TEAM NEWS: Dimitar Berbatov and Didier Drogba both left on the bench for Chelsea’s clash with Manchester United

Fernando Torres,Chelsea(Getty Images)

Related Links

Teams

Players

Didier Drogba has again lost out to Fernando Torres in the Chelsea starting line-up as the Premier League champions welcome current table toppers Manchester United to Stamford Bridge.

The Ivorian has fallen down the Blues packing order since the Spaniard arrived for £50 million in January, but today refused to confirm reports he will leave as a result.

David Luiz – impressive on his Chelsea debut at Fulham – partners John Terry in the centre of defence while Carlo Ancelotti has stuck to his words and switched to a 4-4-2 formation.

For United, Chicharito, who netted twice against Wigan at the weekend, is preferred to Dimitar Berbatov again in attack, parntering Wayne Rooney up front.

Ryan Giggs starts on the bench but will match Bobby Charlton’s record of 606 league games for United if he is introduced to the fold.

Berbatov is this season’s leading league scorer with 19 goals while Drogba ended the last campaign top of the charts with 29 goals.

Chelsea: Cech; Ivanovic, Terry, Luiz, Cole; Ramires, Essien, Lampard, Malouda; Torres, Anelka. Subs: Turnbull, Drogba, Mikel, Bosingwa, Zhirkov, Kalou, McEachran

Manchester United:  Van der Sar; O’shea, Vidic, Smalling Evra; Nani, Fletcher, Scholes, Carrick, Rooney; Hernandez. Subs: Brown, Berbatov, Giggs, Rafael, Fabio, Gibson, Kuszczak.