Chelsea v Man Utd: From title-deciding rivalry to battle of the banter clubs

Chelsea and Manchester United are a million miles away from competing for the biggest trophies; a once-great Premier League rivalry is now a battle to prove they are slightly less embarrassing than the other.

The perma-crises at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford hardly come down to the two managers and replacing them might be ill-advised, but neither Mauricio Pochettino nor Erik ten Hag are doing an outstanding job of getting their clubs out of their respective ruts, are they?

There remains a sense of entitlement at both clubs, especially at Manchester United. They believe they belong at the top, despite the fact they have not won a league title in over a decade. But This Is Manchester United? Yes, and Manchester United are a bit pants and have been for a while.

Chelsea, meanwhile, have adopted an ambitious and questionable model under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, who have been playing real-life Football Manager since buying the Blues from Roman Abramovich, undergoing the most unnecessary, expensive and unnecessarily expensive overhaul we might have ever seen.

Looking back, Thomas Tuchel needed a handful of signings to challenge for the Premier League title. Instead, Boehly and co brought in too many players for too much money and got rid of the Champions League-winning head coach, whose replacement did not last a year and was then replaced by an awful ex-manager who did exactly as well as we all expected.

Boehly has dragged Chelsea below Manchester United’s miserable level but at least there is some hope for the future with all of those young players. Sir Jim Ratcliffe quite rightly wants to change the Red Devils’ transfer philosophy, going away from your Casemiros and Raphael Varanes to your Jarrad Branthwaites and Marc Guehis, spearheaded by Dan Ashworth. Young and hungry players with a point to prove. Not those with nothing left to prove who cost far too much money.

Ratcliffe has a lot of work to do and his ambitions indicate that things are looking up for United, but it feels unlikely that the billionaire will get the results he wants as soon as he would like. That takes time.

He will not copy Chelsea’s messy blueprint, but there will be similarities between Ratcliffe and Boehly, both of whom have long-term ambitions and could be knee-jerk in the managerial department. The latter showed he would not hesitate to sack a manager last season but has so far kept faith in Pochettino, who seems to be under less pressure than Carabao Cup-winning and top-three-finishing boss Ten Hag.

READ MORE: Who will be the next Premier League manager to be sacked?

Last season’s Carabao Cup win is papering over the cracks with United faltering this season and still showing no signs of having a game plan under the Dutch manager. At least there is a philosophy at Chelsea. Even if that philosophy is faltering.

Both Ten Hag and Pochettino take their teams in to Thursday’s Premier League fixture at Stamford Bridge in a negative state of mind. United’s lucky draw at Brentford was both embarrassing and expected, while Chelsea dropping points at home to relegation fodder Burnley epitomised an extremely disappointing campaign and left the Blues 12th in the table, an astounding position to occupy given the money spent and lack of European football.

Chelsea vs Manchester United as a match contested between 12th and 6th feels…weird. It is most certainly not Barclays.

The identity of these clubs has completely changed, with Chelsea going from serial winners to mid-table in the space of two years, while United’s deep-rooted problems have made them a banter club.

2004/05 was the first of many seasons in which Chelsea and Manchester United were among the favourites for the Premier League title. Roman Abramovich’s billions – which were spent a million times better than Boehly in a footballing sense – made the Blues the team to beat, knocking Arsenal and the Red Devils off their perch and dominating English football under Jose Mourinho, whose career downfall draws comparisons to United’s.

There was no title race in Mourinho’s debut campaign, nor was there in 05/06, although it was closer between the two sides. Third-season syndrome (kind of) kicked in at Chelsea with Mourinho at the helm and United took advantage, winning their first league title in four years. The Blues still won a domestic cup double, beating Sir Alex Ferguson’s men in the final of the FA Cup.

Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson before a match.

Even after the wheels fully fell off under Mourinho, Chelsea were still extremely competitive, but often found themselves second best to Manchester United, most famously in the 2008 Champions League final.

Carlo Ancelotti reignited the fire at the Bridge and the Blues were back on top of Ferguson and United. Between the Italian’s arrival and Fergie’s retirement at the end of 12/13, both clubs were more often than not in the top three together and competing for the Premier League title.

After the legendary Scottish manager hung up his hairdryer, Chelsea remained competitive. They won the title under the returning Mourinho – who had a fun spell at Old Trafford – and Antonio Conte – who was denied a fun spell at Old Trafford.

There have not been nearly enough trophies since Conte left in 2018 but the Blues maintained their reputation as one of the best teams in the world, winning the Champions League in 2021, something United have been nowhere near doing since losing the final at Wembley a decade before.

The 2004-2013 battles feel like an eternity ago and the standard will never have been lower between these two sides when they battle it out like two bald men fighting over a comb on Thursday night.

Both have plenty to fight for this season but Manchester United hoping for Arsenal, Manchester City, West Ham and Aston Villa to do well in Europe so they can fluke their way into the Champions League by finishing fifth in the league and Chelsea hoping to make ground on those in…the top half, is not what this once-great rivalry should be about.

That’s not to say we don’t want it to stay like this; it’s outstanding content for fans of the two clubs not involved, and at least they can take solace from the other’s misfortunes. We do like to watch good football, though, and going from title deciders to this muck is a crime against Our League.

READ NEXT: Robbie Savage backs Chelsea to beat Man Utd, West Ham win vs Spurs – Premier League predictions