Five things that won’t happen in Chelsea v Manchester United tonight

1. Didier Drogba scoring an offside winner. Two years ago Carlo Ancelotti was guiding Chelsea to their third Premier League title and a tie with United at Old Trafford was a must win for the Blues.  The title race went down to the last day of the season but, Chelsea’s win at Old Trafford, courtesy of an offside winner from Drogba kept Chelsea in the hunt and was one game which cost United the league. ‘Funny football twitter jokes’ (etc) didn’t depict the referee, Mike Dean, in a Chelsea kit that day.
2. Chelsea fans booing their own players for reporting alleged racial abuse. See Anton Ferdinand. Football fans are as fickle as Piers Morgan on Twitter these days, but this seems unlikely tonight.
3. Ashley Cole giving the referee some abuse. Cole might not even start tonight, but with the constant scrutiny and media presence over Stamford Bridge, I’d be surprised if the players communicate in any form tonight, lest any misinterpretation. I’m fairly confident there will be no swearing, not even from the @TheRealAC3
4. John Terry acting as doorman. John Terry will absolutely not act as a de-facto bouncer and charge into the referees room and protest about alleged racial abuse after full-time. I can’t guarantee he won’t be sat in his trackie with shin-pads on though.
5. Sky Sports broadcasting the audio from the referee microphone. Unlike rugby, I don’t think there is much scope for the dialogue between assistants and the man in the middle to be broadcast live on TV. Although, it would be interesting to see what kind of abuse referees have to take (or indeed dish out). Mark Clattenburg won’t ask, “how do you work with Craig Bellamy every day?”

One thing which will happen…

Javier Hernandez to score first at 8/1. The Mexican has six goals in his last eight games against Chelsea and is likely to start tonight.

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