English Premier
2026-02-01 - Manchester United vs Fulham
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Sunday 1st February 2025 - Kick Off 2pm
This game is live on TV
Manchester United
Michael Carrick took over as interim manager for a Manchester United squad that had just exited the FA Cup and looked to be in a spot of disarray after the sudden departure of Ruben Amorim. It may have been easy to expect the team to struggle against the current top two in the Premier League standings, but all credit has to be given to Carrick and the squad for rallying together and giving Manchester United some real momentum to take into the final four months of the campaign.
Winning at the Emirates Stadium in the manner Manchester United did will have given everyone a real shot of confidence and it has pushed the team into 4th place in the Premier League table. The most realistic ambition for the club has to be returning to the Champions League and Manchester United are about to embark on a run of games that should see them put plenty of points on the board.
Manchester United have lost 1 of the last 7 games in all competitions, but they had been drawing too many games before back to back wins over Manchester City and Arsenal. The recent form at Old Trafford had been particularly disappointing with Manchester United winning 1 of the previous 6 Premier League games here, but the Manchester derby success will have raised expectations again.
Joshua Zirkzee's future is still a little cloudy and he is expected to miss this fixture, while in-form Patrick Dorgu suffered a hamstring issue late last week and is set for a prolonged spell on the sidelines. Matthijs de Ligt is edging back, but is unlikely to break the Maguire-Martinez partnership anyway.
Fulham
The contract may be running down for manager and player and some have tied the futures together, but Marco Silva will just be very pleased for the form that Harry Wilson is producing week after week. The Welshman scored a late free kick to help Fulham complete the turnaround in the 2-1 win over Brighton last Saturday and earning a spot in European Football remains a personal ambition for Silva.
Reports have indicated that the Fulham hierarchy are very keen to keep hold of Marco Silva and offering him a big contract, but the manager is only focusing on helping his team improve the 7th place positioning in the Premier League. Last season that would have been good enough for a spot in Europe and Fulham head to the North West with a 3-2-6 away record in the top flight.
Fulham may have been beaten in the League Cup Quarter Final, but they have refused to allow that to disrupt the season and the side have lost 1 of the last 8 games played in all competitions since then. That defeat did come away from home a couple of weeks ago when conceding late on at Elland Road, but Fulham had been unbeaten in 4 away Premier League games prior to that and had won 3 times in that run.
Kenny Tete could be available to travel, but both Sasa Lukic and Rodrigo Muniz are hoping to return later this month.
Head to Head
Fulham and Manchester United shared the points after a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage in August.
Games between the clubs at Old Trafford have seen mixed results of late- Fulham have won 1 of the last 4 Premier League games played here, but been beaten twice.
However, most recently they met in the FA Cup Fifth Round at Old Trafford in March 2025 and the game ended 1-1 before Fulham battled through on Penalties.
Prediction
After wins over Manchester City and Arsenal, fans will be arriving with real confidence and expectation of Manchester United when they host Fulham.
However, you have to be a little cautious knowing that this is a very different kind of challenge for a squad that have dropped plenty of points when set as big favourites this season.
This week Michael Carrick will be looking to find a system that gets the best out of the attacking players without losing the solidity that has been displayed in the last couple of games. Patrick Dorgu's injury arguably makes the decision making process clearer with the likes of Matheus Cunha, Benjamin Sesko and Mason Mount pushing for starts and being able to offer more going forward than the Danish youngster.
Even if Patrick Dorgu is in Ballon d'Orgu form!
The impact made by Matheus Cunha in the win over Arsenal merits a start, but Carrick has questions to answer with the likelihood being that Sesko leads the line and Bryan Mbeumo will be pushed into a more natural role.
Of course these are positive questions to answer and Manchester United have momentum after back to back wins over title challengers.
This is a big test for Manchester United and the Champions League credentials having dropped home points to teams like West Ham United, Everton and Wolves, while being dumped out of the FA Cup by Brighton.
Marco Silva's Fulham have been in strong form for some time and they have given some of the better teams in the Division a run for their money. Fulham have also pushed Manchester United in recent meetings and will feel they can come to Old Trafford and use the pace and quality on the counter attack to cause a lot of problems on their own.
After a slow start away from Craven Cottage, Fulham have picked up 10 points from the last 15 possible on their travels and only conceded very late on in the defeat at Elland Road.
The underlying numbers in the recent away games do suggest the positive results were perhaps an indication of overachievement for Fulham and this is a team that are still struggling defensively.
With that said, Manchester United will be expected to find the solutions in the final third in a much more comfortable system set-up compared with the previous manager. It means the impressive attacking players should have more of the ball in dangerous areas and Manchester United may have just enough to edge to the three points and really build some confidence towards a strong end to the campaign and a return to Europe's top table.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Manchester United 2-0 Fulham
