2
Manchester United took on Chelsea at Old Trafford aiming to win their second consecutive game under interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Andre Onana returned to nets after Altay Bayindir got a rare runout against Leicester City in the cup in midweek.
Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt once again started in the back four with Noussair Mazraoui starting instead of Victor Lindelof.
Casemiro retained his place in the midfield after a fine display versus Leicester and started alongside Manuel Ugarte and Bruno Fernandes.
Alejandro Garnacho, Marcus Rashford and Rasmus Hojlund took up their usual starting three positions in attack.
Here are four things we learnt from the encounter.
Manuel Ugarte must improve
Ruud van Nistelrooy spoke highly of Ugarte before the clash, claiming he was “convinced” about the midfielder being a success at Old Trafford.
Few players will be as excited as linking up with new coach, Ruben Amorim, as the Uruguayan due to the fact he made his name under him at Sporting Lisbon before his high profile switch to Paris Saint-Germain in 2023.
Based on this performance however, the midfielder has much to do to get up to speed at the highest level in the Premier League.
He completed a fist half littered with poor passes and being overrun in the midfield by the impressive Chelsea midfield pair of Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia.
Ugarte was given a yellow card and was regularly a fraction of a second too late for the ball in the ferocious midfield battle.
A silver lining was the great run from his own half that won a dangerous free kick that was wasted by Bruno Fernandes, but he will need to find himself quickly if he is to reach the levels required at Old Trafford.
Noussair Mazraoui impresses on return to starting lineup
The Moroccan on the other hand has taken to life in English football like a duck to water.
He has been on the bench in the last two matches but he returned to action in the left back position and was highly impressive in his return to the starting line up.
Mazraoui pressed well and regularly put the Chelsea attackers under suffocating pressure to protect the left hand side of defence.
The full back also gave a good account of himself on the ball as he regularly held onto possession well under pressure and combined effectively with his teammates in some dangerous positions.
The return of Luke Shaw or Tyrell Malacia, coupled with a left back signing in the January window, will hopefully allow him to really excel in his more natural right back position.
United continue to lack composure in attacking positions
The Red Devils were bright and full of energy against their Premier League rivals but once again struggled to keep composure in the final third.
All of the front three had their moments of wastefulness as they spurned numerous good chances to take advantage of winning the ball in dangerous areas.
One particular frustrating moment was when Hojlund delayed passing the ball to Garnacho in the first half on a 3 on 3 break and the Argentine was finally flagged offside.
After months of practising Erik ten Hag’s chaos ball, it will take some time to train more patience in attacking positions but it will undoubtedly be one of Amorim’s most important tasks if he is to find success in Manchester.
Amorim’s biggest challenge
United fought hard and got themselves into the lead through a penalty from Bruno Fernandes after 70 minutes.
This should have seen the Red Devils shut up shop and protect their lead but in what has become a hallmark of the football club as of late, they gave away an equaliser just four minutes later.
The strike was a great one from Caicedo but goals have been given away far too frequently after leads for United to consider themselves unlucky.
It is impossible for Van Nistelrooy to fix this glaring issue in such little time but the incoming Amorim will need to work incredibly hard to rid the football club of this crippling disease.
Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images