Manchester United come into Saturday’s match against West Brom unbeaten in their last 5 Premier League games having won 3 and drawn 2 games. In fact the Red-Devils are on an 18 game undefeated run with their last loss in the League coming way back on October 23rd when they went down to the infamous 4-0 defeat at the hands of Jose Mourinho’s former club Chelsea. United beat West Brom in the reverse of this fixture at the Hawthorns back in December but they have lost 2 of their most recent 3 home Premier League games against the Baggies winning only 1 game but this came after going unbeaten in the previous 7 games at Old Trafford against the Midlands team.
West Brom have actually only managed to score in 2 of their last 5 league visits to Old Trafford but they did win on both occasions. The Baggies are enjoying their best Premier League season in some time, sitting in 7th position at the moment and come into the match on the back of a convincing 3-1 win over Arsenal. Tony Pulis’ side are a real threat from set-pieces and so far this season their defenders have scored more goals than all the other Premier League teams with 12.
If United win they can move 5 points ahead of Arsenal in 6th place as the Gunners do not play until Sunday afternoon when Arsene Wenger’s team face Manchester City. A United win would also see them close to within 2 points of their noisy neighbours with both clubs having played 28 games. A draw between Arsenal and Man City may suit the Red-Devils the best as it would leave United 4 points ahead of Arsenal having played the same number of games and only 3 points behind of City with a game in hand.
As United will be without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who will be serving the last of his 3 game suspension they may look to give Wayne Rooney a start at centre-forward, if he is declared fit from his knee injury in time for the game, as the all-time leading United goal scorer has scored 7 goals and assisted on 5 more in his last 10 Premier League matches played against West Bromwich Albion. If recent history is anything to go by however, Jose Mourinho will likely turn to Marcus Rashford or Anthony Martial for the game as he will be looking for the youngsters to use their pace to terrorise the sluggish West Brom central defensive partnership of Gareth McCauley and former red Jonny Evans.
United will almost certainly be without Paul Pogba due to his hamstring injury and will definitely have to do without Chris Smalling and Phil Jones while Marouane Fellaini and the previously mentioned Wayne Rooney could be fit in time for the game as they look to recover from a toe problem and a knee issue respectively.
We think that despite their injury and suspension issues United will have enough to complete the double over West Brom as we see Jose Mourinho’s men winning by a 3-1 scoreline as Juan Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan will inspire the Red-Devils to a much needed victory plus Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial have both been playing well and are overdue for some goals.