There has been one dominant narrative in the aftermath of the Manchester Derby, and that’s the massive brawl in the Old Trafford tunnel outside the visitor dressing room. Some reports indicated a few big names involved in the fracas, including Ederson, Jose Mourinho, Mike Arteta and Romelu Lukaku.
The Football Association is looking into it, and no matter what happened or what didn’t happen, it’s already time to move on to the next league fixture. In the festive period, there’s never much time to dwell on the recent past.
Mourinho did comment on the altercation though, openly questioning Man City’s behavior and education. Watch the video and read the comments at this link.
Mourinho will still be without some key players as United welcome 14th place A.F.C. Bournemouth to the Theatre of Dreams.
Paul Pogba is serving the second of his three-game ban, due to his red card at Arsenal. Michael Carrick and Eric Bailly remain long term absentees. Marcos Rojo is a doubt against the Cherries after he suffered a head injury on Sunday. Marouane Fellaini is nearing a return to full fitness and could feature, but probably won’t start. For the United starting XI prediction, go to this link.
On the flip side, for Adam Smith is available for the Cherries again after serving a suspension. So “Wealth of Nations” all around for everybody in the “nation of shopkeepers.” However, Tyrone Mings and Brad Smith are likely unavailable for selection due to back and knee injuries respectively.
Odds: United 2/7, Bournemouth 10/1, draw 9/2
Prediction: United 2, Bournemouth 0
As always, feel free to post your own MUFC starting XI and match 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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