English Premier
2011-12-10 - Manchester United vs Wolves
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 10 December 2011 - Kick Off 3pm
Manchester United
It has been a hard couple of days for Manchester United as they exited the Champions League at the Group Stage and now have to play in the Europa League following a 2-1 loss at Basel on Wednesday night. With an FA Cup tie at Manchester City on the horizon, exiting the Carling Cup to Crystal Palace and trailing City in the Premier League, questions are finally being asked about the quality of the squad and what they can achieve.
The midfield is sorely lacking the dynamic, creative player the fans have been crying out for and that can be seen from a lack of goals in recent weeks. United are 2nd in the Premier League, but are 5 points behind City although they can close the gap as their rivals don't play until Monday night. The team are 5-1-1 at Old Trafford this season, scoring 19 goals but also conceding 10.
1 win in 5 games in all competitions is not the kind of form the fans will be expecting from United, even when accounting for the number of injuries in the squad. However, they have won 4 of their last 5 games in the Premier League after beating Villa 0-1 last time out. United have drawn their last 3 games at Old Trafford in all competitions, and have only scored more than 1 goal in 2 of their last 6 games there.
Nemanja Vidic looks set to miss the majority, if not all, of the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury at Basel. His absence has been felt earlier in the campaign as Jonny Evans looks set to return to the backline. Dimitar Berbatov, Javier Hernandez, Michael Owen, Anderson and Tom Cleverley are all set to miss the game, but Michael Carrick is in the squad after missing the loss at Basel through injury.
Wolves
Wolves may just have seen the biggest moment of their season last week when they recovered from 0-1 down at home to beat Sunderland 2-1. It was more telling considering Sunderland could have gone 0-2 up when missing a penalty, a situation that saw Wolves equalise 30 seconds later. Mick McCarthy will hope to use that momentum to build his team away from the relegation zone.
The team only moved up to 16th following that big win last week, but they did extend the gap between them and the relegation zone to 4 points and moved above Sunderland. Wolves are 1-1-5 away from home this season, scoring 5 goals and conceding 13.
After failing to win any of 8 Premier League games, Wolves have at least turned a corner with 2 wins from their last 4 League games. However, both wins came at Molineaux and they have lost their last 5 away games in the League, conceding at least 2 goals in each of those games. They have struggled for results against the better teams, losing at Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea in that run of defeats.
Jody Craddock will be missing until just before Christmas, but McCarthy has no new injury worries to concern him. He could start the same XI that beat Sunderland last week.
Head to Head
These teams met twice at Old Trafford last season, once in the Carling Cup, and United won both games by a solitary goal.
United have beaten Wolves on all 5 occasions they have met at Old Trafford in the last 7 seasons.
5 of the last 6 games between the teams have been settled by 1 goal.
Prediction
It was a big body blow for United to exit the Champions League before the last 16, but this club has built its history on being able to bounce back from hard defeats. The last time they went out at this stage of the Champions League was in the 2005/06 season, one which culminated in the Red Devils winning the title for the first time in 3 years.
So while I do expect a big performance for United, I am a little cautious considering how tough Wolves have played them over the last couple of seasons. Barring one game when Mick McCarthy rested most of his starters, all the games have been decided by just 1 goal and you can be sure that the Wolves players will not be fearing coming to play here.
I expect Wolves will look to make life difficult for United, while trying to hit the team on the counter, and they will surely fancy their chances of scoring against a defence that has struggled without Nemanja Vidic all season.
With all that being said, I did consider picking Wolves on the Asian Handicap which looks huge at 1.75, but instead I am going to back United to find a way to get back on the horse and to win this one in another tight game. Their Premier League results have shown United are doing just enough to pick up the 3 points and I think this will be another one of those occasions.
The 4.33 on offer for United to win this one by exactly 1 goal looks too good to turn down and I will have a small interest.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Manchester United 2-1 Wolves
