Manchester United travel to Southampton on Sunday looking to pile the pressure on Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl, whose side lost their first Premier League match of the season last weekend.
Southampton were beaten 3-1 by Everton on Saturday despite taking the lead, and Hasenhuttl has lost two of his key players, striker Danny Ings and defender Jannik Vestergaard leaving to join Aston Villa and Leicester City respectively leaving him with depleted squad more than last season.
Manchester United are looking to make it two wins out of two this season as they travel to Southampton on Sunday. United started the campaign on a high as they demolished Leeds united at Old Trafford in a 5:1 victory last weekend to finish top of the table, with Bruno Fernandes scoring a hat-trick and Paul Pogba providing four assists.
Southampton will be firmly up against it here with horrible memories of last season’s meetings with United, when they led 2-0 at home and lost 3-2 before being humiliated 9-0 at Old Trafford in February.
Southampton have not beaten Manchester United in any competition since January 2016 – a run of 11 matches @0ptajoe
Southampton vs Manchester- United Team News
Manchester United
United will be without Marcus Rashford (shoulder) and Alex Telles (ankle). Jesse Lingard scored in the mid-week 3:0 friendly victory over westham and is likely to make the bench against Southampton. Goalkeeper Dean Henderson is recovering after testing positive for Covid-19 and likewise Edinson Cavani, who scored two goals off the bench in a memorable fightback at St Mary’s last season. The St Mary’s tie will be too early for Varane and Jadon Sancho is likely to be given his first start ahead of Dan James.
Southampton
Apart from Will Smallbone (Knee Injury) and Sam McQueen (Cruciate Ligament Rupture) ,Southampton manager , Ralph Hasenhüttl, will have his full squad against the Red devils. New talisman, Adam Armstrong, who scored 29 goals in all competitions for Blackburn last season gave Southampton the lead against Everton last week and is expected to start along former Chelsea wonderkid- valentino-livramento. The host will also be buoyed by the news of their skipper-James Ward-Prose who committed his future to the club by signing a 5-years contract this week.
Southampton vs Manchester United -Predicted Lineups
Southampton predicted lineup (4-4-2): McCarthy; Livramento, Stephens, Salisu, Perraud; Walcott, Ward-Prose, Romeu, Djenepo; Adams, Armstrong.
Man Utd predicted Lineup(4-2-3-1): De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw; Fred, McTominay; Sancho, Fernandes, Pogba; Greenwood.
Southampton vs Manchester United –Key Player
Southampton-Adam Armstrong
The saint summer signing kicked off the season with goal on his debut against Everton. Despite the disappointing result overall, the £15m signing will have taken confidence from that debut goal last week and will hope more chances come his way. He scored 29 goals in all competitions for Blackburn last season and was signed to replace former striker, Danny Ings, who left for Aston Villa in the summer. Also, De Gea nemesis-Ward Prose is also a key player to look ahead to in the meeting between the two sides.
Manchester United-Bruno Fernandes
Fernandes has been exceptional since signing for United a little over 18 months ago and since then his goal involvement no less eye-catching. He opened the scoring against Leeds last week and ended the match-day with a perfect hat-trick. The Portugal midfielder is en route to beat last season’s tally of 18 league goals for United. His talent has found the perfect platform at United and, having scored home and away against Southampton last season, he’s expected to show his worth again on Sunday.
Southampton vs Manchester United Prediction
The Saints will be looking to start the season at home with a 100% win rate but Manchester united CRrazy away run will make it difficult for the host.
Manchester are undefeated by Southampton when having played them away from home in the previous 10 league matches and have not been beaten in their last 26 away league matches.
Like so many games on the road last term, United needed to come from behind to take all three points on their last visit to the south coast but Solskjær will know that his side cannot afford to continue that trend of starting slowly in away games this season.
Southampton 1:3 Manchester United
Possible Goalscorers- Armstrong ; Bruno, Greenwood and Sancho.