Confirmed: United team to face Chelsea
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has announced his side to face Chelsea in the Premier League at Old Trafford.
The boss has made three changes to his team for today’s game, from the one which beat Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night, and has selected the same XI that overcame Newcastle United 4-1 last weekend.
That means Harry Maguire, Juan Mata and Daniel James returning to the team, in place of Axel Tuanzebe, Alex Telles and the suspended Anthony Martial.
In nets, David De Gea starts for the hosts and will be hoping to maintain his excellent form of recent matches.
Ahead of him, it looks like Ole will deploy a back four, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof, Maguire and Luke Shaw lining up.
The main changes from last time are in the wide areas, with Mata drafted in to face his former employers, while James is set to play in the same fixture he made his goalscoring United debut in last term.
As expected, it’s Bruno Fernandes in the no.10 role and the Portuguese playmaker will be hoping to add to his impressive goal tally this term.
Marcus Rashford, who was again making all the right headlines off the pitch on Friday, starts as the sole striker.
There’s certainly plenty of attacking firepower on the bench, with Paul Pogba, Donny van de Beek, Cavani and Mason Greenwood all available for Ole to call on.
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Speaking ahead of kick-off to MUTV, Ole was asked whether he'd faced a selection dilemma, following Tuesday's victory.
“I would rather have that than scratching around and having no players," he said. "So, to disappoint a few players once in a while is better to play players when they are not ready.
“Sometimes you need to reward good performances. Of course, Tuesday night in Paris was a good performance, but we felt this team could kick on and give us a good foothold in the game, and cause some problems for the opposition. So we decided to go with that.”
THE TEAMS
United: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw; Fred, McTominay; Mata, Fernandes, James; Rashford.
Subs: Henderson, Tuanzebe, Matic, Pogba, van de Beek, Cavani, Greenwood.
Subs: Caballero, Rudiger, Kovacic, Mount, Ziyech, Abraham, Giroud.
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