Manchester United travel to the Britannia Stadium Saturday as heavy favorites in their clash at Stoke City. United come in riding very high, a perfect 3-0 on the very young season with a 10-0 goal differential. the Potters come in even Steven in that department having scored two and conceded two.
They have accumulated four points this league campaign, with their early results consisting of one win, one draw and one loss. United of course sit a top the table with nine.
There was no shortage of storylines the past couple weeks, despite it being an international break. Jose Mourinho gave a very interesting interview with The Times, in which he:
threw shade at Chelsea Manager Antonio Conte, said that Romelu Lukaku would have cost the team double what they paid to acquire him, had they struck the deal a few weeks later, and indicated that he still needs a third summer transfer window in order to close the gap between United and the European elite.
It all made for some excellent big picture reading material.
Injury Report for both sides/full match preview: go here to this link
Without further ado, here is The Sports Bank’s Man United starting XI prediction (4-2-3-1)
Romelu Lukau
Anthony Martial Henrikh Mkhitaryan Juan Mata
Paul Pogba Nemanja Matic
Daley Blind Phil Jones Eric Bailly Antonio Valencia
David de Gea
Odds: (via Paddy Power) United- 9/20, Draw- 10/3, Stoke City 6/1
Kickoff: 17:30 BST
Prediction: Manchester United 3, Stoke City 1
We predict that the winning streak continues! However, we do see the Red Devils finally conceding a goal.
As always, feel free to post your own Man United starting XI prediction in the comments section, and to opine on any other formations that you’ve seen online.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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