The Manchester United first-choice goalkeeper, David De Gea faced a Wembley nightmare as Chelsea made their way to victory and set up an FA Cup final date with Arsenal.
The Norwegian, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ditched his usual FA Cup goalkeeper, Sergio Romero to keep De Gea. With expectations that the world-class would showcase a better performance than his counterpart, he produced errors on either side of the half-time to gift Chelsea two goals.
The Spain International made a flimsy attempt to deal with Giroud’s flick in first-half stoppage time and weakly fumbled Mount’s tame 20-yard shot into the net moments after the second-half restart.
Chelsea’s outstanding performance fully merited the victory and United’s abject misery after a dreadful performance was complete. Captain Harry Maguire diverted Marcos Alonso’s cross into his net at the near post with 16 minutes left.
However, United had their first goal. January signing, Bruno Fernandez pulled up a penalty after Callum Hudson Odoi fouled Anthony Martial. This could not be described as a consolation as The Blues closed out the win.
Frank Lampard sets eyes on first-season silverware
Lampard is on-trend to turn his first season in charge a satisfactory as they contemplate a place on the FA Cup final and lie third in the Premier League.
I bet no one can question their right to the Wembley win as they dominated from the beginning to the end more so in the midfield where they subdued Fernandez.
Chelsea was energetic, aggressive, and dangerous while still thankful to the mistakes made by De Gea. Lampard’s side cut off any supply line to United’s forwards and it will be an intriguing final on 1st August back at Wembley when he pits his wits against Mikel Arteta.
United’s savage setback
United was high on optimism on that long unbeaten run and with the sense that Solskjaer was starting to get to grips with the big rebuilding job.
That continues and the Red Devils are still in decent shape to reach next season’s Champions League either through the Premier League or Europa League. But what we saw at Wembley was a savage setback.
The main culprit was De Gea. He gave the impression of a goalkeeper either in permanent decline or going through a very long slump.
De Gea turned the FA Cup semi-finals with those mistakes, granting Chelsea dominance into a two-goal lead. Fernandes was overpowered in the midfield. Additionally, United had no punch in attack where Solskjaer chose to leave the potency of Antony Martial and Mason Greenwood on the bench along with Paul Pogba.
In defense, United was vulnerable as Lindelof lost Giroud too easily and Maguire ending hopes with an own goal.
In a nutshell, United has had good days in recent months and this was, without feeling attached, a very bad one.