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Having fallen well short of Manchester City in the Premier League title race and Liverpool in the Champions League, Manchester United and Chelsea’s season boils down to their FA Cup final meeting at Wembley on Saturday. It’s a chance to recognise the Red Devils’ obvious improvement under Jose Mourinho this term with silverware, and gloss over yet another disappointing title defence from the Blues.

This will be the third time these two clubs have met in the FA Cup final, so can previous meetings tell us anything about how Saturday’s clash will pan out? Here’s the complete Premier League history of Chelsea vs Manchester United in the Premier League…

Head-to-Head

There have been 14 FA Cup encounters to date between the Blues and the Red Devils, with the latter claiming twice as many wins as the former during that time and scoring eleven more goals. In fact, Chelsea won just one of their first ten cup clashes against United, conceding a whopping 21 goals.

Since 2007 though, there’s been a real power shift in this fixture. United haven’t won any of the last four meetings, Chelsea winning three and drawing 2-2 for a replay in 2013.

But only Arsenal have featured in the same number of FA Cup finals as the Old Trafford outfit, and only Arsenal have won more FA Cups than them. That will give United huge confidence going into the weekend. Their FA Cup final win rate is an impressive 60%, 6% higher than Chelsea’s.

The Shared Hero – Ray Wilkins

The incredible career of the late, great Ray Wilkins will be the backdrop for Saturday’s final. The former midfielder’s family have been invited to attend as special guests and his widow Jackie will hand the trophy to this weekend’s victors. The hoardings will display Wilkins’ name as the teams walk out and there will be a short video to honour him before kickoff.

That’s of course, because Wilkins is a legendary figure for both clubs. He started his career at Chelsea, helping fire them back to the First Division in 1997, but eventually left Stamford Bridge in search of greater success. He found it to an extent at Old Trafford; fittingly for this weekend, Wilkins’ only major honour with the Red Devils was the FA Cup in 1983.

Wilkins would later return to his boyhood club as assistant manager on two separate occasions, twice stepping in as caretaker.

The Classic Clash – Manchester United 4-0 Chelsea

It might be something of a sore spot for Chelsea fans, but the 4-0 defeat to Manchester United in the 1994 FA Cup final actually represents the very start of their rise to prominence. Glenn Hoddle took the reigns at Stamford Bridge a year earlier and marked his first season with an outing at Wembley, the first time Chelsea had got there since 1972.

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It was actually a relatively close game until the hour mark, Chelsea even hitting the bar, when Sir Alex Ferguson’s side suddenly sprung into life. Eric Cantona scored two penalties in the space of six minutes, Mark Hughes followed up a further three minutes later and then substitute Brian McClair provided the finishing touch to the 4-0 romping in stoppage time.

But Hoddle’s tenure signalled that times were changing in west London after several years in the wilderness. Chelsea finished 14th in the Premier League that season; three years later they’d be sixth and eight years later they’d be English champions.

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The agent of Tottenham Hotspur target Nicolas Gaitan has told Foot Mercato that the midfielder will leave Atletico Madrid in January, reports talkSPORT.

What’s the word?

The North London outfit, as well as Manchester United, were registered with an interest in the Argentine earlier this year.

Gaitan has found it difficult trying to cement a place in the first team having started just six La Liga games this season.

The midfielder’s agent Jose Iribarren has told Foot Mercato that a number of English clubs are interested in his client, who intends to move on next month.

“I can tell you English clubs are interested. Yes, he’ll undoubtedly leave Atletico in January. He has a lot of concrete offers. Nicolas was an important player when he played in Argentina, at Benfica and with the national team.

“He can’t continue in these conditions. If he can’t play a string of matches, nor win the coach’s trust. A player wants to play. We’re going to see with Atletico which solution we can find.”

The 29-year-old has been at the Spanish outfit since 2016 when he made the switch from Benfica, where he made more than 250 appearances.

Do Tottenham need him?

