Manchester United travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea, knowing that anything less than a positive result could put further pressure on Michael Carrick, with the club having managed just one league victory this season.

Carrick appeared on the brink of losing his job after a 4-1 defeat to Como in the Champions League and a damaging 3-0 loss to Bournemouth. However, the club have chosen to stick with the manager for now, giving him an opportunity to get United's season back on track.

Chelsea are hardly heading into the fixture full of confidence themselves. The Blues suffered a home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last week before their Carabao Cup campaign came to an end against Liverpool on Wednesday.

They remain a dangerous attacking side, but are expected to be without striker João Pedro, who is struggling with an injury. United will be hoping to take advantage and repeat their 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge earlier this year, when Matheus Cunha found the net to secure all three points.

While United have their own set of injury issues, with the likes of Benjamin Šeško, Luke Shaw, and Patrick Dorgu unavailable aginst Chelsea, news earlier this week emeged that Kobbie Mainoo had trained with the first-team squad on Tuesday.

Roundtable understands that the decision has now been made for Mainoo to travel with the rest of the squad as they made their way to London on Friday afternoon.

While Carrick admitted that the 21-year-old has had limited training with the Reds, Mainoo is also expected to be in the first-team matchday squad, which will be announced on Saturday morning.

Official team news is expected at 11:15 BST on Saturday morning, though it remains unclear whether Carrick will select Mainoo in his starting XI or name him on the bench.

While Mainoo may return to the first-team squad, Carrick confirmed on Thursday afternoon that club captain Bruno Fernandes will be reinstated to the starting XI after missing the tie against Bournemouth.

While Carrick stated the decision to not play Fernandes last week was 'pure football' reasoning, it's been speculated that it also served as a certain level of punishment for speaking out of turn and criticising the head coach's tactical decisions last week.

Following a 4-1 loss in the Champions League against Como, Fernandes slammed the coaching staff's decision regarding pressing and playing with the ball.

Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Carrick confirmed that Fernandes would also keep the captain's armband, after external pundit stated they felt he had fallen short of his duties as a captain.

"There’s no decision to be made on that," Carrick replied when journalists asked whether Fernandes would keep the captaincy.

"Bruno is fully committed to the football club, there’s no issues with that. We look ahead to the game on Saturday.

"Listen, we are clear with the situation of the team and as a football club, at the moment. As I've just said, he is an important player for this group, he has been and he will be.

"Between us, we have got to make a difference, we have got to push things in a different direction. He is fully committed to this football club, he is fully committed to make things better.

"It doesn't change things, you know, he is the one that has led the team so well for many a game and for many a year, and he will continue to do that."