This weekend brings the return of the Premier League with one of its showpiece fixtures front and centre.
The first game on Saturday see’s Jose Mourinho’s somewhat embattled Manchester United team, sitting in 8th on 13 points already 7 points behind his old club, face a Chelsea side now managed by former banker and Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri as the action returns to the United Kingdom.
This fixture whether played home or away in recent versions has been dominated by Chelsea over the past 20 playings of it. If you want to bet on a United win you should check bettingsites.ng for the very best latest odds as it would be just like Jose to pull off what many think could be an unlikely win.
Taking a look at the last 20 games between the two famous adversaries with 4 games in the FA Cup (3 Chelsea wins and a draw), 1 League Cup game (Chelsea win) and 15 Premier League matches, we see Manchester United have only 5 wins whereas Chelsea have 9 wins including an FA Cup win at Wembley in May 2018 with there being 6 draws between the rivals.
A closer look at the games reveals just how tight things are, as in the Premier League both clubs have won 5 games each, lost 5 games each and drawn 5 games each of the past 20 fixtures so things could not be much closer in the League.
To find a win for Manchester United at Stamford Bridge you have to go all the way back to 6th April 2011 where the 2 sides faced off in a UEFA Champions League Quarter-final 1st leg which the Red-Devils won 1-0 at Chelsea’s home. United went on to knock out Chelsea beating them 2-1 in the 2nd leg at Old Trafford. United of course went on to lose the final to Barcelona at London’s Wembley Stadium.
But getting back to the matter of United facing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League and it really does seem like that despite United’s current form which has seen them lose to Brighton, Spurs and West Ham already this season the time could be right for Jose to deliver one of his legendary results. This is just the type of game where people write him off where the Portuguese boss comes into his own.
There could be a number of former Chelsea players lining up for the Red-Devils on Saturday with Juan Mata, Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic all likely to feature for United at some point with the latter two likely starters so those three would love to register an unlikely win at Stamford Bridge. We think the finaL score will be Chelsea 1-2 Manchester United as the Blues and Sarri will suffer their first League loss of the campaign.
If Jose can deliver a win on Saturday it will be the first United away win vs Chelsea in the Premier League since 20th April 2002, when Sir Alex Ferguson oversaw United beat Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge – surely 16 years is time enough for the winless run to end in the League at Chelsea’s home.