The Big One – Manchester United vs. Chelsea

I’ll be at the game on Sunday. There’s no German football at the moment so I’m afraid this one will have to do right now. Seriously now, I really can’t wait.

Both sides have been nowhere near their best in recent months but at least United have been getting results whereas Chelsea find it impossible to close out matches.

A lot has happened since their last meeting at Old Trafford in September 2007, Avram Grant’s first game in charge. The pressure seems to be getting to Scolari, the Chelsea midfield is every bit as dysfunctional as in Mourinho’s third season and there’s an incredible nervousness behind the scenes because of Abramovich’ decision to tighten the purse strings. The club has cracked down on lots of really quite harmless newspaper stories with legal threats etc.

United are much more stable, despite the Tevez kerfuffle – it’s a simple case of Joorabchian getting his valuation wrong, as I understand it – and the fact that they’ve really lost some of their dynamism and unpredictability up front since the arrival of Berbatov – NOT the hardest working man in showbiz.

My prediction is a nasty, tightly contested 1-0 win to Fergie’s men, courtesy of a Vidic header, but so far, only 10% of the members of the Footbo community seem to agree with me about the result.

What do you think?

(Win a signed Michael Ballack shirt by telling us your prediction for the match. Comment on the orginial blog post with your prediction – the exact score and your own preview of how you think the game will develop. The closest predictor will win the shirt. Enjoy the match and see you on the game board during the match – we are certain there will be plenty to discuss!)

This post was written by Raphael Honigstein, and originally published on Footbo.com, the social network for football fans.

Also See: Manchester United v. Chelsea – English Premier League – 11 January 2009 – Live Blog

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