Manchester United will welcome West Bromwich Albion at the Old Trafford on Saturday looking to bounce back strongly in the Premier League, after a humiliating derby defeat in their last league game.
The Red Devils have had a stuttering start to the league campaign so far. They started off with a victory against Swansea in the opening match, but have dropped points against three big teams – Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City – picking up only one point from these games. They slumped to a humiliating 4-1 defeat against City last weekend and find themselves five points adrift of league leaders Arsenal already.
However, David Moyes will be buoyed with the way his side progressed to the next round of the Capital One Cup, beating arch-rivals Liverpool 1-0 at home, as Javier Hernandez grabbed the winning goal for the hosts.
West Brom have had a difficult start to their season as well and are languishing as low as 14th in the table with just 5 points. They earned their first victory last weekend, defeating Sunderland 3-0 at home, which resulted in the sacking of Black Cats manager Paolo Di Canio.
The Baggies fought valiantly against the Gunners at the Hawthorns in the Capital One-Cup tie in the mid-week but had to endure a heart-breaking elimination, after losing out in the penalty shoot-out.
Team News
David Moyes said in his press conference yesterday that Robin van Persie is back is training and the Dutchman is in contention to feature tomorrow.
Midfielder Tom Cleverely missed the League Cup win over Liverpool in the mid-week but he was back in training too and could return against the Baggies.
Moyes would be looking to recall several first team regulars who didn’t feature in the mid-week. Therefore, the likes of Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Welbeck could all make a return to the starting line-up. Marouane Fellaini was cup-tied in the mid-week and the Belgian is likely to return, while striker Javier Hernandez who scored the winner against Liverpool could retain his place.
West Brom manager Steve Clarke could include the likes of Anelka, Ridgewell and McAuley for this tie. Former Everton striker Victor Anichebe is a doubt with an ankle injury while Claudio Yacob will have to prove his fitness after recovering from a dead leg.
Key man
Wayne Rooney has been simply brilliant for the Red Devils. The maverick star has scored four goals in all competitions so far and has racked up three assists to his name.
Prediction: Man Utd 2-0 West Brom
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