Manchester United travel to London to take on Chelsea at the Stamford Bridge in their FA Cup 5th round fixture
The Red Devils lost their first game under former striker and interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to Paris Saint Germain 2-0 last week. Prior to that, Man Utd had gone unbeaten in 11 games ever since Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho at the helm in December. The Red Devils will be looking to bounce back to form when they take on the Blues later today.
The Blues themselves have been in disastrous form lately. They were at the wrong end of a 6-0 humiliation by defending champions and table toppers Manchester city at the Etihad last weekend. Such was the nature and the magnitude of the defeat that Chelsea dropped 2 places alone in that weekend from 6th to 4th. Manchester United leapfrogged them to the 4th spot while they dropped behind Arsenal who are level on points with them but edged ahead courtesy of a superior head to head record this season.
Solskjaer tipped Sanchez to come good today in the absence of Martial and Lingard,
“I think he’s a very good player,” said Solskjaer, as reported by Manchester Evening News . “He’s very talented, but of course there are only so many things you can sit down and talk about and tweak.
“You saw against Fulham when he gets his chance – he’s so sharp in and around the ball, he wins the ball, his energy. If he could just get that goal I’m sure that would release his confidence.
“That’s what it’s about when you go through periods when you don’t perform up to your standard because we know there is a very, very good player there.”
Solskaer made an interesting comparison of the problems that Sanchez has had ever since he made the move to Old Trafford,
“It’s one of those things,” he said. “You have that bottle of ketchup when it never comes, but when it suddenly comes there’s loads.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s still a young boy. He’s a man of 30, but he can still play for many, many years. He’s been here for a year, I’ve been here for two months with him and he’s been injured for the first part of it, so it’s unfair to just expect him to be at the top straight away.
I’m sure we’ll see the best of him before the end of the season.”
He added,
“We need every player to perform to the best level. We are challenging to be top four, challenging against very, very good teams.
“So you need the players to step up now and you expect that at Manchester United at the end of the season. You always do well towards the end of the season.”
Author’s Take
Sanchez has a golden opportunity today to prove his worth to the club in the absence of Lingard and Martial. A good performance tonight will go a long way in helping him finding his old self.
