their opening day win it will prove
to be the same again, and Mournihio’s greatest weapon is his midfield options,
with one of the strongest squads in England at his disposal as far as the
centre of the park is concerned. It remains to be seen just who players – the
capturing of Willian isn’t good news for Juan Mata, but no player turned up
more for Chelsea against United last season – while upfront it’ll be
interesting to see if Fernando Torres gets the verdict ahead of Romelu Luaku,
scorer of a hat-trick against United in Ferguson’s last league game, with Demba
Ba having failed to impress so far.
It’s quite tempting to think that the quality of both sides
will cancel eachother out and of the match odds, the 12/5 on the draw makes
most appeal. However, with both sides having been open so far it might pay to
chance the score draw at 7/2. The three games between the sides last season
produced 18 goals, and while Jose won’t be anywhere near as open as Di Matteo,
Aston Villa’s pace and power approach found more than enough gaps in a side
he’s not had for long and United scored more than anyobody last season.
Likewise, while both sides would take a point, it’s hard to see either side
being overly cautious to the point where attacking chances won’t be created and
tonight does represent a big opportunity for Moyes to impress himself upon the
Premiership and United fans. A 1-1 draw is seen as the most likely correct
score, and Ladbrokes’s 7/1 comes with a moneyback if there’s a red card –
hardly a bad offer given the bad blood between the sides.
Advice
1 pt Score draw (7/2 Boylesports)
1 pt 1-1 Draw (7/1 Ladbrokes)
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