Chelsea 1-1 Manchester United – Match Report
By Jordan Brightman-Charles
In what was a clash between two Premier League giants, neither Chelsea nor Manchester United would walk away with three points. Jadon Sancho’s 50th minute strike was cancelled out by a Jorginho penalty with just over 20 minutes to go.
Chelsea retain their spot as league leaders, though their gap over 2021 champions Manchester City has now been reduced to a single point.
Whilst the match ended with each team only getting one goal apiece, it was not without plenty of opportunities. Chelsea dominated the first half, creating chance after chance, but failed to capitalise. This has been a problem for the West London side that has been mentioned by pundits before, and Sunday was yet another example of Chelsea’s goalscoring woes being their undoing.
By Jordan Brightman-Charles
As the 2nd half began, Chelsea appeared to still be on the front foot, this was to be undone just five minutes later. A Bruno Fernandes clearance was met by Jorginho at the centre-circle, but the Italian appeared to have a momentary lapse of control as he took a poor touch, gifting the ball to an oncoming Jadon Sancho. The former Dortmund man would then coolly finish a 1 on 1 attempt past Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, this being his first goal in the Premier League since joining the Red Devils in the summer.
At the 67th minute, Chelsea would finally have their breakthrough moment, as United right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s errant swing of his leg would hit Thiago Silva, gifting the Blues a penalty. After a couple minutes of tussling between the two sides, up stepped Jorginho. The Italian midfielder would redeem himself by calmly putting away his penalty.
Chelsea were now pushing towards a winner, but it was not to be. The match would go right down to practically the last kick of the game.
In the 7th minute of additional time, the ball fell to centre-back Antonio Rudiger, but the German defender could not maintain his composure as he sent his shot flying over the bar from close range. In a match full of wasted opportunities, it was perhaps fairly poetic that it would be capped off with yet another near miss.
For Chelsea, this is yet another roadblock in the league leaders’ quest to win their first league title since 2017. On the other hand, this can be considered a welcome result for Manchester United. The 20-time Premier League champions have been in an awful run of form, and so will be relishing the fact that they were able to hold their own against fellow ‘big 6’ opposition.
The north-western side are now looking to put the end of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign behind them, having recently confirmed the appointment of former RB Leipzig boss Ralf Rangnick as their interim manager until the end of the season.
Thomas Tuchel’s side will be looking to return to winning ways, traveling to Vicarage Road on Wednesday for a meeting with Claudio Ranieri’s Watford.
