Chelsea 0-2 Manchester United: Four Things We Learned

Manchester United have done it again – they have beaten Chelsea for the third time this season, and for the second in the Premier League, winning 2-0 at Stamford Bridge through the goals of Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire. The Devils were brilliant to beat Chelsea yet again and inflict another loss to Frank Lampard’s side.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team played in a 3-4-1-2 formation and gave problems to the Blues, scoring from their opportunities, whilst also having some chances like that Bruno Fernandes free kick that ended up on Willy Caballero’s left-hand side post. Here are the four things we learned from this typical Premier League clash.

Martial Scores When He Is Needed The Most

Anthony Martial was often criticized for his performances and a lack of constant goalscoring threat. We wrote couple of weeks ago about that subject, getting to the conclusion that Martial has not been great recently, but that he has not been as bad as many have tried to make it out. And then the Frenchman decided to end such conversations, getting in the right place after 45 minutes to score a lovely header. It was a big leap for Martial, not just literally, but also for his boost, as he had scored a header, with an instinct of a real, a bit old school number nine.

Eric Bailly Adds A Huge Performance

This was an immense performance from the Ivory Coast international. He was everywhere at the back and he was not making any mistakes. Chelsea wingers could not get past him and he was going a great job of shutting down all of the attacks that went to his side of the backline. Bailly will be thrilled for such a performance after having so many injury woes.

Decisions Go Against Lampard’s Team

Some of them were unlucky and some were completely deserved. The two goals VAR had overturned were both correctly overturned and Chelsea will not have reasons to complain. But Lampard will probably be angry for that situation in the first half when Harry Maguire hit Michy Batshuayi ‘where it hurts the most’, because otherwise that could have been a red card.

Also, Lampard will be angry that his decision to put Michy Batshuayi in the starting lineup ahead of Olivier Giroud resulted in Belgian squandering couple of great opportunities when the result could have gone either way. Giroud then came on and scored just minutes later, though that goal was correctly overruled for a marginal offside of the Frenchman’s toes.

Wide Open Race For Champions League Qualification

This win for Man United means they are now just three points behind the fourth-placed Chelsea. It is an astonishing race for the Champions League qualification for two reasons. The first one is that Chelsea have won just 41 points in 26 matches and still, they are somehow in the top four. On the other hand, it could be that fifth place will be the one to bring Champions League football as well, if Man City’s ban remains after all of possible appeals.

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