With near neighbours Manchester City overturning their European ban, United have an extra incentive to keep winning and in doing so ensure a Champions League spot next season, can Saints stop them.

Manchester United aim to make it 5 Premier League wins in a row against Saints this evening, so far their only dropped points being their opening game of the re start a 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur.

But is this record as good as it looks on paper, whilst it cannot be denied that this is the best record since the restart, it could equally be argued that they have had one of the easiest fixtures.

Spurs have been average since the restart and a bit hit and miss, Sheffield United at Old Trafford in the second game had made a poor start and Brighton, Bournemouth and Villa have hardly been the toughest opponents.

So tonight could be said to be as tough a test as they have had so far with Saints not only having one of the best away records, but better results than most since that awful defeat to Leicester.

I'm now contractually obliged to now point out that our games are a lottery, that there is no guarantee that we will get away with some poor defending, but some times we will as we did against City and others we won't as per Everton & Arsenal.

So this will be an intriguing game for United supporters as they will find out this evening if there is a new dawn at Old Trafford or like us the same old problems are bubbling under the surface and have not been addressed.

The Red Devils or as they are more commonly referred to in our house, The Spawn of the Devil, could move into 3rd tonight and leapfrog over both Leicester & Chelsea or they could still be in 5th place with only a win being enough to make that jump.

They also know that in their last 4 games they face Chelsea at home and Leicester away on the final day of the season, that game is now likely to be a showdown for a Champions League place.

So United will come out fighting tonight and we need to be up to it ourselves.

Team wise I don't expect Ralph Hasenhuttl to make many changes from his starting line up against Everton, in many respects because he has no other choices in many positions, although he could opt to bring back Pierre Emile Hojbjerg and take out either Nathan Redmond or Che Adams in a game plan to shore things up early on in the game and then look to try and win it in the later stages by bringing on attacking options, Moussa Djenepo or Michael Obafemi for instance.

This is the toughest game we have had since the restart and a test for us, in truth we are now looking to try and finish in 11th although a win tonight would drag us back to with 3 points of both Burnley and Arsenal in 9th & 10th respectively.

As I have mentioned earlier it will be a lottery, we will make errors but will they be punished, we want to finish the season with a flourish another win at Old Trafford would be just the tonic to go into the final 3 games of the season.

Photo: Action Images

LordDZLucan added 13:02 - Jul 13 Every team makes errors. For example look at Leicester last night. We are no different. If we want us to play the type of football that we have been playing of late then they come with the territory. Let's not get on certain players backs when they happen. Support the team. COYR
5

SanMarco added 13:13 - Jul 13 It will be tough tonight but I believe we will give them a game. They have a lot more riding on it than we do so a surprise it unlikely but then it was against Man City too...
2

halftimeorange added 14:14 - Jul 13 The Man City game was a one-off. The new United team is very attack minded. They might leak a goal but, make no mistake, they have the belief and the impetus and I'll be surprised if Saints are not in for a hard night. We put in a massive effort against City and for around sixty minutes against Everton. We do not have strength in depth and Ralph might just think that there are easier pickings in our final three games if he reserves his best starting eleven for those fixtures. Mind you, Ralph won't want a drubbing so, those who do play will have to show their utmost concentration.

-1

erick added 14:31 - Jul 13 I wouldn't mind a loss against mufc they have evolved more, we still have so many issues still to address, especially offensively now than defending. Without ings goals we are redundant. We need to find a complimentary partner for ings. The left side of saints we are thoroughly blunt offensively.
0

HythePeer added 15:39 - Jul 13 I hope there's a minute silence for Jack.
0

andywelsh added 16:34 - Jul 13 Seeing as Stephens is now being touted as an outside bet for a call up to the England squad and Bednarek is now an established Polish international I am no longer convinced this is where our problems lie. I have thought for some time that the reason we often get caught on the break is a real lack of pace in central midfield. Accurate crosses also result from the wing backs pushing high and therefore being unable to get back to put pressure on the delivery. If Hojberg goes I would like to see a defensive midfielder with pace bought and of course we will need a centre back, although I think it will be a younger player to compete for a place rather than a seasoned pro. LordDZLucan makes a valid point that you can't play our sort of football without errors unless you buy ready made Van Diik's and Mane's.

3

SaintPaulVW added 18:23 - Jul 13 Just hope it's a great game with loads of mistakes and individual pieces of skill and Saints Win. It was a good game last year, just the wrong result in the end. COYS!
2

Blogs 31 bloggers

Norwich City Polls