The Premier League club may not necessarily be crying out for Gaitan, but he is certainly capable of providing the team with some attacking flair.

So far, Mauricio Pochettino has been reliant on Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli to lead the way from midfield.

However, both players have experienced dips in form in recent weeks, which could be down to the amount of games they are feating in.

Gaitan would be a decent player to call upon for an injection of quality, plus the midfielder has Champions League experience.

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The fact that the player’s agent has confirmed his client has a desire to move in January, puts Tottenham in a good position in terms of negotiations.

Much is made of Jack Wilshere being the prodigal son, but for me Ross Barkley is the real deal.

Everton fans may still be mourning the loss of Marouane Fellaini and rightly so because they have lost someone of undoubted quality. The Premier League club need not dwell on this for long though, because I believe they have a man of potential world-class ability waiting in the wings to fill the void.

Ross Barkley has taken the Premier League by storm this season, and has rightly won himself many admirers. Displays which have shown a degree of confidence and experience beyond his mere 19 years of age, the youngster has shown himself to be the creative spark to fire both Everton and England forward.

Standing toe-to-toe with the established stars of Chelsea, Barkley stood firm where others would have buckled. A constant source of inspiration and direction for the ‘Toffees’, the future appears to be bright for the talented youngster.

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At 19 he is far from the finished article, and as much as Saturday’s performance was a success for Barkley it wasn’t without its faults. From time to time he was caught in possession and gifted Chelsea the initiative when perhaps they didn’t warrant it. Whatever the critique and advice Barkley is afforded going forward, I am convinced he will take it in his stride.

His peers regard him as someone that realises that he was a lot to learn, and that he is readily keen to make the best of his abilities. In Roberto Martinez he has the perfect manager in my view to harness this precocious wealth. A midfield pool that contains the likes of Osman, Barry and McCarthy is definitely conducive to harnessing this talent, and the style of football that the Spaniard is trying to breed is perfect to develop Barkley’s abilities.

The manager has unerring faith, playing the Englishman as much as possible so far this season and clearly he understands the balancing act required here.  Barkley has occupied an advanced playmaker role this season, and this suits him perfectly at this stage. Any mistake he makes has been easily covered by a supporting cast behind him containing the stoic Gareth Barry amongst others. The Premier League is a baptism of fire to even the hardiest of footballing souls, but I think the way Barkley has been employed so far is both shrewd and effective.

Perhaps most important for Everton fans, and this is something that cannot be taught, is Barkley’s innate Scouse steel. A terrible leg break may have set the youngster back somewhat, but now he shows the self-confidence and aggression crucial to Premier League success.

Watching Barkley he wants to be out there, he wants the ball as much as possible. Not shy of a tackle, he offers the balance that perhaps Everton and England both crave.

Such self-assurance would have been tested away on England duty, but from observers he looked every bit the assured talent that his admirers have touted him as. Could we have a future a star in our midst?

I believe so.

The future is bright for Barkley, but it always important to temper the excitement. Whilst the comparisons to Wilshere will be made, it is important to learn lessons from the Arsenal midfielders career so far. Played readily at such a young age, much by necessity, Wilshere has been constantly dogged by reoccurring stress fractures and related injuries. Maybe Wilshere will continue his rise to prominence, but personally his development has been slowed by an excessive workload at such a young age.

Martinez knows he has an abundance of riches in the middle of the park, with Gibson on the return as well. The need to push Barkley into the action week in week out isn’t there, and I can see the Spaniard rotating the squad heavily as we enter the bulk of the season. Difficult I know to do considering the excitement surrounding the player, but for the long term this is an understandable necessity.

A loan spell to the Championship may still not be a bad bet, even if it draws a degree of disappointment from fans.

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Everton may well have lost their talismanic star to United, but if they play their cards right they may have a gem for years to come.

Is Ross Barkley the real deal?

