Manchester United would have been pleased with their start against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in their FA Cup quarter-final.

Despite being without Zlatan Ibrahimovic (suspended), Anthony Martial (injured) and Wayne Rooney (injured), the Red Devils started brightly with Marcus Rashford leading the line.

But the match changed after Ander Herrera picked up a second yellow card after just 35 minutes for a foul on Eden Hazard.

Playing with 10 men against the best side in England was always going to be a struggle, and so it proved as N’Golo Kante’s goal saw Chelsea triumph 1-0.

Kante’s strike rounded off his performance as the midfielder produced a sensational Man of the Match display.

But would he have been able to that with Herrera still on the pitch?

Kante has earned plenty of plaudits this season and is currently favourite to win the PFA Player of the Year at the end of the season.

However, according to statistics, Herrera appears to be equally as - if not more - effective for United.

According to stats provided by Squawka, Herrera comes out on top in terms of interceptions, percentage of duels won, clearances, successful passes, key passes and chances created.

Of course, stats don’t always translate to what happens on the pitch but one United fan was so convinced by these numbers that he made a big prediction ahead of the Chelsea match.

Twitter account, The United Stand - which has almost 70,000 followers - tweeted “Can’t wait for Herrera v Kante on Monday. Rivals and media think Kante is far superior. They’re in for a shock”.

Just a reminder that Herrera was sent off in the first-half and Kante was the best player on the pitch and scored the only goal.

Ooops.

Unsurprisingly, the account later deleted their prediction but not before a few people took a screenshot.