Chelsea used a very poor performance of Manchester United today, to beat their big rivals and reach the FA Cup finals. The score after 90 minutes of play at Wembley was 3-1 for the Blues.
United’s Mistakes Lead Into a Defeat
In the last few weeks, the Red Devils have been one of the most reliable teams for betting. They were pretty much defeating all the rivals. However, Solskjaer’s team was under any decent level of play tonight, as they allowed three goals, all of them after massive mistakes of the defensive part of the team.
What might have caused this was Harry Maguire’s and Eric Bailly’s head clash. The international from the Ivory Coast left the pitch visibly shaken, while Maguire continued the match, but played very bad.
The referee would add 11 minutes of stoppage time to the first half, and in the last moments of that period, Olivier Giroud scored the opening goal of the event. The French striker sneaked in between Lindelof and de Gea to divert the ball and tap it behind the Spaniard’s back.
This was definitely a morale-killer for the Red Devils, and even if they had the strength to recover, what happened in the first minute of the second sequence, was too much for them.
Mason Mount’s shot wasn’t that strong, but de Gea’s reaction was unbelievably bad, and United was trailing 2-0 after that. There was no way for them to recover here, and until the end of the game, we saw two more goals, one on each side.
At first, Maguire scored an own goal fifteen minutes before the end of the regular time, and in the 85th minute, Manchester got a penalty. Anthony Martial was brought down in the box, and Bruno Fernandes used the chance to decrease the painful defeat.
With this loss, United’s only chance to reach some silverware this season is in the Europa League, where they continue with challenges in early August. This performance today, was by far the worst since the restart of football activities in England.
Chelsea Meets Arsenal in the Finals
Two big, local rivals are coming against one another in the FA Cup finals. Arsenal managed to secure its place in the trophy game yesterday, once they beat Manchester City 2-0, with Pierre Emerick Aubameyang netting both goals for the Gunners.
Even though City had the initiative, and several excellent chances, Arsenal managed to defend well and to strike on the other side of the pitch.
They are now clashing with the Blues in the third finals over the last four years. The first one was in 2017, and that was the FA Cup meeting. Arsenal won 2-1, lifting the trophy, which would go to Stamford next season.
After that, the most recent clash in the finals was in the Europa League previous summer. Chelsea rolled over their rivals, scoring four and conceding one goal, displaying a masterful performance. The interesting thing is that both of the managers from that game aren’t leading their teams anymore. Emery was fired, while Sarri left Chelsea to take over Juventus.
