5 Things we learned from Chelsea’s much needed win over Man United

1. A game Xabi Alonso simply had to win. After last weeks terrible performance against Spurs and crashing out of the Carabao Cup to Liverpool on Wednesday it was imperative that Chelsea won today and that’s exactly what they did, the first half was one that showed the weaknesses in both sides with mistake after mistake at the back leading to some great chances at both ends. United definitely edged the half chances wise with Amad, Fernandes, Cunha and Mbeumo missing some guilt-edged chances, Carrick’s side did look to have taken the lead from a corner which was knocked down by Maguire to Cunha but upon replay you could see that the Brazilian was offside so the goal was ruled out. By half-time it was same old story for United not taking their chances and you got the feeling they would come to regret it in the second 45, it took just five minutes into the second half for Chelsea to open the scoring as Morgan Rogers picked up the ball and drove towards the United box evading challenges from Santos, Maguire and Martinez before dinking the ball over Lammens to give the home side the lead. The goal gave Alonso’s side great confidence as they pushed for the second that would have killed the game, in the 64th minute a corner was whipped in and a panicked Lisandro Martinez threw his arms in Wesley Fofana’s face after losing the Frenchman in the box. The referee didn’t see it initially but was sent to the monitor where he awarded Chelsea a penalty and issued the Argentinian defender a second yellow card sending United down to 10-men, Cole Palmer stepped up and hit a pretty tame penalty which Lammen’s probably should have saved but it was 2-0 to Chelsea with United truly dead and buried at Stamford Bridge. Estevao had a goal ruled out for offside in the 71st minute but it didn’t matter as Chelsea got back on track with a win against Carrick’s United, where do they go from here?

2. The result the only thing that mattered for Chelsea today. There was a bit of pressure on Xabi Alonso heading into this game considering that his side are coming off back-to-back losses and playing a terrible United side but luckily for Alonso Lisandro Martinez gave his side an easy three points in the second half, both sides had chances in the first half with Caicedo hitting the post and Estevao having a goal ruled out but I thought United were the much better side and benefitted from some terrible defending from the likes of Palestra and Fofana who should have been punished for their errors. Carrick’s side easily could have been two or three goals up at half-time and you wondered whether the game would follow the same path as the Spurs one last week, luckily for Alonso up stepped Morgan Rogers to waltz through the United defence and show some quality which had been missing all game and from there Chelsea cruised the game. They were gifted a penalty by Lisandro Martinez and had a man advantage for thirty minutes after so we’ll never know what would have happened if both sides had 11 players for the last part of the game, the real standouts for Chelsea today were Romeo Lavia and Estevao. The Belgian midfielder has always been a tidy player on the ball but defensively today I thought he was excellent alongside Caicedo who dominated that United midfield in the second half, it was great to see Estevao out there starting his first Premier League game of the season and he was so unlucky not to grab a goal. Alonso has to start using the Brazilian more as Chelsea simply cannot afford to lose a player of his quality, I just don’t know where he fits when Joao Pedro is fit. Overall it wasn’t a vintage performance from Chelsea but three points is three points, they do need Joao Pedro back sooner than later.

3. Where is United’s next win coming from? I completely understand that some people will say that for 45 minutes United were the better team and at least should have been in the lead at half-time but a game of football is 90 minutes and that second half was absolute rubbish all round, the Rogers goal is horrific from a United perspective with Maguire and Martinez just letting him run straight through the defence to socre. When do you ever see goals like that in the Premier League? Just to compound it Martinez then basically punches Fofana ending the game in the 60th minute, the Argentinian talks a lot for someone who has cost United over and over and over again this season whether it’s against Spurs, Fulham and now Chelsea. He’s been rubbish all season and let his team down once again today, if the management has any spine he won’t play another minute this season. Sell him in January and be done with it, I’m also looking at the attack today and wondering how on Earth they didn’t at least score two or three goals. Amad hasn’t scored a goal in 2026 and it showed today with the Ivorian missing two or three guilt-edged chances that you simply have to take in games like these, Cunha the same with his baggy touch killing attacks over and over again then having the audacity to do that stupid surfing celebration when we could be sitting in the relegation zone by the end of the weekend. All of that just to have the goal ruled out anyway, Bruno Fernandes came back in the team and again had to score from Mbeumo’s pass in the first half. You’d think United would be confident heading into the second half considering the chances we created but no we just fell apart allowed Chelsea to dominate us even before the red card, the fitness issues are ridiculous and won’t be fixed with a new manager this season. With Roma and Aston Villa coming up I can’t see United getting a win in the next week, Gasperini’s side are going to have a field day at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

4. Are United actually gonna sack Carrick? I think basically everyone including me thought that Carrick would have been sacked after the Bournemouth game last week but here we are as he leads the team to yet another defeat, today’s loss isn’t as much on him as the last few games but at what point are INEOS going to sack him. The reports last week said that they were going to give him the Chelsea, Roma and Aston Villa games to ‘turn it around’ and with the first game ending in defeat he’s obviously going to be in charge for the next two, Roma are going to stroll up to Old Trafford and absolutely batter us on Tuesday then Aston Villa will probably do the same next Sunday. The question then comes what do INEOS do if he wins one of the games? If they even have the audacity to keep him for after the international break I seriously think we could get relegated this season, just think about Thomas Frank’s Spurs last season. They had 17 points at this stage last season, United have 7. This is without having a Wolves or Burnley this season who were guaranteed to go down last year, there was one spot for either West Ham or Spurs to go down where as this year there are three spots so why can’t United go down if these clowns in charge keep the manager? The mood in the club is clearly on the floor and the performance after we concede clearly shows it, I’m pretty confident that Carrick will be sacked after Villa but who knows at this point what INEOS are going to do? They’ll almost certainly get the next manager appointment wrong anyway.

5. Where does this result leave both teams? So with this game being the first of the weekend plenty is going to change but for now Chelsea move up to 4th place on 16 points whilst United remain in 16th place on 7 points but that position could easily drop if Coventry, Sunderland, Crystal Palace or Nottingham Forest get a result of some sort later on. As for me I’ll be back later on with Spurs vs Crystal Palace and the Milan derby which is normally a cracker, have a good one.