Join the debate below

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Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney suffered a gash to his upper leg and looks set to miss four weeks of football that will include two World Cup qualifiers for England.

Rooney suffered the nasty injury shortly after coming on as a substitute as United picked up their first three points of the season in a narrow win at home to Fulham.

After being left out of the staring XI, with Robin van Persie taking his place, Rooney came on only to be heading down the tunnel shortly afterwards following a collision with Fulham’s Hugo Rodallega that left the England striker needing hospital treatment.

“It is a very bad cut,” ­Ferguson told the Daily Mirror. “He went straight to hospital. It looks like he will be out for four weeks. It’s a bad one.”

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Rooney will now miss key games for United, but also two vital World Cup qualifiers for England against Moldova and Ukraine where Hodgson will have to select from his limited attacking options.

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Out-of-favour Leeds United forward Pawel Cibicki was spotted in the crowd watching a Legia Warsaw match last week to spark rumours that he could leave the club this summer, and Whites fans were quick to react to his potential exit on Twitter.

The 24-year-old moved to Elland Road from Malmo on a four-year deal on the last day of the 2017 summer transfer window, but he struggled to make a positive impact under previous boss Thomas Christiansen.

The Swede provided two assists in eight appearances in all competitions for the Yorkshire outfit, before he was frozen out of the first-team picture altogether by current manager Paul Heckingbottom, only making the substitutes’ bench on four occasions since the start of February and not playing a single minute of football.

We asked Leeds fans to vote on our poll to see whether they believed the club should keep the attacker and give him a second chance to impress next season, but a huge 71% said they wouldn’t.

They obviously weren’t impressed with the few glimpses they have had of the forward, and feel that they need to be doing better if they are to finally secure a top-six finish in the Championship next term.

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Well, Luis Suarez isn’t the only one who has a taste for Italian (sorry, that’ll never get old).

Arsene Wenger seems keen on Italian takeaway, too – well, an Italian team’s players, at least – with the Gunners being linked with two Napoli stars, Gonzalo Higuain and Jose Callejon. Wenger is set on adding a new attacker to his squad, but which Partenopei player should he choose?

Higuain is the flashier option, having scored 18 goals and registered seven assists in 37 Serie A games while finding the net 11 additional times in other competitions. The Argentine occupied the lone spot up top in Napoli’s 4-2-3-1 formation, a position that saw him average 3.1 shots per game in league play.

But when Higuain looks over his right shoulder for a pass, it’s Callejon who is there. Callejon notched seven assists on top of 12 goals and was Rafael Benitez’s most-used attacker, plying his trade for 4,323 minutes over 59 appearances for the club last term.

The Gunners are yet to add a marquee attacker during this transfer window, but they have seen the departure of winger Lukas Podolski to Galatasaray. Although Podolski very rarely came off the bench last season – and was loaned to Inter Milan for six months – Wenger would do well to reinforce his side with a player of similar style.

Arsenal already have Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott as reliable striking options, so the club needs a versatile attacker to replace Podolski, not another out-and-out forward, which makes the case for signing Callejon over Higuain.

The 28-year-old averaged 1.4 key passes per game, most of which were short layoffs on the flanks, and his success rate for short passes was roughly 82% – better than both Arsenal wingers Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Callejon lost possession just 1.2 times per game, while Sanchez was dispossessed 10.4 times per game.

Callejon is already used to Wenger’s 4-2-3-1 system, and could easily play on either the left or right wing. The Spaniard puts an emphasis on passing and on attacking down the wings, both areas that Arsenal rely on to hold together a non-aggressive, possession-based style.

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If Arsenal are to mount a serious title challenge, they need to be able to hold onto the ball against Chelsea’s hardened defensive lines and attack from all over the pitch. Callejon has the agility and flexibility to be the heartbeat of the Gunners’ attack.

