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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has given Manchester United a major advantage ahead of Chelsea clash

It's Chelsea vs Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.

A decade ago, this fixture would have had a major say on who would be crowned champions at the end of the season, and in recent years it's been somewhat of a battle with top-four implications.

And the latest instalment between the two clubs remains just as important, but for differing reasons.

Chelsea, who drew at Southampton last weekend, need the points as they aim to finish in the Champions League places, as are United who will be hopeful of seeing Manchester City slip up in the title race.

Whilst the two teams are no strangers to one another, Sunday's meeting at Stamford Bridge will be the first time Thomas Tuchel faces Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the Premier League.

Of course, the two head coaches have a history - as recently as December 2020 when the German was Paris Saint-Germain boss and his side were in the same Champions League group as the Red Devils.

Tuchel has admitted that he will be showing his Chelsea players videos of PSG’s encounters with United in the hope of preparing his side for what's to come.

"It helps that you know the style, strengths, the weaknesses and it helps you to prepare but it’s not that we won't show pictures from these [PSG] games to help the team," he said.

"We will focus on the last four weeks as always but to have a clear picture from the last two fixtures this season or the knockout that we played one and a half years ago gives a pretty good impression on the style they want to play, the spaces where they want to hurt us, their strengths individually and as a group. That helps us to prepare.

"We will underline our opinion and knowledge from Man United for the last four weeks like always and prepare our team as always to hopefully win this match.

"In the end, we will focus on us and what we need to do to win this difficult match. There's a lot to do but we are on a good run and it will be a big challenge to be the first to beat them in an away game."

To Tuchel's point, something has to give on Sunday.

United are unbeaten away from home in the league all season - including trips to Liverpool and Arsenal - while Tuchel is yet to taste defeat since taking over from Frank Lampard last month.

With that said, recent history points to Solskjaer and Man United having the advantage.

Tuchel and the Norwegian have faced each other four times in the past two years and have two wins apiece. Interestingly, neither manager is yet to the home game.

United famously beat Tuchel's PSG in the last-16 Champions League encounter at the Parc des Princes in March 2019 and repeated the trick in the group stage earlier this season.

And it's the same for the German at Old Trafford, winning on his two visits to the 'Theatre of Dreams'.

However, if this trend continues then Tuchel will suffer his first defeat as Chelsea head coach at the hands of a familiar foe.

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