Some Manchester United players received a lot of criticism following their defeat to Chelsea, and for a change, Jose Mourinho wasn’t involved.
The United manager offered no excuses after their 1-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Alvaro Morata’s fantastic header proved the difference between the teams on Sunday, settling a frantic game, which the home side took control of in the second-half. The defeat leaves United eight points behind Manchester City at the top of table, moves Chelsea a point behind United into fourth place in the table and relieves the considerable pressure on Antonio Conte.
From Chelsea’s perspective, it was a stunning goal from Morata, but United will feel it could have been prevented.
Cesar Azpilicueta ran unchallenged with the ball into the United half and, as the opposition midfield and defence backed off, the Chelsea defender took his time to pick out Morata, who positioned himself between Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling. Smalling was beside Morata when the passage of play began, but became distracted by Tiémoué Bakayoko running from midfield. Jones didn’t engage Azpilicueta, Smalling came across to pick up Bakayoko and Bailly was focused on marking Eden Hazard at the back post.
This left Morata unmarked in the penalty area, and the Spanish striker buried a stunning header past David de Gea, who didn’t even move.
Unsurprisingly, United defenders Jones and Smalling received a lot of criticism for efforts to prevent the goal. It’s rare to see a player of Morata’s quality get a free header in the penalty area against a team with three central defenders. However, the harshest criticism was reserved for a player at other end of the pitch.
Romelu Lukaku had another frustrating afternoon. The Belgian striker hasn’t scored for United since their 4-0 win over Crystal Palace at the end of September – seven games ago – and looks desperately short of confidence. The brilliant form that saw him score seven goals in the first two months of the season has deserted him, and once again the Belgian wasn’t provided with a lot of service.
However, many felt Lukaku should have done more with what he had. His underwhelming display was also compared to Morata’s performance, which was inevitable given that the pair were two big summer signings, and could easily have been lining out for the opposite side on Sunday.
Lukaku was even trending on Twitter just after the game, and there was little sympathy for the striker.
Morata superb header and all round performance 👏👏 Lukaku looked like he didn’t want to be out there…
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) November 5, 2017
Christensen pocketed Lukaku tonight. What a performance from the youngster.
Bright future ahead.
— iChelseaTweets (@iChelseaTweets) November 5, 2017
https://twitter.com/ErenvanBasten/status/927246179276075013
Jose Mourinho again stole Wenger's thunder
& Lukaku having lesser touches then De Gea is discussed more than Lacazette not strtng#CHEMUN
— Why_So_Serious_? (@HODL_till_2140) November 5, 2017
https://twitter.com/sahon_A/status/927237919617798144
The difference between Morata and Lukaku today has been remarkable
— Rik Sharma (@riksharma_) November 5, 2017
Man Utd fans insulted Morata's head all season but are now wishing Lukaku has a head to finish the 3578524 crosses they made today
— 'Wakeel (@__tunde) November 5, 2017
I don't get why mourinho didnt play lukaku today
— Jamie (@JamieCFC98) November 5, 2017
https://twitter.com/zeanify/status/927241944203395072
Lukaku has next to zero involvement in our play. Can blame the poor service of course but he's got to take more responsibility.
— Adam (@adxmjm) November 5, 2017
