For Erik ten Hag, it is a reunion that takes him back to where he began, to a false start with a false nine, to a match that may be a reason why Graham Potter now occupies the home dugout at Stamford Bridge. Two months ago, the Englishman was the Brighton manager who triumphed at Old Trafford in Ten Hag’s first match in charge of Manchester United. Given the new Chelsea FC regime’s propensity to target whoever is the flavour of the month, he might not have been chosen to replace Thomas Tuchel without that 2-1 win.
If Potter has the chance to become a rare manager to beat United twice in the same season with different clubs, and the first to defeat Ten Hag twice in his reign, Saturday is about more than just a statistical quirk. The winner will sit in fourth. For all the talk of a big six, there is not always a six-way battle for the Champions League places – and United surrendered their chances last year – but there might be now.
It is a test of two revivals under new managers: United have 19 points from their last eight games, Chelsea 10 from five under Potter. If a stalemate at Brentford was the first hiccup for Potter, August’s 4-0 hammering there was a humiliation for Ten Hag. If that was the nadir for the Dutchman, his subsequent renaissance has brought a trio of high-profile wins, with Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham beaten. Potter has graduated from coaching on the playing fields of universities to defeating AC Milan in the San Siro, but this is his first big-six showdown in England.
Clubs that have welcomed Jose Mourinho’s brand of charismatic leadership have later plumped for managers with a kind of anti-charisma, process-driven individuals with, especially in Potter’s case, a kind of unquotability. Ten Hag at least has the medals to show from his successful stint at Ajax, but each is proof silverware is no longer the prerequisite to get high-profile jobs.
They have squads furnished with the kind of investment that would have been inconceivable when they managed Ostersunds and Go Ahead Eagles. United and Chelsea both spent over £200m in the summer, though a fundamental difference is that Potter took over after the recruitment drive. They are not his buys.
Each nonetheless has a mixed inheritance. Indeed, but for Tuchel’s resolve, Potter could have been bequeathed Cristiano Ronaldo after Chelsea’s owners showed an interest in acquiring him. Ten Hag may wish they had: Ronaldo instead represents an unwanted distraction and has been banished from the squad this weekend in a disciplinary measure. By departing down the tunnel before the final whistle on Wednesday, he deflected attention from United’s brilliant performance against Spurs.
Ten Hag’s decision-making has shown an obduracy at times, though using Christian Eriksen (unsuccessfully) as a false nine against Brighton can still feel more orthodox than his Chelsea counterpart’s choice of wing-backs; if it is not Raheem Sterling’s best position, it nevertheless shows his manager’s experimental streak.
If Ten Hag has prospered by belatedly including Casemiro, the signing he may not have signed but who he is now hailing as a player United needed, some of his thinking has been clear from the start and much of it is looking justified: he wants pace and pressing in attack, a combination that rules out Ronaldo, and his costly pursuit of Antony has at least yielded some fine performances.
Lisandro Martinez’s height has become less of a talking point. Old Trafford felt an unusually happy place on Wednesday. While, as Ten Hag said, the direction of travel may not be one-way, and both stumbles in the Europa League and their Manchester derby humiliation serve as warnings, a process seems to be yielding progress.
Potter may be a different candidate with the familiar new-manager bounce at Chelsea, but his has been a smoother start than his counterpart’s, shorn of equivalents of the Brighton and Brentford defeats. Chelsea coaches often begin with unbeaten runs; there is a quixotic element to Potter’s first few games. Second-guessing him has felt near impossible, given his fondness for picking players in various roles, his willingness to swap formation, and bench expensive summer signings. Factor in injuries and the difficulty of compensating for Reece James’ absence and, whereas Ten Hag has an increasing number of automatic choices, Potter might only have four: the rejuvenated Kepa Arrizabalaga, plus Thiago Silva, Jorginho and Mason Mount. He is the wild card looking to repeat his recent history and change Chelsea’s.
Tuchel never beat United in his time at Stamford Bridge; the last Chelsea manager to win a Premier League game against them was Antonio Conte, Ten Hag’s latest victim. The last United manager to lose a league game to Chelsea was Mourinho. It seems a long time ago, during his toxic rivalry with Conte, but in the age of Ten Hag and Potter, Mourinho increasingly feels like ancient history for these clubs.
