Chelsea faced Manchester United in their away game at Old Trafford. Chelsea was looking back to return to winning terms after failing miserably to hold a two-goal lead and shared a point with Southampton in the previous Premier League match. Lampard made only one change in his squad that played against Sevilla in the Champions League group stage.
Chelsea captain, Cesar Azpilicueta was brought into the starting XI in place of Mason Mount who joined the three-man defence of Chelsea. He joined the likes of Kurt Zouma and Brazilian centre-back Thiago Silva in the defence while Greece James and Ben Chilwell were the centre-backs of the team.
Lampard’s midfield pairing of choice was again Jorginho and N’Golo Kante with Kai Havertz and Pulisic supporting Timo Werner in the upfront. Chelsea had enjoyed a 65 per cent share of possession by the midway point of the first half but apart from a couple of corners, there were just a few threats from them.
The game came into life from both sides around the half-hour when Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic had two decent attempts- one of which was and the other got deflected wide. Chelsea’s defence was organized to keep the ball from getting netted in impressively but there was one minute of distraction when Rashford’s attempt occurred due to a rare mistake from the back.
As half-time approached, both Azpilicueta and Rashford had penalty appeals that the referee ignored although the decision regarding Azpi’s incident should have been a penalty after seeing the footage with Maguire’s arm around his neck.
Chelsea’s goalkeeper Edouard Mendy was brilliant in this match and he literally saved Chelsea from defeat. A typically well-placed shot by Juan Mata from outside the box was saved with a superb dive by Mendy as he showed that Man united forwards would need more quality upfront to beat him. Undoubtedly, this performance has cemented his position in the starting XI.
With the struggling Kepa costing crucial points due to his error-prone performances in each of his three Premier League appearances this season, the Senegalese keeper was superb between the sticks and his double saves in the first half along with the extra time save denied United their victory. Although he is not so good at feet as almost made an own goal in the initial minutes of the game, he improved gradually.
It remained congested and cagey for most of the game until cam the two stars. Paul Pogba and debutant Edinson Cavani as they replaced Mata and James respectively. Cavani almost had a goal in his debut match as his near-post flick went just near the side-netting.
Azpilicueta was at his best to block an effort of Rashford after he picked up some space to run into as the match grew older and entered its final quarter. Chelsea coach tried to play his cards by bringing in MasonMount and Tammy Abraham in place of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner respectively.
Ole’s Manchester showed greater dominance of the possession towards the end of the game with Paul Pogba almost went to score before getting his shot intercepted by Brazilian defender, Thiago Silva.
Chelsea’s best performer on the field was Reece James as he kept on feeding outstanding and dangerous crosses in the Man United’s penalty box but none of the Blues attackers could take their chance to throw the Red’s keeper in a dangerous situation.
Lampard’s Chelsea is in the sixth position of the table while Manchester United remains in the 15th position with just a two-points difference after the draw. The Blues will face Krasnodar in the Champions League group stage match on Wednesday where winning will only be the aim for them in order to progress to the next stage.
