If ever there has been a decisive moment under AVB’s reign then this surely is it. We sit a massive 12 points behind the Manchester clubs and 7 points behind Tottenham.

There are rumours that Mourinho is seeking a return to the Chelsea managerial post. Fernando Torres is being written off after a 1000 minutes without a goal. John Terry is once again being treated incredibly poorly by the FA and the sensationalistic English media. The transfer window has slammed shut. And we welcome Man United to Stamford Bridge. A reckoning is upon all the blue faithful.

A reckoning is a bill for an amount due, and this reckoning will be decided upon what we owe. Shakespeare was wrong the question isn’t to be or not be, but rather what do Chelsea owe? Can our Captain Fantastic once again show tremendous character under the crushing weight of judgement from the peanut gallery? Will Andre’ Villas-Boas prove he is the man to lead our beloved club forward? Can Ryan Bertrand be given an opportunity to show his worth and then seize it with both hands? Will we see the best English centre-back pairing start?

Can Fernando Torres be a decisive factor in the game, be it through an assist or (dare I say it) a goal? Will Stamford Bridge be quieter than a library or will we see boisterous support? Can the squad repay the trust of AVB in his not dipping heavily into the transfer market? Are we unbeaten this year? Or are we winless in two? Is the glass half full? Or is the glass half empty? It is in these questions that the answers for our blue reckoning will be found.

After Mourinho left he said we would miss him even more after we started losing games at home. I hope this Sunday’s game doesn’t see us missing our “Special One”. Andre’ Villas-Boas is faced with a challenge which I’m sure he can overcome, even if I’m not sure exactly how. He probably will persist with Torres leading the line, instead of gambling on the promising Lukaku, in the continued absence of Drogba on African Cup of Nations duty. A year on after his much maligned move from mersyeside could mean Torres has paid enough for the massive transfer fee he didn’t set? Sturridge and Mata either side of Torres have a big ask. Mata will find much of the burden for creativity upon his shoulders again, and I’m sure more will be expected of Sturridge than he showed in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.

In midfield it is anyone guess, but Chelsea will definitely be without Ramires through injury, who has arguably been our best player so far this season. In defence we are without the suspended Ashley Cole, but our recent defensive record has been good. Cahill appears unlikely to make his Chelsea debut. I wonder if Bertrand will deputise for Cole at left-back or if in a pessimistic move Bosingwa will be moved to the left. AVB faces a daunting task in his team selection and a true tactical test against the experienced Sir Alex. Expect many condescending remarks about AVB’s age, despite the fact that he has placed the onus on the group and not individuals since the start of his Chelsea reign.

The continued persecution of John Terry is baffling, and I think the English FA will have no one to blame but themselves when they fail once again at a major tournament in the summer. John Terry is not a racist and I think everyone at Chelsea knows this as surely as I do. Just once I’d like to see John Terry decide not to shake someone’s hand, but the English leader is too decent to contemplate such a thing. It is sad that his international career has been the subject of bureaucratic meddling, stupidity and the attention whoring of journeyman strikers who need not be named.

When, not if, JT is acquitted of these racism charges, a certain F(erdinand) is going to owe him an apology. Instead of being celebrated as the finest defender of his generation Terry has fallen victim to the twitter age and the twats or tweets that come with it. Is the older Ferdinand going to shake Terry’s hand the press will scream between now and Sunday’s kickoff.

A blue reckoning is upon all the blue faithful, but I believe Chelsea are capable of providing what is due. What do you think the outcome will be this Sunday? Sunday may traditionally be the day of rest, but this Sunday sees AVB’s Chelsea meet it’s greatest test. In Chelsea we trust…

It’s not often that a score line so blatantly refutes the events of the game, but the 3-0 sore line at half-time did just that, and even though Fernando Torres scored early in the second half and we had chances to reduce the deficit it was not to be, as Chelsea’s unbeaten start to the season came to end on a crazy day at Old Trafford.

All of Manchester United’s goals on the day, starting from Chris Smalling’s header, continuing in Nani’s brilliant strike to the easy tap in for Wayne Rooney, had a slice of fortune about them on the day, but were nonetheless ruthlessly taken by the United players.

Earlier, Andre Villas-Boas made the decision that everyone was looking out for as he gave Fernando Torres the start after his assists in the midweek, which meant that the in-form Nicolas Anelka had to do with a role on the bench, with Daniel Sturridge and Juan Mata playing either side of the Spaniard in a 4-3-3 formation.

