Can Manchester United also beat Chelsea? Both teams miss a star player

Since the introduction of the Premier League, Manchester United and Chelsea combined have celebrated eighteen out of thirty championships. This season, however, the proportions are slightly different. This Saturday night, both clubs will fight for a spot in the top four of the league. Where at Chelsea after the change of coach everything seems to be going great, United has some problems within the selection. However, they impressed last Wednesday against Tottenham and expectations in Manchester are high.

Both teams unbeaten for five games

Chelsea are the favourites at home, which makes sense given the work being done by new manager Graham Potter. Since he took over from the sacked Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea are yet to lose and they barely concede any goals. The team managed to keep a clean sheet for the last five games, yet you get 3.10 times your bet if they can pull it off again. At least the team seems to be coping well with the absence of Wesley Fofana, bought for more than 80 million.

United has not lost since the 6-3 blowout against city rival Manchester City, but manager Erik ten Hag's team is not scoring much. The Dutchman is missing quite a few players, including striker Anthony Martial, who had started the season well. Antony also started well at his new club. The Brazilian, acquired from Ajax for just under 100 million euros, regularly finds the net. For a goal from him, Marcus Rashford, or Bruno Fernandes, you get back more than four times your stake.

H2H yields a draw with few goals

Chelsea does not have a pronounced striker who scores by the conveyor belt. The team has many different goal scorers. Despite closed defences and low scoring attackers, the bookmakers expect a fair number of goals, which means you can cash in with less than 2.5 goals. That yields 2.00 times your stake, which is pretty strange when looking at mutual results. The last four matches all ended tied, twice 0-0 and twice 1-1. A draw yields 3.60 times your bet, which is quite reasonable. Nevertheless, this remains a very tough match to predict.

Ten Hag throws Ronaldo out of squad

Among other things, Ten Hag will have to do without Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese has been excluded from the squad by the coach after the striker left Old Trafford earlier than the match was over. That happened during the midweek league game with Tottenham Hotspur (2-0 victory). The question is whether this season's United needs Ronaldo at all. The numbers Ronaldo can produce are downright mediocre and he played only 53% of the total number of minutes he was elligible for.

If we look at the statistics, however, this is justified. Ronaldo brings a whole lot less than he did last season. Back then he was involved in 21 goals in 30 games in the Premier League (18 goals, 3 assists), this season he only stands at just one goal in eight appearances. Also, United have scored more goals without than with CR7 on the pitch this season.