There is something about this fixture that always seems to create a story, a mini-turning point for either Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or Frank Lampard, two curiously similar managers eternally hovering between the dawn of a new era and total collapse. Both were given the job because of their association as former players, rather than their qualifications. Both are tactically naïve and seemingly unable to improve. Both have the spectre of Mauricio Pochettino hanging over them, report agencies.
Perhaps it makes sense, then, that their head-to-heads should always seem so portentous. Chelsea’s 4-0 defeat to Manchester United in Lampard’s first Premier League game brutally exposed the systemic flaw he is yet to fix, namely a hopeless porousness in the transition. Solskjaer’s 2-0 win in the league in February began their surge towards the Champions League spots and plunged Lampard’s debut campaign into doubt. Chelsea’s 3-1 FA Cup semi-final victory in July felt important at the time as Lampard switched to a back three and a more conservative approach, masterminding a well-deserved win to flip the narrative back in his favour.
It’s only because the Premier League is so plot-heavy right now – Everton’s form, Virgil van Dijk’s injury, Manchester City’s wobble – that neither Chelsea nor Man Utd are receiving more attention for their poor starts to the season. Lampard and Solskjaer, having collected 14 points from the first nine games between them, are very lucky to have avoided greater scrutiny.
That won’t last much longer. Sooner or later the allure of discussing a full-blown crisis will be too great for the media to ignore. Dropping points in this game will surely take either, or both, close to that point.
For Solskjaer, a record of two wins from five and a place in the bottom half ought to confirm he isn’t the right man for the job, if that wasn’t already painfully obvious. For Lampard, a record of two wins from six and a place in the bottom half ought to trigger difficult questions about his suitability for the role now Chelsea can spend like champions again.
Judging on recent form, Lampard is the more likely of the two managers to be feeling the heat by Saturday evening.
We don’t tend to imagine someone as successful as Pep Guardiola could suffer a dip in confidence, could ever start doubting his ability. But we know he is an anxious coach, a man who frantically paces the touchline, unable to eat anything on match days. So it is natural to assume he shares some of the concerns about Man City’s medium-term future, and perhaps even stays awake at night wondering if that ‘over-thinker’ line holds water.
And so the 1-0 win over Arsenal will have been as important, psychologically, to Guardiola as it was to his players. A tactical win with a Guardiola-esque surprise is just what he and the club needed to re-stabilise and, after Liverpool dropped points and lost Virgil van Dijk, to make City title favourites.
Weirdly enough, West Ham under David Moyes are now just the sort of side who have done Man City considerable damage over the last year. The 2017-2019 version of Man City would suffocate the middle class, but in 2020 opponents are emboldened to break with gusto.
The way Tottenham raced into a three-goal lead against West Ham last weekend, and the way Everton dispatched of them 4-1, suggests Man City will get a comfortable win. It might not actually be all that hard, and yet it will feel like a significant moment. In this bizarre and uncontrollable campaign that feeling is priceless. An emphatic win will be soothing – and will put Guardiola back on top.