Chelsea, Man United in compelling FA Cup match

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This article was published 15/02/2019 (2711 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There could hardly be a more fascinating moment for an FA Cup showdown between Chelsea and Manchester United.

On Monday, amidst variations in performance, trajectory and mood, the two giants of English soccer will clash in the tournament’s fifth round at Stamford Bridge. Based solely on recent results, it would seem reasonable, indeed irresistible, to install United as overwhelming pre-match favourites, even if doing so necessitates the assumption that the Red Devils will quickly bounce back from their first defeat in nearly two months.

More on that shortly. The natural place to start in this preview exercise is with Chelsea, the game’s hosts, whose wild fluctuations in form since around the end of November have turned every occasion in which they’ve been featured into something resembling a coin flip, albeit one in which the metal is swatted at, kicked and cajoled before noisily hitting the ground, spinning awhile longer and capturing the rapt attention of onlookers before finally tipping over, for better or worse.

It’s the desperation of the gamble for a side that lacks much in the way of leadership, and for which, as a consequence, each encounter is a toss-up.

There was Chelsea, fresh off a 5-0 shellacking of Huddersfield Town, being absolutely gazumped by Manchester City on Sunday — the 6-0 thrashing representing their worst defeat of the Premier League era and dropping them, in less than two hours, from fourth to sixth in the standings, from the Champions League places to the berth in the Europa League.

Of course, its Huddersfield triumph had come on the heels of a 4-0 battering at Bournemouth, which had followed a 3-0 win at home to Sheffield Wednesday, which had taken a narrow victory on penalties against Tottenham in the League Cup, which had been preceded by 2-0 loss at Arsenal. You get the picture.

“Maybe I am not able to motivate these players,” Blues manager Maurizio Sarri remarked after the Bournemouth shock. Star attacker Eden Hazard, he posited a few days prior, is “more an individual player than a leader.” “It doesn’t matter what the manager says,” Hazard retorted. “If Eden Hazard wants to leave Chelsea, I think he has to go,” Sarri challenged. “I know what I am going to do. I have made a decision,” the Belgian countered.

Back and forth, much like the team’s season. Hazard, it goes without saying, is the highest-profile player at the club, a forward who oscillates between electrifying displays of skill and unexplainable periods of anonymity. He has also quit on his previous two managers — a list that could soon include Sarri. With only two Premier League goals since Christmas, it would seem the 28-year-old is already looking past the current campaign.

On the other side of the ball, a potentially talismanic midfielder who was stifled by his former manager is suddenly flourishing under his current one. Paul Pogba, who was reacquired by Manchester United for a club-record fee in 2016 after leaving Old Trafford four years earlier, is playing some of the best soccer of his career for interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer — a marked revitalization after the Frenchman foundered badly through much of Jose Mourinho’s tenure.

Since Mourinho’s sacking, the World Cup winner has scored eight goals and contributed five assists in 11 matches.

Until Tuesday, Solskjaer & Co. had yet to experience defeat. But, after falling 2-0 at home to an under-strength Paris Saint-Germain side in the Champions League, they’ll go into Monday’s FA Cup encounter on the back of a decisive humbling.

Still, Solskjaer is insisting his team won’t panic and will set out to “impose” itself against Chelsea.

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Whether United can make a quick return to the form that saw them leapfrog both Chelsea and Arsenal in the Premier League table in recent weeks will be at least half of what determines the outcome on Monday. The rest will be down to Chelsea, and on which side the coin happens to land.

It’s an intriguing time of the season for both outfits, but for totally different reasons, and with entirely contrasting consequences awaiting.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Twitter: @JerradPeters