Mourinho’s Manchester United looks unbeatable at the moment! They’re in a superb run in the Premier League, with two 4-0 wins so far! But, that’s not the end – this Saturday, they welcome Leicester City at the Old Trafford, the stadium where they’re without a loss for almost a year!
On top of everything, Mourinho has nothing to worry about injuries. All of his best players are fit and ready to go! That’s not the case with Leicester City’s manager Craig Shakespeare. In fact, it’s almost the opposite. Leicester travels to Manchester without several crucial players, something that makes their chances against the Red Devils even lower.
Manchester United vs. Leicester
Three-Way: 1: Manchester United -233; X: +500 Draw; 2: Leicester +1050
Spread -1.5: Manchester United +100; Leicester -104
Total +2.5: Over -139; Under +140
MANCHESTER UNITED
The two rounds of the Premier League have shown that Mourinho means business. Saying that Manchester United was great in those two matches would be an understatement. They beat West Ham and Swansea by 4:0 each, which has placed them on the top of the table. You can be certain that Mourinho plans to stay there until the end. Can Leicester ruin his plans? I doubt it…
As a result of an impressive run, the morale in the locker room is reportedly fantastic. The players are looking forward to the future matches, confident of winning big again. Most of their players are injury-free and ready for the Saturday’s duel. The only exception is Marcos Rojo, who will miss it because of an injury.
The same goes for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who’s back in the club! Zlatan has signed a new contract with Manchester United a few days ago, but will not be able to play for a while. The reason – a knee ligament injury that he sustained back in April. It is expected that he’ll be back in the team in late October. Still, it seems he won’t be missed too much as the Red Devils have been doing very well even without him. Actually, even if he was 100% fit, Zlatan probably wouldn’t get a place in the best 11 of Manchester United.
The fact that Mourinho can choose his favorite 11 to play Leicester does not mean that he will do that. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he gave a chance to some players that haven’t yet played this season. Lindelöf and Darmian could feature in this game, perhaps.
Still, you can be sure that we’ll see Lukaku in the front, who’ll look to improve his goal-scoring yield even further (so far 3 goals). Actually, Lukaku is the number 1 candidate for winning the Premier League Golden Boot. In fact, many pundits predict that he’ll manage to break the record for the most goals scored in a season (38 matches). Right now, the record (31 goals) is shared by three players – Alan Shearer (1995/96 season), Cristiano Ronaldo (2007/08), and Luis Suarez (2013/14).
Mkhitaryan is also expected to be in the team from the very start, as he’s been superb with his passes lately. In fact, the Armenian playmaker is the player with most assists in the Premier League at the moment. So far, he’s made 4 assists, which is more than he made for the whole 2016/17 season. That season, he made only 1 goal assist, while the team’s most prolific players in aspect were Ander Herrera and Anthony Martial.
Paul Pogba is also expected to continue his good run. The French player has been fantastic this season, which is what you would expect from the player for whose transfer Manchester United paid 105 million Euro. He’s slowly becoming the leader of the team, despite the fact that he’s only 24 years of age. So far, in the two Premier League, he’s managed to score two times and create one goal assist.
Man United is one of the best teams when it comes to playing at home, not only in the Premier League but in the whole world. The Red Devils are without a defeat at the Old Trafford for almost a whole year. Actually, the last home defeat happened last September, when they lost to their arch-rivals, Manchester City.
On top of that, Manchester United has a great history with Leicester City. They’re without a defeat to the Foxes on the Old Trafford. In fact, Man United has won all but 2 duels with Leicester on the home turf.
LEICESTER
It seems that there’s no way Leicester City will ever repeat the feat they made in the 2015–16 season when they won the Premier League title. Well, maybe in a distant future, but definitely not in 2017/2018. They simply don’t have enough talent in their squad to compete with heavyweights like Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, and their next opponent, Manchester United.
By looking at the squad of Leicester, it’s fair to say that their fans do have the right to hope their team will finish the season at a respectable position. They probably won’t get qualified for the Champions League (or Europa League, as a matter a fact), but they might finish the season somewhere in the top half of the table.
Leicester City’s fixture list has been far from easy. In the opening round, they played Arsenal, a match that they lost 4-3 after a nerve-breaking hour and a half. A week after, they rebounded from the defeat with an easy win over Brighton! This Saturday, Leicester travels to Manchester, after which they welcome Chelsea at home.
With so many difficult games in a rather short period, their players might not feel too well physically. Some of them might need a rest, but the problem is that the team is already having huge problems with injured players.
Leicester did make a couple of amazing signings this summer. They brought Kevin Iheanacho, whom football experts predict a brilliant future. Leicester City also signed the ex-Sevilla midfielder Iborra, as well as a few other very talented players.
Unfortunately for Leicester, the exciting new signings won’t be able to feature against Manchester United. Both Iheanacho and Iborra are struggling with injuries and will probably have to sit on the bench for at least one more game. But the problems for Leicester don’t end there! Huth is definitely out, while Drinkwater is seriously lacking match fitness.
What this means is that it’s fair to assume that Leicester City manager, Craig Shakespeare, will employ a similar tactic to the one he did against Arsenal in the opening round. Leicester will let Manchester United attack for the most of the game and look for their chances from the counter-attacks.
This, actually, seems pretty reasonable, given the fact that Leicester have a number of very pacey players. They can rely on Jamie Vardy, Shinji Okazaki, Riyad Mahrez, and the rest, to cause some troubles for Manchester United defense. It wouldn’t be a big surprise if they managed to score a goal on Saturday. Still, I’m not sure that will be enough to take any points from this match.
Manchester United vs. Leicester – Match Prediction
Did you know that Manchester United’s stadium, the Old Trafford is the most-visited venue in the Premier League? The average attendance is just short of 75 thousand! With so many supporters cheering for the Red Devils, it is not a surprise that they’re so amazing when playing at home.
Manchester United is without a home defeat for almost a whole year! I honestly doubt Leicester can change that. Instead, I expect the Red Devils to win this match without any major problems, the same as they did against West Ham and Swansea! The value on the straight up win for the Red Devils is not worthy of placing a bet on, instead I am will go with the over 2.5 goals at -139!
MY PICK: Over 2.5 goals (-139)