The first chance of the game fell to Ramires, whose first time volley was saved by David De Gea as the Blues looked to get the early initiative.

Chelsea’s last attempt at victory was put off the track by an early strike by Javier Hernandez, and once again we suffered the same fate as Chris Smalling put the hosts ahead inside ten minutes from a Ashley Young free-kick. Smalling looked offside and that was probably the reason he got a free header with his markers left stranded at the edge of the box.

The difference from the game in May, where we succumbed to the early goal, was clearly apparent as Chelsea went on to the front foot straightaway.

Fernando Torres then had the chance to put Chelsea’s great start on the scorecard when he received a misplaced pass from Anderson, and despite doing the initial build-up brilliantly to get into a shooting position, he scuffed the eventual shot wide of the goal.

Frank Lampard was next to get his shot away, but failed to hit the target after some good work by Raul Meireles. Then came the golden chance for us, Mata supplied a great through ball to Torres, and the Spaniard then laid it on the plate for the two Chelsea players, Ramires and Daniel Sturridge, to score, but sadly it was Ramires who put the shot away rather than the better placed Sturridge.

Chelsea was totally dominant now and it looked as if it was only a matter of time before the equaliser will be scored.

However, it was Manchester United who once again scored to double their lead from a brilliant strike by Nani. The goal which initially looked just like a brilliant strike was again started from an offside position, seemingly missed by the linesman, so he should have never been allowed to get this far.

And so we trailed by two goals despite being the better side and creating more chances, but it was to get even worse as Wayne Rooney was gifted a goal on the stroke of half time. John Terry’s clearance rebounded off Nani into the path of Rooney who had an easy tap in.

Much to the surprise of most fans, Nicolas Anelka came on in the place of Frank Lampard. And, the faithful fans who had made the long journey up North were given an early hope in the second half after Fernando Torres pulled one back for the Blues from a great dink over the keeper after Anelka’s brilliant ‘vertical’ ball in the box.

The early goal was essential to find a way back into the game, but as was the case in this game, every time Chelsea threatened to get control United tried to get the decisive blow at the other end.

Nani once again in the thick of things as he unleashed a fierce shot, but was deflected off on to the cross bar, and he was the first to react to the loose ball, but was brought down by Bosingwa resulting in a penalty. With Rooney in great form and already a goal to his name things looked bleak, but luckily for us he reminded us of Moscow after slipping at the penalty spot and blazing his shot wide.

With Chelsea going gung-ho in search of goals, our defensive frailties came to the fore with Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic not having particularly good outings albeit with limited protection in front of the back four.

With a two goal lead and Chelsea threatening, United laid back and introduced the experienced duo of Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia to get a grip on the game, while we brought on Romelu Lukaku to get some fresh legs in attack.

With time passing by, Fernando Torres had two chances to score, either side of a miss by Rooney.

First chance was all down to the Spaniard when he showed the turn of pace and quick feet to carve out to space for him, but his shot was well saved by De Gea, and the rebound over the bar by Torres.

With every miss the desperation grew and United were themselves guilty of spurning chances to kill off the game. Wayne Rooney had a golden opportunity to add to his already impressive goal tally, but his weak shot could only hit the post as it slowly crawled away.

With ten minutes to go, the elusive chance came for which sadly Torres’s afternoon will be remembered by. After receiving a brilliant through ball from Ramires, he rounded off the keeper expertly and with the goal gaping, he somehow managed to miss the goal when it would have been easier to score.

The chance was gone and with that Chelsea’s hopes for a result form the game as the game finally mellowed down. United had one more decent chance to add to their tally, but seemed to find Chelsea’s finishing from the first half as Dimitar Berbatov failed to capitalise on Rooney’s perfectly laid ball.

The game had lots of positives for the Blues, particularly Fernando Torres’s performance for at least half an hour during the second half, but also reminded us of how weak our defence has been at times. Raul Meireles playing at the base of midfield does provide us with that composed passing, but doesn’t provide the defensive cover of Mikel which we badly missed in the game.

It’s getting better going forward for Villas-Boas as the games go by, but he must be concerned how loose his defense looks at the moment.

Andre Villas-Boas was himself surprised by the route the game took, he said; “It was a strange game, very, very open and a lot of opportunities for both teams.”

