Chelsea vs. Manchester United. That match is supposedly going to be an awesome display of football, but I don’t think that Chelsea will be up to the task of winning against Manchester United in their upcoming derby at Old Trafford. It’s not because Manchester United have the home pitch advantage either.

Let’s just look at the facts, and what we know is that Chelsea has been not playing the level of football that’s expected of their star-studded squad. In Chelsea’s last home game at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea supporters were booed off the pitch when Norwegian champions Rosenborg made a 1-1 draw in their 2007-08 UEFA Champions League group stage match. before that, Chelsea hosted the Blackburn Rovers for an English Premier League match, and the two sides were scorless for a 0-0 draw. The week before that Chelsea were destroyed in Villa Park when Aston Villa creamed them 2-0. The last Premiership goal Chelsea scored was back in August 25 when they defeated Portsmouth 1-0.

The horrible results of Chelsea over the last month has resulted in the resignation of Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho, who has turned over the coaching chores to Avram Grant since his coaching debut for The Blues in 2004. Former Israel coach Avram Grant was recruited in the summer as director of football, and will be expected to lead Chelsea against Manchester United this Sunday. While Mourinho has accepted the resignation, Chelsea’s recent failures might not be all Mourinho’s burden.

“The style of how we play is very important. But it is omelettes and eggs. No eggs - no omelettes! It depends on the quality of the eggs. In the supermarket you have class one, two or class three eggs and some are more expensive than others and some give you better omelettes. So when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there, you have a problem,” Mourinho explained about the very injured Chelsea side.

Maybe his analogy in referring to his star players as eggs might’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s back, and forced Chelsea big bosses to engage in a “mutual agreement” to let Jose Mourinho leave.

Chelsea’s “open letter to all fans” had this to say about Mourinho:

“We also must pay tribute to the great job Jose did for Chelsea. He has been the most successful manager the club has known and he rightly deserves that place in our history. Jose has been instrumental in putting Chelsea where it is today, among the leading clubs in European and world football. He will always be welcome at Stamford Bridge, whether as the guest of Chelsea or as the manager of another club, and he will be given the reception and respect his position in our history deserves,” according to the statement.

But coaching is not the only problem at Chelsea. It doesn’t help the club at all that star striker Didier Drogba is in the injured list along with Chelsea captain Frank Lampard. While Chelsea’s squad may look very impressive on paper, it’s just disappointing that most of those big names aren’t even in the lineup for the match against Manchester United. Instead, those names - such as Michael Ballack, Ricardo Carvalho, Claudio Pizarro and Wayne Bridge - are on the injured list.

So, come Sunday, September 23, when Manchester United host Chelsea at Old Trafford, can you really say that it’s Chelsea that’s out there on the pitch? No Drogba. No Lampard. No Ballack and no Jose Mourinho!

In any case, Manchester United look to have their hopes up as Wayne Rooney might be back to start following a foot injury. If not, Carlos Tevez is still there to score the goals for ManU, and of course last season’s Premier League Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo.

To bet on Manchester United to win against Chelsea and other English Premier League matches, click here.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 9:52 am and is filed under Chelsea, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, English Premier League, Frank Lampard, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Soccer News, Sports News, UEFA Champions League, Wayne Rooney, sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.