Before we begin, this match is on Friday to give us more time to rest before that final next Wednesday. Spurs play Villa tonight as well.

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The league is a bust. It has been a bust I wanna say from the start of the season because other than opening day when we were top of the league (ahhh, the good ol' days), there's been no other point where I've felt that we were even decent throughout the campaign.

Yet despite our current position of 16th and without the threat of relegation, this is one of the more important league encounters we've had in a while.

And yes, this is because it's the last game before the final. It is the best opportunity for Ruben Amorim to properly test out his team in terms of selection, tactics, substitutions, game management and more in preparation for Spurs.

Can we beat another London club ahead of the trip to Bilbao?

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Predicted Lineup

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I do believe Amorim will go relatively strong. If the last game was any indication of his thought process before the final, then surely he would go strong again against a stronger opponent.

Onana to return in goal. With the manager confirming that all of Yoro, De Ligt and Dalot won't be back, it means that we are back to the bare bones in our defense. Shaw to start again. He came off pretty much at the start of the second half against West Ham so should be ready to play. Maguire and Lindelof to continue next to him.

Mazraoui to play as RWB with Dorgu down the left. This is the back line that I think will start next Wednesday if there are no players making a comeback.

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Ugarte next to his bestie Casemiro who will probably be taken off at some point but I do believe will start as he didn't feature at all in the loss to the Hammers. He will need the minutes.

Bruno next to another player who makes a return to the starting XI in Garnacho as the no 10s with Hojlund to start once more up front. Whether that will be a good thing remains to be seen.

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Approach

I think Amorim will use this match as a chance to see how he wants his side to play in the final.

He's been saying recently as well that there's been several games where in the league, United have performed well enough to have gotten something out of matches.

Yet Amorim's side have not been taking their chances and have had a loss of concentration at certain instances in games that have cost the team in the end.

That is something the manager would want to be removed from their game before taking on Spurs otherwise we won't have much of a chance.

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The type of goals we concede as well is down to bad defending from the team rather than the opposition having to work hard to get a goal. Both against Wet Ham were poor defending, the goal Bilbao scored was very panicky from Maguire and goalkeeping that most would say was Championship level from Onana, the 4 at Brentford before that was another match where we had problems defensively.

A lot of goals especially in these recent matches have come from crosses. Chelsea sit 10th in the league with 639 crosses but Wednesday's opponents Spurs have crossed the ball on 739 occasions ranking them 3rd in the league.

Without the likes of Yoro and De Ligt, I do feel concerned that we will have problems with crosses. Lindelof in particular is a player that truly worries me.

But this is an area for the Blues to exploit as well. Their 639 crosses is 37 more than United. We've also always had a problem with defending the back post so that is somewhere they will look at to try and take advantage of us.

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Amorim also wants his team to play out from the back but as our players are shite, we look very suspect when doing so. Bilbao with their aggressive press put us in a lot of trouble and if Enzo Maresca has anything about him, he will tell his Chelsea players to do the same.

We panic for no reason so when they are under pressure, our players are highly likely to make a mistake. You then have Onana in goal who makes us shit ourselves whenever a shot is headed his way. If I were Chelsea, I would shoot on sight.

The Blues have taken the 2nd most shots with 578 and have had 213 on target meaning that their accuracy is sitting at a healthy 37%. In contrast, we have had 498 shots with 164 on target, an accuracy of 33%. This is because we take too many shots from stupid distances and angles.

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When it comes to the attack, there definitely is something there with United as we do get into good positions but due to poor decision-making and overall lack of quality, we fail to make the most of those good situations.

We have at least been in the goals lately with 10 in the last four in all competitions. However, the league has shown that we have scored just 5 in our last five. Something has to change in the league although what difference does it make at this point?

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Form

Much like that goal scoring record, there is no form with United. That loss to West Ham was our 17th of the season and 9th at home and also the 14th game in which we didn't score. 14 out of 36 is almost 40% (38%) of matches this season in which Man Utd haven't scored. That must be some kind of record that we've broken this year as well.

