A crucial and testing time for Chelsea and the festive period could be vital in the race for the title. After bad starts to the season, both Manchester teams have put together very good runs of form, and Chelsea are now under real pressure and have some very tricky games ahead. These are the sorts of games that were drawn or even lost last season.
When Chelsea played the Manchester teams away earlier in the season, a point seemed a good result at the time, although now? Now, the fact that Chelsea could have won both of those games if they hadn't backed off seems more crucial.
When Man Utd have been way ahead on points in past seasons, there has been no backing off, and if they're up against a rival, and a win would put them out of sight, they have tended to win, and put themselves 15 points or so clear. Not Chelsea, and that's a possible weakness.
Chelsea have definitely had the tougher fixtures so far this season and have done very well to be in the position they're in, but let's face facts, a couple of draws and a loss in the next several games could be the difference between PL champions and runners up, and Chelsea need to put a string of wins together imo.
As said before, a key could be more rotation, and not just to rest players, but to make preparation by the opposition more difficult. Both Manchester teams have had to change their line ups due to injuries, and that can work in your favour when the opposition aren't prepared for certain players or formations. Man Utd regularly used to bring in fresh players such as Macheda near the end of a season for that very reason.
Will Mourhino dare to go there?