Our 3️⃣ points as Man Utd and Chelsea play out a goalless draw | OneFootball

Manchester United are still without a win at Old Trafford this season after playing out a goalless draw against Chelsea on Saturday evening.

Here are our main takeaways from Old Trafford …

Marvellous Mendy

It’s no secret that Chelsea have been struggling in defence, and in particular in the goalkeeping department, so far this season.

The Blues have had two 3-3 scorelines already and Kepa Arrizabalaga has been a liability in goal for Frank Lampard’s side.

There was a reason the club went out to spend £22m on Edouard Mendy from Rennes, and based on tonight’s performance, he is going to be worth every penny.

Mendy produced two solid saves to deny Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata in the first-half and was constantly a commanding presence in his penalty area, taking difficult crosses and catching balls that were needing to be caught.

The 28-year-old then pulled off the save of the match in the dying minutes to deny a Rashford effort that had top corner written all over it. A vital contribution from Chelsea’s new keeper.

It’s two consecutive clean sheets now for Mendy and Chelsea. Maybe they don’t need to use Petr Cech after all?

Dire draw or defensive masterclasses?

Ok, it’s fair to say that this game was not a classic. Not many 0-0 draws are.

Both teams have played twice already this week and perhaps we need to manage our expectations for the quality of matches that are going to be played during this jam-packed season.

There will be few positives for both sides to take from tonight but perhaps neither manager can turn their nose up at achieving a clean sheet.

There have been at least two goals in the meetings between Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Lampard’s teams in their head-to-heads so far and it usually ends with United counter-attacking the Londoners at ease.

Chelsea’s defensive issues have been made clear, while United conceded six the last time they played at Old Trafford so a sense of defensive solidity cannot be sniffed at.

This played out more like a meeting between two top-six sides in 2009 rather than the manic goalfests that have occurred so far this season.

Dirty Harry

Was Harry Maguire lucky to get away with not giving a penalty away in the first half?

The Manchester United captain appeared to have his arm right around César Azpilicueta’s throat as a set-piece came into the box but referee Martin Atkinson deemed the incident not to be a foul. A follow-up check from VAR agreed with Atkinson’s decision.

We feel this is not going to be the last we hear of this, and there may be some comparisons made to the penalty Sergio Ramos was awarded in El Clásico earlier in the day, which was a softer incident than the one between Maguire and Azpilicueta.

A different league so we can shun the cries of “Where’s the consistency?!” but there is certainly a feeling that United have got away with one tonight.