Well the fact still remains that Manchester United is indeed suffering from players and for that their substitution is weak and highly dependable on the pitch players which make the players to become more weak while still on the pitch and being unable to have a fitting replacement for them if any injury comes up, this have made the club to suffer a lot of setbacks.
Although the club should have made used of the last transfer windows to get on board some energetic young players who can deliver more goals for the club and be able to sustain their future competition.
Manchester United's performance is still not up to the standard we would have expected them to play at, but they are performing reasonably well. I don't see a necessity for Manchester United to add new players during the recent transfer window when the present ones were still doing well as of last season and were contributing and making a lot of assists for the team's game flow. Also, they are primarily young players purchased for the future rather than short-term players. There was no necessity for them to add additional players last season; they simply need to focus on the players they have currently in order to achieve good results this season.
I understand that league cup is totally different from the premiership competition, however, I don't know what you are seeing in Chelsea but from all indication,nothing have changed as regards the Blues. Tonight the may still loose to the Seagulls who are in the best form, winning their recent two away matches and scoring seven goals while conceding only two. This is what Chelsea have to contend with and I don't seek the weak Chelsea pulling any surprises.
When I saw the match that was scheduled to be played today, I had the same thought as you. But Chelsea proved many people incorrect by winning this match and not losing it again, as they normally do. The zeal here and the formation here have really helped them win the match; could it be that Pochettino wants his squad to at least win a trophy this season rather than going without a trophy? They should aim to improve their formation and gameplay, as they did today when they won the match. They must also improve and replicate this in their Premier League games.