Bruno Fernandes is back in Manchester United\u2019s starting side for Saturday\u2019s clash with Chelsea, and he will also reclaim the captain\u2019s armband.<\/p>\n
Michael Carrick moved quickly to make clear that Fernandes had not been permanently relieved of the role, and the Portugal international now returns to lead United again. Before the match, Carrick said: \u201cHe\u2019s the one that\u2019s kind of led the team so well for many a game and many a year, and he\u2019ll continue to do that,\u201d Carrick promised before the game.<\/p>\n
Fernandes is part of a changed United midfield, with summer signing Youri Tielemans dropping to the bench for the first time this season. Carlos Baleba and former Chelsea midfielder Andrey Santos start behind him, while Fernandes is set to play further forward.<\/p>\n
There is also a welcome return on the bench for Kobbie Mainoo, who has recovered from injury in time to make the matchday squad. He is joined among the substitutes by Chelsea academy graduate Mason Mount.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s starting XI is Lammens; Yoro, Maguire, Mart\u00ednez, Dalot; Santos, Baleba; Amad, Fernandes, Cunha; Mbeumo. Their substitutes are Darlow, De Ligt, Heaven, Mazraoui, Mainoo, Mount, Tielemans, Lacey, Zirkzee.<\/p>\n
Chelsea line up with Penders; Acheampong, Fofana, Colwil, Palestra; Caicedo, Lavia; Neto, Palmer, Est\u00eav\u00e3o; Rogers. Their substitutes are Sharman-Lowe, Subuloye, Gusto, Chavarr\u00eda, Barco, Nicoll-Jazuli, Quenda, Emegha, Welbeck.<\/p>\n
Carrick\u2019s adjustments come amid a difficult spell for United. A run of eight matches without a win had fuelled expectations that his time at Old Trafford might be coming to an end, but club officials have decided to give him another opportunity to arrest the slide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fernandes returns to the XI and the armband as Carrick alters United’s midfield for Chelsea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,179],"tags":[1836,242,180],"class_list":["post-22145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-manchester-united","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}