After seeing José Mourinho hijack their Romelu Lukaku deal and letting Nemanja Matic go to Old Trafford, Chelsea have undeniably strengthened a direct rival while weakening themselves.

Opinion has been divided on the wisdom of Chelsea selling Nemanja Matic to Manchester United for £40m. There are those who say top teams, especially defending champions, should never sell to direct rivals, and those who believe the money was too good to refuse down for a player who has just turned 29.

It is being argued that Chelsea have just signed an upgrade in Tiémoué Bakayoko for the same price, at least a player Antonio Conte regarded as an upgrade in the same position, and at just 22 the promising France midfielder offers many more years of service than Matic, whose sale effectively means the former Monaco player has joined for free.

All of that makes sense, yet what is equally undeniable is that United were delighted to land Matic, a player José Mourinho knows well, and that along with Romelu Lukaku the two new signings made highly promising debuts in the first game of the season at Old Trafford. Never mind for the moment that United were only playing West Ham, or that it is usually unwise to read too much into the first game of the season, the question to be asked is why Chelsea are making life so easy for their former manager and his new team.

Lukaku, let us not forget, was originally a Chelsea player and was widely expected to return to Stamford Bridge when he left Everton. Perhaps so widely expected that Chelsea may have let the grass grow under their feet and failed to anticipate United making a pre-emptive strike. Conte was understood to be furious – when is he ever otherwise? – and has appeared to be unhappy with his employers ever since and ended up buying Álvaro Morata, all too clearly a second-choice target and one who was not trusted to start on the opening day.

We all know how that went. Morata did come on to start a belated fightback as Chelsea lost their bearings and most of their composure against Burnley, but as striking debuts go it was nothing to compare with Lukaku – “the manager wants me to be a leader for the team” – and the beginning-of-a-new-era feeling most observers noted at Old Trafford.

Matic had as much to do with that as anyone, and it is probably worth bearing in mind that Mourinho was being linked with Eric Dier for most of the summer because he originally imagined the Serb would be off limits. “Generally I do not like to chase impossible targets,” the United manager explained ahead of the West Ham game. “There is no point being seen to make moves for players you cannot get. I could see when I first came to United that we needed a Matic-type player, but there are not many around and I did not think Matic would move. Then all that changed with a phone call. I heard that he wanted to join United and could make it happen.”

So either Chelsea set the ball rolling or allowed Matic to

Source - http://www.colossusgists.com/2017/08/manchester-united-reaping-early-rewards.html