Martínez sent off as Rogers and Palmer give Chelsea a 2-0 win

Peter Bankes refereed a game that was goalless at half-time. Xabi Alonso set Chelsea out in a four-two-three-one, with Lavia and Caicedo in front of the back four and Estêvão, Palmer and Rogers behind Pedro Neto. Michael Carrick chose the same shape for Manchester United: Andrey Santos and Baleba as the midfield pair, Diallo, Bruno Fernandes and Matheus Cunha supporting Mbeumo.

Rogers opened the scoring in the 50th minute, with Lavia credited with the assist. Carrick made his first change in the 58th, Mainoo for Baleba, and soon afterwards his side lost a defender. Martínez was booked in the 59th minute and shown a second yellow in the 63rd. Palmer converted a penalty in the 64th, and that was the scoring done.

The bookings kept coming for United after the sending-off. Maguire was shown a yellow card in the 65th minute, Mainoo in the 70th, Mbeumo in the 81st and Zirkzee in the 86th. Carrick sent on Heaven and Mount in the 66th for Andrey Santos and Matheus Cunha, then Zirkzee for Diallo in the 77th. Chelsea's only card was the one shown to Penders at 90+3.

Alonso's changes came later and in a cluster. Pep Chavarría replaced Palestra in the 74th minute, and in the 87th Barco, Gusto and Welbeck came on for Pedro Neto, Estêvão and Caicedo. Geovany Quenda replaced Palmer last of all.

Chelsea had 18 shots to 12, with 9 on target to 5. They had 40 touches in the opposition box to United's 21, and their expected goals came to 2.67 against 1.17. Each side tried five shots from outside the box, so the gap in attempts was all inside it. United were credited with seven saves, Chelsea with three.

Chelsea completed 479 of their 542 passes, 88.4 per cent, against United's 293 of 379 at 77.3 per cent, and had 59 per cent of possession. United made 19 clearances to Chelsea's 11, played 44 long balls to 38 and committed 20 fouls to 8. Chelsea won 56 duels to 42 and covered 114.8km to 109.3km.

At half-time the scoreboard called these sides equal. The second half took that apart, and United supplied a good share of the tools: a sending-off and a run of bookings that began with Martínez and was still going with Zirkzee, on top of 20 fouls across the game. Chelsea had 40 touches in the opposition box to United's 21 across the match, and 2-0 is a fair reading of that gap.

Manchester United had won two of the three meetings listed here and Chelsea one, with no draws. United won 1-0 at Chelsea in April 2026 and 2-1 at home in September 2025; Chelsea's win was 1-0 at home in May 2025.

In the table as it stood at 15:38 on the day, with this match included, Chelsea were fourth on 16 points from nine games. Manchester United were 17th on seven points from nine games.