Manchester United (3-4-1-2): <\/strong>De Gea; Bailly, Smalling, Jones; Valencia, Herrera, Matic, Young; Mkhitaryan; Lukaku, Rashford<\/p>\n
The biggest surprise of the evening was that David Luiz was dropped from the squad entirely by Antonio Conte, amid rumours of dressing-room unrest. Andreas Christensen started instead, and N\u2019Golo Kante made his long-awaited return from injury.<\/p>\n
United lined up with the same team and system that beat Tottenham at Old Trafford the previous weekend.<\/p>\n
Major tactical themes:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
United lose the midfield battle<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Chelsea lined up with three central midfielders, as opposed to United\u2019s two. With Hazard given license to roam and Mkhitaryan not doing enough defensively, Chelsea dominated the midfield zone. Kante would drop deep to shield the zone in front of his centre-backs, often shuttling to the sides as well to cover for his wingbacks when United countered. This allowed Bakayoko to get forward, and he did so a number of times. The Frenchman should have scored in the first half, when a half cleared cross fell to him, unmarked, on the edge of the area. Nevertheless, his bursts from midfield were not tracked by the United midfield, and he caused them problems throughout the game. Additionally, Cesc Fabregas was given too much time on the ball, and he ran the game, picking out Morata and Hazard on a number of occasions with passes from deep. Hazard drifted centrally as well, which meant that United were often outnumbered 4-to-2, as Mkhitaryan would rarely come back to help his midfield. The Armenian had yet another poor game, contributing nothing offensively, and negligent in his defensive duties. Herrera would push up to try and close down the man in possession, but Chelsea\u2019s numerical superiority in that zone meant that it was easy for them to keep the ball.<\/p>\n