United fan at works just said to me he thinks United will win this one easily. Tell you, you cut the head off the dragon another just grows in its place. Hope to god we beat these lot now!

Can't see us losing this one.

Carrick is possibly out, big loss for them.

These are the games we excel in, not the scrappy affairs against relegation fodder or mid table teams.

Cahill has been excellent of late, there is no way Jose drops him for such a big match.

I'm not sure who are these really pacy players you refer to? Rooney, Mata, Fellaini, Herrera are not pacy players. Young has pace but is not blistering either.

Young alone can create lots of problems, Valencia is pretty fast but he's on the other flank. My point is the way Utd play we need good legs to cover for positional mistakes.

Looking at some of the Utd fans reactions you'd think they were in our league position. The famous arrogance is well and truly back. Let's hope we can bring them back down to earth.

Looking at some of the Utd fans reactions you'd think they were in our league position. The famous arrogance is well and truly back. Let's hope we can bring them back down to earth.

 

It's got to be a good time to be a Utd fan right now. I can see them being title contenders next year, with us.

 

I think the game will be very open and exciting. Would not like to call it though.

Given our current form & that of our next two opponents I'm surprised no one has suggested that we could possibly lose these two games. I certainly think it could happen. God forbid

Given our current form & that of our next two opponents I'm surprised no one has suggested that we could possibly lose these two games. I certainly think it could happen. God forbid

True, but the difference with Man Utd & Arsenal and Hull, Stoke & QPR is that the former two will come and attack us, leaving plenty of opportunities for us to counter. We've struggled for a while now to break teams down who put 10 men behind the ball so I’m actually more confident we can break down Man Utd & Arsenal and score.

Although talk to me on match day and I'll be completely different.

Given our current form & that of our next two opponents I'm surprised no one has suggested that we could possibly lose these two games. I certainly think it could happen. God forbid

 

Agreed. I'd take 2 points from them right now.

Massively need Remy back for this one.

 

Given the nature of the game I actually thought Drogba, despite having no legs, was actually suited to what we had to work with against QPR, his hold up play is still more than decent. I can only think of one through ball into space which he had to chase where his lack of pace was exposed, other than that he did a job and I am not sure how much more Remy could have done.

 

United is a different game though. They need to win if they want to stay in the title race in any capacity, if they lose I think we can all agree they are realistically out of it.

Given their top 4 place looking very safe and their impressive form of late I would expect them to go for this meaning there is likely to be more chance of counter attacks and I still think their defence is there to be got at.

Drogba really can't run in behind the defenders anymore, he is not beating anyone for pace so I think Remy is needed to provide that outlet.

 

All that said he scored at Old Trafford this season and he is always a threat from set pieces so you just wouldn't write the big man off completely in these big games would you.

Also when we play bigger teams we tend to raise our game ourselves

Premature question, but should we win the league when will the trophy be presented? Will it be the game that we win it (if that game is at home, or the following home game if we win it away) or will it be the last game of the season regardless?

I think it's the following home game if we win it away.

 

Imagine if we win it in time for Liverpool's visit to the Bridge.

 

That will be glorious.

United fan here, we've come to a stage where we've hit a bit of a glass ceiling. I feel confident in saying we've got a Champions League spot in the bag after beating City 4-2, therefore we've got nothing really to play for aside from finishing 2nd ahead of Arsenal and keeping our good run of form going.

 

We've finally found good balance in the team with the speed and crosses from Ashley Young on the byline, Fellaini's hold up play and control in the center and Mata's creativity as a false winger, cutting inside whilst Valencia is running the byline, with Carrick (Hopefully will be okay to play) and Herrera being the foundation of the creativity in the base of our midfield:

 

Rooney

Young Fellaini Mata

Carrick Herrera

 

Albeit from an attacking perspective, we do look to have more possession than the opposition but I'm not quite sure we can do that against Chelsea at the Bridge. The likes of Di Maria and Januzaj are stuck on the bench because we're that determined to stick to a philosophy that is possession-heavy so I can see us trying to do the same. Should Carrick not be fit, Blind would take over from that role. I don't think we've been tested much defensively in our good run until we played City and even that wasn't too bad for us to handle but I'm sure the likes of Hazard & co will prove a more difficult test than ever, particularly with Hazard's one on one encounters against Valencia, something I'm dreading really. Lucky not to face Costa again.

 

Think it's going to be a 2-2 draw personally.

Edited April 13, 201511 yr by Juan Matas Beard

United fan here, we've come to a stage where we've hit a bit of a glass ceiling. I feel confident in saying we've got a Champions League spot in the bag after beating City 4-2, therefore we've got nothing really to play for aside from finishing 2nd ahead of Arsenal and keeping our good run of form going.

