Chelsea FC vs Manchester United Women's Super League preview: team news, predicted lineups, ones to watch, previous meetings and how to watch

With Manchester United's game against Everton being postponed last weekend, Casey Stoney's side still hasn't played after the Christmas break. This weekend the Red Devils face reigning champions, Chelsea, with Emma Hayes in charge, who is not keen on losing with the Blues' 30 league games unbeaten streak.

Manchester United, that ended up at the absolute top of the table before Christmas, have a tough task ahead of themselves when this game kicks off at 14:30 GMT on Sunday.

Team news

Stoney's side is fit and ready to play and fight for the three points that will in case of winning, keep Chelsea behind them in the table. The only player that still is missing due to injury is Alessia Russo.

Although no report on to be missing out of this top clash, Norwegian international, Maren Mjelde, had to resign from the starting line-up last weekend when Chelsea played Reading.

After having to recover from an outbreak of Covid-19 before Christmas, leading up to Chelsea having to postpone their game against Tottenham, Emma Hayes' side showed no mercy when they won against Reading with 5-0 last weekend when the league returned after the break.

After a very eventful first week back after the New Year with several players in different teams testing positive for the virus, the Royals and the Blues were the only two teams that got game time in the first round back.

Predicted line ups

Chelsea:

Berger (GK)

Mjelde, Bright, Eriksson, Andersson

Cuthbert, Ji, Leupolz

Harder

Kirby, Kerr

Manchester United:

Earps (GK)

Batlle, Turner, Turner, Smith

Ladd, Groenen

Heath, Toone, Galton

Hanson

Ones to watch

Statistics from fbref.com tell us that Denmark international Pernille Harder (xG 2.4) together with Australian striker Sam Kerr (xG 6.9) and England superstar Fran Kirby (xG 3.1) Chelsea have scored 16 league goals. The latter duo was on fire last Sunday, where Kerr assisted her partner in crime, both with actual assists and great runs to create space for Kirby to score, not only a hat-trick but also a fourth goal when Chelsea bagged three rather easy points vs Reading.

Manchester United also with a great season so far, are alongside their opponents this weekend, still, the team to beat.

The Red Devils have a strong squad with many players worth mention but this game will be all about which team scores the most goals. According to fbref.com United's Leah Galton (xG 3.2) and Ella Toone (xG 4.7) have created most of those so far with Galton's five and Toone's four. Together with American Tobin Heath, (xG 2.8) who also has scored four, these two will be the players Chelsea have to prevent from getting a chance to aim at the goal behind the Blues backline.

Previous meetings

Manchester United still chase their first win against Chelsea. During the 2019/2020 season, they played each two times, one league game and one Continental Cup game for the semi-finals in the domestic cup. Both times Chelsea came out as winners with 1-0 after Mjelde scoring the winning goals for the Blues.