Manchester United vs Chelsea: Both these teams ruled the English Premier League some years ago and now, they are simply a pale shadow of their former, glorious, selves. Generally, nowadays, expectations are that they will underperform at the throw of a hat. And that is what they have mostly done as is clear from a simple glance at the League table. While Manchester is sitting on the 6th spot, with a very slim chance of reaching the coveted 4th spot, Chelsea are even worse as they are languishing in the 12th spot! Tottenham, which is in 5th spot is 9 points ahead of Man U and Aston Villa in 4th spot are on 59 points. In effect, chances of Manchester United reaching the 4th spot to qualify for the Champions League are remote, if not impossible.

The match between the two is of interest simply because of the experiments that are going on with all eyes on what Ten Hag may do as well as Mauricio Pochettino. These are certainly not teams of coaches’ dreams, but they have to at least show they have a plan to improve.

So, what do the bring into this encounter?

Going by the stats involving them both, Manchester United has been the superior team. It has yet to lose in last 12 matches. Chelsea has lost 5 times and the rest were draws.

Chelsea are carrying a woeful record of scoring goals. They may dominate their games, but when it comes to scoring, they falter. However, when it comes to letting in goals, they are quite profligate, having allowed 47 goals to be scored against them. Raheem Sterling, the ace from whom much was expected, has not scored against Man United in 25 games.

Manchester United, on the other hand, have also been flirting with setting negative records. They have lost 11 times this season. The worst in their history was 12. And they are coming off a huge setback from last Saturday when they drew against Brentford.

BBC quoted Ten Hag as saying that Chelsea are a “fantastic team and play very good football".

With both teams stuck in doldrums, it remains to be seen if either one of them can rise to the occasion that this clash demands. As far as fans are concerned, surely, this would be a match very difficult to predict.

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