Man Utd Match Centre

Man Utd vs Sunderland Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Prediction

Man Utd take on Sunderland at Old Trafford on Boxing Day. Here is a preview with team news, line-ups, betting tips and predicted score.

by
Fraser Crawford
December 25, 2016

Manchester United will look to continue their push for the top four when they entertain Sunderland at Old Trafford on Boxing Day.

The Red Devils come in to the festive period in excellent form having secured three consecutive victories over Tottenham, Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion in recent weeks.

Those results have rejuvenated United’s hopes of breaking in to the top four as they now sit just four points off fourth-placed Arsenal so Jose Mourinho will be desperate to keep the pressure on with another win tomorrow.

However, I’m sure the United boss will be wary as the match sees David Moyes return to Old Trafford for the first time since being sacked back in 2014 and it’s certainly an interesting sub-plot to this game.

The Black Cats currently occupy 18th position in the table but they could move out of the bottom three with a win if other results go their way so Moyes will no doubt be desperate to pull off a shock against his former side.

Team news

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is back in contention after recovering from an ankle injury which ruled him out of the last two games and the Armenian international will be hoping to get an instant recall having been in excellent form before picking up the knock against Spurs.

Eric Bailly could also come back in to the side after overcoming a minor knee injury that he suffered during the win over Palace but Luke Shaw remains out as he continues to recover from a groin problem.

Sunderland will be without on-loan United attacker Adnan Januzaj as he’s ineligible to face his parent club while Jan Kirchhoff has been ruled out for three months following knee surgery.

Billy Jones has returned to training after recovering from a hip injury but Javier Manquillo and midfielder Steven Pienaar may just miss out as they lack match practice.

Lee Cattermole (hip), Jack Rodwell (hamstring), Lynden Gooch (ankle), Paddy McNair and Duncan Watmore (both knee) are all still out through injury.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Man Utd 3-0 Sunderland: United have an excellent record against the Black Cats having lost just one of their 24 Premier League meetings to date and Mourinho’s side seem to have turned a corner in recent weeks so they will be confident of collecting all three points. Sometimes it can be tricky playing against a former manager but I don’t see that playing a factor tomorrow so I’m going for a comfortable home win.

Betting Tips

United are the 2/9 favourites to win the game but we can get you enhanced odds of 4/1 on the Reds winning – just click here or below to take advantage of these crazy odds. Here are some other bets I like the look of: