GREAT PAUL’S ON FIRE!
Masterful Pogba has United rocking again as Chelsea are plunged deeper into crisis
THE scoreline told the story: these are two clubs going in very different directions now. Whether Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ends up a permanent fixture at Manchester United, he has done what he was employed to do in December. He has turned this ship around, United are in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, the top four in the Premier League and on course to be in the Champions League next season.
They will do this, it seems, at the expense of Chelsea — a club that has lost its way under Maurizio Sarri, and that United deservedly dumped out of the FA Cup, just as they have evicted them from the Champions League places.
Chelsea will contend the Carabao Cup final with Manchester City on Sunday, but fans will travel in hope more than expectation, and not even much of that with City winning their most recent meeting 6-0.
It was never going to be that against the red half of Manchester, but United were comfortable, two goals clear at half-time, and contained Chelsea beyond that.
Victor Lindelof got a vital block in on a rare Eden Hazard shot and it may be argued that United’s Nemanja Matic was lucky not to receive a second yellow for some ferocious tackling in midfield, but these are minor quibbles. United were better and appear liberated by Solskajer as much as Chelsea seem shackled by Sarri.
His second-half substitutions — the inevitable Ross Barkley-Mateo Kovacic switch, plus full back Davide Zappacosta for Cesar Azpilicueta — bought equal parts mockery and disdain, with Callum Hudson-Odoi again imprisoned on the bench. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing,’ sang the locals, but that’s just the problem. He does. It is just that what he is doing is increasingly unsuccessful and maddeningly repetitive.
The same moves, born of the same principles, repeated endlessly with diminishing returns. Sarri did not even put N’Golo Kante, a defensive midfielder supreme, on Paul Pogba, despite seeing the Marquinhos effect when Paris Saint-Germain came to Old Trafford last week. The upshot? A goal and an assist for the player who will run the game if he is allowed.
Solskjaer has always maintained that there will be a setback in his United tenure and the key is how his players react to it. Defeat by PSG was that setback, here was the answer: magnificently.
The opening 45 minutes at Stamford Bridge was the most eloquent riposte to any idea the Solskjaer regime has been found out.
Even missing Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard through injury, United were superior. One would have thought the idea Solskjaer lacked the tactical smarts at the top level had been put to bed by now, but just in case there were any doubters after the visit of PSG, here was another line-up shot through with intelligence.
As at Arsenal in the previous round, Solskjaer deployed Romelu Lukaku forward on one flank to good effect, while Marcus Rashford patrolled the other side. In the middle, Juan Mata in Lingard’s withdrawn role, while Pogba and Ander Herrera ensured there was plenty of activity in the areas where Jorginho likes to operate.
Jorginho did play one lovely ball that was squandered by Gonzalo Higuain’s poor control but, that aside, Chelsea chances in the first half were limited to shots from range, repelled by stand-in keeper Sergio Romero, and a header from Higuain from Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross that at the very least should have been steered on target. In the 11th minute he saved an excellent free-kick from David Luiz only for the rebound to fall to Pedro. He struck it on the volley but Romero was equal to that, too.
Hazard played a neat one-two with Kovacic before curling a shot wide a minute later and, after United had gone a goal up, Chelsea almost found a fortunate route back into the game when a Pedro cross took a slight deflection and almost turned into a perfect lob.
So a bit of luck, a little judgment and not much else from Chelsea. United, by contrast, were always a threat. From the second minute when Pogba found Mata, eventually involving Lukaku whose cross was cut out by Luiz with Rashford lurking, it was plain United had a strategy for getting in behind.
Solskjaer has, undoubtedly, allowed these players a freedom that was previously absent, so even the unlikeliest of them pop up in attacking positions. How was it that centre half Chris Smalling was available when Matic played a neat chip through in the ninth minute? Who knows, but he was — and should have done better with a header directed straight at goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Herrera at least made the Chelsea man work, to save his shot from 25 yards soon after, and the
pressure began to show when Arrizabalaga made a hash of a back pass from Azpilicueta, almost letting in Rashfiord.
From their next attack, however, United took the lead. After a quiet half-hour, Pogba was finally given the room to pick out a pass from wide and Chelsea paid a heavy price. His cross was a beauty and Herrera lost Marcos Alonso to guide a header into the corner.
Worse followed seconds before half-time. This time it was a Rashford cross and Pogba, still without a shadow, who stole between Antonio Rudiger and Azpilicueta to convert United’s second header of the night. That was the 15th goal Pogba has been involved in, either as scorer or the player credited with the assist, since Solskjaer took over as manager.
Only one player can better that record in that time, Son Huengmin, with 16 for Tottenham — and he is being discussed as a potential Footballer of the Year. CHELSEA (4-3-3): Arrizabalaga 5.5, Azpilicueta 5.5, Rudiger 6, David Luiz 5.5, Alonso 5.5, Kanté 6.5, Jorginho 6, Kovacic 6 (Barkley 71, 6), Pedro 5 (Willian 58, 6), Higuain 5.5, E Hazard 6. Booked: Rudiger 60, Kante 65. MAN UNITED (4-1-2-1-2): Romero 6.5, Young 7, Smalling 6.5, Lindelof 7, Shaw 7, Herrera 7.5, Matic 7, Pogba 8, Mata 6.5 (Pereira 76), Rashford 7.5 (McTominay (90+4), Lukaku 6.5 (Sanchez 73, 6). Scorers: Herrera 31, Pogba 45. Booked: Young 21, Matic 15 Referee: K Friend.