The second Premier League weekend concludes with the first Monday Night Football of the season which sees Wolverhampton Wanderers taking on Manchester United at what is sure to be a raucous Molineux Stadium.
Both teams got off to solid starts last week, keeping clean sheets and getting acceptable results and they will be looking to build on that so we should be in for a good conclusion to what has been a good weekend of action.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
There is a decent case to be made that Wolves should be the sharpest side for the first few weeks of the season. That is because they have been playing competitive football for the better part of a month now and should be up to speed with everything that comes with it. They showed that at Leicester last week but now they have to turn tight draws into wins, especially at home, if they are going to build on last term.
Nothing much looks to have changed in terms of the approach that Wolves bring to the game. They are going to keep things tight and look to play on the counter attack, much in the same way we saw them play last season. Although they have played a number of Europa League matches, they should be fresh here as Nuno Espirito Santo was able to rest the majority of his starters on Thursday night.
Manchester United
I think there was a lot of uncertainty about how Manchester United would perform this season, but they certainly silenced many of their critics with a 4-0 thumping of Chelsea last weekend. While you can’t say that form has been franked since then, you can’t really argue with a victory of that size, even allowing for the fact that not everything about the win was perfect. If you have room for improvement but are winning 4-0 things can’t be that bad.
One thing that looks to have changed since the end of last season is a clear focus on playing a counter attacking style and it will be interesting to see how they go in that regard here considering they are playing a side who rarely come out too much. United look stronger defensively although this might provide us with a bigger test of their credentials in that area too.
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Team News
Santo is expected to revert back to the XI that started the match against Leicester City last weekend, which means Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez are likely to be up front once again having sat out the Europa League tie in midweek.
Alexis Sanchez is getting close to a return to action but this match is expected to come too soon for him. Eric Bailly remains out but Solskjaer has no fresh injury issues going into the game. He could name the same XI as last week too.
Betting
On the face of it this looks a decent game of football in a stadium that is likely to be rocking under the Monday night lights, but when you explore it a little deeper there is a fear that two sides who play on the counter attack could just cancel each other out and this one turns into a stalemate and becomes a tough watch, which isn’t ideal on the first MNF of the campaign.
I don’t think either side will be that keen to take risks at the best of times and that is especially likely to be the case here. United’s attack doesn’t look as dynamic as previously and there won’t be no space in behind to exploit. The Red Devils do look more solid defensively though which was their weakness last term so I’m expecting a tight battle. Both sides kept clean sheets last week and I think under 2.5 goals is likely here.
Tips
WON – Back Under 2.5 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.75 with Betfair
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