Manchester United welcome Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur side to Old Trafford on Sunday in the Premier League. United know that a loss will really leave them too far out of touch with the leading pack in the table that any chances of qualifying for the Champions League will have been reduced to nothing more than a long shot.
Spurs come into the game on the back of a 3-1 win over CSKA Moscow in the Champions League. The North Londoners still exited the competition however and will now compete in the Europa League where it is possible they could face United in the round of 32 or further on in the competition. Spurs have not traditionally done well at Old Trafford having lost 19 times there in the Premier League while winning just twice with 3 losses. The recent history of the fixture overall does favour Tottenham however as they have won 3 of the last 8 games while United have only won 2 and the clubs have played out a draw on 3 occasions.
In their last meeting back in April at White Hart Lane, United went down to a 3-0 defeat as Spurs went on to qualify for the Champions League and as we know United ultimately lost out by the narrowest of margins. On Sunday United will be looking to avoid another draw and will certainly be going for all 3 points as they look to avoid notching what would be their 6th draw in the past 8 games. You feel that Henrikh Mkhitaryan will be retained in the United line-up after his recent run of starts which was capped with his first United goal this past Thursday night against Zorya Luhansk in the Europa League. Jose Mourinho will be looking to the Armenian playmaker to pull the strings for the Red-Devils and provide the creative spark they need.
United have been most reliant of Zlatan Ibrahimovic for goals this season and really could do with some other players chipping in with Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford both overdue to contribute goals in the League. For Tottenham Harry Kane has returned to goal-scoring form after a slow start to the campaign and has scored 7 goals in his last 6 games in the League so United will need to pay particular attention to the Englishman.
Based upon the importance of this game to both sides but particularly to Manchester United we expect Jose Mourinho to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Spurs in search of the win. Therefore we think United will come out on top in what is likely to be a very tight game. We see it ending up as a 2-1 win for United which if it happens will be a big relief to everyone associated with the club.