A year ago, Sunday’s meeting of Manchester United and Chelsea was the game of the season. Then, this heavyweight tussle had not only the potential to define both club’s fates, but the outcome of the entire Premier League.
No more.
Make no mistake: when United hosts Chelsea Sunday at Old Trafford (11 a.m EDT on Fox Soccer, repeated after NFL football on the Fox Network) you will see a top-flight match, as you can be equally sure that the visitors have a point to make. But the heat and light have departed London and the Blues.
Chelsea are a consensus choice as the only team which can upset the predicted United-City battle to the finish. But they are also an aging side that is no longer capable of striking fear into any opponent’s hearts. The focus has shifted from Stamford Bridge to Eastlands, and Ferguson’s so-called “noisy neighbors.” There, a newly wealthy Manchester City have also rolled out to a perfect Premier League start and like United, spent wisely on men like Sergio 'Kun' Aguero and Samir Nasri.
And so: just a month into this new season it already seems clear that the Battle of Manchester will ultimately determine where the 2011-12 title goes. That’s surely bitter for the boys from the Bridge.
The Blues have been badly hamstrung by the decline of captain John Terry and midfielder Frank Lampard and made a massive mistake with the signing of Fernando Torres. The ludicruously expensive striker no longer looks capable of the super-star play he once promised and the club is now in the uncomfortable position of trying to salvage what they can. Finally, with Didier Drogba still suffering a concussion after being clocked by Norwich keeper John Ruddy, the Blues will rely heavily on youngster Daniel Sturridge. He’s no Drogba.
United, on the other hand, looks unstoppable. The Red Devils went out this summer and spent handsomely but wisely, picking up Phil Jones and Ashley Young and recalling Tom Cleverley, who is currently out injured but the other two have been brilliant, injecting both exuberance and pace into a lineup that includes Wayne Rooney and the irrepressible Javier Hernandez. Amazing as it sounds, United have yet to find space in their lineup for last season’s top scorer, Dimitar Berbatov. These are problems any other club would kill to have.
The irony is that City — and to some extent, latter-day United — copied the Chelsea model.
Just a decade ago, before the advent of Roman Abramovich’s takeover, Chelsea was just a good old London club with a faithful following and a dismal history. They were, in fact, loveable losers, better known for coming close than winning big prizes.
Russian money changed that overnight. Chelsea went from the Pensioners to the Millionaires, stocking their club with high-priced talent and hiring a manager who called himself the Special One. It wasn’t quite overnight, but pretty close: Chelsea became the team no one liked to play and everyone found difficult to beat. What might fairly be called the Terry era has seen Chelsea win everything except the UEFA Champions League. But as with Terry, age caught up. Last season's dismal mid-year slump saw the Blues fall out of everything and cost manager Carlo Ancelotti his job.
Chelsea isn’t able to do a rebuild any more than the New York Yankees are, and Abramovich’s meddling has turned a reload into a misfire. Having said that, the hiring of manager Andre Villas-Boas is the first sign that the club realizes its culture has to change. Villas-Boas is young and comparatively untested, but he has a big pedigree: he led Porto to the Europa League championship and kept them unbeaten last season in the league, an astonishing feat for any team.
Sunday's game is an opportunity for Villas-Boas to show he can coax new tricks out of this gang and allow Chelsea to inject itself back into the championship picture. If they instead witness another business-as-usual performance by United – a team which almost never loses at home – it’s not unfair to say that the result will condemn Chelsea to second class status even if the standings have them no worse than third at Christmas time.
If that's not enough juice for you, how about the Torres saga? The man Chelsea broke the bank to obtain last January has been so ineffectual in Blue that hardly a day goes by without him being sent off to another destination in the rumor mill. Last week Torres added to the speculation by criticizing his teammates on his website and it is known that AC Milan and Inter Milan are trying to coax the Blues into a swap deal.
But maybe Torres needed to stir things up: the Spanish striker produced his best game of the season Tuesday when Chelsea began its European campaign with a 2-0 home win over Bayer Leverkusen. Since United is still playing without its regular central defense of Rio Ferdinand (hamstring) and Nemanja Vidic (calf), a Torres in top form -- or even in good enough form to set up Juan Mata or Daniel Sturridge -- might just be enough to unsettle Manchester United supporters this weekend.
Chelsea's bigger challenge will be to handle a Manchester United attack that has thrived since Rooney changed from an outright forward to a play-making midfielder. The move helped the English striker end a scoring slump and has produced such form that Ferguson compared his standout to none other than Pele. Hyperbole? Not as much as United’s detractors would have you believe.
United has been gritty, fast and punishing in its Premier League so far, but there is weakness at the back. Wednesday, when United fielded an older, albeit more “experienced” side, Benfica really should have handed United a European defeat. Second-choice keeper Anders Lindegaard produced top-level saves to protect a 1-1 draw on a night when the United midfield misfired more often than usual. That has led to whispers that the erratic David De Gea is running out of time to establish himself as a true No. 1 in the nets; a fumble or two Sunday could see him on the bench for the following game.
Instead, expect Rooney to anchor a team that will be spearheaded by the quicksilver Hernandez -- used only as a sub on Wednesday -- and the effervescent Nani on the flank with Young opposite. It will take all of Terry's experience at the center of the Chelsea defense to keep United from continuing its goal-scoring festival.
Predicted lineups:
Man United: De Gea; Evra, Jones, Evans, Smalling; Nani, Carrick, Anderson, Young; Rooney, Chicharito
Chelsea: Cech, Cole, Terry, David Luiz, Bosingwa; Lampard, Raul Meireles, Ramires; Mata, Torres, Sturridge
