Man Utd Match Centre
Southampton vs Man Utd: Preview, Team News, Likely Line-ups & Predicted Score
Southampton welcome Manchester United to St. Mary’s on Sunday afternoon. Here’s a preview with team news, likely line-ups and predicted score for the game.
Newly promoted Southampton welcome the mighty Manchester United to St. Mary’s on Sunday afternoon.
United go into the game after a rather unconvincing start to the season. The Red Devils were beaten 1-0 away at Everton on the opening weekend and only just managed to edge past Fulham 3-2 at Old Trafford last week, so Sir Alex Ferguson will be looking for a solid win this afternoon.
Southampton are still looking to register their first point since winning promotion back to the big time. The Saints put in a brave display in their opening fixture, narrowly losing to Manchester City 3-2, but were soundly beaten by Wigan 2-0 at home last weekend.
With tricky trips to Arsenal and Everton coming up, Southampton will be eager to gets some points on the board.
Team News
Nigel Adkins is unlikely to start new big-money signing Gaston Ramirez but the Uruguayan could well be called upon from the bench.
Fellow newcomer Maya Yoshida will miss the game after returning to Japan to play in the upcoming internationals.
Fergie will welcome back Jonny Evans after the defender recovered from an ankle injury and is expected to take his place alongside Nemanja Vidic at the back.
With Wayne Rooney out for a month with a nasty cut on his thigh, Robin van Persie will lead the line for United and will look to add to his superb strike last week against Fulham.
Shinji Kagawa is also expected to retain his place after a promising start to life at Old Trafford. Ashley Young misses out so Nani is likely to come in on the left.
Phil Jones and Rio Ferdinand are back in training but unlikely to be involved, and Chris Smalling remains on the sidelines.
Likely Line-ups
Predicted Score
Despite their plucky performance against champions City, Southampton were poor against Wigan last week and another performance like that could see then lose heavily this afternoon. United won’t want to fall any further behind the league leaders and Fergie will insist on a professional display here, and we think he’ll get one. Southampton 0-2 Man Utd.
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