It is the last hurrah of the campaign at Stamford Bridge, with a huge amount riding on the outcome for the Londoners – a time for fans to bring the noise.

UEFA Conference League finalists Chelsea have won 15, drawn seven and lost none of our final home league games over the past 22 seasons.

Though the 8.15pm start for this clash of European trophy chasers is unfamiliar, the Friday evening slot has been an occasional feature of top-flight TV coverage for decades, including a 2-2 draw in this fixture back in August 2002.

Unbeaten at home in the top flight in 2025, Chelsea last hosted a league game at the end of the working week in August 2023 – a 3-0 victory against Luton Town.

The Red Devils’ most recent experience of this slot as the visiting side was a 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur during lockdown in June 2020, and the same pair will meet in the UEFA Europa League final on Wednesday.

There are 11 places separating the two teams in the Premier League table, with United losing three and drawing the other of their four most recent league games on the road.

Enzo Maresca has called this another top-flight ‘final’ in pursuit of a top-five finish and, barring an epic uplift in Aston Villa’s goal difference, victories for his side in the remaining two league fixtures will clinch it for the Blues.

Team news

Jadon Sancho is ineligible to feature on Friday, as he is currently on loan at Chelsea from Manchester United, while Nicolas Jackson is also out of contention following his red card against Newcastle United, missing this game and the trip to Nottingham Forest through suspension.

With Christopher Nkunku the only player certainly out due to injury, and Marc Guiu still recovering following his own absence, Maresca is looking for a solution to our striker shortage.

He will be able to count on Reece James, though, despite our captain missing training earlier in the week.

‘Christo is still out,’ Maresca confirmed in his pre-match press conference. ‘Reece is now okay, he was out with illness for two sessions. Yesterday he had a session with us, which is good.

‘We don’t have Nico for this game and we are working on that. Unfortunately we don’t have many options. Unfortunately, Marc is still coming back from injury. He has started to train with us recently but is not ready to start. So we are working on different options for Friday night in the absence of Nico.’

The history

This fixture was first played on Good Friday in 1906, before a then-record Division Two crowd of 67,000, eager to see who of the two promotion-chasers would prevail. The 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge benefited United in second more than third-placed Chelsea and the newly-founded Pensioners would have to wait another year before reaching Division One. Every league meeting since (barring 1924/25) has been in the top tier.

In this century, the Blues enjoyed a run of winning 10 and losing only one of 16 league meetings at the Bridge, between a 2-2 early season draw on 23 August 2002 and Alvaro Morata’s second-half winner in November 2017. Among those was a lunchtime rendezvous in SW6 in late April 2008 – weeks before the same teams contested the UEFA Champions League final.

The Blues pulled level on points with the visitors at the top of the table with a 2-1 win that owed everything to Michael Ballack’s imperiousness. In Frank Lampard’s absence, the German opened the scoring and, after Wayne Rooney equalised, tucked away the late winning spot-kick, awarded for Michael Carrick’s handball.

Last season brought the Londoners’ first victory in 13 meetings, a 4-3 win at the Bridge featuring a Conor Gallagher opener and a Cole Palmer hat-trick – two of them spot-kicks, and the sensational winner timed at 90+11 minutes.

Last five meetings at Stamford Bridge

17 Feb 2020 - Premier League L 0-2
28 Feb 2021 - Premier League D 0-0
28 Nov 2021 - Premier League D 1-1 Jorginho (pen)
22 Oct 2022 - Premier League D 1-1 Jorginho (pen)
4 Apr 2024 - Premier League W 4-3 Gallagher, Palmer 3 (2 pens)

Know this...

At St James’ Park last weekend, Chelsea fielded the same starting XI in a third successive Premier League game for the first time since December 2018 (under Maurizio Sarri), though Nicolas Jackson’s suspension will break that run against Man Utd.

Palmer is Chelsea’s joint-highest Premier League marksman against Man United (alongside Eidur Gudjohnsen) with four goals from three matches, including last season’s hat-trick.

The Red Devils’ current winless league run of seven equals the longest in their Premier League history, recorded in the autumn of the inaugural 1992/93 campaign. They have won just once at the Bridge in their last 11 league visits.

We are looking to secure consecutive Premier League home wins against Manchester United for the first time since 2017.

Chelsea have lost just two of our 32 Premier League games against Man United when we have opened the scoring (17 wins, 13 draws).

Manchester United vs Chelsea is the most-drawn fixture in Premier League history, with 27 of the previous 65 meetings between the sides finishing level.

Chelsea have played Manchester United on our final home league game of the season on three previous occasions, winning all of them:
1957/58 - W 2-1 David Cliss, Les Allen
1972/73 - W 1-0 Peter Osgood (Bobby Charlton’s last game for United)
2005/06 - W 3-0 William Gallas, Joe Cole, Ricardo Carvalho (we confirmed the Premier League title)

The run-in

Chelsea head into our final home league game and penultimate match in this season’s competition in fifth position in the table, two points below Manchester City immediately above and level on points with Aston Villa one below. Nottingham Forest are then a point below in seventh.

With the top-five sides in the Premier League qualifying for next season's Champions League, these are the remaining fixtures going into the weekend of the six teams below champions Liverpool:

Arsenal (2nd, 68 points, +33): Newcastle (h), Southampton (a)
Newcastle (3rd, 66 points, +23): Arsenal (a), Everton (h)
Man City (4th, 65 points, +24): Bournemouth (h), Fulham (a)
Chelsea (5th, 63 points, +19): Man Utd (h), Nottingham Forest (a)
Aston Villa (6th, 63 points, +7): Tottenham (h), Man Utd (a)
Nottingham Forest (7th, 62 points): West Ham (a), Chelsea (h)

Match officials

Referee: Chris Kavanagh
VAR: Craig Pawson

This will be Chris Kavanagh’s seventh Chelsea match this season. His last Blues appointment was our 1-0 win against Everton last month.