Manchester United will be looking to get their first points on the board when they take on Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium on Saturday lunchtime.
The Red Devils were excellent during the second half of last season as they clawed back a huge deficit to snatch third place from Chelsea to book their place in the Champions League this campaign.
However, Manchester United endured a nightmare start to the 2020/21 Premier League season after slumping to a shock 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace at Old Trafford last Saturday evening.
Summer signing Donny van de Beek scored off the bench on his debut but Andros Townsend opened the scoring for Palace before a double from Wilfried Zaha against his former side consigned United to defeat.
The Manchester giants bounced back with a 3-0 victory over Luton Town in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is under pressure to get off the mark in the league with a win at Brighton.
The Seagulls have made a solid start to the new season as they responded to a 3-1 opening day defeat to Chelsea at home by beating 4-0 Portsmouth in the League Cup.
Brighton then thrashed Newcastle 3-0 at St James’ Park last weekend so boss Graham Potter will be quietly confident of getting something against the mighty Manchester United this weekend.
How to watch
It’s never been easier to watch football on tv as the majority of Premier League fixtures are being broadcast live for fans to watch at home or in the pub while supporters aren’t allowed into stadiums.
Brighton’s clash with Manchester United will be shown live on BT Sport at 12.30 on Saturday lunchtime. Subscribers can watch on TV, online via the website or on the go using the BT Sport app.
Team news
United have a relatively healthy squad to choose from as they suffered no fresh injury concerns following the win over Luton in midweek. However, Sergio Romero and Phil Jones remain on the sidelines while Alex Tuanzebe is still nursing a foot problem.
Several first team players are set for recalls as Solskjaer made wholesale changes for the League Cup game last time out. David De Gea is expected to replace Dean Henderson in goal while the likes of Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof should return in defence.
Paul Pogba is also set for a recall in midfield along with Bruno Fernandes after they were rested against Luton. Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood should return to the starting eleven after scoring off the bench on Tuesday night while Anthony Martial will replace Odion Ighalo up front.
As for Brighton, they have plenty of injury concerns to worry about as Yves Bissouma, Dale Stephens, Aaron Connolly, Tariq Lamptey, Jose Izquierdo, Florin Andone and Christian Walton are all set to miss out.
Prediction
Man Utd were extremely poor against Crystal Palace last week so they’ll need to put-in a much improved display if they want to leave the Amex Stadium with all three points on Saturday afternoon.
Brighton can be a difficult side to face on their day and they were impressive during the win at Newcastle so this could be a tight game. However, there’s no denying United have the better side and I think they’ll just edge it in the end. Brighton 1-2 Man Utd