“If luck could play a better part for our side today, maybe. We had some very good chances to even the score or even to score first.

“The scoreline went crazy in the first half, but we had good opportunities to do something in this game.

“Coming back from 3-0 down is always difficult and we had to take risks without exposing ourselves too much.

“The second-half recovery was very good and we had a couple of chances to even the score. The scoreline is crazy.”

Chelsea: Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry (c), Cole; Ramires, Meireles (Mikel 78), Lampard (Anelka h-t); Sturridge (Lukaku 67), Torres, Mata.

Goals Torres 46

A little departure from the normal Harding Perspective today, taking a firm look at what went wrong in the first leg and how we can rectify these issues for the return leg on Tuesday.

Firstly, we should not kid ourselves at the difficulty of the job at hand. Given the level of the performance required against United on Tuesday, the warm-up against Wigan hardly served as perfect preparation.

An outing more akin to a pre-season friendly in terms of tempo, drive and urgency was certainly not what was needed. United on the other hand played as well as they have done in recent memory at Stamford Bridge, cantering to a victory over Fulham where they rested several key players.

The stonewall penalty aside, the difference in the game was purely that United took their chance. We were poor, but could easily have scored with the few chances we created. Our finishing for large parts of this season has been criminal; we presently lack creativity, so any chance we do create needs to be finished. An over reliance on Drogba and Lampard to score/create has been found out recently. Uncharacteristic misses by Lampard (though credit for the clearance off the line) and Drogba have left a void that no one in the present side seems capable of filling.

There has been much talk about Fernando Torres recently as the goal drought continues, with Patrick Barclay going as far as saying it was “the worst signing, by a long, long way, in the history of football.” While Patrick is entitled to his opinion, the anti-Chelsea bile that imbues almost every article he writes is bordering the absurd now. If you happen to read this, do try a little harder to hide your obvious disdain for everything Royal Blue.

Being completely blunt Torres has disappointed since his move in January, but I for one am not totally surprised. Paying £50m one could rightfully expect an instant impact, goals galore, steering Chelsea to a Champions League final and back into the title race. As things have transpired that has not been the case with pundits and journalists alike loving every second he does not score. I should remind Chelsea fans and the media alike that he is on a 5½ year contract. He needs a summer off from football and a rigorous pre-season, but also Chelsea need a complete rethink of how they play. Benayoun played for a matter of minutes yesterday, but spotted two passes that Torres latched onto and was unlucky to score. I will leave it there.

The Blueprint…

The Shape: Attack with Caution

The overriding mentality of many Chelsea fans heading into this game will simply be “just win the game” and seemingly that is at an all costs mentality. Without question we need to attack and score early, but we must play with some defensive shape or United could win this at a canter. I am opting for a 433 formation with one player holding, probably Mikel or Ramires, but I will be very surprised if Ancelotti does not start with Essien.

Taking the horrific defending of Bosingwa out of the equation, this was symptomatic of exactly how United managed to get so much joy against us playing 442. In the above you will see Essien and Lampard, the two central players in our shape, between 10-20 yards away from the player in the hole (Rooney, circled). The consistent problem, defensively, with our 442 is that neither Essien nor Lampard are naturally patrolling the space in front of our back four.

When this happens around the penalty area, inevitably a shot on target is produced. It often happens higher up the pitch, where Rooney (or whoever is in the hole), but the amount of space they consistently found all night was telling. Allowing a player of Rooney’s calibre the amount of space (below) is utterly astonishing. Playing an actual holding player will completely nullify this advantage they have had in the past two games. Even though we beat United, think of the space Rooney found himself in for his goal.

The lack of a ball winning midfielder at the base of our midfield presented United with ample opportunities to win every second ball in dangerous areas. This passage of play led to United scoring from an offside position.

John Terry wins the header, naturally, but with no holding player and Ivanovic sweeping the ball drops straight into an area that Rooney once again picks up on. The DM, above, would have been in and around this area as opposed to on the periphery as Ramires/Essien are in this clip.

If we have a holding midfielder anywhere in that circle, which there would be if we deployed one in a 433, Rooney does not get on the ball and the chance does not manifest itself. The fact remains that when playing a 442 in the fashion we do, the centre-back pairing are left exposed to a dangerous player operating in the hole. Rooney is finding form and has/can/will cause us headaches if we do not deploy someone to counteract him when United have the ball.