Last week's defeat meant that our winless run now stretches to seven in the league, a stat unheard of in years gone by even during this 12-year period in which we've been shite.

More than that, Chelsea and Villa leaves just two games for us to try and not create another unwanted record of going an entire PL campaign of not winning back-to-back matches.

You know, when you break things down, it's worse than it looks. And it looks pretty bad anyway.

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Away from home, the record is just as poor as at Old Trafford as United are 16th in the away table. 18 games have yielded just 18 points with just four wins on our travels all season. Four.

Our 21 scored also means that just West Ham, Leicester and Southamtpon have scored fewer on the road. Good God!

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Against the big 6, we've only won one which was the 2-1 win over City. In nine previous games, we have just that one win, four draws and four losses.

This probably puts us at the bottom of the big 6 table.

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Chelsea

Looking at Maresca's side, they are having a decent season in the Italian's first campaign. While they were at one stage in contention for the title, at the turn of the year, it saw them slip away due to inconsistent form.

However, with a young side and being a new manager besides, to be fighting for Champions League positions isn't a bad start for the former Leicester boss and certainly a position that we would be happy to be in.

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Chelsea are currently 5th in the table with 63 points (the same as Villa and 2 behind City), with 18 wins, 9 draws and 9 losses. They've also scored 62 goals which is amongst the most in the league.

As things are so tight in the fight for top 5 though, you can bet that Chelsea will be looking to beat us and beat us well in the hopes of making it into next season's CL.

An interesting fact about the Blues is that if they win the Conference League (which gets you into the Europa League) and if they finish in the top 5, they will be in the unique position of being able to choose between whether they want to play in the Europa League or Champions League.

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At the Bridge, the Blues are a strong 4th in the home table with only LFC, City and Newcastle being above them. Chelsea have also only lost two at home and have won 11. Whilst their goal scoring record is healthy, the Blues have conceded just 18 at home with only Liverpool (15), Arsenal (17), Forest (15) and Bournemouth (16) having conceded fewer.

Not bad at all.

Their recent form is also very good with just the one loss in their last five although that was in their last game (2-0 at Newcastle).

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Against the big 6, Chelsea have three wins, four losses and three draws, one of which was at Old Trafford.

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They will be without Nicolas Jackson who was sent off in that loss to Newcastle and because of this, Maresca may have to play 19 year old Tyrique George up front. Chelsea do have enough players to worry United with boyhood MUFC fan Cold Palmer being one of them. Captain Enzo Fernandez is another who has a habit of grabbing a goal.

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Recent Meetings

This fixture is riddled with draws even the last meeting was 1-1. That seems to be the result between the two sides as there was a run of three straight games where the result was 1-1 between November 2021 and October 2022.

The Blues did win this fixture last season though and who could forget that game. United were 3-1 up but threw it away in added time as Cole Palmer completed a late hat-trick and the Chelsea turnaround.

4-3 is how that one ended.

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Prediction

As a United fan, I couldn't care less about this game. As the manager though, you would want to see some sort of performance from your team before the big final which is why I believe Amorim will take this game very seriously.

I see no benefit from any type of performance or result for us. If we win playing tiki-taka prime Barcelona football, great, but that doesn't mean we will do so in the final. Should we lose badly, that doesn't mean we'll do so in the final.

Obviously one would give us greater confidence than the other heading to Bilbao but you just never know what you're going to get with this team.

Due to both sides being unpredictable, our poor record at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea fighting for European positions and United with an eye on Wednesday, I don't see the Blues losing.

I'm going for a 1-1 draw or a 2-1 Chelsea win.

More than anything, let's not pick up more injuries ahead of the final. That would be the true victory.

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Cole Palmer has 15 goals and 8 assists in second season at Chelsea | Cole Palmer: Image credit: Getty Images via Goal

Alejandro Garnacho has faced must criticism throughout the season for Man Utd | Alejandro Garnacho: Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)