This is the biggest game of the competition until now, so the expectations are quite high for both teams. The totals line of this game has the juice going towards the over, with the expectation that this will be an exciting game. After all, Manchester United scored four goals in Round 1, while Chelsea scored twice on each of the two home games they have already played this season and they looked like they had an extra gear on offense whenever it was needed.
However, tonight's game won't have the same characteristics of the previous games played by these two teams. David Luiz is out for tonight's game and Coach Jose Mourinho will have a defensive back line formed by Ashley Cole, John Terry, Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic. We are talking about an experienced defensive line, but with a clear weakness: lack of speed! I'm not expecting Chelsea to put pressure high on the field like they did against Hull City and Aston Villa, as this would be suicidal against Manchester United. Jose Mourinho knows this and he will adjust to the opponent by refusing to pressure high on the field. What I expect Chelsea to do tonight is to play a patient game by closing the lines, lay back a bit on defense and then try to make some damage by taking advantage of their speed on the front. It seems like Fernando Torres will be on the bench tonight and he will be replaced by Romelu Lukaku or Demba Ba.
On the other side, I don't believe Manchester United will adopt an all-out attitude against Chelsea tonight. After all, David Moyes is new in the team and on his first big clash against Jose Mourinho's teams (Everton didn't fare well versus Chelsea when Mourinho was the HC), so I believe Man United will be prudent tonight as well. Facing Swansea who played wide open against them is one thing, but facing Chelsea is another different thing, as a single error might result in a loss. Both managers arrived to their clubs this season and they won't risk anything early on the season to avoid a loss to a rival so early in the season, as that would be a huge blow on the team morale. Therefore, I expect a boring low scoring game tonight and so, I'll be taking the Under in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on Under 2,75 @ -118 / 1.85 on Pinnacle OR -122 / 1.82 on 5Dimes
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