Manchester United have won their last three across all competitions, with all three of those contests taking place away from the friendly confines of Old Trafford. Now they return to the theatre of dreams to face a newly promoted, but surprisingly formidable Wolverhampton Wanderers side.
Wolves have only lost once in six matches across all competitions this season, and already have an impressive draw against reigning league champions Manchester City on their resume. Since that result against the Sky Blues, they have won three in a row and kept three clean sheets against Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup, West Ham and Burnley in the league.
United will no doubt be wary, as they have lost three of their last five league contests that immediately followed a UCL fixture. Let’s take a look at who manager Jose Mourinho could field in his first team for this one.
Forwards: Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial
Midfielders: Fred, Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba
Defenders: Luke Shaw, Victor Lindelof, Chris Smalling, Antonio Valencia
Goalkeeper: David de Gea
Here’s one statistic that is very much in United’s favor- they have lost only one of their last 49 league home games against newly promoted sides (Norwich City, December 2015)
United vs Wolves Injury Report/Match Preview: go to this link
Kick-off: 3pm (BST), Saturday Sept 22
Odds via Bet365: United 8/15 Draw 14/5 Wolverhampton 11/2
Prediction: United 1, Wolverhampton 0
As always, feel free to post your own United and/or Wolverhampton starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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