Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior urged his side to “take advantage of the moment” as they look to arrest their poor form and keep their Champions League aspirations alive against Manchester United.
The Blues have fallen off the pace in the race for the top-five finish that would secure a place in next season’s Champions League, Rosenior’s men having suffered three successive Premier League defeats without scoring a goal.
Chelsea are four points behind fifth-placed Liverpool as a result of that run, but their record in home games with United suggests they can be hopeful of getting back to winning ways.
Indeed, Chelsea have not lost at home to United since February 2020, and Rosenior is desperate to see his side produce a positive performance as they seek a third successive home win over Saturday’s opponents.
“We have to take advantage of this moment,” Rosenior said in his pre-match press conference.
“We’re running out of time, so we need to show that initiative on Saturday evening. We need to play on the front foot and we need to make up those points, which is definitely still possible.
“We’ve had a lot of really strong conversations as a group, and we’ve had some very, very good training sessions. In this kind of moment, you find out about yourself, you find out about your group, and you actually just have to stay focused on the process, which is the here and now.”
Seven points separate Chelsea from third-placed United, who are coming off a surprise 2-1 home defeat to relegation-threatened Leeds United.
The Red Devils’ cause was dented by a highly contentious red card for Lisandro Martinez. His resulting ban and a further suspension for Harry Maguire following his red at Bournemouth has left United depleted at the back.
But Carrick, who has lost only two of his 11 matches as United boss, sees plenty of reason to be optimistic despite those issues and the club’s poor record at Chelsea.
“It’s an important game. We’re in a good position in the league and we want to keep building on that,” said Carrick.
“It’s a tough place to go, always has been, we’ve always had tough games down there. Most of the time they’ve been good games in terms of what it brings, the feeling of a real proper game, so we’ll be ready for that.
“We’ve prepared well and, as I said, we take the confidence from what we’ve built. Yeah, we didn’t get the result we wanted against Leeds on Monday, but certainly the way they finished the game and the character we showed, and we’ve got to take that into this game with an extra player and make the most of it.”
Team news for Chelsea v Manchester United
Enzo Fernandez is set to return from his club-enforced suspension for Chelsea.
Centre-back Trevoh Chalobah is close to a return from an ankle issue, but Reece James still has work to do before he can make his comeback from a hamstring injury.
Jamie Gittens (hamstring), Filip Jorgensen (groin) and Levi Colwill (knee) are all still out, though the latter is making progress in a recovery from the ligament injury that has kept him sidelined for the entire campaign.
The controversial suspensions for Maguire and Martinez come amid the continued absence of fellow centre-back Matthijs de Ligt (back). As such, Ayden Heaven and Leny Yoro appear likely to start in the middle of the defence.
Kobbie Mainoo is again a doubt with an undisclosed injury that kept him out of the defeat to Leeds, while Patrick Dorgu (muscle) is edging closer to a return.