Like with most of the cases in which Barcelona look to offload their youngsters, the potential departure of Gerard Deulofeu this summer will see him return to Catalonia in the near future, likely as near as next summer. It’s for that reason that Dortmund opted out of signing the talented winger. What use would they have for the player, no matter how good he was, if he couldn’t really be considered as a replacement for the departed Mario Goetze?

The story on Deulofeu should be well known by now. He’s up there in the class of Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi as one of La Masia’s most talented graduates. Under no circumstances would the club – for all the criticism that can be said of their transfer policy – allow Deulofeu to escape their grasp permanently.

Liverpool and Tottenham however, are said to be looking to take the youngster on loan for the coming season. The player himself wants to play at the top level of European football. A move to Dortmund suited him due to the German side’s participation in the Champions League, but at this stage of his career the Europa League would do just as well.

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You’d struggle to find any concrete reason to suggest that either Tottenham or Liverpool would be best suited for the player. Neither are likely to offer him regular first team opportunities considering the players already in both teams’ squads, while the Premier League isn’t really the most ideal destination for his football education. Barcelona will exercise extreme caution with Deulofeu, ensuring they don’t make the same mistakes as they did with Bojan Krkic. Provided everything goes to plan, Deulofeu will spend most of, if not all his career in Spain.

It’s not that Deulofeu would be a poor acquisition for either Premier League club, it’s that it would be a pointless exercise. Why invest time in the making of someone else’s player? We shouldn’t even entertain the prospect of either team landing him in a permanent deal. The player’s performances at youth level with Spain have been excellent, as he’s formed a promising partnership with Real Madrid’s Jese Rodriguez – one of his bets friends in the game and someone who he’s grown up with in the Spanish setup. Deulofeu’s most recent season with Barcelona B has also been his most productive, scoring 18 goals in 33 appearances in what is Spain’s equivalent of the Championship. He’s good enough for the first team of many clubs in Europe, yet just a little short of taking a spot in the Barcelona senior team.

Other clubs around Europe and in Spain are also said to be in the race for the player. Isaac Cuenca has talked up Ajax following the spell he had in the Netherlands last season, while Real Sociedad and Sevilla could be in line to take Deulofeu on loan for the coming campaign.

Barcelona, of course, will have the final say. Their priority is to ensure the player receives first-team football wherever he ends up, though their preference was to see him head to Dortmund prior to the Bundesliga side backing away from the deal. You’d have to ask whether Spurs and Liverpool can afford to take a gamble on Deulofeu in this regard, offering him regular minutes while still maintaining the upward trajectory they each seem to be on. The switch from Spain to Germany isn’t as noticeable as it would be if the player moved to England. Barcelona may also take note of Daniel Carvajal’s season at Bayer Leverkusen, in which the right-back earned a place back at Real Madrid following his sale last summer.

For now, Barcelona may find the most joy in sending Deulofeu to one of the La Liga teams interested in his services. The player’s integration at a club like Sociedad is likely to be a success considering their young core of players, while Sevilla have made him a priority this summer, with a view to using him as a short-term replacement for Jesus Navas.

Should Tottenham and Liverpool look to make a move for Deulofeu?

Join the debate below

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How committed a fan are you…

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Sheffield Wednesday earned a creditable point away to English Championship winners Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, drawing 0–0 at Molineux.

With five wins and two draws in their last nine matches, it appears Jos Luhukay is beginning to turn things around for the Owls and today’s draw against the best side in the division is further proof of that.

Fans were delighted with the result and paid tribute to the team’s defensive performance after the match.

Drawing particular praise was 22-year-old goalkeeper Cameron Dawson, who was making just his sixth career Championship appearance.

He was central to his side’s clean sheet and some supporters believe he could make a bid for the number one position next season with Keiren Westwood yet to return from injury and Dawson competing well to replace Joe Wildsmith.

Can the 6ft 4in shot-stopper realise his potential and make the position his own with more appearances?

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Fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts…

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According to reports from The Daily Mail this afternoon, Manchester United signing Memphis Depay is ‘honoured’ by comparisons with his footballing idol Cristiano Ronaldo.

