Manchester United 0 Chelsea 0: Paul Scholes tips Blues to finish in top six but says Old Trafford display looked 'tired'

Scholes believes Chelsea struggled to cope without a recognised striker after Eden Hazard had to deputise for the suspended Diego Costa

Paul Scholes believes Chelsea can still finish in the top six (BT Sport)

Chelsea can still finish in the top six this season and qualify for European football, according to former Manchester United and England midfielder Paul Scholes.

The Blues played out an entertaining 0-0 draw with United at Old Trafford on Monday night, a result which has convinced Louis van Gaal to remain United manager after considering his exit following a run of eight matches without a win.

With Guus Hiddink in charge of the Blues for his second match since replacing Jose Mourinho on an interim basis, the Dutchman was forced to deploy fit-again Eden Hazard as a makeshift striker.

Scholes believes that while they looked lethargic last night and struggled to attack United without a recognised striker, Chelsea can still improve to move up the table before the end of the season – despite currently languishing down in 14th position after a dreadful first half of the season.

“I can see them top six, top seven maybe,” Scholes said during BT Sport’s live coverage of the match. “It’s very difficult to come here [Old Trafford] and play without a centre forward, without a focal point but I’m sure once they get a centre forward back they’ll get up that league [table].

“They have to be better than they were today because they looked tired to me, they looked like a team that was probably suffering a little bit from fatigue but obviously both teams had a game on Saturday so it should be no excuse really, but I expect them to start winning games and move up that league.”

The match could’ve ended very differently though, had Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic not fired a glorious chance to break the deadlock over the crossbar shortly after the hour mark. Had Matic converted his chance, Chelsea would be much closer to West Bromwich Albion and Southampton above them in the table, and Van Gaal could well have been out of a job.