(Football news) The Blues’ hopes of top-tier continental football were dented at the base of Newcastle United last time out, whilst Manchester United suffered a sobering defeat at home to West Ham United.
After finishing sixth in the Premier League during the 2023-24 campaign, securing Conference League football for this term, Chelsea are aiming to go at least one position better this time around in order to qualify for the Champions League, a competition they won as recently as 2021 under Thomas Tuchel.
That being said, the Blues’ charge towards a top-five standing was stopped in its tracks by a rowdy bunch of Magpies in the North-East last Sunday afternoon, when goals either side of the half-time whistle from Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes sealed a 2-0 success for Newcastle.
Following a five-game winning run across all competitions, Chelsea’s first defeat in the Premier League since March 16 has left them hanging onto their Champions League spot by a thread, with Enzo Maresca’s men occupying fifth spot, level on points with Aston Villa in sixth.
The Blues should be relatively confident of picking up a positive result this Friday at Stamford Bridge, where the West Londoners were last defeated in the Premier League all the way back on Boxing Day, when a last-minute strike from Rodrigo Muniz won the afternoon for neighbours Fulham.
Only runaway champions Liverpool (1) and Aston Villa (1) have lost fewer games at home in the Premier League than Chelsea’s two so far this season, with Friday’s hosts unbeaten across their last four competitive meetings with Manchester United at Stamford Bridge stretching back to February 2021.
Manchester United extended their winless run in the Premier League to an astonishing seven matches on Sunday afternoon, when goals from midfielder Tomas Soucek and winger Jarrod Bowen secured a 2-0 win at the Theatre of Dreams for West Ham, who leapfrogged the hosts in the Premier League table.
Sitting in 16th spot in the top-flight rankings, the Red Devils are hurtling towards their worst-ever Premier League campaign, one which could be masked by an impending success in the Europa League, where the 20-time English champions face Tottenham Hotspur in the final next week.
Ruben Amorim’s troops have collected just a single point across their most recent quartet of domestic away contests, with their last triumph on the road arriving on March 16, when goals from Rasmus Hojlund, Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes defeated a Championship-bound Leicester City.
Coming out on the losing side of a top-flight battle on a staggering 17 occasions already this season, the Red Devils are languishing down in 16th spot clutching at a mere 39 points, only spared of an embarrassing relegation battle by the weakness of Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton.
With league matches against Champions League hunters Chelsea and Villa scheduled either side of the Europa League final in Bilbao, there is a distinct possibility that Man United fail to reach the 40-point mark, an achievement synonymous with sides fighting for their lives at the bottom of the Premier League.
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