Man United 4-1 Chelsea as Red Devils seal top-four spot in style,Red devils qualified for next season’s Champions League courtesy of a 4-1 thrashing of Chelsea.
Needing just a point to be certain of a top-four finish in this season’s Premier League — and a place in the group stages of Europe’s top competition in 2023/24 — United never looked back after Casemiro headed in the opener after only six minutes at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea have endured a dispiriting season but they played well in the first half, dominating possession and creating one or two openings, the best of which was spurned by Conor Gallagher.
Yet Frank Lampard’s young side were 2-0 down just before halftime, Anthony Martial tapping in Jadon Sancho’s pass, and from there the result looked certain.
Bruno Fernandes, who had earlier hit the crossbar, made it 3-0 from the penalty spot before Marcus Rashford scored his 30th goal of the season from close range. Joao Felix netted a fine consolation for the Blues, who are 12th in the table and desperate to see the back of this season.
Man United vs Chelsea final score
| Final | Goal scorers | |
| Man U | 4 | Casemiro, Martial, Fernandes (p), Rashford |
| Chelsea | 1 | Felix |
Lineups:
Man United (4-2-3-1, right to left): De Gea (GK) — Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Lindelof, Shaw (Malacia) — Casemiro, Eriksen (Fred) — Antony (Rashford), Fernandes (McTominay), Sancho — Martial (Garnacho)
Chelsea (4-3-3, right to left): Kepa (GK) — Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Fofana, Hall — Gallagher (D. Fofana), Fernandez, Chukwuemeka (Loftus-Cheek) — Madueke (Ziyech), Havertz (Felix), Mudryk (Pulisic)
Man United turn on the style in tribute to Ten Hag’s work
United have made a habit for much of this season, certainly in recent months, of winning games by a less comfortable margin than they should. While the defence is often sound — De Gea has already won the Golden Glove award for the most clean sheets, with 17 and counting — Ten Hag has often been frustrated by his side’s inability to kill matches.
Today, there was no such concern.
United ended the game with 5.14 expected goals, which is the highest such figure of any side in a single Premier League game this season (according to Opta data). They should really have scored at least two more than they managed, and several promising attacks broke down even before a shot was attempted, but this was still a promising step forward in Ten Hag’s work.
