The most important match of Rafa Benitez's tenure at Chelsea takes place on Monday as Chelsea takes on Manchester United in the rematch of the FA Cup sixth-round. The two teams met at the Old Trafford three weeks ago in a match that saw Chelsea make a huge comeback and earn a 2-2 draw.
After the match Benitez complained that Manchester manager Sir Alex Ferguson failed to shake his hand after the confrontation. However, he stated in recent interviews that he will not make the same rude gesture. "I am the local manager this time and I will look to shake his hand," he stated. "I will try to do that... and then we will try to do our best and talk about football."
"We can still play very good football and compete against anyone. United are at the top of the table but we were much better than them in the first game," he asserted about battling Manchester. "So I think we can compete."
Chelsea is coming off a big loss to Southampton that has put them 22 points behind Manchester in the Premier league. Few expected Chelsea to make any noise after a seven game winless streak last fall, but the loss of the premier league title and the Champions league title has only emphasized the poor season the Blues have had. The FA Cup remains their only major consolation prize (and the Europa League championship), but a win over Manchester would add the icing on the cake.
Manchester has won 25 of its first 30 premier league matches and is the uncontested favorite to take this match. Ferguson thinks that his team's breakdown in the first match was mainly due to fatigue and firmly believes that they will bounce back. "I think that tiredness had got into some parts of the team. And from a comfortable position for the first 20 minutes you could see us before half-time that we started giving the ball away and that is a definite sign of tiredness," he stated according to The Mirror. "But we're fresher now and we have a strong squad in terms of picking two teams."
Prediction: Chelsea wins 1-0.
Time: 7:30 AM EST
TV: Fox Soccer Channel
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