News flashed across Britain’s channel BBC that Roman Abramovich, described as “one of the richest men in Russia” had taken over the debt ridden Fulham-based London club also known as Chelsea FC. From being orphaned at the age of 4 to selling rubber ducks at a rented apartment in Moscow, both Roman Abramovich and Chelsea FC have come a long way
October 28th, 2012.
Having spent more than 1 billion dollars on his favourite pastime, the dreamy blue eyes of the Russian playboy are often seen darting across the lush green pitch of Stamford Bridge’s directors box. Chelsea’s trophy cabinet can now boast the coveted Champions League trophy, three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two Carling Cups and a couple of Community Shields since its controversial takeover in 2003. Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelloti and six other managers have departed since then - including the Special One, Jose Mourinho as the Russian billionaire has more often than not, taken internal matters in his own hands. Mourinho bought organization, solidity and ruthlessness along with his arrogance and an overcoat, bringing domination to an extent that almost sparked the end of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United side. Almost. The legendary Scot, has endured a torrid time at Stamford Bridge, where his side hold a dismal record, which will be hoped to be overturned, to inflict psychological damage in a potential early title decider.
Although the Blues sit atop the Premier League table with 22 points out of a possible 24, they come into this match on the back of a defeat to reigning Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk in the midweek Champions League group stage fixture, having been outplayed and outran. Meanwhile, Ferguson’s Reds had to come from behind again as they conceded two early goals to SC Braga at Old Trafford, another case in point of the shambolic defending that is threatening to become an unwarranted trend for the Manchester club. But with former-United player Carlos Tevez providing the lone goal of the match against Swansea at the Etihad last night, it means Mancini can breathe a sigh of relief for the time being as City move up into second spot while putting pressure on both of tonight’s competitors to take maximum points if they are to keep the defending champions at bay.
This complicates matters for Manchester United very much so, what with Chelsea being undefeated this season in the Premier League and the last time the Red Devils took more than a point from Stamford Bridge dating as far back as April 2002. Paul Scholes opened the scoring with a brilliant 30-yard free-kick in a convincing 3-0 victory for the visitors and out of the four survivors of that clash, he looks set to be the only one who might have a say on this evening’s proceedings. Ferdinand and Evra, who were rested in midweek, should return to restore normalcy in defence and it will be interesting to see how United’s new flexible diamond system is employed against the leaders without the injured Kagawa. Ferguson though, could opt for more width as they did so against Braga in the second half after Nani was brought on for the former Dortmund man.
For
the home side though, matters are much more straightforward, having
used quite a consistent team for most of their matches. With Terry
suspended and facing a four-match ban for racial abuse, defensive duties
fall to Gary Cahill and David Luiz, who will be tasked with containing
the two prolific and in-form strikers Chicharito and Van Persie.
Elsewhere, it’s a matter of utilising Ramires in attack or defense but
with Oscar’s bubbling performances, it looks set that Di Matteo will
prefer the Brazilian midfield general over an injured Frank Lampard.
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| Formation: Chelsea v United |
Key Battles
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| No, I'm not gonna make any Academy Award puns. Fuck off. |
Oscar v Carrick
With Fernando Torres upfront disturbing the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans, it falls down to Manchester United’s experienced defensive midfielder Michael Carrick to contain this new Brazilian hotshot. Having been bought from Internacional in the summer for a fee in the range of £20m, he has immediately carved a place for himself at the London club and has settled into life in the Premier League surprisingly well at his tender age of 21. Not only is Oscar an amazing provider of goal scoring opportunities, but he also loves creating that extra half-a-yard of space and taking a pop at goal himself as has been pretty evident from his exploits in the Champions League. And the fact that he is yet to register a Premier League goal will only leave him wanting more.
Carrick will have to be at his defensive best and utilise every bit of his presence of mind if he is to help his team take anything away from the early season pace-setters.
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| NO. Not even a Hazard-ous pun. Oh wait. |
Hazard v Rafael
Another player from Brazil’s silver-medal run at the London Summer Olympics who forms an integral part of this heavyweight fixture is on the visitors’ side, 22-year-old right-back Rafael da Silva. Up against him is Chelsea’s new Belgian talismanic midfielder, Eden Hazard who with his constant top performances has notched up five assists to become the current Premier League joint assist leader and a permanent fixture in Di Matteo’s lineup. Rafael himself, has played an equally important role for his club having been a part of all but one of United’s competitive matches this season in the league.
As always though, owing to his Brazilian blood, Rafael will tend to venture forward now and then, and that in combination with Valencia’s military-style approach to play and Hazard’s often criticised lack of defensive ethic could cause problems for Cole & Co. But the Red Devils will need to be cautious and attentive, as any break in play with Hazard on a free run fuelling Oscar and Torres could spell doomsday for Ferguson’s troops.
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| Oh boy, he's back! *starts pulling out hair* |
Van Persie v Luiz+Cahill
The last time the Holland international encountered the Chelsea back-four, it turned into a 5-3 win for his old club Arsenal, a hat-trick for himself and 36,441 disappointed Chelsea fans in attendance. United fans will be hoping for a very similar case this time around and being the joint top goalscorer in the league makes him our player to look out for. With a formidable partnership developing between Rooney and him, and Little Pea in a form of his own, the London-based club will need to call upon all its defensive resources to prevent Čech from having to pick up the ball from his own net.
Defensively though, United have problems of their own. Out of the twelve competitive matches that they have played this season, they have conceded first in eight of them and have conceded two goals in five out of these eight. Let alone the fact that they have managed to get back into winning ways on six such occasions, this still represents a horrible statistic for a team of this calibre. Of interesting to note is also the two times when they were unable to unearth even a single point - against Everton and Spurs, teams that sit in the first third of the league table. This shows that conceding first against big teams is always asking for trouble and that it is crucial not to do so. And even though the Reds might currently be the highest goal scoring side, in Chelsea they face a defence that has only let almost half the goals given by their own.
Plus, the Stamford Bridge-side have always been a bigger threat at set pieces and United first team coach René Meulensteen will have to get his tactics spot on if he wants his manager to
Contributed by: Saād Rashid and Akhil Arora.
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