Top 5 Chelsea VS Manchester United - Manchester United VS Chelsea
Louis van Gaal must contend with a growing injury list ahead of Manchester United's Barclays Premier League trip to Chelsea on Saturday, but the manager intends to unleash an in-form Juan Mata against his former club.
United travel to Stamford Bridge one point behind Arsenal, who are in second and are not in league action this weekend, having an FA Cup semi-final. A win against Chelsea would move United to within five points of the league leaders.
United have a winning run of six top-flight matches, including last weekend’s 4-2 victory over Manchester City, but Van Gaal must overcome a series of injury setbacks for his side to triumph.
Daley Blind, Phil Jones, Michael Carrick and Marcos Rojo have all been ruled out after injuries during Manchester derby.
"It is the worst scenario," said the United manager. "Marcos and Phil can both play left central defender, and Jonny Evans is also suspended so I do not have many choices.
"Daley Blind and Michael Carrick could have played as holding midfielders and I do not have another option. It is a puzzle."
Van Gaal has Luke Shaw available to play at left-back and will give Robin van Persie, who scored a stoppage-time equaliser against Chelsea at Old Trafford this season, as much time as possible to recover from an ankle injury that has kept him out since February.
"Shaw is training for a lot of weeks already so he can play," Van Gaal told MUTV. "Van Persie is another story. This is the first week he has trained with the first team, but maybe we have to think about him."
Van Gaal also revealed that Juan Mata is likely to start against his former side after some sublime performances.
Mata has played a key role in United's recent impressive form, scoring a match-winning double at Liverpool and finding the back of the net against City last weekend.
Van Gaal aims to exploit the 26-year-old’s desire to prove a point to Mourinho for selling him in January last year by inspiring United to a victory that would end Chelsea's unbeaten home record in the BPL this season.
"Normally I always put players in the line-up if they've played for the opponent, so I think Mata shall play," he said.
Chelsea also have injury problems in attack with Diego Costa sidelined by a hamstring injury but Loic Remy is rated “better than 50-50” by manager Jose Mourinho to recover in time from a calf problem.

свернуть