“The home of the world’s best football team.” Manchester United’s home.
The stadium is filled with history and serves as a continual reminder of just how big Manchester United is as a football team, regardless of your opinion of the stadium announcer’s statement. Given their performance at Old Trafford since 2013, Chelsea is all too aware of that.
Prior to Sunday’s match, the two teams have played each other 12 times in the Premier League since May 5, 2013, when Juan Mata gave the Blues all three points with the game’s lone goal. In more than ten years, Chelsea has failed to win a single game in Manchester’s red half.
Given how awful United has been for the most part of the last few years, Enzo Maresca would be the most recent manager at Chelsea to attempt to break the nasty hoodoo that has been more and more annoying to fans. But the Italian couldn’t do that, and his team could have done it.
Maresca’s old Malaga teammate Ruud van Nistelrooy was in charge of United, who were there to take advantage of the situation. Careless when in control, weak when attacking, and susceptible when defending. However, Chelsea was unable to score a second goal when Moises Caicedo’s incredible shot on minute 74 cancelled out Bruno Fernandes’ first goal.
Here are Bobby Vincent’s talking points and missed moments from his Sunday afternoon performance at Old Trafford.
Neto’s response to Sanchez
Pedro Neto was upset with Robert Sanchez for a choice he made thirty-nine minutes into Sunday’s game. When Sanchez looked up after collecting the ball, he saw Neto on his left, the quick Portuguese winger obviously indicating to the goalie to send the ball to him.
There definitely would have been a chance for a counterattack, especially given Neto’s speed. Instead of accepting his colleague’s offer, Sanchez waited, then rolled it out to the defense after making a hand signal for the squad to settle down.
Despite his annoyance, Neto waved both of his arms in the air before carrying on with his work. Even if it irritated Neto, Sanchez performed what Maresca wants his team to do. Have patience.
“There are games, especially today’s one, that if you do a basketball game, they would destroy us,” Maresca said following the victory over Newcastle United last month. Newcastle has some talented players in transition, and they are strong and good. This type of game requires you to make 15, 20, or 25 passes before you attack, which is why I was telling you to relax.
“You are far away, they can cause issues, and they recover the ball if you want to attack with two passes. They ruin us if you play up and down, which is why I was yelling “calm, calm, calm, make passes” throughout the game.
Chelsea got caught in transition a couple of occasions in Manchester, but considering United’s setup, that was to be expected. With the Blues finishing the game with 54% of the possession and one more shot than the hosts, Maresca believed his team had good game control on Sunday.
“I think we controlled the game quite well,” he stated. “We were aware that we would give up some opportunities against them, particularly on the counterattack. We were aware of that.
“When this team scored, we did the hardest thing in this stadium: we returned when they did. We perhaps exposed ourselves in an attempt to win it after 1-1, which is why we let up a little more in the final five or ten minutes.”
The sensationalized form of caicedo is nothing new.
Caicedo’s performance on Sunday was incredible. Before he scored an incredible goal, the 23-year-old midfielder put on a truly world-class display, controlling the middle of the pitch.
Caicedo recorded the second-most successful defensive actions, the third-most crucial passes, the fourth-most passes, and the fourth-most defensive duels during his roughly ninety minutes at Old Trafford. Repeat after rinsing. People outside of the Chelsea circle are finally starting to give the Ecuadorian the praise and accolades he so well deserves after he has been doing it for weeks.
Caicedo had the most tackles and interceptions (61), the most tackles won, the 61% duel win percentage, and the joint-most interceptions in a single top-flight game (from the victory against Newcastle eight days ago) in the Premier League this season. “Since we arrived, Moi is doing fantastic,” Maresca stated after the game.
