Manchester United Vs Chelsea Preview « Football Blog – Football News

Carlo Ancelotti’s men travel to Old Trafford full of confidence, after news that Wayne Rooney will be absent from the United ranks.



Lampard and Co. have struck twelve times in their last two games including seven against Aston Villa. They did the latter without Didier Drogba, which was a major plus-point.

Manchester United came back from Germany with a 2-1 deficit and an injured Wayne Rooney. The striker, who has struck 34 times this season, is sidelined for at least a month with an ankle sprain. He will though, recover for the World up in South Africa this summer.

The last time out though, when United played without their main front-man, they won 4-0 in what seemed to be a tricky fixture away at Bolton. Dimitar Berbatov scored twice in that game, and Sir Alex Ferguson will be hoping the Bulgarian can come good on Saturday.

Sir Alex has made it a point to start Park Ji-Sung in these crunch encounters, and it paid off the last time around when the Korean scored the winner against Liverpool.Park and Berbatov look likely to start as forwards. United will start the same backline as they did in Munich, with Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic alongside each other in the heart of the defence. Vidic escaped punishment last week after Owen Coyle complained that the Serbian had elbowed Johan Elmander in the head, causing the striker to have a serious injury. Skipper Gary Neville will be given the job containing Florent Malouda and Yuri Zhirkov , who were outstanding in the thrashing of Villa last week.



For Chelsea, right-back Branislav Ivanovic, who injured his knee against Blackburn two weeks ago, started training on Monday and will be in the run-in to replace Paulo Ferreira, who took up the Serbian’s role in his absence.

Midfielder Lampard is Chelsea’s man in form, scoring five in his last 2 games. Malouda, on the other hand, has four in his last 2. Didier Drogba picked up a knock in the game against Portsmouth last Wednesday, but was rested against Villa with this game in mind. Jose Bosingwa and Ashley Cole are long-term absentees, while Ricardo Carvalho is out for a month.

When these two sides met earlier on in the season at Stamford Bridge, John Terry’s late goal gave Chelsea all three points. After that win, Chelsea went five points clear of the champions at the top of the table.

This time around as well, a victory for Chelsea will see them go top, two points clear of their opponents. United, on the other hand, will try to make home advantage count and a victory for the will see them go 4 points clear at the top.

Probable Manchester United starting lineup for Man utd vs Chelsea : Van Der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Valencia, Scholes, Carrick, Nani, Park, Berbatov.

Probable Chelsea starting line-up: Cech, Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Zhirkov, Lampard, Deco, Mikel, Malouda, Anelka, Drogba.

Our Prediction: Chelsea 1 Manchester United 1

What do you guys think??

Key men: Manchester United: Rio Ferdinand Chelsea: Didier Drogba

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