I like the fact that they gave him an easy game. Fair play.
But it is the Blues in match 10 of the Premier League for United and first league game without Erik ten Hag, a first in 2-and-a-half years.
Ruud tasted what it's like to be manager on Wednesday night as his reds ran riot against Leicester scoring 5 in his opening match, similar to his former team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in his first game in charge as interim back in 2018.
Chelsea will pose waaaayyyy more of a threat to the Foxes though, as their former manager Enzo Maresca has got the side from London playing some entertaining football, one with a lot of goals.
So can they put on a performance against a ten Hag-less United?
Predicted Lineup
The defence should be restored to Onana, Mazraoui (who featured in the second half against Leicester despite an injury concern last week at West Ham), De Ligt, Martinez (who should move more central after doing a job at left-back in mid-week), and Dalot who hopefully decides to put the ball in the back of an open net should the chance arise.
Eriksen does have an injury problem of his own. How severe it is, no one knows but is the reason as to why he didn't play at all on Wednesday which was the first time he was entirely absent on the pitch since the second match of the season.
If he is fit, he starts.
If not, then it can only be Ugarte and Casemiro as Mount and Mainoo are still injured.
Hojlund to make a return up top in place of Zirkzee with Rashford on the right and Garnacho on the left.
Approach
We are at home, the initiative is on us. We also have a new manager (both Ruud and Amorim) which should continue the new manager bounce from these players. Should that happen, I can see a decent performance from United and one that gives us a chance of getting a positive result.
The 75 000 fans in the stadium will also be expecting a performance and want to build on from the win over Leicester while also trying to put right what happened at West Ham last Sunday.
What I'd like to see is us implementing that high press. Chelsea are very suspect at the back especially goalkeeper Robert Sanchez. Put pressure on him and their defence in general (as all of them are shaky) should see United creating some good chances.
Whether we take them or not is another matter.
Should that press get bypassed (if Ruud implements it) then we have to be very careful as Chelsea are very good on the counter. We will need to try and keep things tight and close them down as soon as possible not allowing them time and space on the ball. Cold Palmer specifially, is Chelsea's main threat. He scored in both games last season.
Chelsea's attack overall is very strong with a lot of quality which means that we will have to be fully focused all of the time as one slip up, and we will be punished.
We also need to make more use of our right-wing. With everything coming down the left, it can be a bit predictable as to what we want to do as well as very one-dimensional. Ruud has to use Rashford on the right a lot more as he is definitely more than capable of causing Marc Cucurella problems.
While Chelsea may not put in a lot of crosses, it is definitely an area of weakness of ours and somewhere the Blues can look to exploit. Even on Wednesday, both Leicester's goals came from balls into the box.
Form
United have no form.
We've won one of our last five which was our last home game against Brentford which was one of only three wins this season. United have also picked up two draws and four losses from nine games. We've only scored 8 goals with just 3 coming at Old Trafford.
3.
Good news though, is that United actually moved up in the table 🙌.
Before the weekend began, we sat in 14th but thanks to West Ham's 3-0 loss to Forest (good job Forest 😉) their goal difference went to -6 moving United up a spot to 13th thanks to sitting on -3 ourselves.
Moving up without even doing anything.
Ruud, the magic man.
At home, we are 14th in the home table. Two wins and two defeats gives us just 6 points at Old Trafford.
Embarrassing.
Chelsea
Looking at the Blues, Chelsea are one of the league's entertainers. Enzo Maresca has come in as new boss and taken the youngest squad in the league with an average age of 23 and transformed them into a bit of a force.
They are 6th but with a chance of moving into the top 4 and getting to 20 points, which would mean they would be just 5 behind leaders Liverpool. They have five wins, two draws and two losses although those two defeats were to City and Liverpool.
With 19 goals scored, they are the second highest scorers as only the champions on 21 have scored more.
However, defensively, they do have a bit of a problem as Chelsea have conceded 11, the same as United, but have only kept 2 clean sheets.
Whilst going forward they have a lot of firepower, at the back, they can be quite shaky. Along with Bart Verbruggen, Robert Sanchez has had the most errors leading to goals (2) from goalkeepers. He is also the Chelsea player with the most errors leading to goals.
He is a weak link.
Chelsea do like to have a lot of the ball but are more than capable of playing on the counter. In fact, Maresca's side have scored the second most goals from counters with 4. Only Spurs on 7 have scored more.
With tricky wingers like Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto, Joao Felix and Mykhailo Mudryk, out wide is absolutely an area for them to cause us problems. With Dalot's form dipping and Mazraoui being out of position at left-back, they will look to take advantage of that.
And of course, Cold Palmer.
I don't think I need to explain how good he is.
Definitely the danger man as most of what Chelsea do going forward goes through him. Stop him, and we have a chance.
Someone needs to do a Herrera on Hazard performance on him.
Recent Meetings
The good thing for United is that Chelsea don't actually have a good record at Old Trafford. They haven't won there since 2013 after a deflected strike by Juan Mata gave them the 1-0 win in what was Sir Alex Ferguson's last season.
The recent record is also in United's favor as we've won two of the last three although there have been five draws from 2020 to 2022.
And of course, who can forget the last time the two sides faced each other.
Chelsea won 4-3 after some late drama which saw Cole Palmer score a hat-trick when really, United should've won that game comfortably. Another one of those games for the Red Devils.
Hopefully we try to get some revenge for that loss.
Prediction
Due to Chelsea's poor record at Old Trafford and United being quite shite, I feel another draw coming along.
1-1 is my prediction.
That is not enough as victory is what we desperately need. A win would see us move to 10th if other results go our way. We needto start moving up.
What's your prediction for Ruud's first Premier League game as manager?
Background Image: Lisandro Martinez in Man Utd training | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)