Manchester United vs Chelsea: Red beat Chelsea 4-0, an embarrassing start for Lampard

Frank Lampard and Marcus Rashford during Manchester United vs Chelsea match

Lampard Rashford Chelsea Manchester United — Frank Lampard and Marcus Rashford during Manchester United vs Chelsea match

Manchester United: Marcus Rashford (18″, Penalty & 67″), Anthony Martial (65″), Daniel James (81″)

Chelsea: NO score.

Manchester United made a winning start to the 2019/20 Premier League season by beating Chelsea 4-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Anthony Martial and Daniel James scored each, along with a brace from Marcus Rashford, proved enough to help Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to begin his first full season in charge in style and also inflict the first defeat of Frank Lampard’s reign as Chelsea boss.

Things unravelled for Lampard’s men as early as the 18th minute when Kurt Zouma tripped Rashford and gave away the penalty, which Rashford easily converted. Martial and Rashford added two during second half. James came off the bench to score his first United goal.

First Half

A first half saw the first 15 minutes dominated by the away side, Abraham striking the right post in the opening minutes. United struggled to put together real passages of possession and the press from Chelsea bore fruit as the first phase of play for United regularly broke down. It took a turnover in the middle of the pitch and a quick transition with Martial to get Rashford one on one with Kurt Zouma, who fouled the English international in the box to get a penalty, who the former tucked home with aplomb.

The Red Devils enjoyed their best period of the half after the goal, more combinations between the front four being made, particularly Martial and Rashford. The midfield in Pogba and McTominay, even in this time, were giving away the ball, while Lingard and Pereira offered little in terms of options and were not stopping Chelsea’s midfield pick passes between the lines. The last 15 the only bit of action saw the Chelsea LB, Emerson, strike the upper right of the same post that Abraham did earlier in the half.

Second Half

The spaces that Chelsea enjoyed in the first half, they themselves began to open themselves up and United began to take advantage of it. A good piece of breaking up the play from Maguire allowed the Reds to break into space, with the ball ending up on the right side, Pereira delivering the ball into the six yard box for Martial to stick away. No more than 2 minutes went by before a throw in and quick exchange saw Pogba on the ball in space where he lofted a ball over the Chelsea defence, Rashford latching on and slotting past Kepa to make it 3.

Chelsea continued pressing and the opportunities for United to break and score a fourth looked ever more likely, eventually happening. This time, down the left hand side, Pogba and Martial exchanged passes then Pogba broke free with the ball. As the Chelsea players caught up, Pogba checked back and slotted it past the defenders to Daniel James who, after an initial stutter, struck it and with the benefit of a deflection, it crept past Kepa into the bottom right hand corner. The last 10 minutes carried on with little much from either side and then Anthony Taylor drew proceedings to close after four additional minutes.