Chelsea vs Man United Timeline & H2H Stats

Chelsea and Manchester United are two of the most successful teams in English football, especially in the 21st century. Moreover, they are two of the six ever-present Premier League sides (along with Arsenal Spurs, Everton and Liverpool). Both these factors mean that they have played each other many times and often in big, hugely significant matches and at times the rivalry between the two has been rather heated.

Overall, they have played each other more than 160 times in the league over the years, with most of those meetings coming in the top tier of English football. Man United have the upper hand but there isn’t a huge amount in it, with around a third of meetings ending with the spoils shared.

Heartache for Blues in Biggest Meeting

Almost certainly the biggest game ever between these sides was the 2007/08 Champions League final. The duo battled it through to the final in Moscow having topped their groups and beaten high-class opponents in the semi (Barcelona for United, Liverpool for the Blues).

Both sides were very, very strong at the time, with United boasting the likes of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. Chelsea featured Petr Cech, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Claude Makelele, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba and so the rivals were relatively well matched.

Ronaldo gave United the lead but Lampard equalised and the game ended 1-1 after normal time and then extra time. United blinked first, with Ronaldo missing, to give Blues skipper Terry the chance to win the CL. However, he slipped and his effort hit the outside of the post. The Red Devils kept scoring and in the end another miss from Nicolas Anelka meant that Chelsea missed out.

Blues Well Beaten in FA Cup Final

The defeat in the Champions League could not have been closer but that was not the case when Chelsea faced United in the FA Cup final in 1994. Sir Alex Ferguson’s men were coming to dominate English football at this time, whilst the Roman Abramovich era would not revise Chelsea’s fortunes for a good while after this. United won 4-0 to complete the double.

But Revenge Awaits

The sides have met in the FA Cup final more recently, contesting the biggest domestic cup in the world again in 2006/07. Chelsea were really challenging the Red Devils’ dominance at the start of the 21st century and this was another close game. The Blues ended up lifting the cup thanks to a Drogba goal late in extra time, the only goal of the 120 minutes.

And more recently still, Chelsea won by the same score against United in the 2017/18 FA Cup final. An Eden Hazard penalty after 22 minutes settled what was a dour final, not that the Blues were complaining – especially with José Mourinho in the United dugout!

Chelsea’s Full Match History Against Man United