One of our biggest problems in this 442 is a complete lack of natural width in the side. The below clips shows one of the few times we manage to slip Lampard in between the lines, he needs to take one touch and deliver it to the space highlighted, but Ramires and Ivanovic both have natural central tendencies.

We had success in the few instances that we actually pressed the ball as a team, particularly high up the pitch. Allowing players like Giggs, Scholes and Carrick infinite time on the ball is only going to lead to United retaining and maintaining possession. We cannot let them set the tempo and dictate the flow of the game. The Cole example below led to an opportunity for Drogba.

Cole wins the ball high and where United would normally have 2/3 players around the line, only Carrick is present. Our ponderous build up play allows United to set their stall out rigidly in front of the back four, so mixing our pressing up and trying to win the ball high means we have a chance to attack United when they are unorganised.

If we can turn defence into attack quickly, we can actually get at the United back four as illustrated below:

The chasm of space on the right hand side is something that comes from United’s style of defending particularly narrow. We need to play with wingers or someone who will actually stick wide to fully exploit United. The above passage of play led to the Drogba shot, as he ghosted past Evra in the wide channel.

What we need to do, most importantly, is to actually commit bodies forward. Even when Drogba shot, there were very few Chelsea players in advanced positions.

The Team

I personally think we need to play 433 and unless Benayoun starts, Drogba needs to play. Kalou must start over Malouda and Anelka needs to rediscover some semblance of form or our right hand side will continue to look imbalanced. I cannot see Essien not starting, even though form suggests otherwise and genuinely would like to see Ramires hold and Essien bomb on. Essien’s distribution from the base of midfield has been lacklustre; Ramires’ industry and footwork will mean he’s far harder to pick up and could be the gambit for our attack.

It goes without saying that this will be a huge game for Anelka/Drogba. If they perform for more than 10-15 minutes, we have a shot. Wigan was not a decent omen, but it would be very Chelsea to play so poorly and then go put in a tie winning performance. Somehow, someway, we need to inject some sort of urgency into our performance. Tempo is a guy word bandied about in football, but in our last two performances it has been sorely missed.

If we score early, who knows what will happen, but United are expert in crafting results out that they need. If we get a result it will be a momentous achievement, given our form going into the game. Genuinely think it will be a struggle, but one that we can win if we address the obvious problems of playing a 442 against United.

Prediction? Depends on which Chelsea turn up. If we play as we have done, we are as good as out.

Chelsea continued their impressive home-record against Manchester United, as a David Luiz strike and Frank Lampard penalty completed the comeback after Wayne Rooney had given them the lead early on.

It was the fifth anniversary of the death of Peter Osgood and Carlo Ancelotti’s men paid a great tribute to the ‘King of Stamford Bridge’ with a thumping victory.

Carlo Ancelotti made only one change from the team that started against F.C. København in Europe, as David Luiz came back into the team after being ineligible to play for us in Europe, while United retained their team that did the job at the weekend.

Both teams started with a 4-4-2 formation, and quite contrary to the usual big games, this was a very open game from the beginning as the space created by the two systems allowed both the teams to play more freely, not necessarily with control though.

Fernando Torres had the ball in the back of the net from a decent finish from the edge of the area inside the first ten minutes, but the Referee had already blown the whistle for a foul inside the box, so the Spaniard’s wait for his first goal in Blue had to continue a little longer.

After the initial exchanges, both teams started to settle down, but the game still maintained a very high tempo and had a sense of occasion about it. Florent Malouda had the best chance in the opening quarter of an hour when he received the ball on the edge of the penalty area, but his shot was tame and straight into keeper’s hand.

Manchester United started to enjoy the better of the possession as our flat four allowed them more space, resulting in better chances, and could have taken the lead when Evra had the ball across the goal but there was no one to put the finishing touches to it.

Just minutes after that, Wayne Rooney was allowed to turn and shoot from over 20 yards, and his shot had enough power and precision that Cech couldn’t do anything about it.

Chelsea could have had the equaliser just before the half-time break when a high-velocity Frank Lampard free-kick made it out to Ivanovic, but Van Der Sar was there to save, not once, not twice, but three times and kept out the Blues.

We went into the half-time a goal behind, and if our current form was to go by with, it was worrying thing that we were a goal behind.

