Manchester United have taken only one
point from their first six and crashed out of the Capital One Cup 4-0 to
MK Dons in one of the shocks of the early season. Newly-promoted
Burnley are yet to claim a point on their return to the Premier League –
losing 3-1 to Chelsea and 1-0 to Swansea. While Burnley may have
expected to struggle, neither team can be happy with their start to the
campaign.
Team News
Manchester United have been bit hard by
the injury bug early on this season. United have seven players on the
treatment table with all of them likely to miss the match against
Burnley. The seven injured United players are: Chris Smalling, Luke
Shaw, Ander Herrara, Jesse Linegard, Michael Carrick, Shinji Kagawa, and
the big Belgian Marouane Fellaini. Burnley are almost injury free with
the only player missing being Welsh striker Sam Vokes.
Interesting Statistics
The last time these two teams met at
Turf Moor, Burnley came out with a shock 1-0 victory. Prior to that
though, Burnley had not beaten Manchester United since 1968. These two
teams have met 107 times over the course of their histories, but only
three times in the Premier League era. United hold the all time edge,
wining 50 drawing 16 and Burnley losing 41. Only 15% of the all time
meetings between these two have ended in draws, so you can expect one
team to come out with all three points.
Key Men
Burnley’s key man is English forward Danny Ings.
The former Bournemouth man won the Player of the Season for the
Championship and will need to bring his shooting boots to the match on
Saturday if the Bees are to have a chance against United. The England
U-21 striker bagged 26 goals in all competitions, including 21 goals in
40 league appearances in 2013-2014. Ings has shown he can rip apart the
Championship, but the young striker must show he has the quality to
play with the big boys in the top level of the game. The 22 year old
has been touted as a future England international. Scoring against
Manchester United in the Premier League would go a long way to showing
that he does have that top level quality in him.
Manchester United are in desperate need
of a win. Even with new record signing Angel Di Maria arriving earlier
this week, Manchester United’s key figure will be their former record
signing Juan Mata. The former Chelsea star has had an
up and down start to his United career. He has gone on some good runs
of form, and did pop up with the Reds’ lone goal against Sunderland, but
he has not exactly set Manchester alight with his performances. Louis
Van Gaal’s team has world class strikers, but the midfield and defence
are poor. The midfield being poor has resulted in a lack of service for
Rooney and Van Persie up top. Mata has to provide the big two up top
with quality service for Manchester United to get going.
Prediction
Predictions have been quite difficult
when it comes to Manchester United over the past 12 months. So many
games they are expected to win they have not won. Now with Louis Van
Gaal in charge, people expected that to change, but I would have
predicted a United win in all of their first three games (Swansea,
Sunderland, and MK Dons) but they have won none of them. I am expecting
Manchester United to get their first win of the season, but the way
they’ve been playing no result will genuinely surprise me.
Prediction: 2-1 Manchester United
