By Daily Sports on February 18, 2020

Manchester United have simply got Chelsea’s number this season. After completing a hat trick of wins against The Blues, including Monday night’s triumph away at Stamford Bridge in the English Premier League, Manchester United’s rollercoaster season continues and their fans would hope they can find some consistency to put away smaller teams with the same astuteness with which they have despatched the likes of Manchester City away, Tottenham Hotspurs and Chelsea while holding Almighty Liverpool to a scoreless draw at Old Trafford this season.

Here are four talking points from Monday night Man United 2-0 win over Chelsea.

1. Race for top 4 spot thrown open

Chelsea at a stage looked like they would pull away from the rest of the pack and pick up the 4th spot with Liverpool, Manchester City and Leicester City looking a shoo-in for the first 3 positions. But they have stuttered badly of late and are only 1point ahead of 5th placed Tottenham Hotspurs who they meet this coming weekend and are just 7 points away from 11th-placed Burnley.

This is only February and expect some more intrigues along the way for the 4th (and 5th) champions league spot (assuming Man City’s ban from the champions league stands.

We are only in February; it’s certainly very difficult, given the twists and turns so far to give a prediction as to which teams would pick the 4th and 5th positions.

2. Treble defeat to Man United leaves Frank Lampard badly damaged

There are games a manager should not lose if he doesn’t want his credibility to be seriously questioned by his fans, leaving him in danger of sing seen as hanging on the line. For Chelsea’s manager Frank Lampard, the match against Man United on Monday was one such game.

After having been levelled 4-0 in the season’s opener at Old Trafford, Chelsea and Lampard went ahead to lose 1-2 at home against the same opposition in the Carabao Cup.

Now they have just suffered a hat trick of losses in a limp performance against the Red Devils. Losing thrice to the same team in a season is a poor commentary on Chelsea’s part and considering the direct rivalry between the two clubs, the 0-2 defeat makes it an even more bitter pill for the Blues fans to swallow.

Lampard has so far not been able to turn Chelsea into an unstoppable force at their Stamford Bridge home this season to the disappointment of their fans and his selection choices have been severely questioned sometimes this season.

There is suspiciously a large swathe of Chelsea fans who are skeptical about Lampard’s abilities to return Chelsea into their real powerhouse status and anything less than a champions league qualification this may be mortally damaging for Lampard’s Chelsea’s job.

3. Odion Ighalo almost made a super dream debut 

Man United fans got a glimpse of what to expect from Nigerian international striker Odion Ighalo when he came in in the closing stages against Chelsea on Monday night. Ighalo showed his strength and ability to shrug off opponents and his eyes for goals.

As extra time petered away, he bulldozed his way into the Chelsea box and came face to face with Chelsea’s goalkeeper Willy Caballero who was lucky to see his leg block Ighalo’s shot as the latter looked sure to score.

What a super dream debut it would have been for the ex-Watford man who grew up a Man United fan. Surely the headlines in the Nigerian sporting press would have been even louder.

Source Daily Sports

Posted February 18, 2020

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