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Chelsea 1-0 Man Utd

ALL ON EUROPA!

Yuveer Madanlal
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16/5/2025
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5 min read

This match, much like last Sunday's defeat to West Ham, was a complete waste of time. It won't be a game that lives long in the memory, in fact, I've already forgotten about it.

There wasn't much going on and even though they weren't great, Chelsea got the result they wanted to keep their hopes of playing Champions League football next season alive.

For United though, we know that league wise there isn't much to play for but heading into the Europa final, we want to gather some momentum that will give us confidence when facing Spurs, who also happened to lose tonight as well.

The difference with us and Tottenham was that Amorim fielded a pretty strong side, one that could emulate the XI he picks in Bilbao. Spurs on the other hand went with a B-team while resting many of their key players.

There's not much to say regarding this game as it was pretty boring. The only truly intersting thing that happened was when a steward spear tackled an intruder on the field.

They should sign him up for the WWE!

But beyond that, Maguire scored a good goal that was rightfully ruled out for offside, Reece James had a half volley that hit the post, Onana got away with a challenge on Tyrique George which saw a penalty decision overturned, and there was the goal.

Hm, I suppose when I put it like that, there were some things happening.

From our perspective though, Amorim will once again be disappointed with his team's performance. Similar to West Ham, there was nothing in this display even individually from most players to suggest that he would be happy with what he saw.

This type of performance actually makes me feel quite worried for the final as we are heading to Spain without any confidence. The good news is that Spurs are as bad as us.

There was a period of decent football where we were the better team but that only lasted 20 minutes and then Chelsea took control of the game.

The second half saw United do nothing other than have a good shot by Amad with 20 minutes to go which happened to be our first shot on target.

That should tell you everything.

I was talking about how bad we are at defending crosses (which I don't actually have to inform you about because you already know) but what I was saying was that Chelsea do like to put the ball in the box and if they use this, it can cause us problems.

The back post has also been an area of weakness of United's over many years.

Marc Cucurella scores only goal to give Chelsea 1-0 win over Man Utd | Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images - We Ain't Got No History

A cross from James comes into the box and poor marking at the back post allowed Marc Cucurella the easiest of headers to score the winner.

Lack of concentration in this instance costing United, again.

Amorim will point out at a lack of urgency from his players once more as all didn't show up.

It's really difficult for the manager because while he isn't perfect and needs criticism, it's not as if he (or any previous manager) told the players to go out there and not give a shit.

Amorim appeared quite serious before this game and it gave me the impression that it was almost a rehearsal for the final.

It may not have gone as we would've wanted but it probably made things easier (if you will) to see which players he can trust to start against Spurs.

Ratings

Onana - 5.5

Lindelof - 5.5

Maguire - 6 MOTM

Shaw - 5.5

Mazraoui - 5

Casemiro - 6

Bruno - 5

Dorgu - 5.5

Mount - 5

Amad - 5

Hojlund - 3

Heaven - 5.5

Ugarte - 5.5

Garnacho - 5.5

Mainoo - 5.5

Ruben Amorim - 6

Final Thoughts

All is on that Europa League final.

I've had enough of this Premier League season and I just want it to be over although it has appeared so for quite some time.

18 defeats, no back-to-back victories, poor performances, 16th in the table. Thank fuck for Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton otherwise...

I agreed with a strong lineup from the manager and I was happy with the substitutions. The team on paper was much better than what they showed and like I said, I don't think Amorim told them to play shit.

It's just really disappointing that we have players with this crap mentality more than their lack in quality. Even if you're not a good footballer, you can absolutely give your best.

We can't even rely on them to do that.

However, these players do have that ability to turn up on the odd occasion particularly when we think they won't so hopefully that is Wednesday.

Fuck me we're awful.

Luke Shaw played an hour in Man Utd's 1-0 loss to Chelsea | Luke Shaw: Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)

Yuveer Madanlal

Yeah, I can talk and talk and talk about the things I love, like football and United, as you can see in this post. Once I get on a roll, it's pretty hard to stop me. This is all coming from a guy who doesn't talk that much. How weird.

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