Chelsea vs. Man U
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Kick off: 12:30PM
Jose Mourinho will make his latest return to Stamford Bridge at lunchtime when he takes his struggling Manchester United side to face former club Chelsea.
United returned to winning ways before the international break, but still find themselves seven points off the early-season pace, which Chelsea have set alongside Manchester City and Liverpool.
While much of the pre-match buildup will inevitably focus on the turmoil at United and their former boss Mourinho, current manager Maurizio Sarri has quickly turned Chelsea into a team with genuine ambitions of regaining the title.
The Blues were absent from most discussions regarding potential challengers to Manchester City’s crown before the season began, but Sarri has hit the ground running in the Premier League and even a draw on Saturday would put his side top of the table, if only temporarily.
Chelsea are currently level on 20 points alongside Man City and Liverpool, with only those two teams having conceded fewer and only City and Arsenal having scored more in the opening eight games.
Only twice before have Chelsea gone nine games unbeaten at the start of a season, and on both occasions they went on to win the title – once under Mourinho in 2005-06 and then again in 2014-15.
The hosts will be favourites to achieve that feat for a third time, having returned to winning ways in the Premier League following back-to-back draws with a comfortable 3-0 triumph away to Southampton before the international break.
Once again Eden Hazard sparkled with a goal and an assist at St Mary’s, and in general when the Belgian is in such form Chelsea tend to do well. Indeed, Hazard is already halfway to his tally of 14 league goals from the title-winning 2014-15 campaign, and the only season in which he has scored more for Chelsea was in 2016-17, when they again lifted the trophy.
While Hazard has been the jewel in the crown, there has been a vast improvement from the whole team under Sarri this season, with Jorginho slotting straight in, Antonio Rudiger starring in defence and the likes of David Luiz and Ross Barkley being brought back in from the cold.
It is now 11 matches across all competitions since Chelsea lost to Man City in the Community Shield, and that run could continue for the foreseeable future with no more top-six showdowns until November 24 after this weekend.
Tottenham Hotspur will be the opponents on that occasion, and incidentally they were the last team to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge at the beginning of April, since when the Blues have won six and drawn three, including four wins from five this season.
Chelsea have a formidable home record against Manchester United too, and they will be heavily fancied to extend that and continue their promising start to the campaign on Saturday.
Chelsea possible XI: Kepa, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Luiz, Alonso, Kante, Jorginho, Barkley, Willian, Giroud, Hazard.
Man Utd possible XI: De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw, Fred, Fellaini, Pogba, Mata, Lukaku, Rashford.