Confirmed XI: United v Chelsea – Ronaldo starts; Fernández, Hannibal, Garnacho & Shoretire on the bench

Youth need to be given their chance to send a message to those not performing

Manchester United welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford in the Premier League on Tuesday evening. This match was to be played in May but the same weekend Chelsea will go head to head with Liverpool to contact the Emirates FA Cup, so the match was brought forward.

United have been a disaster in their last three matches, seeing Norwich City give them a hard time, although they won 3-2, Liverpool running riot in a 4-0 victory at Anfield and Arsenal beating them 3-1 at the Emirates. United’s players need to start working hard to make some changes.

With Erik ten Hag already announced as the new manager this summer, this squad will need to start showing their abilities otherwise there will be so many sour faces this summer with players cast out in the cold because of their poor displays of so-called professionalism.

Ralf Rangnick will be blames, as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal and David Moyes all were. Granted, many of the players have changed in those eras but the downing of tools has continued. Tough love will change this mentality and the players will need to buck up their ideas.

Manchester United:

De Gea;

Dalot, Lindelöf, Varane, Telles;

McTominay, Matić;

Elanga, Fernandes, Rashford;

Ronaldo

Substitutes:

Heaton, Henderson; Bailly, Jones, Fernández; Mata, Hannibal, Garnacho; Shoretire

Chelsea:

Mendy;

James, Silva, Rüdiger;

James, Kante, Jorginho, Azpilicueta;

Mount, Werner;

Havertz

Substitutes:

Arrizabalaga; Sarr, Chalobah; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Kenedy, Ñíguez, Ziyech; Lukaku

United and Chelsea have met 59 times in the Premier League. United have won 17 times, drawn 24 times with Chelsea winning 18 times. United have scored 73 goals, winning five penalties, scoring four. Chelsea have scored 72 goals, winning three penalties, scoring all of them.

United have kept 16 clean sheets with Chelsea keeping 19. Discipline has been an issue with United players receiving 133 yellow cards and four red cards and Chelsea players being shown 139 yellow cards and six red cards. United have failed this season; time to blood in youth?

Radamel Falcao, Juan Sebastian Veron, Mark Bosnich, Mark Hughes, Paul Parker, George Graham, Mal Donaghy and the late Ray Wilkins, a player both sets of supporters will hold immense respect for, have also featured for both clubs in the past.

Nemanja Matić and Juan Mata currently play for United and have played for Chelsea. Romelu Lukaku has also played for both clubs, starting out at Chelsea, signing for United from Everton and after a period at Inter Milan, he re-signed for Chelsea last summer.

Written by John Walker

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I support Manchester United, the greatest English football team to have ever existed. Bruno Fernandes is the latest in a long line of players with great ability to play for the club. I idolised Bryan Robson, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, and Eric Cantona growing up.