Alex Livesey/Getty Images Manchester United host Chelsea in the pick of the weekend ‘s Premier League military action as the two heavyweights of the division go toe-to-toe in what is, as common, a mouthwatering meet at Old Trafford. When these two sides meet, more often than not there is batch at stake. Be it early-season one-upmanship, march-stealing points in the New Year or trophies come the end of the season, neither side can afford to approach this fixture with anything but arrant focus and 100 percentage saturation.
It ‘s safe to say that United-Chelsea is one of the most heatedly anticipate matches of the season, and when these two sides meet, they rarely disappoint. Fireworks of some description normally ensue. But it has n’t always been so. The competition between the two clubs is not a traditional one and has only very reached its current levels in the modern earned run average. Rivalries in football are normally born out of two things : geographic proximity or persistent competition for honours between two clubs. And with 170-odd miles—and a overplus of other football establishments—separating the two, it is decidedly a case of the latter. Both clubs had enjoyed success prior to holocene times—Chelsea in the ’50s and the mid to recently ’60s, United in the Busby era—but these periods could not be sustained long enough for them to overlap and a proper competition was never formed .
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After a bare enchantment lasting 26 years, Alex Ferguson guided United to the first Premier League championship in 1993 and so began the creation of one of the all-time big football dynasties. clive Mason/Getty Images United became embroiled in an entertaining, albeit relatively brief, competition with Newcastle United before Arsenal stepped up to the plate to become the major terror to Ferguson ‘s side in the recently 90s and early noughties. Some of the battles those two clubs fought will endure in the memory for a long meter, but the arrival of Roman Abramovich and his apparently bottomless pockets at Chelsea in 2003 signalled the emergence of a newly rival. soon after the Russian had taken over at Stamford Bridge, Jose Mourinho landed the Blues their first title since 1955 and a boisterous competition was born.
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indeed, along with Abramovich ‘s unlimited cash, Mourinho can take a great deal of the credit rating for the competition between the two clubs today. not entirely did the Portuguese use his boss ‘s money to good effect—winning two league titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups in a whirlwind three years in London—he besides knew how to wind up the resistance. With the two clubs competing for honor on the slope, off it he and Ferguson regularly enjoyed verbal jousts, culminating in the latter once claiming the former “ has no regard for anyone but himself ”. The pair ‘s antics undoubtedly had an effect on their players excessively, ramping up the intensity between them once they stepped into battle. When Mourinho left for Real Madrid, Ferguson did admit to being upset the Premier League had lost “ the unseasoned gunman who has come to township to challenge the old sheriff ”, but the competition lived on, despite the absence of one of the chief protagonists. subsequently that season, the two sides went head to head in the race for the Premier League and the Champions League, United pipping Chelsea to both, and tensions rose with every suffer. Mike Hewitt/Getty Images It all boiled over in April when Chelsea forced the title slipstream to the wire with a 2-1 home acquire, after which United players clashed with groundstaff. There ‘s nothing quite like some fisticuffs to take a competition to another horizontal surface. At boardroom floor, things have been escalated by Peter Kenyon ‘s desertion from United to Chelsea, claiming at the clock that his fresh employers would be the “ biggest clubhouse in the worldly concern by 2016 ”. That remains to be seen, but it was something that will not be forgotten by Ferguson, who has scoffed at Chelsea ‘s ‘lack of history ‘ before. It all makes for a bang-up competition, even if it ‘s not a deep-rooted one.
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many United fans will say Liverpool, Manchester City, even Leeds United, come ahead of any London club in their peck order of rival clubs. And the Chelsea close are probably more take by their bitter competition with Tottenham. But the pair ‘s holocene history at least is compel, and with both looking likely to compete for trophies once again this season, Sunday ‘s latest episode is american samoa unmissable as always .