Chelsea suffered their first loss of the Premier League season losing 2–1 to Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The rainy conditions created a hectic atmosphere to start, but Enzo Maresca could not have predicted how the first five minutes transpired. A spanner was thrown immediately into the works as goalkeeper Robert Sánchez was sent off for a reckless challenge outside the box on Bryan Mbeumo.
Estêvão was the first to be hooked making way for Filip Jörgensen, but Enzo Maresca made another change immediately bringing on Tosin Adarabioyo for Pedro Neto. The Italian was seemingly content to play out the game with five defenders and hope for the best. Yet, it didn’t take long for Man Utd to make the Blues pay for an egregious error.
Bruno Fernandes scored the 100th goal of his Red Devils career with a 15th minute effort to open the scoring. The Portuguese midfielder was kept onside by a dangling Trevoh Chalobah foot. Maresca then chose to change things up even further when Cole Palmer was substituted shortly after the goal for Andrey Santos.
Casemiro doubled the hosts’ lead in the 37th minute as the torrential conditions continued. And, just as it looked like both sides would head into the tunnel, the Brazilian midfielder was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for a tackle on Andrey Santos. Some life for the Blues as some sense of parity was restored as it was Ruben Amorim’s turn to fume for a player getting sent off.
Maresca, despite bringing off three of his attacking starters, had options to turn to off the bench. Yet, they had to be clinical decisions given he had just two substitutions to play with. He chose to bring on Malo Gusto and Tyrique George in the second half.
Chelsea saw more of the ball with 10 men on each side, but struggled to create consistent attacking patterns. Chalobah rose tall to bring one back in the 80th minute with a strong header as they pushed on to rescue something from the game. The Blues were exhausted by the end trying to find an equaliser that never came despite seven minutes of stoppage time.
The result marked points dropped in consecutive games for Chelsea after drawing to Brentford last time out.
Blues player ratings from the match below.
Chelsea Player Ratings vs. Man Utd (4-2-3-1)
Subs not used: Jorrel Hato, Alejandro Garnacho, Jamie Gittens, Marc Guiu
Chelsea Player of the Match: Trevoh Chalobah
Player of the Match: Bruno Fernandes
Manchester United (3-4-2-1): Altay Bayındır; Matthijs de Ligt, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw; Noussair Mazraoui, Casemiro, Bruno Fernandes, Patrick Dorgu; Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo, Benjamin Šeško
Subs: Senne Lammens (GK), Ayden Heaven, Leny Yoro, Tyler Fredricson, Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte, Mason Mount, Matheus Cunha, Joshua Zirkzee
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Chelsea Player Ratings vs. Man Utd: Blues Lose Chaotic Affair 2–1 at Old Trafford.