Last week it was revealed the Red Devils had completed a transfer for the 21 year-old worth between £25million and £30million – as reported by BBC Sport. It follows a 28-goal campaign at PSV, which has seen Depay rise to the top of the Eredivise scoring charts and the Eindhoven outfit claim their first league title since 2008.

A prolific winger-forward famed for his explosive pace, goals and trickery, the Netherlands international has often been compared to Manchester United icon Cristiano Ronaldo – also sharing the three-time Ballon d’Or winner’s unusual free kick technique.

Speaking with BBC One production Football Focus ahead of his official move to Old Trafford this summer, Depay revealed his delight at such comparisons.

“It’s an honour to have a name like that but you have to be real and I am down to earth,” he said. He is my idol and a big, big player – maybe the biggest in the world. I watched him a lot. I look at his free-kicks and how he moves, but I am Memphis and I am going to show myself.”

The Eredivise prodigy went on to discuss his relationship with Red Devils boss Louis van Gaal, who handed Depay his international debut in 2013.

“I have a good relationship with him,” Depay said. In the World Cup he trained very hard and that is what I like. I learned a lot from him. He is very strict and that is what I like. If I do something good he is going to tell you, and that’s important, but also if you can do it better he is going to tell you that.

“I believe he can make me better. I am young and I want to be one of the best players in the world,” he added.

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Such is the delicate nature of the battle for Premier League safety it is a nervous time to be a Norwich supporter. With just four points and four places separating Chris Hughton’s side from the bottom three the pressure is piled on them to secure a win that would almost guarantee a third straight season in the top-flight. One win in their last 16 has dragged the Canaries into the dogfight and have been sliding ever since their 10 match unbeaten streak came to end just before Christmas. Back then they dreamt of European qualification, but now nightmarish visions of dropping back into the Championship are becoming all too real.

Reading approach the game knowing their fate could be sealed by five o’clock if results go against them. Most expect the Royals to be a second tier club by the time the referee’s whistle is blown at Carrow Road and, with the need to score a victory weighing heavy on Norwich, that could work in their favour. Nigel Adkins has brought with him a bright optimism since arriving at the Madjeski Stadium and refuses to believe that all is not lost despite needing maximum points from their remaining games to have a chance at surviving. He’ll hope to break his winning duck this weekend and will take heart from their goalless draw with Liverpool last time out.

Team News

Bradley Johnson (dead leg) is a major doubt for Norwich, who can welcome back Anthony Pilkington and Wes Hoolahan after the missed the defeat at Arsenal last week. Goalkeeper John Ruddy is back to full fitness and is pushing for a start.

Reading could have Jimmy Kebe fit enough to return after overcoming a groin injury, while fellow winger Hal Robson-Kanu (knee) has a chance of featuring. However, the game comes too soon for Adam Federici and midfielder Hope Akpan (both ankle).

What the managers said…

“There’s no perfect opponent. The only perfect ones are the ones you get results from and we need to make sure we get a result. We’re still in there fighting and at this moment we have another 15 points up for grabs and we’ve got to get as many as we can. To go the Emirates and play as well as we did shows a lot of character. We felt they have had some elements go in their favour, but we have to dust ourselves down.” Chris Hughton rejects the idea that Reading will be pushovers (Eastern Daily Press)

“We’re on letter A of the alphabet and we’ve got to get to letter Z. It’s been a good three weeks, you’ve seen where we were to start off with and where we are now and there’ s a lot of things we’ve implemented in a very, very short space of time. There’s so much more that needs to be done. “ Nigel Adkins admits he still has a lot of work to do at Reading (readingfc.co.uk)

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Pre-match Statistic: Reading have tasted defeat in just one of their last seven league meetings with Norwich. 

Prediction: Norwich City 1-0 Reading

Make your bets ahead of the showdown at Carrow Road by clicking on the banner below

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