Chelsea are unbeaten in Thomas Tuchel’s eight matches following their superb Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid in Bucharest on Tuesday night.
Manchester United meantime are unbeaten in their 12 matches on the road this season.
Something has to give when these titans lock horns on Sunday. Read on for our betting predictions for this crucial clash.
Veteran forward Olivier Giroud’s spectacular overhead kick was the difference in Bucharest but the scoreline vastly underrepresented the dominance of Chelsea in that Champions League encounter with Atletico. The Blues recovered from a nervy start in Romania and pretty much had their way for the rest of the match with Atletico failing to muster a single shot on target.
This has been one of Tuchel’s easily discernable imprint on Chelsea. Their defence has gone several notches higher, keeping clean sheets in six of the eight matches the German tactician has taken charge of.
This impressive slate of results has seen them roar back into the top four picture as they are now just two points off 4th placed West Ham. This will certainly be the biggest litmus test for Tuchel.
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Despite winning 4-0 against Real Sociedad in the first leg of their Europa League tie, United fielded a relatively strong lineup for the second leg on Thursday which drew a lot of criticism of manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer given how much less time the star players that featured would have to rest before they travel to London.
They drew the game 0-0 and like in other cup competitions, they once again got the short end of the stick in Friday’s round of 16 draw, with AC Milan drawn as their opponents in the pick of the round.
United are second in the league, miles behind leaders Man City and just six points ahead of hosts Chelsea. There is everything to play for here.
So much will be on the line when these teams meet. Chelsea are riding on a terrific run of form since Tuchel took charge. Man United though have not lost in any of their travels in the league this season. This sets us up for a potentially explosive encounter that is likely to be very physical. Stuart Atwell is the centre referee for the game. He is a no-nonsense ref and has dished out an average of 4.2 yellows in the Premier League this season. The potential for cynical challenges certainly exists for this game and we fancy Over 3.5 bookings for the game @ 1.71 with 22Bet Welcome Bonus.
Chelsea’s defence has been outstanding in their turnaround. They have been keeping clean sheets for fun and have only conceded 2 goals in their last 8 games. We fancy them to continue this impressive output and keep United attackers at bay by not conceding more than a goal which is priced @ 1.41.
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