United draw Chelsea in the Carabao Cup fourth round

Manchester United’s embarrassingly slender victory over Rochdale has seen them through to the Carabao Cup fourth round, in which they’ll travel to face Frank Lampard’s Chelsea. The Blues thrashed Grimsby Town 7-1 to reach the final 16, in what proved a welcome pick-me-up after back-to-back defeats to Valencia and Liverpool in the Champions and Premier Leagues respectively.

The fourth round fixtures are scheduled to be played week commencing 28 October, meaning the Chelsea game will be slotted between United’s Premier League fixtures away at Norwich and Bournemouth. Theoretically, that’s quite good news, but we all know how the Reds have mastered the art of making even the ‘easy’ games almost impossible.

United, of course, beat Chelsea 4-0 when the sides last met in August. But now grim reality has once again dawned over Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s side, it’s difficult to imagine a similar result next month. United recorded victory in their last visit to Stamford Bridge, but it was the first time they’d done so since 2012.