GREAT PAUL’S
Masterful Pogba has United rocking again as Chelsea are plunged deeper into crisis
The scoreline told its own story: these are two clubs on very different paths 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, he has made it a happy vessel again. United are in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with Wolves now to beat, in the top four of 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 last night, just as surely as they have evicted them from the top four.
Chelsea will contend the Carabao Cup final with Manchester City on Sunday, but fans will travel in hope more than expectation, and not 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 they contained Chelsea from there. Victor Lindelof got a vital block in on a rare eden hazard shot that might have sparked a revival, and it may be argued that United’s Nemanja Matic was lucky not to receive a second yellow for some ferocious tackling, but these are minor quibbles and diversions. Chelsea did not muster a shot on target after the 11th minute.
United were better and appear to have been liberated by Solskajer as much as Chelsea seem weighed down by Sarri’s dogma. Sarri’s second-half substitutions — the inevitable Ross Barkley-Mateo Kovacic switch, plus full back Davide Zappacosta for Cesar Azpilicueta — brought equal parts mockery and outright disdain.
‘ You don’t know what you’re doing,’ sang the locals, but that is 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 won at Old Trafford last week. Marquinhos marked Pogba out of the game until the United man lost his rag late on and was dismissed.
Sarri is too committed to his strategy to make plans for a dangerous opponent. The upshot? A goal and an assist for the player who will run the game if he is allowed. It is not as if Pogba’s resurgence is a secret, either. In the time since Solskjaer was appointed, he has been involved in 15 goals or assists for United. Only Son heung-min for Tottenham has more in that period with 16.
Apart from two good performances against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup semi-final, in 2019 each meeting with a member of the elite has seemed a moment of reckoning for Sarri. The result at City was an abject humiliation, but a 2-0 defeat by Arsenal and now this point to an inevitable conclusion given Roman Abramovich’s patience with failing managers.
Yet as Sarri flounders, so Solskjaer’s stock continues to rise. he has always maintained there would be a setback in his tenure and the key would be how his players reacted to it. Defeat by PSG was that setback and the answer was: magnificently.
The opening 45 minutes at Stamford Bridge was a most eloquent riposte to any idea the Solskjaer regime might have been found out by one bad night in europe. even missing Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard through injury, United were consistently superior and looked the greater danger going forward until the game was as good as won. One would have thought the idea Solskajer lacked the tactical smarts at the top level had been put to bed by now, but just in case, here was another gameplan shot through with intelligence. As at Arsenal in the previous round he deployed Romelu Lukaku forward on one flank to good effect, while Marcus Rashford patrolled the other side. In the middle, Juan Mata deputised in Lingard’s withdrawn role, while around him Pogba and Ander herrera ensured there was plenty of activity in the areas where Jorginho likes to operate.
This is essential when playing Chelsea. Jorginho did play one lovely ball that was squandered by Gonzalo higuain but, that aside, Chelsea chances were limited to shots from range, well repelled by goalkeeper Sergio Romero.
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 deflection and turned into a near-perfect lob. so a bit of luck, a little judgment and not much else from Chelsea.
United, by contrast, were always a threat. 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? He really should have done better with a header directed straight at Kepa Arrizabalaga.
the pressure began to show when Arrizabalaga made a hash of a back pass, almost letting in Rashford. From their next attack, however, United took the lead.
Pogba had experienced a quiet half hour but 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 in to convert United’s second header of the night. In that instant, it could be sensed Chelsea had no retort.
United had not won here since October 28, 2012, a sequence that could be quickly reversed.