For Manchester United, there are still a couple of ambitions left to realize this season. They can win the FA Cup and secure second place in the table over their last five games, as finishing just ahead of arch-rival Liverpool would be a nice consolation prize on their roller coaster and potentially trophy-less season.
United head to the Vitality Stadium to face Bournemouth on Wednesday before an FA Cup semifinal date with Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
Juan Mata, in articulating how he feels the pain of United supporters, says it’s going to be a fierce battle down the stretch to finish runners-up.
“It was not done even if we won (versus West Bromwich Albion yesterday),” he said.
“It is even more important for the next games and we know we have to compete until the last week. It’s been a long season but we need to make sure we can compete until the end, that we keep that second position and we fight for being in another FA Cup final and try to win it.”
The good news for United is that they come into this match with the Cherries as healthy as they have been all year long.
Phil Jones has worked his way back towards match fitness now and we could see him feature for the first time since February. The only player missing in this one will be back up goalkeeper Sergio Romero remains sidelined with a knee problem.
For Bournemouth, they will again be without Tyrone Mings, Junior Stanislas (knee) and Adam Smith (MCL knee ligament).
United should be able to win this one, provided they just get back to basics, or at least that was sort of the explanation that United manager Jose Mourinho gave for Sunday’s inexplicable and inexcusable loss to West Brom.
Man United starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Odds: United 3/4 Bournemouth 41/13 Draw 22/5
Prediction: Man United 1, Bournemouth 0
As always, feel free to post to your own Bournemouth and/or United starting XI predictions, as well as your score predictions, in the comments section below.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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