Monday, 22 August 2011

Manchester United v Tottenham - Premiership


The phrase “over to you” has been well used after Manchester City gave an attacking performance when winning 3-2 at Bolton yesterday and bolstering their title prospects but there’s good reason to think that neighbours United can show them who’s boss again on Monday night against Tottenham.

Spurs were impressive when making a winning start to the campaign at Hearts, romping home 5-0 at Tynecastle, but this is a huge step up in class from the SPL’s third best team, who were in no form at the time.

Tom Cleverley could start for Manchester United against West Brom in the Premier League on Sunday



It will be important that Spurs once again bring their A-Game as the likes of Anderson and Tom Cleverly will prove harder to pass in midfield than what Hearts had to offer, while the absence of Luke Modric (Spurs boss Harry Redknapp revealed the midfielder's head 'is not right' at the moment following Chelsea's summer-long pursuit of the Croatian) leaves a hole in Tottenham’s midfield.



Tom Huddlestone is no bad player to have in the middle of the park but it’s understandable that they would want Modric to control the ball and give Spurs a stranglehold. There’s no doubt in the attacking ability of Spurs, with Van Der Vaart, Bale and Lennon able to trouble any defence, should pose a threat but United have equal ability in Nani, Young, Rooney and even Wellbeck on form.

United’s experienced centre-halves Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are absent through injury but replacements Chris Smalling & Phil Jones have long been ready to step into the back form and will have been putting in countless hours on the training ground, while Patrice Evra again offers a constant threat.

Some feel that David De Gea had an inauspicious start to his United career after making mistakes against West Brom and Manchester City but all he needs is time and he’s another one who will have worked tirelessly to improve on those shortcomings and it’s not hard to foresee improvement coming and fast.

This makes United the clear pick but alongside that I’ll go with the double united result, seeing as it occurred in 17 out of 18 home games last season, which isn’t surprising given the 33 first half goals scored by the Red Devils last year.


Advice

3 pts Manchester United (8/13 general)

2 pts United-United double result (6/4 SkyBet)

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