Chelsea

(Form check: LWLWW)

Chelsea will have confidence moving into this game after a solid 3 – 0 victory over Leicester City last week. It’s up for debate whether it was them playing well and Leicester playing poorly but the change in formation to 3-4-3 certainly seemed to be affective, looking assured at the back and showing decisiveness on attack.

On the radar needs to be the strange encounter had between manager and Diego Costa: around the 70th minute Costa was seen to act angrily to a Conte exchange, with arm movements suggesting he requested a substitution. As the supporters chanted Costa’s name Conte refused to buckle and instead made him play the entire 90 minutes - It’ll certainly be interesting to see how that relationship develops in the coming months!

Moses has had two excellent games in right midfield so Willian may have to look at Pedro’s place in the team as a possible source of return. Hazard looks to continue his ‘new release’ under Conte and Kante continues to impress in the centre midfield role.  With a whole week to prepare (due to the lack of European football at Stamford Bridge this season) Conte will want to make sure his team are not caught cold by all the waiting around.

Manchester United

(Form check: LLWDD)

It was crucial that Jose Mourinho conducted his team to gain a point at Liverpool as a loss could of lead to 3 defeats in the first 8 games. I think the neutral support would have been disappointed at style of play though, where he bulked midfield and basically played long ball throughout.

Can I see it changing? Basically no! Mourinho needs to build a plan A before introducing B, C & D and if there’s one thing we know he will always resort to baseline bore draw, especially against a top six team.  The Red Devil faithful will either embrace the new way or refute, but with a three time premier league winner at the helm no doubt Mourinho will receive more allowance than most.

Manchester United did have a European game on Thursday, a convincing home win against Fenerbahce which included 7 changes from the team that started against Liverpool. The UEFA Cup could prove to be an outlet for this United side to gain attacking confidence who will be expected to be more disciplined in the Premier League campaign.

Apart from last minute injury scares Mourinho should opt for his preferred Premier League 11, Pogba supporting Ibrahimovic up front and Ander Herrera keeping the ball moving in middle of the park. Lingard will count himself a little unlucky not to be recalled after such a positive start to the season, he’ll be ruing the affect of the international break on his first team Premier League chances.

STATS

• Zlatan Ibrahimovic has played more minutes (720) than anyone in the Manchester United team.

• Chelsea have scored only once from a set piece this season

• Nemanji Matic already has more assists this season than last (3)

• Manchester United haven’t beaten Chelsea in the previous 6 matches

• N’Golo Kante currently has an impressive 90.5% passing completion rate

CURRENT MATCH ODDS (BEST PRICED ODDS) - follow link to bet on selections!

Chelsea: 6/5 (Betfred)        Draw: 5/2 (William Hill)        Manchester United: 11/4 (Betfred)

SUMMING UP!

Only 1 out of the last 6 games between these sides has seen more than 2 goals but neither team had the enigmatic Antonio Conte stalking the touchline, demanding his team play to his exacting standards. The clash in formations between Chelsea and Manchester United i.e. 3-4-3 vs 4-5-1, should spark goal mouth action and recent exploits have shown both teams are well capable of converting their chances. On this occasion I’m siding with the home team as I’m not convinced the form of the comfortable European home win for United can be trusted together with a resurgent Eden Hazard and Diego Costa.

MY RECOMMENDED BETS - follow link to bet on selections!

Chelsea to win 2 – 0 (Best priced: 10/1 Unibet)
Victor Moses man of the match (Best priced: 18/1 Paddy Power)
Chelsea and under 3.5 goals (Best priced: 15/8 Coral)
Paul Pogba to score anytime (Best priced: 11/2 Stan James)

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