Who will play up front for Chelsea?
Of course, we know by now not to necessarily take at face value the words of football managers, especially Chelsea's Jose Mourinho. First he claimed Diego Costa would be out for some time and then, the old tease, he claimed there was a chance of him being fit for Sunday's clash. There is a fairly decent chance Costa will be missing after picking up a groin injury while playing for Spain, adding to the hamstring problems he's been suffering from since his move from Atletico Madrid in the summer. Additionally, Loic Remy injured himself while scoring in the Champions League against Maribor in midweek and has been ruled out by Mourinho, which would appear to leave Chelsea with only Didier Drogba to fill the centre-forward berth.
For whatever reason Drogba was signed, whether it be as a mentor to some of Chelsea's younger players, with a view to a coaching role or just as a still-handy player to have around, the intention was surely never to start up front against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Drogba was neither a regular player nor goal scorer at Galatasaray last term, and indeed wasn't particularly adept at finding the net in the final season of his first spell at Stamford Bridge. He scored only five league goals that campaign, and his contribution is remembered because of key goals he scored in big matches in both the FA Cup and Champions League. If Remy isn't fit, Mourinho's other option is Andre Schurrle, but one wonders if he would throw a man who has missed the past couple of games with illness into such a big encounter, in an unfamiliar position. Of course, Drogba could roll back the years and bring back some of that big-game magic.
Still, the rest of Chelsea's team are playing so well at the moment that it might not actually make the slightest difference who starts up front, because the men behind him will do a good enough job of hurting United anyway. United boss Louis van Gaal may well be building up his team gradually, trying to fit various attacking elements into his side, but his defence is still a huge concern. Marcos Rojo looks raw but promising and one suspects he would do well with an old, experienced head alongside him -- the Rio Ferdinand or Nemanja Vidic of a couple of years ago, perhaps. At the moment he doesn't have that, with Phil Jones at a similar stage in his own development even five years after joining United, and perhaps more importantly for the short term, Jones is in pretty poor form.
Other options are thin on the ground, as Jonny Evans is a doubt after suffering an ankle injury with Northern Ireland while Chris Smalling wouldn't be a much more convincing option than Jones, even if he was fully fit, which he currently isn't. Paddy McNair may have performed pretty well in his two starts against West Ham and Everton, but he will be used at this stage only in emergencies, while Tyler Blackett isn't good enough, yet.
The most troubling thing for United is that Rojo and Jones might well be their best-choice central defensive pair, at least until January and possibly beyond, and given the way they were chased around the Hawthorns by West Brom on Monday, that's not a particularly relaxing thought. Particularly when their opponents on Sunday will probably include Eden Hazard, Oscar, Willian and possibly the player of the season so far, Cesc Fabregas. Those four have largely been hailed as goal creators this season, teeing up Costa for his numerous strikes, but they of course provide threat of their own, as Fabregas and Oscar demonstrated last weekend with a pair of quite superb goals against Crystal Palace. Against a back line as shaky as United's looks at the moment, Chelsea might not need a centre-forward to enjoy themselves in front of goal.
One of the interesting elements of Van Gaal's tenure at Manchester United so far has been his lack of adherence to any one formation. He began with three at the back, adapted it to a midfield diamond in order to accommodate their various attacking talents, and against West Brom switched to a rough
4-2-3-1/4-1-4-1 with Juan Mata providing support to the lone striker. What was interesting about that was not necessarily the switch in system, but the identity of that single forward, with Robin van Persie picked ahead of Radamel Falcao. Van Persie's form has been a half-whispered worry among United fans for the past year or so, the Dutchman simply not the same player as the one who was such an enormous factor in their 2012-13 title win. It was perhaps covered by the myriad other concerns last season, but has now become rather more stark, and certainly more obvious to the rest of us.
Van Persie has scored two goals this season, against Leicester and West Ham, and since returning from injury in January he has made a really telling contribution (certainly in the way that he used to) in only one game -- the hat trick in the Champions League revival against Olympiakos. Quietly in the debate over Wayne Rooney's place in the team at the start of this season, the voices of a few regular United observers were saying that it was Van Persie's place that should be in danger, not the skipper's.
With Rooney suspended Van Persie would appear to be relatively safe for now, especially given his relationship with Van Gaal, but in the lone role against West Brom he was poor once again, hitting the post once but doing little else to trouble the opposition. Falcao's form since joining United hasn't been mind-blowing, but even on the relatively scant evidence available he certainly appears to be a more convincing option, especially against the physical and aerially strong Chelsea defenders United will face on Sunday. Dropping Van Persie would be a brave call and, in all honesty, a fairly unlikely one, but if Van Gaal plays a single striker again then it could be the right one.
Part of the reason Van Gaal may have chosen to play a system with more width against West Brom could have been to prepare for the Chelsea game. Finding a weakness in this latest iteration of the Chelsea side is a tricky business to say the least, but with Cesar Azpilicueta suspended following his red card against Palace, left-back might be one place United could try. Of course, Mourinho will hardly be scrabbling around looking for a replacement with Filipe Luis a more than capable deputy, but the Brazilian has yet to start a league game for Chelsea, Mourinho preferring to stick with Azpilicueta for domestic matters, and Luis starting Champions League games. One approach United could take is to focus their attacks down their right side, where Adnan Januzaj played on Monday (admittedly with little impact), but there are other options for that flank, with Angel di Maria more than capable of playing there, and even Ashley Young available too. Everywhere else in the Chelsea side looks pretty strong, so if Van Gaal does decide to target a particular spot, that might be it.
How will Mourinho approach the game?
Mourinho has tended to show huge deference to Manchester United in the past, particularly when travelling to Old Trafford, to the extent that in the early encounter between the sides last season he played without a striker and fairly blatantly for a draw. At that point it wasn't entirely clear what a state United were in, so perhaps if the game had occurred later in the campaign Mourinho might have attacked David Moyes' side a little more. One wonders therefore, how he will set his Chelsea side up against Van Gaal's United. Will he look at a side that has dropped points to Leicester, Burnley, Sunderland and Swansea and see an opportunity to attack, to win with some style and really make a statement? Or will he defer to his old boss Van Gaal as he did to Sir Alex Ferguson for all those years and play more cautiously? One suspects the former, if only to assert his superiority over his old master.
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