Chelsea vs. Manchester United predictions: We know who’s really at the wheel

Chelsea welcome Manchester United for what will hopefully be a big Carabao Cup of revenge for the opening day loss. Here are our writers’ predictions.

Ole is at the wheel and is trying to say Manchester United’s youth players are less experienced than Chelsea’s because, um, well, because reasons. Apparently the loan army is now the widely-regarded best thing ever. The Frank Lampard Effect can do just about anything. Let’s see if it can advanced Chelsea in the League Cup.

Scott Brant: Chelsea 2 – 1 Manchester United. Chelsea are flying high and I expect that to continue today. With a trip to the atrocity that is Watford at the weekend, there’s no reason for rotation. Well, there is, but this isn’t the match. Tammy Abraham to score and Mateo Kovacic to get the winner because he’s been spectacular this season.

Barrett Rouen: 2 – 1. Chelsea will want to make up for their odd loss to United at the beginning of the season. United will play the stronger side, but the Blues still come out on top and pile even more pressure on Ole Gunnar Solksjaer.

Olaoluwa Nwobodo: 2 – 0. Neither team is going into this one with utmost confidence. Manchester United thrashed Chelsea 0-4 in a game where Chelsea did everything but score. On another opening matchday it would have been the Blues with the goals, but that was then, and this is now.

Now Frank Lampard’s players know that Manchester United is not what they used to be. The then-debutants will no longer be awestruck at the prospect of playing against a team as big as United. Now they want to redeem themselves. It would be a tough match for both teams, but Chelsea have that much more quality to pull away with a comfortable win. Michy Batshuayi and Olivier Giroud goals.

Varun Dani: 5 – 0. It feels like the 4-0 loss to United in August was a couple of seasons back, considering the grit and dazzle Chelsea have played with ever since, sitting comfortably in fourth in the Premier League, seven points ahead of United. This team and their manager are growing with every passing game and will be desperate to make it eight in a row vs OGS’s underachievers, even with Lampard giving chances to some youngsters and fringe players.

This game will be a measuring stick for Lampard’s Blues: a big win will cement their stature as the dark horses in every competition. And win they will.

Nate Hofmann: 3 – 1. Predicting the score of a match where you’d be hard pressed to accurately guess half of either team’s starting XI is a fool’s errand. But hey, here we are.

The match will be decided the moment the team sheets come out. By all accounts, it sounds like Chelsea will rotate but field a strong side, while United will go young. You would have to give Chelsea the advantage if that proves to be the case.

That said, Lampard and Solskjaer are unpredictable, and both managers lack any sort of track record to indicate how they’ll approach these cup matches. At the end of the day, though, the Blues have been a pleasant surprise overall this season, while United have been generally abysmal (which I also find to be pleasant). Regardless of who actually takes the field, I’ll put my money on the team that didn’t lose to Newcastle.

Abhishek Pancholi: 4 – 0. In the words of the inimitable Michael G. Scott from The Office, “Oh, how the turn tables”.

United handed out a thrashing to Chelsea in the first game of the season, back when Ole was at the wheel and Lampard had underachieved with Derby. That was aided by dollops of luck, enough to win a couple of Super Lotto jackpots with ease. Just a few months later, Ole is clinging on to his job thanks to nostalgia and nostalgia only, while Lampard is building the most exciting young side in the league. And this time, Frank’s Fledglings will smack seven shades of sh*t out of a bewildered United side who won’t know what hit them until it’s too late.

Michy Batshuayi will get a rare start and score a brace while Willian will continue his scoring streak by adding another in the second half. Callum Hudson-Odoi will round off the scoring towards the end to cap a miserable day out for OGS and the gang.

Kevin Peacock: 3 – 0. Long gone are the days when a game against Manchester United struck fear in the hearts of Chelsea fans, despite a heavy defeat in Super Frank Lampard’s opening league game as boss. Chelsea actually played quite well in that game, and the season has progressed there’s no doubting who the favourite is in this tie.

However, it’s cup football and rotation makes these games tricky to predict. Despite not wanting to make a big thing of the league defeat, Lamps will want to win and he will.

His face-off with Ole Gunnar Solksjaer will end in a win that will see goals for the forgotten man Olivier Giroud, Pedro and Ross Barkley.