Chelsea: Three key clashes at Old Trafford as Blues seek momentum

Chelsea begins a long week of travel and away games with Manchester United. What key clashes will determine the fate of the game?

The football gods were not kind when the scheduled this week. Fresh off a tricky Champions League tie against Sevilla, Chelsea has to travel away to Manchester United, Krasnodar, and Burnley in the span of a week. The Blues need momentum and all the time away from training is going to make for a tricky week. What key clashes might determine the first match on the schedule?

1. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer versus Frank Lampard

This is the most obvious matchup. Both Lampard and Solskjaer tend to see their teams turn up against big six rivals, but there is a massive blind spot on Lampard’s radar when it comes to Solskjaer. Mainly, both managers like their sides to play more conservatively against bigger teams and Solskjaer is able to out pragmatic Lampard when the two face off.

Chelsea and Lampard showed they can make a solid defense happen, but against Sevilla it came at the cost of practically the entire attacking output. Part of that was pure tiredness on the part of the forwards but they cannot be expected to rotate out against United. For United, they will be high on cloud nine after a win against Paris Saint Germain but they will be missing a few key players as they host Chelsea.

The Blues did manage to win last time out when they matched Solskjaer’s three at the back with their own. Given Lampard’s commitment to 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 this season, it remains to be seen if he’ll make the sweeping structural changes or just the minor ones like against Sevilla. The game will turn on who opts for momentum and who counters in what way.

2. Width versus attacking the center

In recent matches, Chelsea has been very consciously attacking in a 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 shape. This has been the case for much of Lampard’s tenure, but Christian Pulisic’s return has further accelerated the process. The Blues stretch the pitch while looking for wide overloads and switches of play.

United is less focused on the wide areas. They generally overload the middle and use the wide areas only when there is space in behind to do so. What this will mean in practice is Chelsea will probably have the wide areas under control, but the pivot and Kai Havertz will be overwhelmed by numbers around them.

It is not out of character for Chelsea to tuck their “wingers” in early to create their own central overloads, but that requires the fullbacks to do a lot of heavy lifting in wide areas. In effect, it would cause a one versus one between United’s fullbacks/wingbacks and Chelsea’s. That may force United out wider to support, and Solskjaer is rarely shy about making sweeping changes in a match like that.

Despite being at Old Trafford, Chelsea may be the ones dictating the match as United reacts. Provided they can adjust to United’s openings faster than United can adjust to Chelsea, the Blues should find in roads around Solskjaer’s side.

3. Chelsea’s love of individual mistakes versus United’s love of penalties

Listen, if United only got a penalty once or twice a month it would be one thing. But they are good for at least a penalty a week if not a penalty a game. They have had penalties in five of their seven games this season. No one is saying that is match fixy, but from a statistical point of view, it is incredibly unlikely.

Most teams would have concerns playing United for that fact alone. Chelsea, knowing their defenders have been good for at least one massive error a game, probably understand they are starting the match at 1-0 down before a ball is kicked.

That is best case scenario. Worst case scenario is they shoot for the moon and give United more than their one customary penalty. Chelsea’s defensive prowess against Sevilla was good to see and that has to come back, but not at the expense of the offense again. The Blues will need at least two goals just to overcome United’s traditional handout and the Blues’ defenders will need to ensure that is the only gift the red side is given.

If that sounds conspiratorial so be it, but it is awful funny that United is practically living off penalties since the start of the year.

What key clashes do you think will determine the match? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!