Manchester United are at Old Trafford for Sunday’s Premier League showdown with Chelsea. Both sides have endured indifferent form since the turn of the year, and a victory for either would strengthen their chances of finishing in the top-four at the end of the season.
The hosts suffered a damaging 1-0 defeat at the hands of Newcastle United in their previous outing, but this has presumably ended their hopes of challenging for the league title. The Red Devils are 16 points behind league leaders Manchester City after 27 games into the campaign. Chelsea, on the other side, ended a run of back-to-back defeats in the English top-flight with a convincing 4-0 triumph over West Bromwich Albion. The victory took them back into fourth spot, and they can either catch the three-point gap to United or lose ground to Tottenham Hotspur, who are just a point behind them.
The previous meeting between the clubs ended in a 1-0 victory for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, though the last outing at Old Trafford saw United pick up a 2-0 win, which happened to be Jose Mourinho’s first against his former club – since his sacking in December 2016.
Chelsea have not found much success at Old Trafford with just two victories since the 2005/06 season. Nevertheless, there have been draws in four of their previous six meetings at the stadium, and a similar result looks on the cards with the home side not in the best of scoring form.
United have possessed a strong defensive record in their home meetings with Chelsea after having obtained three clean sheets in the last four matches. Despite this, we are fancying the away side to find the net on Sunday with the United defence showing signs of vulnerability of late. We would go for a 1-1 draw at 9/4.