Micah Richards and Gary Lineker debate Man Utd’s first-half performance against Chelsea

Chelsea punished Manchester United in the second half for not taking full advantage of their opportunities in the first half. Morgan Rogers broke the deadlock for Chelsea five minutes after the end of half-time before Cole Palmer netted from the spot-kick at Stamford Bridge.

Speaking on The Rest Is Football, Gary Lineker admitted that he felt United played “quite well” in the first half of Saturday’s 2-0 defeat in the Premier League. Lineker’s analysis sparked a telling reaction from Micah Richards, who felt that United were “excellent” for what they showed against Chelsea.

“Not quite well, they were excellent, Gaz, weren’t they? Don’t you think there was really good combinations?” Richards asked.

Responding to Sky Sports pundit Richards, Lineker said: “I only said quite good because there’s a very important part of football. To make it very good, you have to finish the chances that come along. But yes, Micah, tactically, energy, everything.”

United did edge out Chelsea in key attacking stats in the first half, including the Red Devils’ nine shots against the Blues’ eight. However, Opta Analyst highlighted how United’s shooting accuracy was only 33.3 per cent compared with Chelsea’s 50 per cent at the weekend.

Richards admitted that United performed incredibly well in the first half at Stamford Bridge, but he would equally “agree” with Lineker’s analysis about the Red Devils.

“What do we say, a game of two halves? If we say that the first half, they were excellent bar the finish,” he said.

“And that would have been, what would we use, exceptional? If we would have had a couple of them finishes with Amad Diallo, wouldn’t we?

“But yes, I would agree with you. I thought Man United, you know, when you’re looking at performances and you’re going through a bad time and you’re like, you’re trying to pick the positives out of the game and you’re like, ‘There’s [sic] not many there, there’s not many.’

“Actually, if you look at the first half, there should have been two, maybe even 3-0 up […].”

Amad Diallo was frustrated by his lack of clinical finishing in the final third in United’s defeat. According to StatMuse, the 24-year-old Ivorian winger had four shots during his 76-minute performance against Chelsea and only two of his efforts were on target.