LIVE BLOG

FT: Manchester United go through 1-2, riding on Marcus Rashford’s wonder-strike.

87min: Zouma has a go, closer to the half-way line than the goal. Kurt, there’s a time and place..

86min: Mateo Kovacic decides it’s a good time for him to score his first Chelsea goal, unfortunately he doesn’t choose his shot wisely. It’s from distance and very poorly executed.

81min: Alonso shoots from a narrow angle after receiving in the area from Hudson-Odoi. Kurt Zouma flicks wide from the subsequent corner.

79min: Final change for Manchester United, Marcus Rashford replaced by Ashley Young. This is probably United putting up shop for the day.

77min: Batshuayi goes down in the area under pressure from Marcos Rojo, that’ll also be his final action of the game as he’s replaced by Tammy Abraham.

72min: Goal. Marcus Rashford channels his inner Cristiano Ronaldo with a genuinely once-in-a-season sort of free-kick flying into the top corner from 34 yards. The free-kick came about after Pedro needlessly fouled Pereira in a bust of over-exuberance.

70min: Batshuayi seemed to have been in on goal in the same manner as before, but slipped.

69min: Fred’s wild effort from an acute angle whizzes past the face of goal, after which Mount and Pedro replace Gilmour and Pulisic respectively. Like-for-like.

65min: Anthony Martial replaces Victor Lindelof, and Andreas Pereira comes on for Jesse Lingard. Looks like it’s going to be a 4-3-3 from United.

64min: The combination of James and Hudson-Odoi make another foray down the right, this time James’ cross is cut out by Rojo.

61min: WHAT A GOAL OH MY DAYS! MICHY BATSHUAYI! WOW! The Batsman picks up a goal-kick from Caballero around the half-way line, muscles his way past the entire United defence and lets rip from distance, leaving Romero with absolutely no chance, ONE - ONE.

56min: Jorginho lobs a through ball with Hudson-Odoi at the end of it, he goes for the spectacular with a half-volley just outside the box. It’s well struck and dips, but there’s just too much on it.

54min: Reece James whips a sumptuous cross for Batshuayi but again, it’s fine margins as it just evades the striker.

52min: Pulisic shoots from a central area, outside the box and misses with Batshuayi calling for it in a better position.

51min: Somewhat fortuitously. a Chelsea pass bypasses about three players and sees the Blues 3v3 on goal, but Billy Gilmour fails to play it through to Hudson-Odoi. The ball then falls to Gilmour again, who shoots and it’s blocked by Rojo. There are calls for handball but the referee’s having none of it.

49min: Biggest chance of the game, Alonso’s cross finds Hudson-Odoi right in front of goal but he somehow only grazes the ball with his left foot and it goes wide.

47min: Kurt Zouma is clear on a header from a corner but mistimes his jump.. as we’ve seen before!

45min: Batshuayi kicks the second half off.

HT: It ends with United in the lead. Chelsea have seen more of the ball and entered United’s third of the pitch with regularity but have struggled to convert any of that into shots on goal.

37min: Hudson-Odoi and James combine well and James fizzes a low cross into the area, it’s just ahead of the onrushing Gilmou and gets cleared by Wan-Bissaka.

36min: Batshuayi picks McTominay’s pocket and could’ve started a threatening move but loses possession soon after.

34min: A long sequence of passes ends in Hudson-Odoi crossing with nobody at the end of it.

32min: Tariq Lamptey can be seen warming up. Could it be a switch to 3 at the back eventually?

30min: It’s been six minutes of Chelsea being very sloppy in midfield, and United content to break rhythm.

24min: GOAL. Marcus Rashford tucks it away into the bottom-right corner. 0-1.

23min: Mateo Kovacic loses the ball to Daniel James and Alonso clips him from behind in the penalty area. Penalty to United.

21min: Hudson-Odoi capitalises on an erroneous diagonal and carries the ball into the final third before being fouled by Fred.

17min: Batshuayi confusingly goes into the referee’s book for a foul on McTominay that was nowhere near as bad as the latter’s challenge a few minutes ago.

14min: United switch play to Wan-Bissaka, his cross is ineffectively cleared by Zouma and the ball falls to James, who shoots wide.

12min: United’s first corner comes from Guehi blocking Lingard’s cross, after the winger was released into a pocket of space by Wan-Bissaka. McTominay fires just wide from the resulting (grounded) corner.

10min: Near-cynical challenge from McTominay on Pulisic. He’s rightly booked, and luckily Christian is on his feet.

8min: Another attempt from Alonso to play directly in behind defence from the left flank. It’s cut out by the United defence on this occasion.

5min: Another positive passage of play sees Reece James cross for Batshuayi whose shot is deflected over.

2min: Marcos Alonso’s superb direct ball is nudged down for Batsuhayi, who could’ve been clear on goal but his first touch is too heavy.

0min: And we’re underway.

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We owe Manchester United one for that opening day drubbing. Will today be the day for payback? Only one way to find out.

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Chelsea starting line-up (4-3-3): Caballero | James, Zouma, Guehi, Alonso | Jorginho (c), Gilmour, Kovacic | Hudson-Odoi, Batshuayi, Pulisic

Substitutes from: Cumming, Azpilicueta, Lamptey, Mount, Pedro, Giroud, Abraham

Manchester United starting line-up (3-4-3): Romero | Lindelof, Maguire, Rojo | Wan-Bissaka, McTominay, Fred, Williams | James, Rashford, Lingard

Substitutes from: Grant, Jones, Young, Pereira, Garner, Mata, Martial

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Date / Time: Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 20.05 GMT, 4:05pm EDT; 1:35am IST (next day) — note that Daylight Savings has ended in Europe/UK but not yet in the USA, so the time difference is one hour less

Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6

Referee: Paul Tierney

Forecast: Cooling down; winter is coming

On TV: Sky Sports Main Event (UK); none (USA); none? (India); SuperSport 3 (NGA); elsewhere

Streaming: Sky GO (UK); ESPN+ (USA); JioTV? (India); DStv Now (NGA); Chelsea TV (audio commentary only — int’l) — we have an affiliate link you can use to sign up for ESPN+, if you so choose, as well, which means we (WAGNH) get a small commission.

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As always, be excellent to each other and party on, dudes!