 

We've finally found good balance in the team with the speed and crosses from Ashley Young on the byline, Fellaini's hold up play and control in the center and Mata's creativity as a false winger, cutting inside whilst Valencia is running the byline, with Carrick (Hopefully will be okay to play) and Herrera being the foundation of the creativity in the base of our midfield:

 

Rooney

Young Fellaini Mata

Carrick Herrera

 

Albeit from an attacking perspective, we do look to have more possession than the opposition but I'm not quite sure we can do that against Chelsea at the Bridge. The likes of Di Maria and Januzaj are stuck on the bench because we're that determined to stick to a philosophy that is possession-heavy so I can see us trying to do the same. Should Carrick not be fit, Blind would take over from that role. I don't think we've been tested much defensively in our good run until we played City and even that wasn't too bad for us to handle but I'm sure the likes of Hazard & co will prove a more difficult test than ever, particularly with Hazard's one on one encounters against Valencia, something I'm dreading really. Lucky not to face Costa again.

 

Think it's going to be a 2-2 draw personally.

Agreed. 

 

This one has a 2-2 written all over it. Both you and us will go on to beat Arsenal.

I think we will do them...2-1...biggest threat is Rooney in my opinion, the back 3 / 4 are mediocre and Hazard and Willian will have a field day against them...would not surprise me if Costa returns for this one...then we can 'park the bus' against Arsenal 

I think we will do them...2-1...biggest threat is Rooney in my opinion, the back 3 / 4 are mediocre and Hazard and Willian will have a field day against them...would not surprise me if Costa returns for this one...then we can 'park the bus' against Arsenal 

Absolutely no chance of seeing Costa in this one. We want to take our time getting him back after what happened. 

Man Utd have been far more impressive of late with their stable 4-3-3, especially now Carrick is back. They've been able to move Blind to the left full-time and have found a reasonable use for Fellaini as a 'deep-lying target man'.

 

That said, they aren't still without their weaknesses. Arsenal (and Man City in the first 10 minutes) showed that they still look vulnerable against a side which can press them on the ball. That indicates to me that having Rémy available is going to be crucial for this game; Drogba was decent against QPR (although he was having 'one of those days' with his first touch), and can definitely still play an important role, but certainly doesn't have the stamina required to press the defence consistently over 90 minutes. Smalling is a decent long passer, and with Fellaini there to receive them, we might begin to have problems, particularly with the somewhat indifferent form of Matic.

 

On top of that, while Mata's defensive input has improved, he still isn't a genuine right winger in the sense that di Maria was (for a while at least). I would be tempted to start Luis in order to exploit this.

 

One problem we have to be careful to avoid is getting overloaded in the middle. Their midfield three (although Fellaini drifts forward I wouldn't call him a legitimate #10) are often complemented by Mata drifting infield, and Rooney will drop deep to move the ball wide. This leads me to wonder whether we should start with our own midfield three (i.e. with Ramires), but at the same time I see Oscar as being crucial to hassling Carrick on the ball. Man City had problems as they deployed Milner behind Aguero and vacated far too much space in the centre of the park, allowing themselves to be overrun.

 

I suppose the alternatives would be: a 4-3-3 with Matic-Fabregas-Ramires, which I imagine would put us on the back foot and be a little too reactive for a home game; our usual 4-2-3-1 with Ramires wide instead of Willian, which I would be reluctant to do in light of Willian's contribution to basically all of our buildup play as well as off the ball, and finally, a simple replacement of Fabregas for Ramires, which would lead to us being far too pedestrian on the ball.

 

I think Rémy's availability may end up being crucial. If we are forced to start Drogba again I would imagine we will drop deeper and go for the 4-3-3, leaving out Oscar and possibly even Luis, looking perhaps to hit them on the break using Willian/Cuadrado and Hazard. None of Man Utd's centre backs are particularly strong and I think Drogba could still be effective as a target man, with us playing directly and Didier bringing the other two forwards into the game. Rémy starting allows us to press them all over the park and make things much more difficult for Man Utd on the ball.

 

I am not 100% sure which of these we should go for, although I would be entirely unsurprised if we saw this:

 

--------------------------Courtois

Ivanovic---------Cahill---------Terry--------Luis

-------------------Matic--------Ramires

-------Willian----------Fabregas-------Hazard

----------------------------Rémy

No Ramires please. I'd even prefer Mikel over him tbh.

Edited April 13, 201511 yr by CFCBlue12

Park the plane here. See good reason to play defensive. Hazard does well on the counter against these lot and if we take an early lead I don't think they have much chance of getting into the game. There are ways to negate Fellaini and our pace is better than Man United's -- City have no outlet and are slow to the ball but we're very good at pressing for the ball in periods then conserving our energy with sterile possession, which is why Remy will be quite important.

Edited April 13, 201511 yr by MANoWAR

I think Jose yesterday gave a very good indication on how we will approach the upcoming two games, with his three wins and two draws required and the challengers requiring maximum points. Draws will hurt United and Arsenal far more than us and reduce the points required total. We will grind this title out from here, no need for gung ho football, our big match experience will pay dividends.

I see us drawing and then going for Arsenal. He knows how to beat them . Draw and win will basically end it

Same as the QPR game, get any result and I`m happy, especially with that prick Mike Dean reffing it. 

Iam more concerned about whos reffing this match anyone know?

Iam more concerned about whos reffing this match anyone know?

Good point

Iam more concerned about whos reffing this match anyone know?

 

It will be Mike Dean.