Carlo didn’t make any changes to the team at the start of the second half but there was stark contrast in the tactics as we started to press more and put pressure on the Manchester United players, but the fact that United started to sit even deeper helped us as well.

It wasn’t long before we got the equaliser, and it was the first goal from our new signing, but it wasn’t Fernando Torres who got it, rather it was the ever-impressive David Luiz who got the goal. The ball looped to him after a free-kick wasn’t properly cleared and Ivanovic headed it back in which fell to Luiz, whose sweetly timed shot was so good that even Osgood would have been proud of it.

Didier Drogba was introduced on the hour mark in place of Nicolas Anelka to help us get the next goal, as we looked to continue to put pressure and complete the comeback and thereby not fall back even further in the League.

David Luiz was then booked, but that didn’t stop him from going full-blooded into challenges and sometimes being a little cynical as well, not that any Chelsea fan is complaining about it. He was then taken off with a little hamstring problem, a blessing in disguise since he could have been sent off, to a standing ovation.

Yuri Zhirkov was introduced in place of the subdued Malouda, who after starting the game well, but then went into a shell and was rightly substituted.

Zhirkov then made a telling contribution to the game when he earned us a penalty after Smalling’s standing leg caught him and Referee Martin Atkinson awarded the penalty which was nicely converted by Frank Lampard to score his fourth League goal of the season.

Zhirkov could have scored himself late on too, but his sweetly struck shot was deflected of Vidic and on to the post for a corner.

Ryan Giggs and Dimitar Berbatov were introduced by Sir Alex to no avail. Only thing that Ryan Giggs, making his record number of appearances, witnessed was a lesson in keep ball from Drogba and Ramires, which resulted in the Welshman lashing out at Didier and earning a booking.

It was a well earned win for the Blues in this pulsating clash, which slightly eases the pressure on Carlo Ancelotti and hopefully puts our season back on track. Still, there are lots of points that need to be addressed.

Even though David Luiz had a wonderful game and has now become the darling of the Chelsea fans, he still has lots of rough edges, which one would hope that will get eradicated or at least get fine tuned with time.

The League still may be out of reach for us, but this win holds us in good stead for the rest of the season, which would be full of goals if we continue to play the same system as it gives us no protection to our defence, leaving it open to attacks. I hope we don’t go in with a philosophy of ‘no matter how much you score, we will score more’ from now on.

One thing is for sure, we are in a good moment.

Carlo Ancelotti was satisfied with his team’s performance, but conceded that Luiz could have been sent off today, he said; “It was a good performance and we are still alive. We played well, it was a very difficult game and we found a fantastic opponent but the team played really well to still go forward when we are losing 1-0.”

“We kept going with strength, intensity and power in our performance. It was really good but if you don’t play well, you cannot beat Man Utd.”

On the referee, Carlo noted; “There was a lot of intensity and it was not easy for the referee to decide every time”

“David Luiz could be lucky but there was a lot going on the pitch so the referee decided he didn’t see this.”

Chelsea (4-4-2): Cech, Ivanovic, David Luiz (Bosingwa 80), Terry (c), Cole, Ramires, Essien, Lampard, Malouda (Zhirkov 70), Anelka (Drogba 60), Torres.

Goals: David Luiz 54, Lampard pen 80.

This game, without question, is pivotal for both sides. For United it gives them a chance to hammer home their title credentials; for Chelsea it is a chance to not only creep back into the top four but signal their intent for the remainder of an underwhelming season.

With Chelsea’s switch to a flat 442 last week, Ferguson will have a few more questions to answer before he sets his team up. United adopt a customary 451 in bigger games, but given our recent form will they be slightly more adventurous?

United will line up very similar to the above, fitness permitting, Nani and Giggs providing width with Rooney playing the lone man up top. Ferguson has previously attempted to mark the wide channels with a lot of success.

Nani is less inclined to play both ways but will be their main outlet going forward. Ferguson will look to stifle our midfield, with Fletcher and Carrick acting as a combative screen and the gambit of their attacks.

Expected side:

United will look to press the ball and exert their influence the central area of the pitch. Looking specifically in the middle third of the park against Wigan, we can see that Carrick’s return to form and range of passing allowed United to play the game at their pace. Carrick will focus on retaining possession first and foremost but he will spread the play if it is on.

Where we may have joy is if we encourage a role reversal with Scholes and Fletcher. Scholes is an excellent passer of the ball, but when forced long from deep he tended to find his target a lot less. Likewise, encouraging Fletcher to come forward and look for the intricate pass could well work in our favour. Forcing Fletcher out wide or tight centrally should severely limit United’s play going forward.

Someone in our midfield needs to step up and match the work rate and industry of Fletcher: I personally think he is quite limited, but he is an effective player. If we can negate his defensive influence or better yet, if the referee actually books him as soon as he makes a reckless tackle (given his ability to physically push a referee and not get booked I doubt this…) we should remove one of their major strengths.

Lampard, Ramires and Essien will need to play intelligently when defending. When we played in a flat four we afforded too much space “in the hole”. Someone needs to take the responsibility to drop without the ball, almost to a compact diamond, to counteract United’s movement.

KEY ISSUES

1. MIDFIELD BATTLE – This will be the area where the game is won or lost. United will either succeed to dominate the physical side of the game and subsequently possession or we will compete with them and gain the upper hand. We were much improved against Copenhagen, and we will need the same improvement again if we are to come out on top here. I doubt we will use a flat midfield four, as I assume United will play 3 centrally; giving United a man advantage could be dangerous using the Liverpool game as a precedent.

Essien looked better against Copenhagen in general and will need to be at his marauding best to tackle the obvious menace of Fletcher. He is a long way off his best form, but if he is effective defensively it will be a great help. Ramires is proving game by game what a shrewd signing he has been.

In a Chelsea team playing well he could be exceptional. I think he needs to shadow Nani, use his pace and acceleration to at least make Nani check when he has the ball. Lampard’s contribution against Copenhagen showed that there is life in the old dog yet. A sublime pass to Anelka set up our second goal and a more fluid display shows encouragement.

If we can break up United’s flow on the counter-attack we will go a long way to halting them in their tracks. I would like to see us pressure the ball, particularly when Fletcher is in possession and attempt to stop Scholes/Carrick passing the ball.

2. WIDE AREAS – We must look to try and play with width if we are to create anything against a stubborn United side. Nani is arguably the player of the season thus far, but Ashley Cole will provide a far sterner test than he regularly faces. Let’s hope Ashley hits the target in this duel.

The central areas are likely to be very compact and I doubt we have the guile to penetrate what is a very resolute screen. Full backs could very well provide the answer to who wins this game. In Evra and Rafael United possess two very forward thinking full-backs: Cole and Ivanovic must pose them more problems then they need to deal with. Which full-back is seen furthest forward with the most regularity could be the clearest indicator of how the game is panning out.

3. SCORING FIRST – We must try and push the tempo of the game and get the first goal. To do this we need to get our movement ahead of the ball back. Fulham in particular highlighted the utter lack of movement ahead of the ball that we suffer from. No amount of incisive passing could improve the movement ahead of the back four.

Hopefully Luiz and Terry could provide a unique answer: JT in recent weeks has surged from the back and Luiz looks like he could potentially beat an entire side. The United counter remains devastating and we must guard against the potential threat of them turning defence into attack quickly.

An early goal would be priceless as it should encourage United onto the front foot. Smalling and Vidic, as good as they have been (particularly the latter), are susceptible to a well-timed run down the side of their respective channel. This is why Torres must start.

THE TEAM:

Torres and Anelka showed signs of an understanding developing in Copenhagen and I think Drogba may be consigned to a bench role. However, do not be surprised if he does start the game. I think Anelka and Torres may prove problems, stylistically, for Vidic in particular. Vidic notably copes well with the physical threat of Drogba, so facing two trickier players whose movement looks to be gelling should test him.

I think we will line up in some 442 variation, but I stress that playing a flat midfield four against a potential midfield five will be troubling on present form. Rooney’s tendency to drop deep will mean that one of Lampard, Ramires or Essien will need to be alert to the giant hole that was present against Copenhagen.

Ultimately I think this will be a tight game that will be won by a very tight margin. The team who scores first will more than likely win the game and chances should be quite rare. I expect the game to be concentrated within the midfield area, so we must be individually better than them.

I am interested to see how Luiz copes with Rooney and in particular to see his use of the ball in a tight game. He has impressed greatly in his few minutes on the pitch, but this will be a test from all areas on the park. His all around play looked quality on his full debut, the big test comes on Tuesday.